The only thing Kylo is coded as is a villain. Privileged white boy who uses force against others to get what he thinks he’s owned. You want a character that was actually abused and shows signs of being mentally ill? Finn. You want a q-coded character? Poe. Stop projecting into the fascist white dude because you don’t want to relate to two characters of color.
So, a week or so ago I made a post about wanting to learn about Finn’s parentage. Naturally, as with seemingly most posts about Finn that get more than a hundred notes a couple of comments were posted that derailed my post from its original intent.
Sure, some were worse than others, but even the ones that might have been posted with no ill intent still held a similar message: Finn doesn’t need to learn about his parents.
Let’s just ignore the fact that this fandom has been borderline obsessed with Rey’s parentage for over a year now and at no point have I seen anyone say that she doesn’t need to know who her parents are because “She found family in Finn” or whatever because that bit of hypocrisy is a discussion for another post.
No, what this post is going to be about has more to do with why I want Finn to learn about his parents after I got yet another person pleading the case for why Finn doesn’t need parents on that post. Because it actually goes just a bit deeper for me then just wanting Finn to have blood relatives of his own.
You see…I’m black. African American specifically, and like many people who are a part of the African diaspora I don’t know exactly where my ancestors originally hailed from. I don’t know what their culture was like, what religions they practiced, the languages they spoke etc. And being disconnected from that part of my heritage has always kinda left me with a hurt feeling in my chest.
Now let me be clear for a moment and say that black people aren’t a monolith so this thing that I’m describing is not something every black person has experienced or can relate to. I’m just talking about my experiences. But anyway back to my point. Finn getting a chance to meet his parent(s) is more than just him getting reconnected with his blood relatives.
Because if/when Finn meets his parents is the moment he gets to learn about what planet he’s from. What his planet’s culture is like, what language they speak, how they view or practice the Force and a number of other things and experiences that Finn will get a chance to reconnect to.
Finn reconnecting with his planet and his culture after getting ripped away from it when he was young and forced to assimilate into an oppressive and abusive regime would be pretty incredible to see and that’s why Finn meeting his parents is so important to me.
I’m sure your comments on how Finn doesn’t need parents and that Rey and Poe are his family now have good intentions, but they really aren’t needed.
Oh wow. I adore Finn and I’m so happy we’ll be getting more of his story this winter, and yet this never occurred to me.
Very important point.
I love the ‘Finn is actually a long lost prince’ headcanons tbh
Steel Phoenix Studios 