swcreators:

@swcreators​ get to know the members: @jeditico​‘s favorite character → finn

My first battle, I made a choice. I wasn’t gonna kill for them. So I ran.

benknbi:

so be extraordinary (insp)

warinfinities:

F-N, huh? Finn. I’m gonna call you Finn. Is that all right?

captainsaltymuyfancy:

If I see one more person call Finn a selfish coward I’m going to bust every fucking blood vessel in my body.

Since some of you seem to need a reminder, I have compiled a list of all the things Finn has done to help others at personal risk to himself.

I’m dividing up the list by things he did for people he knew and cared about and things he did for people he didn’t know because some folks say that he wasn’t being selfless if he was doing things for people he cared about. I’m going to touch in this later.

Things Finn did for people he knew and cared about:

• He opened himself up to punishment and discipline by helping his squad mates when they fell behind during exercises even though he himself always excelled.
• He ran across the desert in full stormtrooper armor to pull Poe from the TIE fighter wreckage.
• He ran back to warn everyone that the First Order destroyed the Hosnian System and gave up his ride to the Outer Rim.
• He ran straight into the First Order invasion force and fought his former comrades with a weapon he had never used before to protect Rey.
• He took on Kylo Ren with a lightsaber to protect Rey.
• He went looking for Rey to make sure she was okay after just waking up from a coma.
• He ran over to Poe to make sure he was okay when the First Order attacked the Raddus even though he could have just run and hid.
• He chose to leave behind his only other friend and people who trusted and respected him in order to make sure Rey didn’t come back in danger.
• He nearly sacrificed himself to destroy the First Order’s invasion force on Crait and protect Rey and the Resistance.
• He went to Rose’s side and then dragged her across the salt field even though the First Order had walkers and TIEs trained on them and he could have just left her there and saved himself.

Now, some of you say that Finn doesn’t care about anyone he hasn’t bonded with. That he won’t help anyone he doesn’t know or care about. People are saying that only sticking your neck for people who are significant to you is selfish. That not doing everything you can to help everyone you can is selfish. And I get where it’s coming from. Altruism and compassion are respected traits. Altruistic and compassionate actions are admirable.

But you can’t run into the fray to help other people if you yourself aren’t in a stable situation. You have to have a certain kind of privilege to act altruistically, to act selflessly. Privilege of safety, privilege of stability, privilege of health, privilege of resources, etc. Finn had NONE of those things.

How can you expect him to put his life on the line for the Resistance, to do everything in his power to help the galaxy as a whole, when he himself was not yet whole? He was struggling get to safety, to get the person he cared about to safety, to stabilize his life.

How can you demand that he drop everything to serve the greater good when he did not have the material, physical, and psychological resources necessary to have his own life? It’s like criticizing poor people for eating at McDonald’s because they’re giving money to an evil corporation even though it’s all they can afford. You can’t run until you can walk.

And yet he did. He went beyond what someone in his position, someone fleeing an all-powerful regime that was determined to capture and kill him, someone with no money or resources, someone with a life time of abuse and maladaptive social and psychological conditioning, and stuck his neck out to protect people he didn’t know and to serve the greater good.

Things Finn did for people he didn’t know and had no reason to care about:

• He couldn’t bring himself to kill civilians in combat simulations that he knew weren’t real, knowing he would be targeted for it.
• He wouldn’t kill the villagers in Tuanal even though he knew he was opening himself up to punishment.
• He left the First Order because he didn’t want to kill for them. He chose running away from everything he knew, risking torture and death over hurting innocent people.
• He ran to Rey’s defense when she was being attacked by Unkar Plutt’s thugs even though it was in his best interest to avoid conflict altogether and he didn’t know her yet.
• He figured out how to disable the shields to Starkiller Base even though he could have told Han to fuck off as soon as they got there and gone to look for Rey himself.*
• He went off to Canto Bight and then went back to the First Order to stop the First Order from destroying the Resistance.*
• He wanted to go help Luke, who (as far as we know) he never met (or at least didn’t seem to recognize).

*I’ve starred these because I think they’re especially important (and some of my favorite things that Finn has done because I am admittedly a sucker for moral pragmatism). He could have abandoned Han and Chewie once they got to Starkiller Base. He could have tried to make a break for it again after Rose assaulted him on the Raddus. He could have kept Rey’s tracker and made a run for it once they reached Canto Bight.

But he chose to help Han and Chewie shut down the shields, risking his ability to find Rey. He chose to give Rey’s tracker to Poe, risking Rey coming back into a warzone in order to help the Resistance escape the First Order. He put the best interest of the Resistance and the galaxy above the best interest of his friend.

BUT even if he hadn’t done those things, he would still be a good person. Finn was raised in an organization that used torture and abuse to teach that sentient life has no value other than what it offers the First Order. The fact that Finn was capable of caring for anyone at all, let alone putting his life in the line and going to great lengths to protect them, in spite of what he went through, shows how brave and resilient and compassionate he is.

AND by the way, Finn deserves to be selfish. His whole life he was told that his “self” was worthless, that his only value was what he had to offer the First Order. He deserves to look out for himself and protect his own interests.

People are more than their worth or their value. People have value beyond what they can do for others.

Finn is brave. Finn is caring. Finn is kind. Finn is compassionate. Finn is pragmatic. Finn is a good person. Finn is a hero.

jokekeery:

I have something to fight for.

spacetico:

“Back to Jakku?”

enbycupcake:

the son of skywalker must not become a jedi

queeniegoldtsein:

STAR WARS → sequel trilogy characters; finn

“For the first time, I have something to fight for.”