Star Wars The Force Awakens [SPOILERS] Thread: SPOILERS

[Dr. Narcisse]

No offense but screw your hopes. This happens soooo many times in manga series I read where the fanbase will create their own narrative of what something is/should be and build up absurd expectations, so that when the actual thing comes they'll be dissapointed and take it out on the character or say the mangaka is trying to shyt on said characters when really you just built this up to disappoint yourself.
What do you mean by "not as heroic as we were lead to believe", I'm legitimately confused. Like what do you actually believe, other than the Jedi thing, that the trailers were leading you to believe about Finn's character that the movie pulled the rug out from under you on, and did you think or want them to give you a full picture of the character?

I admit that I'm biased in this, because despite being black, growing up I never felt any way about racial representation in the media (though I have argued with people that race and gender based representation is very important for children and know that it's proven in academia) and still don't so I have that disconnect that may lead to me being wrongly dismissive.
In fact I just had a discussion over this the other day in relation to an absurd amount of Harry Potter fans, black and white, arguing that book Hermione is a black girl or changing the way they always imagined her to a black girl, and I tried to be understanding but I don't get why people feel so strongly about it, well I get it, but it doesn't resonate with me.
(I support increasing racial diversity in new films like in this star wars, comic adaptations, and other thing's)
So when I see Finn I don't have this added massive weight where he has this expectation to live up to as a black man, but everything about him is just great in my mind no matter how hard I try to scrutinize him.
He's exactly the type of character Ive fallen in love with in my favorite series in archetype, and if I was a kid watching this movie he'd be my favorite just like he is now, and I don't see why black kids wouldn't admire him.
All this racial imagery that people are finding isn't racial imagery imo, I think people like Tariq are being hypersensitive about the movie and want to find aspects of Finn and Finn and Rey's relationship they can complain about.
The only thing I can buy, though it's not really in film imagery, is white female representation being made into a priority over black male representation.
I guess Finn should have just been Denzel-lite.

No offense, but screw your thoughts about my or others hopes
We agree to disagree

 

[Dr. Narcisse]

Mace windu existed there was a black Jedi

The point was that younger kids wanted to see a movie (good one) where the black lead character was a Jedi.

He could still end up being one as dude tweeted. Especially as he stated maybe Rey is just more advanced right now. But since its not definitive a lot of kids are assuming that it's not to be in the current set up of movies.

We'll see though. It would be interesting if Finn is just a late bloomer and Rey is being tempted by Kylo to join her.

 

[Soymuscle Mike]

Mace was imo a great character, he was on par with Yoda and made decisions without needing anyone's approval. He's also the only Jedi to legit defeat the Emperor (confirmed twice by George because fans wouldn't accept it).

He was established as of Episode I though, plus he was old. So while I'm not as anti-Finn as some of the brethren, bringing up Mace doesn't justify weakening Finn.

I think most stuff was fine, the lying/hesitance etc. Sanitation imo crossed the line a bit, maybe I'm too sensitive but they could've come up with sth else "funny".

It's telling that NONE of those racists who were complaining are still yapping, they all looked at the movie now and seem to be ok with how the black guy was portrayed

 

[Miggs]

Mace was imo a great character, he was on par with Yoda and made decisions without needing anyone's approval. He's also the only Jedi to legit defeat the Emperor (confirmed twice by George because fans wouldn't accept it).

He was established as of Episode I though, plus he was old. So while I'm not as anti-Finn as some of the brethren, bringing up Mace doesn't justify weakening Finn.

I think most stuff was fine, the lying/hesitance etc. Sanitation imo crossed the line a bit, maybe I'm too sensitive but they could've come up with sth else "funny".

It's telling that NONE of those racists who were complaining are still yapping, they all looked at the movie now and seem to be ok with how the black guy was portrayed

What was the other team he fought Palps ?

