ST Finn's romantic future is with... who?

Yep this is where I'm at too. If Finnrey or Finnpoe happens I'll be pleasantly surprised but I think it's more likely that everyone ends up single at the end, perhaps with some hints thrown in for a few pairings that leaves room for the audience to speculate.

 

I would love for FinnRey to happen but there are numerous factors that prevent me from believing it will.

1) By the looks of the marketing, they are going out of their way to show Finn and Rey with other people while stressing the emphasis on friendship.

2) Reylo and Stormpilot are more popular. Most do not think this would be significant but with LFL having the apparent need to please fans and the fixation on Kylo as a character, I can totally see them downplaying FinnRey and focusing more on Reylo and FinnPoe.

3) The actors themselves have shut it down. JB is a fan of it but he says that there’s a strong focus on family between them. While DR is not a fan of a romance for Rey in general.

4) Hollywood is just not kind to interracial relationships, specifically ones between a black man and a white woman.

5) The nature of their relationship has been pretty ambiguous thus far. Finn has feelings for Rey but we don’t know how Rey feels about Finn.

6) Finn is less of a main character than he was before. The story seems much more focused on Rey and Kylo at this point than Finn and Rey’s relationship.

7) Leaks don’t really confirm it.

Now here’s why I think it could happen:

1) J.J apparently set up a relationship story for them in TFA and with him having creative control, he might decide to follow through with it.

2) Contrary to popular belief, the set up is there in both TFA and TLJ. Finn develops a crush on Rey and consistently risks his life for her. Rey may be dealing with her own things, but she always comes back to Finn. The one person that anchors her is Finn. The one person that comes back for her is Finn. The emotional high point and payoff of both their arcs in TLJ is their reunion.

3) LFL and Disney might actually want to do something groundbreaking and different and FinnRey would be a great way to do that.

4) The movie will probably at least acknowledge the feelings that Finn has for Rey, especially if it acknowledges FinnPoe and Reylo. Then again, maybe not.

5) Things are pretty complicated. Outside material confirms that Finn is In fact in love with her (and not Rose).

6) FinnRose isn’t that popular.

7) Interestingly, the marketing being as dubious and shifty as it is leads me to believe that they might just be hiding a romantic development between Finn and Rey, whilst doing it very well in order to avoid spoilers. This is probably a stretch but...what if all of this emphasis on Reylo, Rose, and FinnPoe is just a way to throw the audience for a loop?

8) Chewbacca ships it...

 

The Shakespeare TLJ novel kinda tells Rey's feelings toward Finn

 

So...Finn really is the galaxy’s most eligible bachelor.

I mean, if nothing else you gotta give him credit for that.

 

I don't think FinnRey are going to happen, but I disagree with a number of these points and honestly lately I'm starting to no longer consider it a lost cause. Course, the new material has made me start to think Stormpilot still has a shot too. Anyway, let me point out specifically the points I disagree with and why.

The new lead in material is actually emphasizing Rey and Finn being particularly close again. They're shifting away from keeping them apart. JJ himself has emphasized that they're together in this film. JB has emphasized that. DR has emphasized that.

Reylo and stormpilot being more popular on the internet is actually totally irrelevant to me. All potential Malfoy pairings are more popular on the internet than Harry Potter and Ginny or Ron and Hermione. Captain America and Bucky Barnes are more popular on the internet than Captain America and anyone. Tumblr/Twitter don't, and shouldn't, set studio story parameters. Tumblr/Twitter do not represent the mainstream audience. They represent a niche group of obsessed fans. Mainstream audiences would be confused as hell if suddenly Malfoy and Hermione were married or dating in a new Harry Potter or if suddenly Steve and Bucky confessed their romantic love for each other. Hell, Hux and Kylo are more popular than Stormpilot on tumblr and twitter and I'm pretty sure they're not happening either.

Moreover, this isn't the case with stormpilot, but reylo is equally hated on tumblr and twitter, and as far as I can tell with mainstream audiences, it's a non-entity and lots of people think it sounds weird and gross and out of left field when it's presented as an option to them. Meaning, it would be bad for the sequel trilogy, not just surprising, imo.

