If it’s true that the Force belongs to everyone, then why not have the other main heroes in addition to Rey–Finn, Poe, Rose, and “Caro”–Force-sensitive as well? They can be Rey’s first pupils (though it’s more a mutual teaching/study group situation) and, going off the books Rey got from the Jedi Temple, develop their own theory and practice of the Force. Here’s how I envision their respective specialties and powers.
Rey
Summary: The generalist Jedi and melee combat specialist
Description: Rey has the most obvious and familiar, seemingly supernatural Jedi powers. She has impressive Force telekinesis, Force telepathy, has had Force visions and dreams, and the mind trick. She is a force, or should we say Force, in melee combat. She is the tank of the party and all-purpose Force powerhouse, not to mention a potent symbol to revive hope when the Jedi seemed all lost or fallen.
Rey still has limitations, however. While her abilities are very strong, they are generally obvious and one-off in nature. She can use the Force mind trick to get a Stormtrooper to take her shackles off her, but trying to use the mind trick in negotiation, for instance, would be noticeable and end up breeding distrust. Similarly, she can be a whirlwind of destruction in combat but can’t turn the tide of a large-scale battle on her own. She needs a team, and having trusted friends can in turn help her resist the lure of the Dark Side, which can be strong for a Force user as powerful as she is.
Finn
Summary: Empath, death sense, Battle Meditation
Description: A Force user on par with Rey, Finn has the ability to sense life and, less pleasantly, the ending of life. We saw him go into a panic attack at Slip’s death, seemingly sensing him die. We saw this ability again on a larger scale with the destruction of the Hosnia system, when he sensed the mass deaths much like Obi-Wan did. Highly trained and talented at both long-distance and melee combat, he has probably been unconsciously powering his military prowess with the Force all his life. He knows how to read a situation and people instantly and use this knowledge to great effect. Particularly skilled in small unit combat, he is the undisputed tactician of their group.
His tactical genius and empath abilities intersect for devastating effect in the form of Battle Meditation. He senses the battlefield and the combatants and, with a mental nudge here and a tug there aided by his own extensive strategic training, shapes the battle like a sculpture or a Rubix cube. The Resistance/Rebellion pulls off victories out of all proportion with their resources this way, especially with Finn’s extensive knowledge of the enemy. His strong empathy can be a liability as well as an asset, however, and sensing the deaths of so many people could result in trauma and burnout. He needs emotional support from a caring network of people, and fortunately he is no longer alone.
This is what the Force was all about! Not just a fist fight who gets the force or not. This is some Kotor 2 level of thinking and I love this idea @lj-writes !
Yeah that Force elitist bullshit was what drove me to finally finish this post. I forgot to add Finn’s Force immunity/wound in the Force stuff because I had completed Rey and Finn’s parts before I even thought of the Force immunity meta, and when I came back to this post I had three more characters to flesh out >.< Still, Finn is the Exile and he awakened the Force in all of them!
the revenge of the sith novelization is such a fucking mess and i love it so so much for the scenes like
cody grinning at obi-wan and obi-wan stammering and blushing
anakin cutting off dooku’s head is described as the lightsabers being like scissors, with the word ‘snip.’ being the onomatopoeia
the scene where anakin walks into kit fisto’s decapitated head sitting on palpatine’s desk and describes it as smiling and wonders if he finds death amusing
obi-wan waking up from being unconscious and placing himself by identifying anakin’s butt
the one scene where clones are disguised as jedi
in that same scene, obi-wan and yoda are disguised as an old man (obi-wan) and a baby (yoda), and one of the clones describes yoda as the ugliest baby he’s ever seen
cody gets order 66 and his reaction is just to sigh and ‘mutter glumly’: couldn’t they have given the order before i gave back the lightsaber
obi-wan asks bail organa to sit on his lap
palpatine tells anakin that obi-wan has been seen leaving a senator’s quarters early in the mornings and anakin immediately assumes obi-wan is fucking a dude
