ST Who should be the Male Lead? Finn or Luke Skywalker

The B plot in VIII could still be massive. And central to IX. It isn't yet clear, though the setup of core character interactions for VIII is becoming increasingly so.

 

I think Finn will be becoming more involved with Rey and maybe helping her dealing with dark side tendencies.

 

nightangel Maybe once they are together again.

 

.....Was there some leak that supports this view or are people just guessing again?

Also JediAce1 I thought you were in favor of Finn and Rey spending time apart so each can grow before they meet up again?

 

Question? Do we even need a male lead?
IMO:

PT: Obi & Anakin more or less equal
OT: Han, Luke, Vader more or less equal
ST: Kylo, Finn, from story perspective + Han, Chewie from screentime and in addition Luke from the mystic factor

I see the characters more as a combination that fit together with the female characters to build up the whole story
At least for me I could not say who has the obvious lead in every single movie

In ST so far it is for sure Kylo and Rey (although female) ..... and Han .... and Chewie .... and ....

 

I am, my post was just in response to AnneNeville saying Kylo is the co-lead and not Finn.

 

Actually, if Rey goes dark or is tempted by the dark side, that leaves Finn in a pretty important role as our main light side hero. I got those vibes from TFA anyway, that Finn would be the character that encompasses the light, and certain imagery always hinted to me that Rey could be tempted.

 

Nope. My response was trimmed to cut out the part where I made it clear that I was speculating. They did leave the "I think" in, though.

JediAce1 I didn't downgrade Finn. I said he was probably leading the B plot with KMT. In my earliest post (which was quoted today) I said the leads were Kylo, Rey, and Finn. I have added KMT, and specified which storyline each pair will headline in VIII, in my opinion.

 

Yeah. I was thinking about Finn's arc last night and why I found it a bit unsatisfying: I realised it was because I enjoy the process of struggle, which you didn't get with Finn. His big turn to the light side is almost immediate, which makes for something with little dramatic meat on it (for me), but does position the character as very 'pure' of heart in an increasingly murky world.

I feel like we might get the SW version of Xander's yellow crayon speech from him at some point if Rey loses herself to help bring her back.

 

Well I mean, you could also compare it to Luke's words to Vader at the end of RotJ that brought Vader back, if you want to keep the comparison relevant to the stories actually told in the gffa.

 

Finn is not fully explored yet. By all logic, he should be more damaged by his brainwashing. And the plot so far has not dealt with his past much, nor the ease with which he kills his former friends after refusing to kill villagers. There is much to examine, but I feel doubtful that they will take the time. Too bad.

 

well their is Obi-Wan, Yoda, Qui Gon, Mace, etc.

 

Every character doesn't need to be damaged. Some of us are old school SW fans, back from when the characters were pretty straight forward and we didn't spend the movies watching them whine about their baggage. Finn is good. He's not torn. He's not carrying around ptsd. He's a hero in the SW tradition.

 

If he were undamaged, he wouldn't cheer after killing his confederates and friends. And a background as a brainwashed kidnapped child would not be needed. That is dark. To introduce that and not deal with it is sloppy.

I don't object to a straightforward character, but to an unevenly characterized one.

 

Finn is not the same character as Luke, Han or Leia. His backstory is much different and much more tragic than those three.

 

Agreed. I am asking for more Finn, and deeper, not less.

 

More tragic than Leia watching her home planet blown up? I don't think so.

 

Where did Finn come from, and where did Leia come from? Leia was a princess living a life of privilege, while Finn was abducted from his family forced to serve an evil organization. Not at all the same background, you can't compare the two.

I'll continue to say Finn was handled poorly in TFA, which continues to make me question how much they have invested in his story if they keep calling him the male lead. Which is also why I created this thread we're posting in right now.

 

You compared the two by saying Finn's background is more tragic. I think that's absurd. Leia is a princess from an exploded world. The OT wasn't a history of her angst about it.

 

A crap ton of fans have pointed out that Leia's reaction to Alderaan's destruction was poorly handled and one of the saga's weaker moments. The OT weren't perfect movies.

Just because SW is known to be fun swashbuckling adventure films doesn't mean there shouldn't be any angst within these characters. Finn was unfortunately a victim of poor writing and storytelling.

 

Well, Disney paid $4 billion for this "imperfect" seriess. Leia was always my favorite character from the OT so it didn't bother me any. Regardless, of course you're entitled to your opinions and your criticisms, just like I'm entitled to disagree. I loved the OT exactly as it was.

Luckily for you, if whiny characters drowning in their personal melodrama are your thing in SW, TFA gave you Kylo Ren. Luckily for me, that's not what I love about SW, and TFA gave me Finn.

 

I think a character can be nuanced and complex without being whiny.

 

Yeah of course, whatever. We all have different preferences. I wouldn't call any of the OT3 nuanced or complex in the same way I wouldn't describe Finn that way. Frankly, I wouldn't call Kylo Ren nuanced or complex either, though I would call him whiny, but I get that plenty view him that way. I am part of a book club. When I want to psychoanalyze characters at deep, personal levels, we read realistic books that are not adventure space opera. Star Wars isn't something that I see as complex, and I like it exactly the way it is. It's escapism.

 

It's a fine line. I'm in the camp that would like to see some nuance, but not at the expense of momentum. The ST is pretty much a sequel and reboot rolled into one. Given the decades between episode 6 and 7 (in real time) I think there's room for evolution. Especially given the fact that it's no longer a GL operation.