ST Diversity in the Sequel Trilogy (see warning on page 11)

What honestly frustrates me with Finn is you'd think that the people LFL offer directing roles to would take a page out of previous Star Wars properties who could actually write these characters well but that just doesn't happen. The fact that Finn's storyline was being shown merely a year after the likes of Jao Assam's in Legacy Vol. 2 just makes it worse.

 

Pretty sure the intention was always for Rey to be the "main" Jedi with Finn as a red herring. But Finn was also originally imagined as a white guy and there apparently wasn't much consideration of the change in optics for that kind of bait-and-switch once John was cast.

 

I guess that's the logical explanation, but it's still unfortunate that Rian Johnson didn't feel the need to continue that potential aspect of Finn's story. I actually Rey as a protagonist, but I feel like the ST should have just a tiny-bit more Force and lightsaber stuff than it actually does.

 

I honestly like the core of what Rian was doing with Finn, but I dont wanna get into that fight since it is aside from the point that: yeah as time has went on I have grown to resent the red herring with Finn. That's part of my misgivings with Abrams doing TROS

 

From an in-universe perspective, Force-sensitivity could be the justification for why Finn - alone out of all the FO troopers - breaks from his conditioning when he does. That brief moment to reaching out to his dying friend, experiencing the rush of emotions from him, and then remaining open to other people who are experiencing death and suffering, could be enough to overwhelm his conditioning.

 

I feel like the series is fine honslty it's just going in some different directions but that already kinda happened a bit didn't it?

Like when I watched Empire I thought... this really doesn't feel ik like a New Hope at all... like it's a really different bird in my opinion a lot of the elements there
are really unique to it and it almost feels out of sequence.

So now we have that again to an extent and I feel like yeah that's fine, no big deal.

 

That's kind of how I feel about this trilogy as a whole. Nothing about overtly offends me or irritates me. I almost feel bad about how unbothered I actually am about a lot of criticisms regarding diversity in this trilogy. Things I love like Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, a lot of MCU movies, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and even previous Star Wars movies have problematic elements in them that I could pick apart to death.

But the ST trilogy? It doesn't bother me at all. To me, Rey is a complex layered character. Finn is a strong male lead with great character development. Poe is a likable charismatic character with a good heart. Rose is adorable and groundbreaking. Even things that are arguably problematic are still debatable in my opinion.

 

Not at all. Rey is a simple female empowerment character, Finn is a clown who's story has been wasted, Poe is just bland Resistance pilot. Rose is a horrible sidekick, a diversity hire.

This trilogy overall is just a big failure in almost every aspect

 

Hey, I understand that you disagree and that's totally fine. However, I'm already kind of aware of your opinion on the ST and I don't want to sound harsh but...you're not really stating anything new here. Just saying "Nope, you're wrong, these characters suck" is not really a counterargument and comes off as...pretty condescending.

Also, saying that Rose is just a "diversity hire" without any context or exploration of the term doesn't really help.

 

I've been feeling a bit down about the sequel trilogy in this regard because while a number of strides have been made with respect to diversity, there's still been no expressly LGBT+ moment, and I doubt The Rise of Skywalker will change that.

I should stress that what I've heard about The Rise of Skywalker more generally has me excited to see it and thinking it will be a fine conclusion (for now, at least) to the Episodic films.

 

I think it’s definitely a missed opportunity for the ST to includes a LGBTQ character. Especially since the newer books and comics have done a really good job with this.

At this point I would say it’s more likely that one of the live action TV shows will be the first to include a LGBTQ character.

 

I feel the need to mention that the lack of LGBTQ+ characters is a problem in blockbuster films in general. The MCU also barely has any and the only major blockbuster franchise I can think of at the moment that has representation are the Star Trek films.

When it comes to ST films, it's weird because there are characters like Poe and Holdo who are implied to not be exactly straight, but there is no confirmation whatsoever. I think it would be a little odd to not include LGBTQ character in TROS, but just because there is representation doesn't mean it's always good representation. I think the best bet would be to reveal an already important character as non-straight instead.

 

Considering the last time they had an LGBTQ+ character turned out to just be them saying it in interviews and never once reflecting it on screen and seemingly confused on the word's definition, I'm unfortunately not holding my breath that anything happens in TROS. I'd like it to, but their on-screen output doesn't give me any hope they do it this time. I'll be happy if I'm wrong.

 

I don't care whether Finn is Force sensitive or not. But I disliked how Johnson had seemed to transform Finn from the trilogy's leading man into a supporting character . . . with the backing of Lucasfilm. At least, that is how it seemed to me.

I heard Lucasfilm had released a novel that revealed Holdo was LGBTQ, but I've never heard or seen any indication that Poe Dameron was. I've only heard wishful thinking of many fans who wanted him to have a romance with Finn.