ST Were you disappointed that Rey and Finn's relationship never became anything romantic?

I don't know about 'dyad', but that's the relationship (of the new characters) I'd have liked to have seen developed the most. I thought the actors had good chemistry and that seemed to be where TFA was headed... Saying that, clearly if this had been Abrams objective, he was in a position to develop and resolve that relationship in TROS, which he never did... so I can only assume that he never intended to develop the relationship beyond what we see in TFA i.e. an unrequainted love kind of thing... which IMO, doesn't serve either character particularly well.

 

Correct - TFA setup Fin-Rey about as well as you could have. Then, at least early on in Last Jedi we get some reference to it as one of the first things Fin asks after Poe starts to get him out of the medical suit thing is "Where's Rey?". That means she is one of the major things on Fin's mind. Good. I liked that. He also ends up with the tracker watch when it fell off Leias wrist. He then proceeds to try and sneak away to connect again with Rey. Then, ugh.... Rose blows that up. . From there, the entire "plotline" of Fin-Rey is now mostly vaporized. Much later in the film when Rey leaves Luke she mentions to Chewie that if he sees Fin to tell him *Chewie grunts something* and she says "Yes, tell him that". We never know what that is. After that? Its over. Done. Balloon popped. Doesnt work for me.

 

TFA didn't set up a romance between Finn and Rey. Finn was a bumbling sidekick and Rey was not interested in him romantically. They were shown as good friends in TFA.

 

This isn't true. No matter how much you insist that Finn is a bumbling sidekick. As if 'bumbling' isn't a quality a main character could ever have, but that's besides the point. In TFA there is a romantic angle. A small one. Or at least a potential one. Finn asks Rey if she has a boyfriend. It's obvious that he likes her romantically. And Rey kisses his forehead when he's in a coma after defending her. Which could be argued is the same level romance as she kisses Ben in TROS, but that usually never is seen the same way.

When I came out of TFA I was actually surprised she kissed him. Because unfortunately in this country, and in many other's, for whatever dumb reasons Hollywood still views interracial relationships as a taboo. We just don't tend to get them very often. So it was a welcome surprise, even if it went nowhere.

Just because later writers have no interest in Finn, or need to keep him as far away from Rey as possible so he doesn't ruin the writer's preferred protagonist - ya know, the villain the story - doesn't mean Finn is just a sidekick or there wasn't any romantic possibilities in TFA.

 

Yep I'd agree... Whilst a Finn/Rey romance isn't a certainty in TFA, it's most definitely set up as an option to develop going forwards. Or, as I mentioned earlier, it's just an unrequited love thing... but clearly Finn thinks of Rey as a potential love interest.

 

Finn was interested in Rey but Rey wasn't interested in him.
A kiss on the forehead of an unconscious guy is not a romantic kiss lol. She kisses Ben on the lips, not on the forehead.

There was no romantic from Rey's side in TFA. Finn was obsessed with her but she just saw him as his friend. They were just good friends in TFA.

 

Still a romantic angle that the next writer could have built upon where Rey does see him romantically.

Instead we got Reylo, where Rey feels romance for the guy who wants to murder her, her friends, and his own family.

If Rey could be written from hating Kylo to wanting to date him, the same could have happened with the other main character Finn.

You can’t have it both ways.

 

No. There was no romantic angle in TFA. They were friends and that's it.

Reylo was the most popular pairing after TFA came out. People said there was tension between Rey and Kylo in their scenes.

The ending fight between Rey and Kylo when they stare into each other's eyes has romantic tension.

 

Bwahahaha.

Sorry. No. You’re trying ti have it both ways. And it doesn’t matter what ship was ‘most popular’. I never even heard of Reylo until after TLJ, And I was here the entire time.

And yeah. The final battle in TFA has tension alright. One where an evil psycho is trying his best to kill our heroes, Rey and Finn.

To insist that Rey finds torture and being killed “romantic tension” is quite something alright.

 

forming a friendship is the foundation of any good romance

 

I agree that Finn and Rey are just friends in the Force Awakens. However, there are absolutely no romantic tension between Rey and Kylo Ren; that is objectively incorrect.

