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.”
Today’s “background” while working is Return of the Jedi (where “background” means I stop everything I’m doing to watch certain scenes).
The Emperor seriously is an idiot. I mean, he ALMOST has Luke. If he hadn’t started cackling every time Luke started to lose control and going “good, good!” he would’ve won. Hey dumbass, if you manipulate someone into doing something they don’t want to do, you don’t POINT OUT that they’re doing it.
Jeez.
It’s been so long since Palpatine had to manipulate someone like that he’s forgotten how. He’s also assuming Luke is like his father at that age: desperate for validation and stuck in a cycle of aggression, guilt, and repression. As this is totally not the case, he fails in his conversion effort big time.
Holy shit, you’re right. He’s doing exactly what he did with Anakin.
HOLY SHIT.
*skywalker feelings increase*
OH MY GOD!
This also gives me Uncle Owen and Obi Wan feelings because if Anakin was easily manipulated by Palpatine because it was the first time he truly received emotional validation from a father figure, that means that Luke had good emotional support from his father figures and ahshfkenf help
IT GOT WORSE BETTER.
*skywalker feelings in overload*
Really, it chaps my Cheerios when people forget the role Owen and Beru played in Luke’s life. Like, we only see them on-screen for a little while (and not in the most positive light, since Luke is being a rebellious teenager and they are being the mean parents), but they were the ones who raised Luke, who loved him, who watched him take his first steps and say his first words. Owen taught him to fly a Skyhopper and Beru taught him to fix vaporaters. You wouldn’t have Luke Skywalker, stand-up guy, without Owen and Beru Lars, adoptive parents.
I mean, the thing is, it’s clear when you watch ANH as an adult that Owen and Beru love Luke and want what is best for him, and that although they disagree about what is best for Luke, they are coming from a place of love and caring.
Luke is a huffy, unhappy teenager, chafing against restrictions, but no matter how “mean” Owen is, it’s perfectly obvious that Luke isn’t abused in any way. He feels free to complain and sulk and ostentatiously demonstrate about how UNFAIR it all is, without fear of reprisal. He has his own vehicle and considerable freedom as long as he finishes his chores. Owen and Beru have obvious affection for him and for each other.
And the way Luke’s face shutters and changes when he sees the homestead destroyed and their bodies, the way that devastation clearly strikes to the heart of him but produces a calm, determined grief? That prefigures his calm before his fall on Bespin, and it also ultimately stands in opposition to Anakin’s rageful, vicious, undisciplined response to grief.
Obi-Wan knows it, when Luke comes back to say he’ll go with him to Alderaan, that Luke is not his father.
And that’s down to Owen and Beru and how they raised Luke. They weren’t perfect – Owen is frustrated with Luke a bunch! – but unlike Anakin, raised a slave, made an orphan by violence, always susceptible to his own rage and loss, Luke had a bedrock.
