A Stormtrooper uprising and the balance of galactic power

Fans have been excitedly speculating about the possibility of a Stormtrooper uprising in The Last Jedi, and one intriguing aspect of it is that it may make the rebelling Troopers a third power in the galaxy that is neither First Order nor Resistance/Republic. This would give Finn as their leader deciding power in many of the military and political struggles of the galaxy, someone who could sway the balance of power.

Fans generally assume that Finn’s allegiance is to the Resistance and Republic because they’re the good guys, and certainly he has allied with the Resistance in their shared opposition to the First Order. I have discussed in the essay Finn does not give a fuck about your idols that he was not a follower of the Resistance, however, and in The trouble with the Light Side and Finn as the Balance I discussed, among other subjects, how the Republic doesn’t mean much more to Finn than the Resistance does.

Here, below the cut, I will talk about how Finn’s freestanding status could play into his ongoing story and the politics of a galaxy far, far away.

One way to think about the issue is to consider what a Stormtrooper uprising might mean to the Resistance. I’m sure it would be a dream come true in many ways. But it’s also fraught with uncertainty. and it’s not like the Resistance can conduct a straw
poll to see how many would be on board (Would you leave the First Order if you could? Answer Yes or No). These are not your average enslaved people who would generally prefer freedom, they are a fighting force trained specifically to not only to wreak destruction and death but also be fanatically loyal to the First Order and Snoke.

Now, imagine the Resistance had a “better,” or at least much more expedient and certain, alternative. What if there were a way to kill or brainwash large numbers of Stormtroopers so that they were either no longer a threat, or would come over to the side of the Resistance? I mean, the Resistance is in the middle of a brutal war for the future of the galaxy itself. Who wouldn’t be tempted in their situation?

It could even be argued that such an action is a moral imperative. Left alone, the Stormtroopers would destroy countless lives as we have watched them do in Tuanul and Takodana. Between the uncertain option (an uprising) and the sure one (killing/brainwashing), it might be argued that the latter is not only more more expedient but more moral.

This is the kind of moral dilemma where Finn would show where he really stands. I don’t believe that he has given himself so completely to an organization that he would agree to taking away the lives and/or agency of so many people without even giving them a chance to choose. I believe he would insist that the uprising be given a chance. Alternately, if he thought he couldn’t convince the brass, he might do much what he did when he went back for Rey: Let the Resistance think what they want and then use their resources for his own ends.

“But he killed Stormtroopers!” Yes, because they were going to kill him. I mean, sorry he didn’t visibly hate himself enough for your tastes, I guess it just wasn’t enough that he spent much of the movie traumatized and wanted to get far away from the fighting. You know, almost as if he didn’t want to fight more Stormtroopers or something.

Now, here’s where things get controversial. On the flip side, I think Finn could also ally temporarily with the First Order if it meant he could stop the destruction of Stormtroopers long enough to get the uprising started. Not because the First Order are humanitarians or in any way the moral equivalent of the Resistance, obviously, but because it’s in their own selfish interest to keep their fighting force. Of course he’d yank the carpet out from under them because fuck the First Order, but if necessary he could use them.

I’m not saying the scenario above will happen, although it would be very interesting if it does. It’s one example of a plot that illustrates the kind of direction Finn’s story could take with him as an unaligned agent, loyal to the cause of personal dignity and freedom above organizations and their causes. It would also be the kind of thing Daisy talked about where good people make bad decisions and vice versa.

In the above scenario, I wonder if some might see Finn as ruthless, even fearsome for starting an uprising, which is likely to be a bloody event and in fact seems to have been, if the clips we saw in the trailers depict this event. Was it worth the destruction and loss of life, some might wonder, when the Stormtroopers could have died peacefully or had their minds bent without bloodshed?

So let’s say a Stormtrooper uprising is successful, whatever counts as success. A liberation of some large divisions of Stormtroopers, maybe, after pitched battles. What then? Would they join the Resistance?

Again, you have to think about what the goals of the Resistance are. They started out as a Republic-sponsored militia, and may become even more aligned with the goals of the Republic if the remnants of the Republic fleet join them. What does the Republic mean to the Free Troopers, anyway? Do they really want it to be restored into a New New Republic when the Republic and New Republic already failed, twice, to stop the rise of the Empire and First Order? In fact, the Old Republic actually became the Empire and the First Order was ignored or even actively aided by the New Republic’s leadership. The line between the Republic/Empire and the New Republic/First Order is not as clear when you look closely.