Spoiler: Gifs

Rey closes her eyes for a long beat. When Rey opens them, she is centered, fortified, and she POUNDS BACK, SINGLE HANDED SWIPES, hitting Ren's gnarly, spitting saber with incredible FORCE. It's so fast now, so furious, that Kylo Ren FALLS BACK -- She ATTACKS HARDER!
Ren gets up again but she HITS HIS SABER'S HILT -- HIS BLADE GOES FLYING OFF, TUMBLING INTO THE SNOW -- and she SLASHES

AGAIN AND AGAIN AND HITS KYLO REN SQUARE IN THE HEAD AND CHEST. HE GOES DOWN, SUDDENLY A FEARFUL MAN, A LARGE BURN SCAR SLASHED ACROSS HIS FACE! He still reaches for his saber.
And she could kill him -- right now, with ONE VICIOUS STRIKE! But she stops. Realizing she stands on a greater edge than even the cliff -- the edge of the dark side. The earth SHAKES. The earth splits. A gully forms.

Source: https://imsdb.com/scripts/Star-Wars-The-Force-Awakens.html

EDIT: And just for the sake of addressing it, according to AO3's Top 20, the Star Wars ship that produced the most fanfiction content in 2016 was "Kylux" which is a pairing of Hux and Kylo Ren. In fact, it apparently wasn't until 2019 that Kylux stopped being the most popular ship on AO3, now coming in second after "Reylo"
Source: AO3 Ship Stats 2016 - Fanlore
Source: I'm back - AO3 stats for Star Wars pairings - September the 18th, 2019 (tumblr.com)

So, really, if we're going by popularity, Hux and Kylo Ren should have been in a romance, not Rey and Kylo Ren.

 

I see ST fans continually deflect criticism by saying these movies were made for 8-10 year olds. I really would love to see what 8-10 year olds thought Rey's glances towards Kylo Ren during the final battle of TFA were ... romantic in nature. Because that's not how it reads at all. It reads as Rey learning to resist his calls to go dark side. And the "dark side", here, isn't another word for 'dating a Sith wannabe'. Even if some older fans wish as hard as they can to see that.

You can't say that torture and murder are preludes to romance, and then say "Finn was JUST a friend, nothing more", as if friendship never leads to romance.

 

It isn't seen in the same way because a long kiss on the lips isn't really the same as getting a peck on the forehead, which is something your mom or granny might give you, not a potential love interest.

Actually people can, if they point to what actually happens in the trilogy, and not what they wanted to happen.

 

I kiss my wife on the forehead all the time.

But that is still besides the point. Friendship leads to romance way more often than murder and torture does.

 

But it didn't in this trilogy, no matter how many times people insist that it could have, or might have.

 

What happened, and what could have happened are two entirely different things.

The original point of the argument being made was that TFA in no way shape or form, shows any romantic potential between Finn and Rey. It does. It could have if they went in that direction. Friendship is a way more common start to romance than murder and torture.

 

But they didn't go in that direction did they? I see posters keep arguing the point "Yeah but, friendship is the best way to romance!" when people point out that they were only friends. That much is true, but it is also true that Rey and Finn never even got to first base, so the point is moot. They are one of the many, many potential couples whose friendship never blossoms into romance, and they remain good old platonic friends.

You like thinking of alternate plots, write some Finn / Rey romantic fan fiction.

 

Again. That's not the point. The argument is, is that TFA doesn't show ReyFinn potential, because Finn is just a bumbling side character. That's all that's being debated right now.

If TLJ could make Rey fall for the guy who wants to murder her in TFA, then TLjJ could also have had Rey fall the 'bumbling' guy who she's friend with. ReyFinn is just as likely a scenario based on what TFA sets up.

 

Yeah they could have. They could also have had her fall hard for Luke after seeing him slug that green milk in such a manly way, but they didn't go that way either. I don't understand the point of this argument?????

 

The point was that someone up there was insisting that TFA doesn't show any potential romantic story for Rey and Finn, because Finn is just a bumbling side character and just a friend.

That simply isn't true. The potential is there. Friendship can lead to romance. (As you just said) Some of the best ones in fact. Doesn't always. But it can. And it does way more so then murder and torture does. It makes no difference in this argument which one TLJ picked.

 

If the poster is arguing that The Force Awakens doesn't show any potential romantic story for Rey and Finn because Finn is just a bumbling side character and just a friend then the poster is making a statement of what actually transpires, not what could be in some unwritten but hypothetical story arc in a successive chapter (that never comes to pass anyway)

 

No. The original poster is talking about what happens in TFA and what it potentially sets up and what it does not. Saying that there's no way ReyFinn is set up, because Finn is a bumbling side character and just a friend in TFA.

The argument has nothing to do with later movies or what came about.

 

And the poster is correct, The Force Awakens doesn't potentially set up any romance, Finn is something of a bumbling character and he remains just Rey's friend.

For that premise to be false, Rey and Finn would have had to become romantically involved in later episodes, but they never do.