Originally Posted by
Superlad93
Thank you so much for this fantastic and well though out post.
Let me start by saying I myself am a 22 year old black man. The actor who plays Finn is not only my age (23 years old) he's also born to Nigerian parents same as me (fun fact)! The only things that actually separate us are a year in age and he's from London and I'm from the U.S. Other than that I can LITERALLY see myself in that character.
I myself LOVED for the character he was and him looking like me was just a big fat bonus. So I'm a little disappointed when I hear other young black men didn't see the character that they wanted in Finn. But at the same time I can not only appreciate that but I can even sympathize with that to a pretty big degree. If I'm looking at things in the context of just this one film without accounting for the others Finn is a little shortchanged in the department of the fantastic. As I said before he's not a war hero, ace pilot, general, or force prodigy. He's a guy who was throw into a situation bigger than himself.
Objectively I can see why that's not favorable. Why's the character that looks like me the one who's the least capable? Why can't he be a Jedi? Why can't he win a confrontation on his own? Why's there so much that goes into showing the strength and capability of the female character ("the other minority") and not any push to do the same with the character that looks like me? I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel that no matter how small (because in reality I ended up loving him).
He did in fact look like a Jedi with nearly all his promotional work involving a lightsaber. Did you know Samuel L Jackson actually came up to John Boyega (Finn) at a party and said "black Jedi" with joy in his voice? It's pretty clear that a lot of us were (and still are) rooting for this idea. Yes, yes people can throw their "well Han was awesome but he wasn't a Jedi" at me and that's true, but then that's not what it was looking like for Finn. He wasn't presenting himself (in the marketing) as the swashbuckling Han type. He looked like a noob Jedi to be. I think it's pretty fair to say that, right? I mean the last black Jedi we got was an emotionless footnote in the plot and saga. The last black "Han type" we got was the one who gave up our heroes to the bad guys and had to make up for it.
So yeah a black character who has such a unique origin as being and ex stromtrooper becoming a Jedi would be really nice, if I'm being honest. I'm not ashamed to admit that. It's why I gravitate so hard to the idea that he'll be that "there is another" in these movies. It's why I gravitate so hard to the idea that he'll be dual protagonist along with Rey. I don't think it's boring or typical. I don't think it's asking the story to bend over backwards, and I don't think it's a bad idea. I think it actually fits the narrative quite well. Simply because only a Skywalker and an evil dictator has had the force in our original trilogy, I don't see why that has to be the norm from now on. It's not as if every other character in this new trilogy is going to have a lightsaber ala episodes 1-3. IT'S JUST ONE GUY. One guy not named Skywalker. Why is that so far off the table, those in opposition to Finn being a Jedi? Why?
With that said: I still loved Finn in this movie from top to bottom. Set aside me telling you that personal stuff. In fact I didn't want to actually bring that because I didn't want my opinions colored in anyone's mind as "oh he likes Finn just because he's black" because that's not true at all. I just wanted to repay your openness with some of my own. In reality I can and have disliked or flat out despised some black characters just off them being poorly written by standards of any character. But Finn really clicked for me as a character. Remember when I said he's the least fantastic of the bunch? Well I loved that. It made him that much more human. As I've said before in this thread, this movie doesn't work without Finn, period. If he's not there then everyone else remain these monoliths. Some regress to shells of nostalgia that are waiting to be written out. We don't get to see the real human imperfections because those other characters have so much backing them be it power or reputation.
Finn is a new start. He's also the character that we follow the most throughout the movie. Next film I'm hoping that he does wake up a force sensitive and keeps up his dual protagonist role along with Rey for her sake as well as his. If Finn is allowed to be just as much of the hero than it'll allow Rey to have her real moments of humanizing failure, selfishness, fear, and sadness because Finn will be there to pick up the heroic slack just as she was for him in this one.
So yes while I liked--no loved the character as we got him in this movie. I see, want, and appreciate the need for him to show himself as even more. And I'm not talking about becoming a good fighter or whatever. I'm talking about making good on that promotional work and giving you, me, and your 16 year old nephew what we were hoping for. Wouldn't it be the greatest double misdirect to have them promote him as a Jedi, then subvert that and have Rey as the Jedi, then show that he in fact was a Jedi too? I would more than love that.
It's a serialized format ala Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. It's very much about not showing all it's card on the first go and leaving it for the big payoff later once we've reclined back in our seats thinking we know what's good only to fling forward and have our world changed. So hold out hope, and thank you again for replying!