The Free Troopers’ capture and enslavement, in many ways, was the direct result of the failure of the New Republic. What would induce them to give their lives for its return? They know they’re against the First Order, what should they be for?

The Resistance and possibly New Republic will have to make some serious adjustments, in other words, if they want the Free Troopers’ loyalty. The enemy of their enemy may be their friend, but only friends of convenience. A deeper bond requires a lot more trust than being against the same evil, some confidence that they are headed in the same direction.

Then there’s the issue of identity. Let’s face it, a lot of Troopers will have difficulty settling into civilian lives or even the Resistance. Their lives and experiences are too different, and though well-meaning people will try to understand and help, much of it may just ring hollow because they come from such different places.

How many outsiders, for instance, can understand the Troopers’ distinct combination of pride and shame, the fact that their enemy shaped everything about their lives? That they have an identity that still give them meaning and purpose, if no longer in the First Order’s service?

A sizable number of Free Troopers would be genuine war criminals, too. What should justice look like for a fighting force that was systematically brainwashed from childhood? The military disciplines would be very different from Resistance and other Republic-allied fighting forces, too. As I touched on in Finn handles a blaster like no one else, Stormtroopers have a distinct fighting style that Finn used even after leaving the First Order.

The above are some of the reasons a number of Free Troopers, should a Stormtrooper uprising be successful, may choose to stay together as their own distinct group, even if they join another group such as the Resistance. They will probably have to form their own units and have their own leaders to be maximally effective, too.

If Stormtroopers were to stay together as a cohesive group, Finn as their leader or one of their leaders would become a very powerful person. He would have at his disposal a force that is allied in goals with the Resistance and perhaps an eventual New (New?) Republic but quite distinct in viewpoint and interests.

Perhaps most importantly, the Free Troopers would not be composed of the Republic’s elites and would have great interest in the protection of and justice for the most vulnerable. They are, in a way, the Jedi that the Old Republic’s Jedi should have been, and the irony is that they were forged by the evil that destroyed the New Republic.

This is how a Stormtrooper uprising could catapult Finn into being a third power, a force of conscience as sharp as a blade, that keeps the Resistance and the Republic true to their own ideals. He would be the Balance in the political and military senses as well as a moral one. He and his successors may become the force that stands between the galaxy and history repeating itself.

The trouble with the Light Side, and Finn as the Balance

What happens when you’re told, “Don’t think about the elephant?” Chances are, you’ll immediately think of an elephant.

I think that’s the problem with the Light Side of the Force as we have known it: So many of the doctrines and practices of the LS, such as the Old Jedi way of not forming attachments, are premised on resisting the temptations of the Dark Side.

If your goal is not to turn Dark, then what are you going to be thinking about? The Dark Side. This is why puritanism of all stripes is destined to fail, because it’s consumed more with what it’s against (sex! rock ‘n roll! murder!) than what it’s for (eh, love and peace I guess?).

Anakin Skywalker’s story from the prequel trilogy is a prime example of this in the Star Wars saga, walking backwards into the one place you were determined not to go. Intentionally or not, the prequels were an indictment of the Jedi way.

I think similarly, trying not to turn to the Light Side has a polarizing effect on those who turn to the Dark Side of the Force. You can see this with Kylo Ren in the new trilogy, thinking too hard about how not to go Light and then running to bugfucking extremes in the other direction.

The results of such extremism, in turn, are so horrific that the other side becomes understandably all the more preoccupied with, you know, NOT BEING THAT HELL NO and, again, being more anti-Dark than anything else. This doesn’t make the LS morally equivalent to the DS, but it does mean that LS practitioners can fall into the trap of puritanism.

Going to extremes seems to be a major theme of the upcoming movie, The Last Jedi, and Adam Driver who plays Kylo Ren has discussed mass murder committed by “both sides” (maybe this is his character’s perspective, I don’t agree with it) and how he took inspiration from the absolute moral certainty of terrorists in playing his character. Since director Rian Johnson has repeatedly said the movie will showcase moral ambiguity, it’s a safe bet that we’ll see the good guys go to extremes, too, something we have also seen in Rogue One.

