‘Star Wars’: Some Fans Say Their Favorite Finn Moment Is Hard to Swallow Now
John Boyega recently expressed disappointment with how his character Finn was handled in the Star Wars sequels.
There’s no question that Disney didn’t quite capitalize on the charismatic actor’s ability as a performer as well as they could have.
There’s one Finn scene in particular that one fan liked, but that is harder to reconcile in light of Boyega’s comments. Let’s take a closer look at exactly which scene that is.
Finn’s role in ‘The Force Awakens’
In The Force Awakens, Finn starts as a disgruntled stormtrooper looking to escape his life of servitude to the evil First Order. After freeing Poe Dameron, he joins up with Rey and helps her in her quest to find Luke Skywalker.
Eventually, the two end up at Starkiller Base, and after witnessing the murder of Han Solo, engage Kylo Ren in combat.
Finn comes into possession of Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber and briefly duels Kylo before being overpowered. It appears as if the film is foreshadowing Finn’s future role as a Jedi.
After all, non-Jedi characters rarely use lightsabers (outside of Han using one to slice open a tauntaun on Hoth to provide shelter for a freezing Luke Skywalker).
Finn’s lightsaber use would be an outlier, however.
How Finn’s character develops from Episode VII to Episode IX
Finn begins the series as a reformed stormtrooper. In The Last Jedi, his goal is to find Rey. He eventually becomes a willing member of the Resistance. In The Rise of Skywalker, he helps take down Palpatine’s Final Order while realizing he is Force-sensitive.
While he starts out as a major part of the action, Finn is reduced to something of a side character by the last two films. His time on screen is short-changed in order to dedicate time to Rey and Kylo’s character development. Boyega was outspoken about Disney’s decision to do so. Here was what he told Variety:
“Like, you guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver…You knew what to do with these other people, but when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know, f— all. So what do you want me to say?
What they want you to say is, ‘I enjoyed being a part of it. It was a great experience…’ Nah, nah, nah. I’ll take that deal when it’s a great experience. They gave all the nuance to Adam Driver, all the nuance to Daisy Ridley.”
It’s a fair criticism, especially when The Force Awakens seemed to promise Finn as a major character before his contribution was rolled back in the next film.
Why some fans say their favorite Finn moment is hard to swallow now
A Reddit thread dedicated to discussing Finn’s arc in The Last Jedi expressed multiple viewpoints about his role in that film. Most of the discussion centered on how Finn’s best moment came in his battle against Captain Phasma.
One poster talked about the moment he used the lightsaber in The Force Awakens and how disappointing it ultimately became:
“Him using the lightsaber in The Force Awakens to fight Kylo is easily my second favorite moment but I feel like I can’t appreciate that moment fully knowing it was a bait and switch after all that marketing with him having the saber. I think overall this is a much stronger moment for this character and shows where his motivations lie.”
In light of Boyega’s comments — and the revelation in The Rise of Skywalker that Finn is Force-sensitive — it’s clear that Disney didn’t utilize the character as well as they could have.
If the plan was to make Finn Force-sensitive all along, it would have made more sense to make him a Jedi character like Rey.
Teasing fans with Finn’s use of the lightsaber seemed to allude to that, so it doesn’t compute why they wouldn’t have gone in that direction.
