Watching
Han get murdered by his son changes the direction of Finn’s life as
radically as his decision not to shoot at Tuanul did. It is in that
instance he goes from “I’ll help get the shields down because it’s
the right thing to do, but mainly I’m here for Rey and when we’re
done I’m outta here” to “Okay, I’m done. I’m fighting back!”
You
see the change written clear as daylight on his face on his face
after Han’s murder.
From
shock and horror.
Into grief and angry determination.
When
Kylo flings Rey into a tree and yells “traitor!” at Finn it
further cements his decision to fight. But the choice itself was
already made before that moment.
That
Han’s death has this tremendous impact on Finn should not come as a
surprise.
Overall
Solo treats him and Rey kindly – thanks Finn for helping Chewie,
offers Rey a job, and after Finn makes it clear that he’s leaving
Solo doesn’t judge him and tells to keep the rifle – which I doubt
is something that Finn is used to.
Clearly Solo is a man he knows about and has admired. When they’re “introduced”, Finn speaks of him as the “Rebellion General” in a tone that is entirely favorable.
But still Han is a man who isn’t perfect, he too is running away, but after Takodana Solo rallies and tries to do the right thing.
So
I think in Han, Finn sees both something of a farther figure, as well
as a man not unlike himself.
But
this alone is not the entire reason why Finn reacts so strongly to
Han being murdered that it changes his path, the context of how the man is killed is equally
important.
Finn
is not a man to bemoan his fate or part, or wish for things to be
different than they are, but you can’t tell me that somewhere deep
down Finn isn’t wishing that someone – anyone – had come along
and offered him a way out of the First Order. Instead he had to rely
on luck and the kindness and understanding of strangers when he
escaped. He was lucky with the people he met and he knows that.
And
here is Kylo, being offered this exact thing. Han says to his
son “come home, we miss you” and for that Kylo murders him.
From
that moment on there is no option but war between the two of them as far
as Finn is concerned. Finn might have been able to accept Kylo
refusing the offer – even if he would never understand why – but when
Kylo kills Han, Finn forever becomes his enemy.
So
when Kylo Ren confronts Finn out in the forest and arrogantly tries
to claim part of his heritage after murderously having rejected
another part, Finn has only one answer for him. An angry and defiant
FN-2187 walked into a detention cell and removed a high level prisoner by saying, “Kylo Ren sent me” and none of the guards even thought to call and verify it. He then marched that prisoner through the corridors of a Star Destroyer and into a fighter bay passed a gaggle of officers and no one batted an eye.
But go on and tell me how Finn was just a janitor.
oh but now i’ve been thinking about this!
ok 1.) finn in before the awakening is literally at the top of his class, like phasma’s only beef with this dude is that he’s got too much empathy but other than that he’s a+ officer material in logistics, combat training, marksmanship, leadership, the whole shebang. so he’s probably trusted to know his shit and do his job. so if fn-2187 says ren wants the prisoner, then ren wants the prisoner. that makes perfect sense.
now the hangar tho, here me out: finn using the force. unconsciously, but we know jedi can pass unseen when they want/need to, and he’s so desperate to not get caught he’s probably thinking okay stay calm stay calm nothing to see here just a trooper trasnporting a prisoner nothing unusual here and it WORKS.
Nah son. Fuck headcanon. This shit is CANON.
Has anyone stopped to consider the fact that in Star Wars any kind of large-scale sanitation project is going to immediately be colonized by giant tentacle hellbeasts, which may or may not absorb the souls of the people that get consumed for standing a little too close to the garbage chute? And that the hellbeasts are impossible to completely get rid of, and many of them have adaptations like acid secretions and echolocation that lets them digest things like battle armor and durasteel? Seriously, there are half a dozen I can think of off the top of my head, starting with the friggin dianoga from New Hope.
Only absolute badasses work sanitation. Anyone with lesser skills gets eaten.
Finn didn’t have to get that happy with the Force Suggest to get people to go with him being the boss is what I’m saying. You don’t start an argument with the guy who exterminates soul-sucking hell centipedes in close quarters twice a week to keep the trash compactor running.
why was han so dismissive? he met one of those trash monsters once upon a time.
this answers a lot of my complaints about why you would banish a high-scoring, intelligent, resourceful officer-track soldier to do a roomba’s job. but like also considering starkiller base is built into an entire planet, finn’s probably got to deal with a galaxy’s worth of native fangtentacled shitparasites, and alien polar moosebears wandering in to see where all that tasty garbage is coming from.
There are posts about Finn that come across my dash frequently that really concern me.
It’s not that I don’t think musings about what a sweet innocent soul he is and imagining what his humble life must’ve been like are coming from a loving place, but Finn’s character has already been filled in via a canon source, and it was not humble.
Read the novel “Before the Awakening,” where you will learn that while FN-2187 may have pulled shifts as a janitor just like any military trainee has to work some shit jobs, he was actually the absolute rock star of his elite band of Stormtroopers. He was the natural leader, the best of them all, the highest scores in every possible measure, someone Phasma and Hux were well aware of as the shining example of what their pet Stormtrooper program could accomplish. He was everything they’d worked for for years.
The only problem was, he cared too much about his fellow Stormtroopers, even though they didn’t return the feeling, due to indoctrination and some envy of his superiority. It is pretty obvious, reading BtA, that Finn is Force sensitive. It is that Force sensitivity that set him apart, and made him the one who could overcome a lifetime of indoctrination and get out.
I know it’s the fault of the film for sketching him so lightly, but guys, it is crucial that we start acknowledging who Finn is, and his strengths. Which, canonically, are leadership, strategy, all the skills a commander must have. I worry that there is too much PRECIOUS PURE CINNAMON ROLL going on and not enough shared knowledge of his *canon character background and gifts*.
Please spread the word about Finn. This sort of thing shortchanges him horribly. When the FO lost FN-2187, they lost more than just another Stormtrooper. They lost a future general, and the Resistance picked one up.
“They lost a future general, and the Resistance picked one up.”
