ST Finn/John Boyega Discussion Thread

I can only comment on what I see on the screen, i.e. nothing. Rey is like the girl you might have hanging around with you and the guys when you’re at high school and all the guys might like to date her because she rocks at video games and likes guy stuff, but none of them have a chance.

 

I didn't get a romantic vibe from Rey with anyone.

Finn clearly cares about her, first and foremost as a friend, but with room for more.

And with Kylo Ren, it seemed more about them having a strong connection due to their circumstances (both feeling alone) and eventually caring for each other as people. Attraction and romantic feelings are in there eventually, but to me, it doesn't feel like the primary motivator, nor the 'point' of Rey trying to save Ben or vice versa.

And that's why the kiss at the end feels more like a moment of happiness first and foremost, a celebration of good prevailing over evil, rather than romance, although that is an element (It's not like I thought they wouldn't have pursued something romantically should Ben had lived).

 

Someone mentioned Alan Dean Foster, and I've heard he was pushing a Luke/Leia romance in his sequel to ANH. If you think about Luke/Leia in ANH, it's similar to Finn/Rey in that it's very "wholesome" and understated, to where it's not a huge part of either character because the focus is on the adventure.

They were both later abandoned pairings; Luke and Leia later became siblings, and Leia was paired with Han while Luke remained single.

There was no ill-will involved; Lucas was finding the story as he went along and that's just how the romance aspect landed once that story was finalized. All characters involved are white, each of them were treated with care and respect, and all of the actors appeared satisfied with the outcome of their story (I guess aside from Harrison wanting Han to die or whatever).

It can be argued something similar happened to Finn and Rey if that option was ever considered, but we can't ignore the elephant in the room when it comes to John being black. There's too much history that works against black/white interracial pairings, and even taking romance out of it, Finn got sidelined and disrespected by LF at every possible opportunity, ending in vocal displeasure from John.

Maybe none of this was racially motivated, maybe there was never an intention for Rey to be in a romantic relationship, maybe Finn/Rey just didn't garner the type of engagement they were looking for, maybe LF was salty that John was cast as male lead in TFA over Adam and felt no obligation to JJ's cast choices.

Regardless, I'd rather they say why they sidelined him instead of pretending it didn't happen. I'll probably still curse LF and KK Kennedy for what they did until they put me in the ground, but at least there would be closure instead of speculation and arguing in circles.

 

Exactly. They might've been able to avoid the bad racial/gender optics if all of the characters still felt like equals, but there was a clear exceptionalism and willingness to bend the story in favor of Kylo/Driver whenever possible after TFA (while at the same time deleting massive swaths of John's role) and it makes the outcome highly suspect.

My only hope is that the fanbase legitimately cares enough to not let Disney live it down and continue to make money off the sequel era while continuing to ignore/downplay Finn. But I fear over time people will just go back to sleep, the TLJ/Rian/Driver stans will once again take over the narrative after enough time has passed, and people will go back to not giving a **** about Finn/John so LF can just continue treating him as a trusty sidekick and nothing more.

 

I think the love interest angle can be damaging to characters all around. The dyad works just as well with a sibling/twin dynamic as it does with a married couple. Perhaps even more so, and thematically that would make more sense. If it weren’t for that darned kiss!

Having said that, I also liked Finn and Rey’s friendship more as another sibling dynamic rather than anything romantic. But that’s mainly because I’m tired of there always being some kind of romantic angle in stories. Though maybe it’s also because I’m biased and much prefer Finn/Poe instead. I mean, that lip did not bite itself.

 

An important thing to note about the whole Alan Dean Foster book is that it's based off the script where Han Solo doesn't come back. When Harrison decided to come back the whole idea of the sequel completely changed

 

Finn is trending on Twitter. LF keeps posting performative statements about Black lives every year, and then they rightly get their asses nailed to the wall when people bring up Finn.

I think it would be in their best interest to stay silent about their "commitment to diversity" until they release a statement on the Finn/John situation, release the deleted scenes of TROS, announce something substantial involving Finn, and/or come clean about their BTS drama involving him. Otherwise, I'm not sure they'll ever have peace in regards to "diversity" statements.

What made this such a huge mistake for them is that John was cast and marketed as a lead in TFA, then slowly got reduced so badly that he ended up as a side character with an unfinished arc in TROS. They can't ignore this and still expect us to believe them when they say they are committed to equality.

They may have gotten away with it in some spinoff movie, but a Black lead in the main saga, demeaned and taken away from those of us who wanted it? That's gonna sting for years to come.

 

I don't think they will, though. Boyega choosing to "sit down and talk" to them probably reinforces the idea (to them) that they did something substantial enough to dare say anything about MLK day (among other things) and diversity (still).

 

Companies and individuals (especially politicians) being tone-deaf on MLK is par for the course unfortunately.

 

Completely unrelated to Finn, but regarding the possible romance, I thought the end of TLJ seemed like it set up Poe and Rey to some degree. They definitely seemed to have some chemistry, but maybe it was just Oscar Isaac who I think has a different level of charisma than anyone else in these films. I think the Duel of the Fates outline had them together as well actually.

 

That scene (and the Finn/Rose scenes) screamed to me that they were trying to set up a non Black/White relationship at any costs. That's what I took out of that TLJ moment.

 

Finn and John are both still trending. Even though it sucks what was done to his character, I'm glad he continues to trend and people aren't shying away from talking about how dirty he was done.

 

Call me weird, but I'm not a fan of Finn fanart where he has the resistance logo tattooed on his person somewhere (or shaved into his hair), or a giant version of it on his clothes. It just irks me for some reason.

The scene was intentionally directed like that by Rian Johnson at the request of Colin Trevorrow, who intended to pair Poe up with Rey in his Episode IX script, Duel of the Fates. There are a few interviews where Trevorrow talks about it (the Empire Online article might be the easiest to find).

 

It was an awkward scene too. Rey didn't seem destined for anybody. She came across as so sexless and chaste that I thought she would end up as one of those nuns on Luke's island.

 

Nope. Despite the similarity in dialog, that definitely wasn't Trevorrow's scene.

 

A good overall story might have been linking Rey romantically with Finn early on, only for Luke to remind her during her training that if she truly wants to be a Jedi, which she would need to be to defeat Kylo Ren, she would have to let Finn go.

 

Minding my own business and checking twitter and I see Finn is trending.
I have enough things to get angry about without reminding me of this twitter.
Also, it would have been nice if people noticed this situation while the movies were still happening.
Is better late than never I guess.

 

Cool video. I will never forgive the sequel trilogy.

 

I like the part in Highlander where Ramirez warns McLeod that to spare his own heartbreak, better to leave Heather now. Of course he doesn’t and the themes would be different, but that premise of being asked to give up somebody that you love would have made for an interesting story angle.

 

It was worse in the sense that they played up Finn's one-sided attraction to Rey. They had no problems with Finn being obsessed with her, constantly yelling her name, desperate to find and be with her. Finn's dignity wasn't Disney's concern (on many fronts), they wanted everything to play out as it did. I'll never buy that they didn't know or understand how it would be conveyed.