ST John Boyega (Finn) in the ST

Even if they're dead, I would still be interested in reading about Finn learning about his origin. He would have a home and a culture and his dead family would still be worth knowing about and remembering.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if that was explored in books or comics. But he might discover it just as empty in the past as Rey did, was my point. The two characters parallel.

 

Rey didn't discover anything. Kylo told her she already knew her parents that she watched fly away on a ship died drunk on Jakku. Rey, like Finn, also has an actual heritage, even if her parents were "nobodies" to someone like Kylo Ren. Just like for Finn, there is value in genuine and thoughtful self-discovery. I'd pick up a comic of post-ST Rey going on a search to learn the truth of her parents and how they ended up the way that they did and where they came from.

For a franchise that is rooted in family, it's interesting/sad to me that the moral that family is meaningless is being touted.

 

@AhsokaSolo - I didn't mean "empty" in the ways you are using.

Rey found there was nothing to go back to in the past--no immediate family to reunite with in the present. Her belonging is ahead. Finn may find himself in a similar boat. The ST is very focused on found-family after a tragic past in which one's original family was lost.

 

Found family doesn't negate the value in self-discovery. Having nothing to go back to doesn't mean one can't be interested in learning the truth of their origin. TLJ did not settle what happened in Rey's past. It only settled that Rey's family has nothing to do with the present. What we know of Rey's past is contradictory and seems to be based on Rey's fears more than reality.

TLJ wasn't focused on found-family anyway. The found-family between Rey and Finn was practically ignored, and they were the main found-family established in TFA. Rey also developed a found-family of sorts with Han and Leia, and well... yeah.

Besides, I think you do mean "empty" the way I'm taking it. You responded to the idea of Finn seeking out his origin by saying that they're probably dead and it's probably meaningless like Rey's history. That sounds to me like you view that kind of journey to be empty and pointless.

 

You're responding as though I'm against Finn finding his origins and I'm not. I am uninterested in a for/against debate on Finn finding his origins.

And um found-family was NOT ignored in TLJ. People mock RJ's statement about trying to connect Rey and Finn with the beacon and many also seem to downplay the hug between them at the end of TLJ. The filming of that hug, was not something that is ignoring Rey/Finn. It's a long hug full of love and light and when they finally both come "home." The Rey/Finn reunion is what everything is building up to (didn't RJ say that in the commentary?). And who do you think the primary found-family for each of them is? (The other.) That's ALL in TLJ.

And this is the Finn thread so I am totally uninterested in going on about Rey's past being settled or not. I think Rey may find more things from the past. I would be surprised however if her immediate family isn't dead like TLJ said. And I wouldn't be surprised if Finn's immediate family is dead too (which is ALL I was saying before we had to manufacture a debate about it).

 

You didn't only say they were dead. After I said that there is still value to be had in self-discovery even if they're dead, you said "he might discover it just as empty in the past as Rey did," and that's the statement I disagree with. In a world with endless EU potential, both of these characters deserve a comic or a story of them discovering their origins all the way, not through assumptions and dismissiveness on the importance of it. Typically that kind of thing is central for a protagonist.

I don't agree that everything built to Rey and Finn. I think Rey's bonding with Kylo Ren undercut any found family she supposedly formed, who Kylo Ren was in the process of trying to massacre the entire movie.

 

That hug is beautiful, and honestly gave me chills the first time I watched the movie in the theater. I think it's the expressions on their faces that really give it the emotional weight that sells it for me (Boyega especially.) Like they both never want to leave each other for that long ever again. They genuinely love each other. No, not in a romantic sense, but because they've found home and family with each other that they've never felt before.



Have you ever hugged someone that you love and been so happy for their embrace that you were on the verge of tears? That's what it looks like. Bravo, John.

 

It's stunning, and how they do the lighting and the whole sequence is that it's clearly supposed to be a focal point (it's like the sun has come out after a long dark night). Rey and Finn went on their independent journeys, worried about the other while away from the other, and then are reunited in this scene full of light and emotion. And I completely agree about their expressions.

