Tag: the first order

theblackwolfking:

huxnothugs:

[I don’t ask for much in life, but a novel about the First Order written from Finn’s perspective would be perfect]

You just gained a new fucking follower, friend

I think we got a small glimpse of that with Finn’s part of Before the Awakening–the best piece of tie-in fiction for the sequelverse, imo. Now imagine him tracking the origins of the First Order and slowly uncovering a twisted and conflicting story through travels in the Unknown Regions or Space Argentina per JJ, analysis of salvaged databanks, conversations with other former troopers, interviews with prisoners who have their own agendas and hate his guts, information from spies, explorers, witnesses, reporters, and historians living and dead, and finally… a sit-down with former Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, now on trial for war crimes.

superhashslingingslasherz:

The Last Jedi end all be all Finn prediction

So, I don’t post ever but I needed to get this one out there.

Basis for prediction: In TFA i think I remember Snoke saying “there has been an awakening” right? Most would assume he’s talking about Rey as she ended up being the focal point for the force in the movie. But that really doesn’t make sense because she hadn’t shown any signs of any kind of awakening at that point. He was talking about Finn and his change at the village massacre. I think this is intentional and instrumental for this prediction.

Now in TLJ trailer once again we here Snoke speak of a force user. A “raw untamed power” as it gives us shots of Rey and Kylo and I feel as if that’s a misdirection and he’s really talking about Finn.

Reason 1: so we all know Finn goes “undercover” in the FO except, that doesn’t make any sense either because he should be on the FO’s most wanted list. I don’t think he’s undercover, I think they want him there specifically because of what he is and what he did.

Reason 2: the seriously suspicious lack of Finn merchandising and promo just doesn’t fit for a character so integral to the plot. Rian Johnson seems to imply there’s a lot more than meets the eye and I’m inclined to believe him. They focus on everything but Finn to not draw attention to him and his story. Hate it or love it they love their plot twists

Reason 3: we know he’s force sensitive (kinda). The problem is that it’s only implied atm. Now how to introduce said sensitivity without it feeling… forced(buh dum tsss) you make the audience realise that he was force sensitive the entire time. Rather than having yet another clutch dramatic reveal in the heat of battle. You foreshadow said sensitivity in TFA. Coming full circle to my Basis for prediction. Simple. Thanks for reading. Whaddya think?

Interesting! Here’s to hoping. I mean, I found the whole idea of Finn undercover to really stretch my suspension of disbelief, too. So maybe DJ makes him a fake ID in the system, whatever. Is DJ so good that he can rewrite human memory? When Finn is going into the wolves’ den with his face uncovered? As a Stormtrooper trainee he ate in mess hall with his face uncovered. He lived communally with other trainees. Any passing Stormtrooper could recognize him. And that’s to say nothing of Phasma and Hux, who quite recently reviewed his personnel files and presumably are not both face-blind, and Kylo Ren, who also saw Finn’s face at the very least during the fight on Starkiller Base.

Like… argh, are you fucking kidding me. How does that even work? Even if the movie turns out to be good, it would be the biggest joke ever if this undercover mission works the way it’s shown, with Finn waltzing into Snoke’s own flagship and going unrecognized for a decent amount of time. At the very least this is a terrible use of human resources, because by normal logic he should have debriefed and trained other undercover agents and let them take over. So there had better be something more going on, because otherwise the First Order are going to look about as menacing as a classroom in daycare.

Which is a long way of saying, I like your theory lol. And if the absence of Finn in the promo and merch is due to legitimate plot reasons I may even consider forgiving LucasFilm sometime in the next decade.

rose-tico:

I only finished the first 10% of the phasma novel but there’s this one thing surprises me and i have to say it right now : this book neither idolizes the first order nor excuses the first order’s actions from their point of view to say ~the good people also did bad things and bad people aren’t always bad~. as a person who hesitated to read this book because of  first order/empire glorification bullshit, i’m pretty shook?

there is a character who works for the first order, who believes what he’s doing is right, but then the book also explains why that character is wrong because the lead character is from the resistance. there is a clear divide between good and evil… so far. it’s good.

I thought the book did an excellent job of deconstructing the First Order and revealing its rotten core, actually. I think the utter ruthlessness and selfishness of Phasma’s character is simply a mirror of the First Order, because… (spoilers below the cut, in case you haven’t finished the book and plan to)

SPOILERS BELOW

the real conflict isn’t that Phasma is an abuser, serial backstabber, and murderer. There are and always have been people like that, and the only question is whether their communities catch them out and stop them or let them into the higher reaches of power. The First Order utterly fails in this regard because Phasma’s selfish and murderous actions are known, condoned, and shielded by the leadership of the First Order.

The true rot, then, the real reason Phasma is dangerous, is in the First Order. The problem is that people like Phasma and also the two Huxes are not checked but encouraged in their immoral behavior, continuing to rise in the ranks over people like Cardinal who honestly believe in the supposed ideals of the FO.

This shows that the ideals of the First Order are a lie, much as Phasma’s constructed identity as a dedicated and flawless soldier is a lie. Much like Brendol Hux lied when he said he wanted equality and justice, and then promptly committed mass murder on the people he speechified about helping.

The First Order is nothing but an exploitative fiefdom of unscrupulous backstabbers who have no principles or morals whatsoever, held up by gaslighting its more sincere followers into believing it to be the ultimate good. And that is why, I fervently hope, it’s going to burn to the ground when its own supersoldiers rise up against it. Now that would be poetic justice.