finn: [oh shoot here comes rey be cool be cool] rey: so, finn… finn: what’s up? finn: [nailed it] rey: i was wondering… finn: [what does that face mean? why is she flushing it’s like 60 degrees on this ship she lives in the desert] rey: um… finn: [i love her voice, I could listen to her talk all day] rey: i was wondering… ah… finn: yes rey finn: [i’ve never seen her so red. oh no is she mad at me??? shoot i can’t read facial expressions all my peers wore helmets help] rey: i… finn: [oh shoot did she forget what she was going to say? maybe she won’t be mad at me she can’t remember what she’s mad about. what is she doing with her lip? wait maybe she’s not mad at me. she seems very anxious, is she upset? does she need a hug? she’s giving off signals i think she’s going to hug me right now. ok finn spread your arms out just a bit so she can slip into them. here it comes] rey: i was wondering… about your friend poe. finn: [ohhhh that’s what she was wondering about. wait does she still need a hug? no snap out of it finn just because rey looks at you like that doesn’t mean she wants to fall into your arms and never leave, you’re projecting, that’s what YOU want. focus.] finn: what about him finn: [does she want to know what planet he’s from? what conditioner he uses? if he’s gay? shoot crap I don’t know any of that stuff] rey: yeah, um… could you like, maybe… finn: [come on rey say it i would literally do anything for you TELL ME HOW TO SHOW MY LOVE TO YOU WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO] rey: could you set me up with him? finn: […] finn: [what did she just say] finn: [does she have a crush on poe] finn: [i knew she was looking at him dang it why is my best friend so sexy] finn: [calm down finn. this is good. you’re happy for them. your two best friends are getting together. that’s amazing.] finn: sure i can set you up finn: [you’re happy for poe. you’re happy for poe. you’re happy for] *later* finn: so poe my friend rey was asking about you poe: that girl i met like twice? the one you talk about all the time? finn: yeah um so apparently she wants to go out with you poe: she does? um ok i guess that makes sense, she knows i’m like 32 though right finn: and gay right poe: what finn: nothing finn: … finn: anyway she’s over there poe: um ok i’ll go talk to her you sure about this finn: haha yeah of course haha poe: dude you laugh weird
If it’s true that the Force belongs to everyone, then why not have the other main heroes in addition to Rey–Finn, Poe, Rose, and “Caro”–Force-sensitive as well? They can be Rey’s first pupils (though it’s more a mutual teaching/study group situation) and, going off the books Rey got from the Jedi Temple, develop their own theory and practice of the Force. Here’s how I envision their respective specialties and powers.
Rey
Summary: The generalist Jedi and melee combat specialist
Description: Rey has the most obvious and familiar, seemingly supernatural Jedi powers. She has impressive Force telekinesis, Force telepathy, has had Force visions and dreams, and the mind trick. She is a force, or should we say Force, in melee combat. She is the tank of the party and all-purpose Force powerhouse, not to mention a potent symbol to revive hope when the Jedi seemed all lost or fallen.
Rey still has limitations, however. While her abilities are very strong, they are generally obvious and one-off in nature. She can use the Force mind trick to get a Stormtrooper to take her shackles off her, but trying to use the mind trick in negotiation, for instance, would be noticeable and end up breeding distrust. Similarly, she can be a whirlwind of destruction in combat but can’t turn the tide of a large-scale battle on her own. She needs a team, and having trusted friends can in turn help her resist the lure of the Dark Side, which can be strong for a Force user as powerful as she is.
Finn
Summary: Empath, death sense, Battle Meditation
Description: A Force user on par with Rey, Finn has the ability to sense life and, less pleasantly, the ending of life. We saw him go into a panic attack at Slip’s death, seemingly sensing him die. We saw this ability again on a larger scale with the destruction of the Hosnia system, when he sensed the mass deaths much like Obi-Wan did. Highly trained and talented at both long-distance and melee combat, he has probably been unconsciously powering his military prowess with the Force all his life. He knows how to read a situation and people instantly and use this knowledge to great effect. Particularly skilled in small unit combat, he is the undisputed tactician of their group.
His tactical genius and empath abilities intersect for devastating effect in the form of Battle Meditation. He senses the battlefield and the combatants and, with a mental nudge here and a tug there aided by his own extensive strategic training, shapes the battle like a sculpture or a Rubix cube. The Resistance/Rebellion pulls off victories out of all proportion with their resources this way, especially with Finn’s extensive knowledge of the enemy. His strong empathy can be a liability as well as an asset, however, and sensing the deaths of so many people could result in trauma and burnout. He needs emotional support from a caring network of people, and fortunately he is no longer alone.
Poe Dameron
Summary: Force-aided instinct and reflex, micro-visions, inspiration
Description: A young leader of the Rebellion and Leia’s chosen successor, Poe has been using the Force unconsciously for his piloting much like Anakin and Luke Skywalker did. Sensing events in the split second before they happened gave him uncanny reflexes and saved his life in many a tight spot. Further developing these abilities gave him an edge not only in his reflexes but in planning and leadership as well. Sensing danger in advance helped him avoid costly mistakes and, conversely, being able to sense payoffs for risks enabled him to take risks in a calculating, advantageous way.