Actually you're putting words in my mouth. I never said I see no value in self-discovery. That is absolutely false. And I tried to point out you were twisting my meaning into something else already (when I elaborated on what I meant by "empty") but that too has gone unacknowledged. I leave you to your strawmen.

 

Let's call Finn, Rey and Kylo Persons A, B and C respectively. Person C is trying to massacre a lot of people, including Person A. This is a first for me, seeing it argued that a plot emphasizes the bond between Persons A and B by developing a bond between Persons B and C. Person B is developing affection for Person C while Person C is actively trying to kill, among others, Person A. Yeah, neither on paper, nor emotionally, nor narratively, does that emphasize how much Person B cares for Person A. Familial bonds are usually emphasized through loyalty and protectiveness. When Kylo tells Rey, nah, he's going to continue massacring her friends, Rey is all boo-hooing Kylo. She doesn't boo hoo the people she cares for that are dying. For all she knows, Finn is in one of those escape pods being blown up. It never comes up.

I love the Finn/Rey hug, but I think Finn deserves more in a found family. I hope JJ reemphasizes the Poe/Finn bond primarily.

 

Yeah. Kinda want to add to this, but... yeah. That's it. The best you can do is overlook this very strange narrative snag. The end of the throne room scene only works if the audience ignores the logic of the events unfolding.

A glaring contradiction. If my momma's on a transport ship in the amidst of a hail of deadly rocket fire, I neither have the time nor the inclination to 'understand,' or 'process' anything.

 

Well fortunately Rey is not Finn's only found-family (if she is so inadequate--though Finn doesn't seem to think so...). He now has Rose and Poe and Resistance survivors. He doesn't have to put all his eggs in the Rey basket if he doesn't wish to.

 

Yeah and that’s great. Finn actually has a found family that the narrative didn’t forget about. Finn cares about the lives of his found family more than he cares about the soul of their murderer. In fact, he doesn’t care about the soul of their murderer at all, and good for him for it.

 

Why were so many Finn scenes cut?

http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/st...he-last-jedi-deleted-scenes-finn-john-boyega/

You gotta love answers thay don't make sense.

 

nice

 

There was never a gunner Finn sequence. Pablo said on Twitter that that shot was from early on, when they were doing costume and lighting tests with actors on the Raddus' set.

 

Oh my freak. I love this.

 

That this can give me feels shows that I do still have love for something in the ST.

 

Seems to me that the story they wanted to tell with Finn was told sufficiently with what was kept in the film. While the stuff that was cut which may have been nice to have was expendable in order to accommodate what was necessary to tell the other stories in the movie effectively.

Of course, the filmmakers aren't consciously keeping score of how many scenes are cut and how many are left in to determine whether their preferred hierarchy of importance is observed for each respective character. It's only fans that sometimes evaluate a story on those terms.

 

I had a realization with Rose saving Finn at the end that I hadn’t before. I think he eventually connects to it because on some level it’s a little like what he had done for Rey in TFA but it’s also from being part of a team that would do something like that for another. No trooper in his unit would put themselves at risk like that just to save another and I think he realizes that the Resistance is operating more from that defensive position that he naturally has always had. It’s almost his version of that line in TFA that moves Rey when she hears “We came back for you.” That was something Rey hadn’t experienced. This sense of a team protecting each other and being around others who, like him, would put themselves at risk to save what they love is something he hadn’t experienced before as a Trooper.

He was defensive of Rey and the Resistance is defensive of the democracy they dont want to lose and in fact want to improve upon.

Finn ultimately connects with that sense of defensiveness and what Rose did because those are the qualities that made him a poor storm trooper in the first place and made him want to protect Rey in TFA.

 

Nah I don't think that Rian put nearly that much thought into it.. That scene was just a mess all-around.

 

Once art is released it can be interpreted any number of ways and watching TFA and TLJ back-to-back made me realize that on some level he’d connect to Rose doing that because if it was Rey flying as he was he probably would have done the same that Rose did in order to save Rey. There’s enough there to draw such a parallel without much effort.