 

[StretfordRed]

I came to this thread to read about the whole movie after having to put up with BS arguments about Finn being emasculated in a thread in LSA. But I come here and it's the saaaaame shyt...disappointed

 

[Mike Otherz]

one scene i had forgotten about but remembered while reading through this thread, is when rey was fixing some shyt in their spacecraft early on, and was telling finn to pass some shyt like a space screwdriver and that dude couldnt even competently do that right. its bad enough he is not a jedi or warrior, but they really wanted to push home the point that this dude was borderline useless and possibly a burden to that white girl .

 

[Supa]

If only we would have just agreed with what they said

If only we just abandoned our viewpoint because they didn't like it

Yeah they can get out of here with that crying. I said the reaction was overblown but I could understand being upset and they wasn't even having that

They trying to get people to apologize for wanting a black lead that fits and follows the basic hero outline the other two were afforded.

One of the kickers was when one of them saying the racists were just trolling

I'm cool with analysis but people are blatantly repeating mistakes in their arguments after they've been corrected or using faulty logic. The "just a janitor" argument should have never been made. "The black character can't fly ships" should have been obvious by looking at his uniform. "Why does the black character not know what tool Rey's asking for?" He's not a pilot and therefore doesn't know how to repair ships. "Why did he pop up, sweating and looking scared?" He just crash landed in the desert. They missed obvious plot points because they were too busy over analyzing every word/action Finn took. Then they'll blatantly ignore the intelligence he displayed.

Overall I was happy with Finn (I had my issues) but Hollywood is rarely going to portray a black character in a completely satisfactory manner. Knowing this people wanted a perfect potrayal. Finn should be an ace pilot/jedi knight/ladies man in the first movie. Then we have a small segment who probably don't like any black characters they see (the Tariq Nasheed, "why Denzel gotta play a crooked cop", everybody is a c00n crowd). Combine all this and we're getting Finn critique non stop.

No offense but screw your hopes. This happens soooo many times in manga series I read where the fanbase will create their own narrative of what something is/should be and build up absurd expectations, so that when the actual thing comes they'll be dissapointed and take it out on the character or say the mangaka is trying to shyt on said characters when really you just built this up to disappoint yourself.
What do you mean by "not as heroic as we were lead to believe", I'm legitimately confused. Like what do you actually believe, other than the Jedi thing, that the trailers were leading you to believe about Finn's character that the movie pulled the rug out from under you on, and did you think or want them to give you a full picture of the character?

I admit that I'm biased in this, because despite being black, growing up I never felt any way about racial representation in the media (though I have argued with people that race and gender based representation is very important for children and know that it's proven in academia) and still don't so I have that disconnect that may lead to me being wrongly dismissive.
In fact I just had a discussion over this the other day in relation to an absurd amount of Harry Potter fans, black and white, arguing that book Hermione is a black girl or changing the way they always imagined her to a black girl, and I tried to be understanding but I don't get why people feel so strongly about it, well I get it, but it doesn't resonate with me.
(I support increasing racial diversity in new films like in this star wars, comic adaptations, and other thing's)
So when I see Finn I don't have this added massive weight where he has this expectation to live up to as a black man, but everything about him is just great in my mind no matter how hard I try to scrutinize him.
He's exactly the type of character Ive fallen in love with in my favorite series in archetype, and if I was a kid watching this movie he'd be my favorite just like he is now, and I don't see why black kids wouldn't admire him.
All this racial imagery that people are finding isn't racial imagery imo, I think people like Tariq are being hypersensitive about the movie and want to find aspects of Finn and Finn and Rey's relationship they can complain about.
The only thing I can buy, though it's not really in film imagery, is white female representation being made into a priority over black male representation.
I guess Finn should have just been Denzel-lite.

I wanted to mention manga but I figured most people here don't read it. Finn is a straight up Shonen manga archetype and that's why I connected to his character. He was familiar. As the brother explained in the tweets above, Hollywood doesn't do long journeys with the hero. That's what manga does. You start small, show potential, make mistakes, and earn the hero title. They always have contrast with a born genius, overpowered ally (Finn and Rey = Naruto and Sasuke). You always connect to the character who struggles more.