As Leia pointed out, though, he has to be more than the pilot or kickass spy he’s used to being; he also has to be a leader. With his deep roots from his parents in antifascist resistance, you might say rebellion is in his blood. He inspires others with this conviction, and being in the same room with him or even watching a holo of him speak can electrify audiences despite–or perhaps because of–his simple, down-to-earth style. It is one of the many qualities that his enemy General Hux, known for his bombastic rhetoric, scorns about him.
Description: Loving droid owners like Poe have always known that there was more to their companions than gears and electricity, and Rose’s awakening Force power confirms this. She can sense and communicate through the Force with droids and computers, including ships that are equipped with droid brains. The Force is the connection between living beings, after all, and sentient machines are just as alive as organics if in a different sense. Rose’s exploration into this side of the Force endlessly fascinates Rey and Chewbacca, both enthusiastic mechanics, and Rose’s insights into the needs of the cranky old droid brains that run the Millennium Falcon have done much to place her in its good graces.
Rose also has the Force ability of shatterpoint, rare and once thought lost. She can sense pivotal points where a single outcome may change the course of events. In this she takes after legendary Force master Mace Windu, and some have speculated that she may have family ties to Ghôsh Windu, Master Windu’s clan which nearly died out with him. When Rose risked her own life to save Finn’s on Crait she sensed a shatterpoint, convinced he had to survive that moment no matter what. It was more important than her life or the lives of the entire remaining Resistance. Subsequent events proved her right, and fortunately the grim payoff did not come to pass thanks to the intervention of Luke Skywalker.
On the flip side of Finn who is a strong empath, Rose is strong in broadcasting her emotions, particularly negative emotions such as fear and pain. Some of her occasionally unhealthy interactions with Finn may have resulted from their respective abilities going in a feedback spiral. Now that she is aware of the effect she has on others, Rose works hard to modulate her emotions and is particularly careful around Finn. Her friendship with mechanical sentients, who are less moody than organics, helps in this regard and she can frequently be found meditating in hangars and repair rooms while curious droids look on.
Caro*
Summary: Force echoes, life powers, shadow friends
Description: Caro thrives on the balance of all things, passion and peace, anger and compassion, life and death. Rey admires how she not only understands but lives the concepts that Rey herself has only begun to grasp. Rey, Finn, and the others to different degrees can talk to the spirits of powerful Jedi masters who live on in the Force, like Luke Skywalker, but Caro goes farther. She is not only more effective at communing with these spirits, she also hears echoes in the Force itself from every being who has ever been in the Force. Not all at once, of course, which would overwhelm any mortal, but she can sense snatches that she seeks or that simply come to her. She can attempt to get more information through concentration and meditation, and this was how she found Finn: Through the memories of people living and dead who had crossed his path. Slip remembered him kindly, Caro told Finn, though he still thought him an awful showoff. Due to her powers she frequently seems to know people before she meets them, which some find unsettling.
As befitting a Jedi who is a master of the Balance, Caro has deep connection to life as well as death. She is a healer of great skill like Barriss Offee before her, and has saved many lives. An expert at integrating medical technology with her powers, she has worked with Rose to pool their strengths for better medical care in the Resistance. Though Caro is more accepting of death as a part of the Force than Barriss was and has proven more resilient to the trauma of losing patients, she can be saddened by the mounting losses. Finn and the others take care to draw her gently from her solitude where the events of her life and her unique powers sometimes lead her to take solace. She is particularly loved by defected Stormtroopers who have never experienced such caring, and quite a few are open about being willing to fight and die for her more than the Resistance. She has found a loving partner in one of them and their companionship brings her much joy.
Through great concentration and focus Caro can cause these “echoes” in the Force to take temporary physical form. They can help with set tasks and even go into battle with her, although the effort can be taxing for her and their actions can be unpredictable. Such is the nature of the Force, and she accepts that. It is key to the peace and balance she keeps with the Force.
* Caro’s powers are purely speculative at this point, of course. We don’t even know her name, to say nothing of her abilities or relationships with the other characters. But it’s fun to imagine and there was no way I was going to leave her out of this post, okay?
The whole setup with DJ was bad, with RJ violating his own premise and making Maz look like yet another idiot for the sake of plot. If they were going to have the betrayal I’d have at least made DJ’s reasons understandable–even understandably evil–and not, basically, “because.” That was why Lando worked as a character in ESB and did not play on tired racist tropes, for all that fandom tried to turn him into one. You knew where he was coming from, and his reasons were sympathetic.
Considering he thought of using Lando for DJ’s role, I doubt Johnson understands moral ambiguity and gray areas. Just look how Snoke went from a calculating and calm force user, into a Bond villain who loved sadism.
