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Doing Talking

Rose, Finn, and redefining the hero

Star Wars: Episode VIII—The Last Jedi

Writer: Rian Johnson

Director: Rian Johnson

One was a freshly minted hero of the Resistance who had never wanted to be one. The other wanted to believe in heroes when she was about to become one herself. The journey of Finn and Rose is really about finding yourself and becoming something bigger than you thought you could be. It’s about stepping out beyond your self-imposed limitations and finding the strength you believed you lacked. It’s about being forged by fire and emerging as something new. And this big journey begins in the most wonderfully small way. Finn and Rose meet as a hero running away and an awkward flight tech crying alone. From there, they become the new core of the modern rebellion.

Stormtrooper FN-2187 didn’t become Finn of the Resistance because he wanted to save the galaxy. Initially, Finn wanted to save himself. Once a prized cadet of the First Order, he showed early signs of being uncomfortable with the idea of being a faceless blunt weapon of the organization. (Perhaps that led to his time as a janitor. Afraid to shoot? Clean a latrine!) His first taste of battle left him shattered and unable to carry out his duties. Finn’s half-cocked crazy plan to spring Poe Dameron from the Star Destroyer Finalizer was based on fear of being found out, not on some overwhelming change in morals. He was running away.

It was while running away that Finn made his connection with Rey, his second, more powerful motivation. While his devotion to Rey was admirable and the key step in moving him closer to the better person he would eventually become, Finn’s desires remained selfish and reckless. His plan to return to Starkiller Base and knowledge of how to take it down isn’t a lie. In fact, it works, but the hail mary pass to win the game puts every member of the Resistance at risk and, as Han points out, the entire galaxy as well. And that hadn’t occurred to Finn. They’d just wave their hands around and use the Force…or something. All that mattered to him was saving Rey. When he meets Rose, Finn still has a one-track mind. “Where’s Rey?” he demands to know, and he is prepared to leave the Resistance…again.

Rose Tico was always about others. She and her sister Paige joined up to fight the First Order because they experienced firsthand what they did to their planet and people. Though tremendously smart and technically inclined, Rose was a worker bee. She accepted a smaller role, quietly serving the greater good in her drab engineer garb while looking up to others. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, mind you, just that Rose was meant for more.

Her sister, serving in a similar fashion as a simple bomber gunner, died serving others. They both looked up to Finn. His accomplishments, though true and important, had grown beyond the reality of what he was. So, when lil’ Rose Tico stumbles through her introduction to Finn, engagingly proclaiming that “doing talking” is tough for her, we’re introduced to a brand-new kind of Star Wars hero: the “every person” capable of changing the course of history.

The meeting of Rose and Finn is a deliciously layered moment. Finn is immediately faced with the raw emotions of someone grieving. Rose has lost her sister. That itself scares Finn almost as much as the arrival of Snoke’s First Order flagship. (By the way, in his haste to rescue Rey and leave, Finn fails to alert the Resistance of the Supremacy and other First Order toys. That’s how focused on himself he is.) Finn knows he’s a fraud and fears being found out. Hell, even the late, great Han Solo told him that he would be found out back on Takodana. Rose is immediately faced with the inspirational image of a true hero. In a short amount of time, the actions of Finn have already been packaged up as myth within the ranks of the Resistance. Finn—or the Finn as Rose says—helps Rose make sense of Paige’s death. At least, she thinks so in the first few moments. But never meet your heroes! Rose quickly sees that true image of a frightened man.

Finn is found out and Rose doesn’t hesitate to do her duties. In a moment, the idea of hero has been redefined for Rose Tico…and for us as well. Finn, thankfully, will soon learn as well. Rose keeps him from deserting, altering both of their lives in the process. It’s a small beginning. Doing talking might not be Rose’s strength, but fortunately she and Finn are meant for so much more.