What the Phasma novel tells us about Finn

Warning: Phasma book spoilers.

I just read the Phasma novel, which is a fascinating study of how utterly ruthless and selfish she is, how completely dedicated to her own survival at the expense of others, and how there is no one and nothing she would not betray to further herself. It’s about peeling back the layers of a seemingly perfect First Order warrior to show her morally empty core, and with it the rottenness of the First Order itself.

The novel shows with unsettling clarity that, under all the pretty words about the ideals of justice and order, the First Order is a place where actual idealistic soldiers are used and then thrown away (see: Finn, Cardinal) while backstabbers, abusers, and murderers like the two Huxes and Phasma are actively shielded and rise to the top.

I’m especially excited because of what this means about Finn. It means the scene in The Force Awakens where Phasma lowers the shields under duress isn’t a plot hole or luck. Rather it means Finn is a fucking brilliant reader of people who knew that Phasma was only for Phasma and would choose her life over the First Order and the lives of her fellow soldiers in a heartbeat.

This truth about Phasma, by the way, took the characters in the Phasma novel a visit to a post-apocalyptic hellhole, hours of torture, a cat-and-mouse game between captor and prisoner, 400 pages of storytelling, plus lives and careers destroyed to uncover. Yet somehow Finn figured the same thing out on his own despite only knowing Phasma as a godlike exemplar of First Order ideals.

It also shows, as I’ve pointed out above, how intertwined Phasma’s nature is with the First Order itself. It only makes sense, since people tend to thrive in organizations that reflect their values–or lack thereof. Once Finn woke up to the great lie of the First Order it would have been much easier to see through the lesser lies about its leaders.

Finn’s ability to smash the idols that were built in his mind saved the Resistance and preserved hope for the galaxy. He can’t be fooled with smoke and mirrors anymore, even the mirror of Phasma’s armor. There is a certain pain in shedding a comfortable cocoon of lies, but he has gained in exchange an honest reckoning with the truths of the world and it was the salvation of billions that could have perished from Starkiller Base.

Another thing the Phasma book tells us is that she is going to be a HELL of an enemy to face in combat. I’m so looking forward to the duel in TLJ!

The Jedi and the Force of the Church are space Muslims. Order 66, the destruction of Jedha, and the massacre of Tuanul were all parts of the Empire and later First Order’s genocidal campaign against Muslims.

Their priesthood, the al-Jeddi (masters of the mystic warrior way in Sufi Islam) were systematcally slaughtered, their holy city desecrated, stripped of its much-coveted resources, then leveled without a trace. Even lay adherents were considered fair game to be hunted down and killed if they got in the way of a campaign of expansion and imperialism.

porglets:

I don’t really know how to put this into words, but I think we need to consider which point of view Adam Driver is coming from when he says what he says about Kylo’s character and his arc.

If a villain is good, well-written, and fleshed out, there will be more going on in his mind than just, “Mwahahahaha, I want to kill people! Just…you know! Just because!” The best villains tend to think they’re doing the right thing, and the reason they’re so terrifying is that in thinking they’re doing the correct thing, there’s not a lot of chance in convincing them of the wrongness of their actions. They need a motive, a personal reason for committing their crimes. That’s what makes for a more interesting conflict. 

Adam, as a method actor, tries to get in his character’s mind so he can deliver the best performance they can get from him. As a method actor, he mulls over various things Kylo is thinking, feeling, and doing. And just because Kylo might be sitting there going, “Oh, well my parents fought a lot, so I think I’m justified in killing my dad!” doesn’t mean the story is going to present this as entirely one-sided and in favor of Kylo’s reasoning. After all, we still have other characters to consider: Daisy says Rey hates Kylo for killing Han. Mark says Luke is utterly destroyed after Kylo betrayed him, especially given how much Luke invested in his nephew’s training. Carrie, God rest her soul, used to make jokes about how her son is an asshole and a space fascist. And, in the words of Pablo Hidalgo:

image

Consider that, in this story, we’re not supposed to root for Kylo in the same way we root for our heroes, who are Rey, Finn, and others. People who want a redemption arc for him would, in theory, want him to face the things he’s done and make up for them, which would absolutely require that the story and Kylo acknowledge that what he did was under no uncertain terms terrible. But, other than that, you’re not supposed to expect Kylo to win. With Rey and Finn as our heroes and protagonists, you’re supposed to consider their opinions of the situation as higher priority than that of Kylo’s, because they’re the ones Kylo is actively hurting and causing trouble for. They’re the ones who truly want what’s better for the galaxy, even if Kylo is out there trying to claim otherwise. 

Anything Adam is saying about how Kylo thinks he’s in the right doesn’t mean the story is suddenly going to do a switch on us and tell us to start chanting for #TeamFirstOrder. Adam “thinks” Kylo is in the right because that’s what he does for his own benefit as an actor. In order to play Kylo properly, he needs to “understand” Kylo. And Kylo, as a villain, believes that what he does is right, or at the very least is trying to convince himself it is. 

Yeah I think–or hope–that’s what Adam meant, that he just wasn’t being entirely clear about which perspective he was coming from. The method actor angle fits, too. I’m still irritated that the interview is out there to give fuel to Kylostans, and that Kylo stanning is such a big thing in general (we know why), but I’m trying to give Adam the benefit of the doubt mostly because the alternative is too awful.