This was inspiried by @lj-writes incredible meta about Finn being immune to the Force.
Now of course this could simpy be an anomaly in the Force but I’m not a fan of “that’s simply how it is”, so I couldn’t help but connect this to the overall story and to a headcanon I’ve tried to somehow connect Finn to for a while.
First: I LOVE Jakku – much unlike Finn. 😀 One thing I love in particular are the dead-enders, why they are seemingly insane and what they might be guarding.
We know, even thanks to TLJ LOL, that the First Order was looking for Force sensitive children and paid huge prices for them. But what for? A secret army? The only other Force sensitive beings we know of who are somehow connected to the FO right now are the Knights of Ren and they are Luke’s former students who joined Kylo. Of course it’s possible there are more of them now but I keep wondering if the FO wanted to do a little more with these children than train them.
And here’s where my favorite Jakku theory comes in. There indeed is/was a secret Imperial Base on Jakku. In my headcanon it’s obviously connected to the Emperor’s original plans. In his need to control the Galaxy he started an experiment on Jakku that, if successful, would increase the Force powers of regular people to insane degrees to the point they could control physical matter entirely and alter reality. Obviously the experiment never worked, so the base essentially contained the machinery for a failed experiment. Since Jakku wasn’t, as originally planned, destroyed this set up stayed in place.
Flash foward a few years… Snoke decides to continue the Emperor’s plans but succeed this time. This includes the experiment. So the FO start kidnapping and buying not just children for the Stormtrooper program but also specifically Force sensitive children to build an army but also to continue the experiment. So they return to Jakku and begin to further develop the experiment, so that it works this time. Of course Snoke’s final goal is to make it safe and then use the devices on himself. However the experiment is extremely dangerous and it’s calculated that only people with a very high Midichlorian count can even surivive it, especially in the beginning stages. So the FO begin to kidnap and collect children with the highest Midichlorian numbers. This also explains Snoke’s interest in Kylo. He’s meant to be his final test subject before he transforms himself. Of course all test subjects who complete the experiment successfully are meant to be killed because the risks of just one of them turning against Snoke are too high.
Finn and Rey – whoever she is could be up for debate, you know what my take would be – are part of a group of children the First Order wants to use for the experiment. While the experiment is being set up something goes horribly, horribly wrong. The FO personal loses control of the machines, everything sort of implodes and the entire energy created by them gets released into the surroundings. Most of the people there die, including the children. The only survivors are the dead-enders, Finn and Rey. The dead-enders who up to that point were FO officers who had been guarding the entrance of the base lost most of their memories, are injured and completely confused. Finn and Rey are wandering around confused and without any memories around the debris of the destroyed base.
After a while a recovery team arrives. They find the confused dead-enders and two children who are still arrive. They quickly check if the experiment had any effect on Rey and Finn. To their disappointment the malfunction seems to have taken the girl’s Force abilities away completely but there is something odd about the boy. They decide that without Force sensitivity or memories the girl is useless to them but they can’t bring themselves to kill her, so they leave her with Unkar Plutt and later tell Snoke that she died as well. The boy shows odd anomalities though, so they take him back to the FO to explore it further. They leave the dead-enders there, seeing they keep guarding the base since they’re aware some of the locals might’ve heard the explosion and could come looking. The idea is that whoever turns up to check what happened only finds the confused and injured officers and decides better not to look further. Which is exactly what happened.
Back in the FO’s headquarters It’s discovered that Finn is in fact absorbing the Force like a black hole and no Force user can influence him or use the Force on him. The FO officers advise Snoke to have the boy killed but he’s too curious about this unwanted result and decides he should be observed and hidden inside the Stormtrooper program. Almost nobody knows of his existence. Meanwhile Rey starts living a scavenger life on Jakku and after a few years the massive block the experiment caused to her Force abilities and her memories losens up when she’s sleeping.
I can add several details to this but that’s truly the essence of it. I hope you like it a bit.
OMG I love this. Such a creepy story possibility that actually answers the seeming coincidence of Rey being found on Jakku of all places. I can also imagine alternative versions–maybe Finn and Rey were both trying to hide and actually got away for a while before the soldiers caught up to them, and Rey, hidden better because she was smaller, helplessly watched as Finn was taken away. She herself might fall in with hard-up scavengers who later sell her, with her confused memory taking them for her parents. It could be why both of them were so drawn to each other, because their repressed and messed-up memories still reacted unconsciously at the sight of each other.
