Unfortunately, this didn’t come to fruition in the way that was set up, with The Last Jedi going in a different direction with Finn’s character and offering no progression to a potential Jedi plot line. Rian Johnson’s film gave him an arc and character development, but the same can’t be said of The Rise of Skywalker. The conclusion of the Sequel Trilogy and the Skywalker Saga was so packed that it didn’t seem to have time to further develop many of its characters. Ultimately, the conclusion of the latest Star Wars trilogy didn’t do Finn justice in the way the character deserves.
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In The Force Awakens, Finn’s arc mirrored Han Solo’s journey in the first Star Wars film, A New Hope. Finn was a stormtrooper who rebelled after refusing to kill villagers on Jakku, and escaped the First Order with Poe Dameron. He developed a relationship with Rey, a scavenger on the desert planet, and became loyal to her rather than the larger Resistance. He even said as much to Han Solo himself, making it clear that he wasn’t on Starkiller Base to help the Resistance, and was only there to rescue Rey from captivity. However, he eventually garnered more loyalty to the Resistance towards the end of the film, and helped to save the day as he battled Kylo Ren.
This is similar to Han Solo in A New Hope. He initially went with Luke and Obi-Wan because of the promise of money, but eventually came back to help the Rebellion in the final moments. Much like Solo’s arc, Finn’s development in The Force Awakens ranks as one of the best journeys of any character in the franchise. Not only was Finn excellent in this film, but the promise of more to come made fans eager for his journey to continue.
Finn had a different story in The Last Jedi than many expected, with the whole film in general subverting expectations with many surprises and reveals. Instead of a progression of the Force teases, Finn became much more like Poe Dameron: a Resistance fighter with added abilities, much like Rey or Luke. Still, there was clear development for Finn in this film in a way that again mirrored Han Solo. Finn was loyal only to Rey at first again in this film, but his feelings for the Resistance were solidified at the Battle of Crait.
The Rise of Skywalker harkened back to many of the plots and ideas of The Force Awakens, backtracking on some reveals of the second film in the trilogy, such as Rey’s parentage. Finn, who behaved slightly differently as a character in The Last Jedi, became more upbeat and lighthearted after being more serious in the previous outing. He was given a cool new hairstyle and an amazing new outfit, and it seemed like John Boyega’s character was going to be a standout of the film.
Unfortunately, Finn didn’t have as much of an impact on the story as he should have. Despite substantial screen time, it’s hard to determine what Finn’s arc was meant to be in The Rise of Skywalker. This was much like Poe, whose only real semblance of character development was the addition to his backstory on Kijimi and his becoming more of a leader, the latter of which was essentially a follow-up of something that already came to fruition in The Last Jedi. Finn’s arc in The Last Jedi ultimately seemed to be the crumbs of overt hints to his Force abilities, and a tease that he would become a Jedi after the film was over.
This was perhaps the biggest issue with the conclusion of Finn’s arc in the Sequel Trilogy. One of the most exciting things about his role in The Force Awakens was the tease that he could become a Jedi, and that fans could see his evolution and training in a way they didn’t for Leia, another Force sensitive character whose training was never shown onscreen. Once again, though, Finn’s Jedi potential was only teased and never shown.
The lack of this element came down to a film already too packed full of characters, planets, and more. Palpatine returned, yet his reemergence was never explained, nor were his Sith Fleet and the Final Order. How long the Sith Fleet was in development, the difference between the First Order and the Final Order, how much the Emperor controlled Snoke, and the specifics of how he returned are all questions yet to be answered, years after the film’s release.
The final film also included of many new characters, like Zorii Bliss and Jannah. They were interesting additions that ultimately didn’t have much of an impact on the story, and whose presence could have been cut down or removed in order to focus on existing characters. General Pryde is another one of these new characters, yet he admittedly did serve more of a purpose than some others.
Rey’s parental reveal, that she is the granddaughter of Palpatine, was also part of this confusion. Palpatine having a son in between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, and the journey of that unnamed character and his wife, played by Jodie Comer, was unexplained. How it fits into The Last Jedi’s reveal that Rey’s parents were nobodies is also unclear. The Rise of Skywalker went full steam ahead without syncing up with its predecessor as much as it should have. Rose is another character who suffered alongside Finn, having roughly 90 seconds of screen time in the film. The decision was most likely made creatively, but ultimately came across as if they were trying to appeal to some of the worst of the Star Wars fandom that attacked and abused the actress after The Last Jedi.
Finn did have significantly more screen time than Rose did. However, his presence is largely surface level, and the film fails to capitalize on the Force teases of the previous movies. JJ Abrams, co-writer and director of the film, also had the opportunity to utilize the time jump between Episodes VIII and IX to further Finn even more, perhaps making up for some lost time, as The Last Jedi seemed to backtrack on his Jedi plot line. This didn’t happen, and is one of the reasons why the conclusion didn’t do Finn justice.
If the creators were genuinely firm on their stance to simply tease Finn as a Jedi rather than following through, the issue still remains that he didn’t have a character arc in the final film. However, Abrams had the tools at his disposal, as they filmed but ultimately removed a plot thread that saw Finn rouse the First Order stormtroopers and lead a rebellion, a concept that would have harkened back to his origins in The Force Awakens. It would have done something truly unique with a mainstay part of Star Wars in the form of the evil white armored troopers, and given Finn a worthy peak in his character arc.
Despite all this, the Sequel Trilogy does succeed in many other ways, and deserves credit for its casting of John Boyega and the rest of the new characters. Although Finn didn’t get the conclusion or the payoff that he deserved, he is still a great character and one that could still appear again, either on Disney+ or in a future trilogy.
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