 

[Supa]

one scene i had forgotten about but remembered while reading through this thread, is when rey was fixing some shyt in their spacecraft early on, and was telling finn to pass some shyt like a space screwdriver and that dude couldnt even competently do that right. its bad enough he is not a jedi or warrior, but they really wanted to push home the point that this dude was borderline useless and possibly a burden to that white girl .

Why would you assume he knows how to repair ships and why would you think less of him for not knowing about a random tool?

Did you think less of Rey for not knowing that Tie Fighters can't track ships flying low to the ground?

Did you think less of Rey for not knowing that Storm Trooper helmets can't block toxins?

Did you think less of Rey for not knowing what the beasts on Han's ship were when Finn did?

So they both shared knowledge that the other was ignorant to. The knowledge coincided with their life experiences yet somehow you view the black man as a "useless burden" to his white companion. You've been conditioned

 

[Hypris]

I was hoping to see more of Luke. Guess we'll have to wait for that Luke and Rey training arc. Not that she needs much training...She seems like a pretty good jedi already.

 

[jwinfield]

Why would you assume he knows how to repair ships and why would you think less of him for not knowing about a random tool?

Did you think less of Rey for not knowing that Tie Fighters can't track ships flying low to the ground?

Did you think less of Rey for not knowing that Storm Trooper helmets can't block toxins?

Did you think less of Rey for not knowing what the beasts on Han's ship were when Finn did?

So they both shared knowledge that the other was ignorant to. The knowledge coincided with their life experiences yet somehow you view the black man as a "useless burden" to his white companion. You've been conditioned

Apparently, not knowing how to fix a ship makes him useless even though that scene occurred right after he took out a few tie fighters for the second time in the movie.

 

[Manuel Hot Pepper Lopez]

Apparently, not knowing how to fix a ship makes him useless even though that scene occurred right after he took out a few tie fighters for the second time in the movie.

Why would you assume he knows how to repair ships and why would you think less of him for not knowing about a random tool?

Did you think less of Rey for not knowing that Tie Fighters can't track ships flying low to the ground?

Did you think less of Rey for not knowing that Storm Trooper helmets can't block toxins?

Did you think less of Rey for not knowing what the beasts on Han's ship were when Finn did?

So they both shared knowledge that the other was ignorant to. The knowledge coincided with their life experiences yet somehow you view the black man as a "useless burden" to his white companion. You've been conditioned

great points here.....but the nikkas that are locked into complain mode are going to ignore and still look for injustice in the Finn character

 

[StretfordRed]

great points here.....but the nikkas that are locked into complain mode are going to ignore and still look for injustice in the Finn character

I went a few hours going back and forth in another thread.

They even tried to say his Stormtrooper ID (FN2178) meant Field ****** to 187

I thought they were trolling, but some people are just genuinely dense.

 

[Supa]

Apparently, not knowing how to fix a ship makes him useless even though that scene occurred right after he took out a few tie fighters for the second time in the movie.

Only seeing the negative in a black person...these brothers are so lost in their conditioning they don't even know it. Sounding like some white supremacists their damn selves

We see examples of this everywhere. Gabby Douglas wins gold at the Olympics and there's a huge controversy because some black women didn't think her hair was done right. We'll skip past your achievement because your hair wasn't up to white standards. Finn didn't know what a white character knew so he's obviously dumb. Let's completely ignore the white character's intellectual shortcomings though.

Inferiority complex

 

[Manuel Hot Pepper Lopez]

I went a few hours going back and forth in another thread.

They even tried to say his Stormtrooper ID (FN2178) meant Field ****** to 187

I thought they were trolling, but some people are just genuinely dense.

 

[Mowgli]

He's dropped some gems about Star Wars thats opened my eyes a bit

Look to the white man to build your childrens self esteem bruhs.