We can reliably tell where many of the characters old and new fit into this increasingly polarized galaxy: Leia, Poe, Holdo, Rose, Paige, and others on one side, Snoke, Kylo Ren, Phasma, and Hux on the other.

Other characters, on the other hand, stand in notable contrast to the characters whose allegiances are well known. Luke, the character we thought was the Rebel to end all Rebels and the Jediest of them all, not only stayed away for years but still seems reluctant to join the fight. Rey is definitely Resistance-allied, but is still trying to find her place in all this. “DJ,” a new character, is a cynical outsider who’s only in it for the creds.

Then there’s Finn, who has been in and rejected the First Order and fought alongside the Resistance, but as of the beginning of TLJ is not a committed fighter. Like Luke, he’s wounded from past experience; like Rey, he’s still figuring himself out after his life was turned upside down; and like DJ, he has cause to be cynical of causes in general, something I have previously discussed.

In a universe of absolutes Finn stands out with the other uncommitted characters for his refusal, at first, to choose a side. Turning against the First Order does not mean he automatically chose the Resistance, though he has worked with them.

Interestingly, for someone who rejected absolute evil he seems to have very little to prove. He’s not obsessed with trying not to be evil, or with trying to be good by fighting evil. He suffers the undeserved shame of the abused, but he’s not consumed by it. He doesn’t beat himself up over killing Stormtroopers to defend himself or wonder if that makes him as bad as them, a lack of self-flagellation that some fans have criticized him for. He doesn’t agonize over whether he might be a bad person for lying to the Resistance so he could go back for Rey.

Finn is, in other words, the opposite of a puritan. He refuses to do evil, and that’s enough. He’s not consumed by the thought of it. He tries to be good to the people he meets and distrusts causes and grand theories.

Finn is most definitely not Dark Side, but he’s also not the Light Side as we’ve come to understand it, an anti-Dark puritanism. His allegiance, I believe, is to the Balance as near as I understand it, a goodness that is defined by what it supports, not what it opposes, a space that has room for human ambiguity and fallibility without fear of turning to irrevocable evil.

It’s significant to me that right after his arguably most morally questionable and admirably badass decision was revealed–that he had lied to the Resistance to come get Rey–Finn immediately brings up the Force to a livid Han.

Sure, it may read like a funny deflection, but think about the juxtapositions here: At this moment, we know Finn lied to the Resistance to walk into the heart of the First Order in an act of selfless love. He rejected an evil authority in the most final terms possible but also showed himself not to be following the authority that stands against it. Finn is beholden to no one, standing between all the lines, standing for nothing but the purest love and courage, as he invokes the Force. And he does so in a humorous way, like the trickster figure he is.

This is why I like the Stormtrooper uprising theory so much for Finn’s story, and why I believe it’s the cause that he found to fight for. Finn is not going back to the First Order other than to kick their collective butts across the galaxy (hi, Phasma!). But what does the Resistance mean to him? They stand against the First Order, true, which is why he’s worked with Leia and Poe and the others.

The Resistance is, however, also a Republic-affiliated organization, and what is the Republic to him? If he was ever a Republic citizen, it was by chance of birth and it certainly means very little to him now. This is something I also touched on in my Cassian meta and my Finn and Rey parallels meta, that the forgotten children like Finn and Rey, much like Cassian before them, were essentially failed by the Republic. The Republic is not the Empire or the First Order, sure, but it has to mean something other than that massively low bar.

Finn and his friends can fight the First Order and win. But what comes next? They know what they’re against. What are they for? Without answering that question they will fall into the same elephant trap as traditional Light Side practices, and of the Republic itself. In their shadow loom the Dark Side and Empire.

If there’s one thing we know Finn has always stood for, it’s the freedom and dignity of every individual. That’s why he refused to fire on the villagers in Tuanul. That’s why he escaped at the risk to his own life, and why he meant to flee to the ends of the known universe, to be free. That’s why he came back for Rey.