So there’s precedent for it in the franchise. If Force-immune Finn is true I wonder if Finn did something similar due to his own trauma and the suffering he felt all around him. Phasma also heavily discouraged from exercising his natural empathy, and in his attempt to cut it off he may also have unconsciously cut off his connection to the Force. Perhaps the Force reawakened in him when Slip died and his Force sense abilities returned, but the Force immunity remained as a defensive reaction. Such a setup would certainly be in line with Finn’s story of turning trauma to strength.
If you’ve never played Kotor 2, I’d pick it up if I was you. It’s probably the best written Star Wars story out of both canons. Just make sure to download the restoration cut too.
The Jedi Exile’s cut off from the force is interesting. It happened sometime near the Mandalorian war after the activation of a weapon that killed millions of people. After the war the exile(you choose the gender) became an echo in the force, which they believed cut them off from the force, but in actuality it just made their connection to it so much more stronger, only they didn’t know it. It is believed that the mass loss of life around the exile is what created that echo.
Many years later while in exile, the exile meets a force user named Kreia who opens them back up to the force, though the exile was still unaware of the force. This echo influences the people around the exile, creating bonds between them and their companions. Throughout the exile’s journey they awaken the force potential within people they journey with. This echo would also be called a wound in the force because of how other force users couldn’t always use their force powers on the exile. They could hurt the exile of course, but even powerful force users like Darth Nihilus found that their powers weren’t as effective against the exile.
Now from reading your meta, I don’t think anymore that Finn is immune to force. Instead I think Finn might be an echo in the force, a wound in it.
Finn awakened the force within him in battle.
The Exile awakened the force within them in battle.
Finn’s Force Awakening had been felt by Kylo and Snoke.
The Exile’d Awakening had been felt by Visa and Nihilus.
Finn meets a woman (Rey) with seemingly no connection to the force, then after traveling together, she finds her own connection to the force, which she rejects at first them accepts to help the exile later in the story.
The same thing happens between the Exile and Brianna.
Finn could have become an echo/wound in the force during his abduction, especially if there was mass amounts of death around him, and his battle on Jakku could have awakened it.
The difference between them would be The Exile found a teacher through Kreia and Finn wasn’t able to find one yet thanks to Johnson. Alll Force users need at least a teacher to show them the Force.
Bonus: The Exile and Finn are both chased by high waisted pants wearing dark side users who are obsessed with their old masters.
Doesn’t Darth Sion look like Boldo Ren? BTW he didn’t look like this before the Dark side.
Holy shit, so many parallels. I really need to play KOTOR 2. Roundhead Jerk may not have put Finn with a master, but maybe Finn and Rey can teach each other with an assist from Force Ghost Luke. Maybe not so much an academy or a master-disciple relationship as a study group because it’s past time to try some new approaches.
Also that last image will haunt me forever 😂 The resemblance is uncanny lmao.
If Finn is immune to impacts of the Force, which there is good evidence towards , it begs the question, “How is Finn immune?” Obviously JJ will or won’t do whatever he wants with regards to his movie, but there is some precedence in the Legends continuity for a Force immunity.
Yuuzhan Vong
The most famous case of Force Resistance in Star Wars is the famous extragalactic species from The New Jedi Order, the Yuuzhan Vong. These newcomers to the GFFA are completely outside the Force, and can’t be sensed by Force users, or even intentionally targeted. Now, obviously, Finn is human, but the First Order traveled to the Unknown Regions in its infancy. Perhaps they experimented with Yuuzhan Vong biotechnology, and genetically modified Finn at birth, as a test run for an anti-Jedi supersoldier.
Ysalamir
These cuties are called ysalamir, and they project a Force nullifying field to avoid force-sensitive predators. Finn isn’t a little lizard, but he could possibly have a random mutation that results in Force resistance, much like the evolutionary ancestors of these punks.
Force Void
A handful of individuals, whether by birth or experimentation, could let the Force flow by them rather than through them. Though Finn would be the first heroic character to have this ability, it would make sense with extreme conditioning, as well as the sense of an awakening. Finn would be awakening a new class of Force user, one able to enter and exit the universe’s connectivity.
Imperial Sith Acolyte
Employed by Darth Vader to fight his former apprentice Starkiller, these Force-users also displayed an immunity to force-based attacks. Though the reason they possessed this ability was never established, I theorize it was either through training or technology.
Force Nexus
My personal preferred theory would be that Finn’s parents lived near a Force Nexus, which is a location where the Force is incredibly strong as well as behaves weirdly. The Cave on Dagobah, Ahch-To, and potentially Mortis, for example. This would provide a way for Finn to find more about his family, as well as about his unique abilities. (Moth)