also, as a coda—I love that finn’s first instinct once he throws his lot in with the resistance is glorious pointless martyrdom, to the point that rose has to physically stop him from throwing his life away
I mean this is finn, whose bone-deep sense of self and hunger for life broke almost two decades of stormtrooper programming! and he’s ready to die! what on earth could possibly….?
mostly I like this idea because it enables me to believe that when finn thinks of heroism and The Cause, that circuit is still wired wrong in his head, tangled up with all the first order propaganda, the latent programming whispering that he’s just cannon fodder. This is what he’s good for this is how he’s meant to serve the first order the resistance; don’t you want to kill the thing you hate, don’t you hate them, the enemy who threatens you, threatens your squad, isn’t that worth your death?
(rose isn’t wrong, they are fighting to save what they love. just—so is the first order. everyone is fighting to save what they love, that’s the part that makes this so fucking awful.)
(what the first order wants to save is worse. that’s how you know.)
anyway, I love the idea that even now, finn thinks in the violent, objectifying (as in, it turns people into objects) vocabulary the first order gave him. I just….really want him to be unpicking all the wrong shit left in his head, slowly but surely.
I like this idea. But also…
Can we really say Finn’s actions were pointless?
At that point, the last stand of the Resistance with no real hope for rescue that anyone was sure of at the time, surely there is no option but to continue the attack even if it is suicidal. The scene is clearly meant to rhyme with Poe’s dreadnought attack at the start of the film, but there (since no-one was aware of the tracking yet) it at least made some sense to conserve their forces and strength for another time.
Here?
If Luke hadn’t turned up – and they had no reason to know he would – everyone would be dead. If you’re going to die anyway, choose how you do it – and if they had managed to destroy the cannon then they would have saved everyone else inside.
This is obviously a Watsonian critique of the fact that Rose’s actions only make sense if you assume characters have knowledge of what’s going to happen in the plot in the future – that she had a hope of rescue that doesn’t make much sense in story. Obviously I don’t think the film should have had Finn die even if it did save everyone. They just ought to have approached the whole issue in a different way rather than forcing Poe to learn a lesson that didn’t apply in these very different circumstances and which basically amounts to ‘don’t try too hard and wait for your leaders to pull something out of their ass to save you all – you don’t need to know the details’.
Just saying that when I was watching the first time and Poe bit his lip that way, I immediately thought “ok maybe future boyfriends, definitely some sexual attraction there”. I don’t normally start shipping people that soon, and I don’t tend to look for romantic or sexual attraction when it’s more likely to be friendship.
Also my first impressions are usually correct when it comes to fictional characters. For example, I also thought that Finn and Rey were very cute together, I can’t even decide what I would prefer. When it comes to Rey/lo, I didn’t see anything romantic about it and I was just fine with that, but when I was walking home I realized that some people would ship it. I had no idea how popular it would be, but still.
An interesting thing about Finn is how spirited he can be. He shouts for joy when he escapes the star destroyer with Poe–realizes he’s hitting targets and that this thing might just work. His first reaction when he and Rey escape Jakku is similar. He’s joyful when he discovers what he and Rey can do together.
This is someone who was stolen from his parents–who doesn’t even know his real name. He was raised by an institution–and never encouraged to express feelings. But he’s so able, willing, and ready to feel happiness. He opens up to Poe and Rey within minutes of meeting them–and his excitement at discovering those friendships is so palpable that it makes the audience excited for him.
Finn lightens the tone of a dark movie–and he does it without being a comic relief character. He’s a man realizing he can finally, finally do what he chooses, when he chooses. One who finally has people like Rey–who look at him like an equal. And because of that, even when he’s fighting for his life, he seems happy.
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