That is why, I believe, he will find a cause to fight for in the freedom of other Stormtroopers like himself. It’s a cause greater than himself, greater than Rey, and to him, greater than the First Order or the Resistance or the Republic or anything else. He is likely to ally with the Resistance again so far as their goals match his, but much as in Act 3 of TFA, except on a greater scale, he may not concern himself with loyalties or scruples other than his own true North.

He might not always be squeaky clean in the process, either. He could be ruthless. He could be violent. He could be dishonest. He has proven himself capable of all of this in the past.

What he will always be is committed, not to being Not Evil or a perfect vision of Good, but to being free. And he will realize, I think, that he cannot be free alone. His journey to freedom was always with others, from the moment Slip’s death marked him forever, to having to free Poe first to get away, to realizing he could not be free while Rey was in captivity, and finally, I hope, to seeing that others who were abducted and enslaved like he was must also be free.

This is what the Balance could mean for Finn’s story: not two opposing sides locked in extremes, not a cynical equivalence or sophistic compromise between the two, but a moral code that has meaning outside of what it is not. Now that is a code worth living and dying for.

Don’t Stop

Characters: Rose Tico, Paige Tico, Finn

Pairing: Finn/Rose

Warnings: Violence, angst

Summary: Finn and Rose have to save the Resistance. Paige gets in the way.

They fled down the length of the hangar with the sound of pursuit in their ears, their speeder hurtling toward the far entrance and the promise of their goal.

The discharge of a blaster shattered the air. The speeder screamed like an animal as it skidded along the floor. Rose wrestled with the handlebar trying to regain control while Finn, an arm still tightly clenched around Rose’s waist, had his blaster out and fired back at the source of the blaster fire.

Rose wrenched at the handle and the speeder bounded off the floor.

“Bail!” she spun in her seat to scream at Finn, her hair coming out of its tail and flying in her face.

As if by instinct they clutched each other and jumped clear of the speeder, rolling away together while it bounced off the floor and toward a bulkhead, where it crashed and fell to the floor. Smoke rose from the blaster hole and its fried engines.

A figure stepped out from behind a set of stairs, bright yellow in her gunner’s suit against the grey of the hangar, her weapon trained on the two of them.

“Hands up, both of you.”

“Paige.”

Rose didn’t budge as she faced her sister. Finn raised his own blaster, and Paige turned her gun on him.

“Looks like a stalemate.” Paige grinned. The sound of the pursuing speeders grew. “Why don’t we wait a few minutes while my friends get here?”

“Paige.” Finn looked down the length of the blaster barrel. “You know what Holdo is doing is wrong. She can’t imprison General Organa and strike a deal with the First Order.”

“Maybe you both need to remember what it means to be a soldier. I follow the Republic chain of command, because I am a soldier of the Republic. Just like you, sis.” Paige raised her voice just as Rose started sidling toward the door on the far end. “Take another step and I’ll shoot him.”

“Or maybe he’ll shoot you.” Rose looked between her sister and Finn, her face pale. “You know how good he is.”

“He won’t.” Paige smiled. “He won’t shoot the last family you have left.”

Finn swallowed at her words and tightened his grasp on his blaster. “Rosie…”

The pursuers were close now, their forms blurry at the other end of the hangar. Paige held out a hand at Finn. “Now that we’ve established you won’t shoot, Starros, why not give me that gun? I don’t know how you dragged my sister into your little mutiny, but-”

Blaster fire rang out, and Paige stumbled. She stared for a moment before she fell to one knee, uncomprehending.

Finn took a step back as though he himself had been shot. “Rose.”

Rose dropped her blaster from limp hands and ran to catch Paige in both arms. Her hand fumbled at a pocket in her coveralls and thrust out a data cube at Finn.

“Finn, go.” She sat down on the floor, propping a still shocked Paige against herself, and raised her voice over the sound of the approaching engines. “You have to restore the command codes.”

“I’m not leaving you here.” Finn’s hand tightened around both the data cube and her hand.

She pulled him by the hand and kissed him, fierce and sharp, as though to swallow in a single moment a lifetime of what might never be.

“And I’m not leaving my sister. Go. Don’t stop for anything.”

Finn’s hand, clutching the data cube, brushed her cheek for the briefest of moments as he turned away. She closed her eyes at the sweetness of it even as her hands yanked a medpac from her belt.

