Star Wars Episode VII: The Problem With Finn


If you'd read the previous article about Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I paradoxically called it, “almost, but not quite, entirely unlike Star Wars” and “the exact same story as A New Hope”. I dealt with the latter issue, expanding my claim that the plot of both Episode IV and VII were not a variation, but a copy.

Yet, while the replication showed they didn't care about the fans, there could be something worse. They didn't understand the details of the Star Wars universe, in spite of creating a movie, which mirrored the original in story and visual effects.

Let's start with the small stuff, and it's not all small stuff.

Did you notice all the good characters (especially Finn and Rey) are competent in any situation the writer places them in? When Poe and Finn escape in a TIE fighter, Finn effectively shoots pursuing TIE fighters, even though he is not a gunner. He is a Stormtrooper, not a TIE pilot. The First Order has different branches of its Forces. It would be like a Marine acting as bombardier aboard a B-2 Spirit. Finn shouldn't have this skill.

He displays it again when he and Rey are flying across the desert of Jakku. Only this time the armament is even more complex, and yet he still shoots down professional TIE pilots. But if anything, his skill pales in comparison to Rey's. She lived as a orphan and semi-slave on Jakku her entire life, yet when forced to escape she is able to pilot the Millennium Falcon the moment she is at the controls. The rational provided is she knows machines very well, but a mechanic does not a pilot make. All she has ever piloted is the speeder she built.

Before we continue, no, you can't use her latent force powers as an excuse for everything. Luke wasn't an exceptional pilot because he was force sensitive. He was excellent because he practiced piloting on Tatooine with his T-16 Skyhopper.

Finn and Rey also demonstrate skill with a lightsaber they shouldn't have. Finn explicitly says he has never used melee weapons, but holds off a stormtrooper with a Z6 Riot Control Baton. Later, he challenges, though is eventually beaten, by Kylo Ren. In both these examples he uses a lightsaber with a proficiency that he shouldn't have. Rey demonstrates the same skill only on a larger scale. She is especially quick in her ability to use both a pistol and lightsaber. She defeats Kylo Ren in her first battle wielding a lightsaber. He is an semi-experienced Sith and soldier. She is a scavenger and mechanic. Her skill cannot come from her force powers. In the same way that being force sensitive does not grant the ability to pilot a spaceship, it also does not confer an ability in the use of lightsabers. That would be like claiming that being excellent at math automatically makes a computer programmer. It doesn't follow. Being skilled with the force enables a Jedi to be an superb swordsman, but it still requires training. Luke does not beat Darth Vader in a duel until the end of the original trilogy. He had to train, lose, and train some more. Ultimately, being skilled with the force allows one to use the force. Nothing more.



When the actors were announced, some were upset that they cast a man with dark skin as a stormtrooper. The original stormtroopers in the Star Wars mythos were all clones of Jango Fett (father of Boba Fett). That's why Episode II is called Attack of the Clones. However, the movie does a good job explaining why they are no longer using clones. No, the real problem with Finn is not the color of his skin but how his behavior changes the Star Wars Universe.

Finn was stolen from his parents before he was old enough to create memories. He was raised in the elite training system of the First Order, and conditioned to obey unconditionally. Yet in his first mission he balks. As the massacre on Jakku is interrupted by the blaster fire of Poe Dameron, FN-2187 watches a fellow stormtrooper bite it bloodily. As his comrades gun down unresisting civilians he muddles about with crimson remains on his helmet. It's not clear in the movie which is the cause of his confusion; the death of a single stormtrooper or the murdering of innocents. Searching around online, Wookipedia expands on FN-2187's background and explains that the particular stormtrooper that died was a friend of his. This death was the cause of FN-2187's stupor. A viewer should never have to go to an outside source to understand a key moment in a character's development. And ignoring the fact that it would have been more sympathetic to link his distress to the executing of noncombatants, the First Order is clearly inept at indoctrinating soldiers.

They have FN-2187 from birth, and not only does one friend's death cause him to flinch, it causes him to question the whole program, free an enemy, and plot a daring plan of escape. The two events don't make sense together. He later says “I'm done with the First Order,” as if he hates them, but there is no event that explains this character development. He hates them because his actions only make sense if he hates them.

There are further oddities to this problem. He is distraught when a friend of his in the First Order is slain, but as the movie progresses he guns down a significant number of stormtroopers. Quick change of heart.

That's a singular oddity that can be waved off as unimportant but there are still two significant problems with Finn. His training, as mentioned before, is extensive. It's probably impossible to imagine the hellish, disturbed existence a stormtrooper lives, but you should. What do they do during their free time? Do they even have free time? How do they behave around one another during this hypothetical free time? The questions are important because of Finn's behavior. From the first he is able to interact in a perfectly normal manner with normal human beings, like Poe and Rey. A man that has undergone training, brainwashing, and living in a barracks from birth can not act as Finn does. It would be impossible for him to adapt to normal conversation (which he carries on with Poe and Rey). And this leads to the final problem about Finn.

One may not like it, but Star Wars is about a simple, dualistic mystical power that also functions as an ethical system. Character's are clearly good, evil, or neutral. They can transition, such as Anakin Skywalker into Vader, and then back (Good to evil to good), or Han Solo (neutral to good), but at any one point they are clearly one of these three.

Stormtroopers are irredeemably evil, just like the Orcs in the Lord of the Rings are irredeemably evil. It's not their fault. The original ones were clones and the newer ones are abducted from their families, but both are brainwashed, manipulated, and controlled into becoming avatars of evil. Part of what makes LOTR and Star Wars enjoyable is that the audience can watch the heroes slay hundreds of enemies and feel no twinge of guilt because these villains are beyond redemption. Yet by introducing Finn the whole idea is destroyed. Now the audience can imagine hundreds of thousands of thoughtful stormtroopers mixed in among the malicious millions. They become thousands of innocent men and women, kidnapped from their parents and forced to murder and die for the Empire.

This is a thematic change that obliterates the underlying structure, as the Death Star obliterated Alderaan . It invalidates the audience's enjoyment by introducing ambiguity into an enemy that doesn't need it.

With enough material to talk about for Star Wars forever, there will be one more article next Teusday. Video Games return on Monday.

Star Wars VII Series

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