Finally, after TFA, critics and mainstream audiences specifically loved Rey and Finn and their chemistry. It wasn't until the shipping/fan fiction crowds started being super vocal that attention shifted away from them. Most people, by a crazy amount, are not hardcore shippers or into fanfic.

I think this is overstated. Neither has shut it down that I've seen since the RoS promotions. They're just being vague.

This one I agree with, but it makes LF look super pathetic that TFA at the very least hinted at FinnRey just to backtrack. I predict that if RoS really does go with reylo and Finn and Rey solidly friendzoned, people will really start criticizing LF on this. I've already started seeing more mainstream acknowledgement of it, and I know with my casual fan family, they still think if there's any romance in this trilogy, it's FinnRey.

Finn's feelings aren't ambiguous and Rey hasn't had characterization enough to state how she feels about hardly anything. Still, the emotional payoff of TLJ was that hug. The intimacy, in terms of consent and affection, of this trilogy is between these two. In any normal franchise, FinnRey with their buildup would be the obvious romance for the third film to pay off.

Actually the new material seems to be emphasizing that Finn is the closest person to Rey. Poe feels left out by the intimacy of their relationship. She doesn't trust anyone like she trusts Finn. Rey and Kylo don't have a relationship. Rey hates him. Kylo is stalking her and trying to murder her friends.

Leaks don't confirm anything. This doesn't cut any more against FinnRey than it does any pairing.

I think FinnRose is dead, kaput. That passage in the lead in book has Finn stating affirmatively that he and Rose talked and it's not happening, period. I think they've gone with Rose having a one sided crush, and it pains and irritates me. No reason for that.

 

Finn and Rey for sure. Rose was sweet but a bit of a stalker.

 

I just already had my hopes up for Finn and Rey and a new love interest was annoying. I would never believe Finn would suddenly care for another woman so soon after meeting Rey.

I like Rose just fine, but she was a bit boring and clingy.

 

This is it exactly....he wasn't interested in Finn and it shows. He can claim he enjoyed writing for Finn all he wants in interviews but the truth is on the big screen and even in his own words and actions. The fact he did't want to write Finn and Poe on adventures or Finn telling Rose about the death of her sisters says a lot to me. Heck he even cut out the scene where Finn comes to a decision after seeing that Rey kissed him. RJ KNOWS Finn and Rey care for one another...it's probably why he begrudgingly had them hug at the end of TLJ and why he kept Finn far away from Rey during that same film.

Well, congrats RJ, you left a mess just like you said you would and now everyone else has to try and clean up after you and wrangle some kind of sensible ending out of this gordian knot.

 

It's called lust.

Then they are perfectly suited.

 

It's called "bad writing".

 

Wouldn't be the first or only time they hinted at something for Finn just to pull the rug out with no explanation.

 

Booooo.

 

Why would it be so important to Johnson to move Finn away from Rey? Why was this so important to him?

 

Because Kylo can't compete

 

Unironically, yes this is what I think. It's not just a coincidence that when you hear reylo shippers describe "Ben", he actually bizarrely sounds a lot more like Finn than the Kylo in the films. Finn is the character the whole reylo concept needs "Ben" to be, and yet narratively, we already have Finn. Ergo, RJ had to remove him completely from Rey's story.

 

Man I’m really out of touch. I had to google the word stormpilot.

 

I wasn't being ironic.

 

Because Finn (and more or less everyone else) is not part of the 'Force Arc'.

And before anyone starts with 'Well JJ has put them all together to save the trilogy' consider what we know so far. There's the lines from the trailer where Rey says she goes alone and someone replies 'no, it's too dangerous, we go together' yet whenever danger threatens Rey goes off alone.

Pasaana, Kylo's Stardestroyer, Kef Bir and the final act on Exogol - Rey is off alone doing her Force stuff.

And it has been that way for all the movies - Qui-Gon Jinn - "We'll handle this."

 

It should be with Rey. It will be with Rose.

 

@Lordban? Posting outside of the JCC?