As Finn’s purposeful steps pounded away down the hangar, Rose pressed with her hands against the bleeding wound in Paige’s side and injected her with a stim. A shade of color came back to Paige’s face and she managed to focus her eyes on Rose’s.

“I can’t believe you shot me.”

“You were being a bitch.” Rose fumbled one-handed with the medpac before grabbing a pressure bandage.

“Did you seriously snog a guy over my dying body? Ew.”

“You’re not dying.” Rose’s voice shook as she started cutting away Paige’s yellow gunner suit. “I can put anything back together.”

Shouts and the hum of engines filled the air as the Republic soldiers’ speeders pulled up.

“Don’t move! Hands on your head!” Soldiers aimed blasters in Rose’s face. She struggled as they pulled her off Paige.

“I shot her. Please help, I shot her.” Tears leaked out of her eyes as she held up her blood-spotted hands.

“Where’s Starros?” A red-suited officer thrust his blaster against Rose’s chin, forcing her to lift her head. To his unit he shouted: “Get to the control room! Stop him before-”

At that moment the lights dimmed.

“This is Commander Finn Starros of the Resistance.” Finn’s voice came over the internal comm system. “As of this moment General Organa’s Resistance has full control over the base’s systems. Republic mutineers are advised to lay down your arms and surrender.”

The Republic soldiers pounded on the door up to the control room. “It’s no use, sir! We’ve been locked out.”

“And if you break the rules of engagement to harm any prisoner in your power,” Finn continued over the comm, a calm fury cutting into his voice, “rest assured you will face the full force of the law and me.”

“Traitor. What did you do?” The officer turned his gaze on Rose.

Shaking, pale, her face stained with tears and her hands with blood, Rose smiled.

“You lost.”

With a roar of rage the officer raised his blaster and struck the butt across Rose’s temple while Paige screamed at him not to hurt her sister. Rose slumped to the cold floor unconscious, the elation of victory still carved in the curving of her lips.

War Heroes

They may have been evil, but they were very, very good. Finn studied all the historic battles over and over again as part of his training, told about the Empire’s mistakes and how the First Order would avoid them.

He studied the Rebels’ infiltration of the imperial records depository at Scarif, how a team led by the traitors Bodhi Rook and Jyn Erso, the ruthless assassin and spymaster Cassian Andor, and the cult-bred killers Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus infiltrated the installation and destroyed the planet in a deadly suicide mission.

He learned about the Battle of Yavin, where Princess Leia Organa–after all these years still a menace to peace and order–lured the Death Star to the Rebels’ base and an ambush, where Luke Skywalker destroyed the station with one well-placed shot, snuffing out the thousands of lives within.

He read about the Battle of Hoth where the Rebels eluded the Empire’s pursuit yet again, about the Battle of Endor where the Rebellion moved together like the parts of a symphony. Finn found himself glued to the screen as he learned, through reports and surviving archival footage, how the smuggler Han Solo led a ground assault to disable the Second Death Star’s shields while Admiral Gial Ackbar, at large and a threat like Organa, joined battle in space. All this was only a cover, however, for Luke Skywalker to board the battle station and murder Darth Vader and the helpless Emperor. Criminal kingpin Lando Calrissian finished the job in another act of wanton destruction, an assault so reckless, so foolhardy it should have failed by all rights but somehow succeeded brilliantly.

Finn used his own time to delve deeper into these battles, reading past lights-out until he was caught and got in trouble. He told himself as he dug out a drainage ditch as punishment that he wasn’t getting too deep into the history of the Rebellion, he just wanted to know the enemy so he could beat them this time around.

But by Space, those Rebels were good. It was no wonder a terrorist group had toppled the mighty Empire. If the First Order learned more from their enemies’ tactics it would be unstoppable, and unlike the Rebellion whose puppet government was already crumbling, the Order’s victory would be a lasting one based on justice and the rule of the Supreme Leader.

Nevertheless, the sense of awe at the sheer skill of these terrorists stayed with Finn. That was why, when faced with one of those legends, the smuggler, criminal, the terrorist Han Solo in the flesh, the words burst out as though they had been caught in his throat the entire time:

“Wasn’t he a war hero?!”