Finn as a cult survivor
One of the criticisms Finn's writing has received is that he recovers too quickly from a lifetime of brainwashing by the First Order, and is overall written as too well-adjusted to be a victim of lifelong abuse.
It would take too much space to go into all of the ways Finn is still visibly traumatized in TFA and also TLJ, but I'd like to focus on one way that Finn has emphatically not recovered with lightning speed from brainwashing: The major moment in TFA that can be interpreted as Finn showing cult survivor behavior, that is, his speech to Maz and the others that there is no fighting back against the First Order and they all have to run.
In the comment that inspired this post,
aniustaluwis excerpted a passage from Combatting Cult Mind Control that talked about the duality that can take place in cult members:
[W]hen dealing with a cult member, it is extremely important to always keep in mind that he has two identities. . . . One moment the person is speaking in cultic jargon with a hostile or elitist know-it-all attitude. Then, without warning, he seems to become become his old self . . .
Compare this to some of Finn's lines in the cantina scene:
There is no fight against the First Order! Not one we can win.
You don't know the First Order like I do. They'll slaughter us. We all need to run.
To be sure Finn is speaking here as a former member of First Order, not a current one--but the certainty of the First Order's invincibility is very much a part of him in this early period of his escape, even if his conviction in it as a force for good no longer is. Cults are frequently about certainty in an uncertain world, and he shows that in spades here, though as a person who is caught on the wrong side of that certainty.
Not only can the audience see this shift in gear, the characters can see it too. Look at Rey's reaction here. She and Han both give Finn a look when he starts talking in this way, indicating they've noticed a change in his behavior. While Han is too jaded/experienced to show much consternation, Rey is increasingly agitated at Finn's change in demeanor and shows it.
To be sure part of her shock and upset is because she still thought of him as a Resistance fighter at this point, but the thing is, he was so convincing to her in that assumed role. He had been brave and skilled in fighting and running from the First Order, yet still showed caring and compassion. He was good at thinking on his feet and never gave up even in impossible situations. There had been nothing to suggest that he was, at heart, despairing of the fight and so certain of the First Order's victory.
Yet here he was, telling her with eerie certainty that the fight was hopeless and they all needed to run to save themselves. It must have seemed like the guy she got to know and had fallen for in such a short time had turned into a completely different person.
Even Maz comments on the change, if you take the novelization into account. After Finn's first outburst about the futility of fighting the First Order, she says:
I'm looking at the eyes of a man who wants to run.
In Chapter XIII of the novelization after Kylo Ren took Rey, however, she says:
Oh wow... I see something else now. I see the eyes of a warrior
This passage also describes Finn out of breath, tears glistening on his cheeks as he gasps to Han, "He took her!" I am going to die of the feels right now thanks
These reactions and lines of dialogue strengthen the case that Finn's pivot from a kind of calm despair back to a willingness to fight isn't inconsistent writing, but rather symptomatic of his being a survivor of the mind control cult that First Order indoctrination was for Stormtroopers like him.
Dreamwidth entry URL: https://lj-writes.dreamwidth.org/2019/02/07/finn-cult.html
It would take too much space to go into all of the ways Finn is still visibly traumatized in TFA and also TLJ, but I'd like to focus on one way that Finn has emphatically not recovered with lightning speed from brainwashing: The major moment in TFA that can be interpreted as Finn showing cult survivor behavior, that is, his speech to Maz and the others that there is no fighting back against the First Order and they all have to run.
In the comment that inspired this post,
aniustaluwis excerpted a passage from Combatting Cult Mind Control that talked about the duality that can take place in cult members:
[W]hen dealing with a cult member, it is extremely important to always keep in mind that he has two identities. . . . One moment the person is speaking in cultic jargon with a hostile or elitist know-it-all attitude. Then, without warning, he seems to become become his old self . . .
Compare this to some of Finn's lines in the cantina scene:
There is no fight against the First Order! Not one we can win.
You don't know the First Order like I do. They'll slaughter us. We all need to run.
To be sure Finn is speaking here as a former member of First Order, not a current one--but the certainty of the First Order's invincibility is very much a part of him in this early period of his escape, even if his conviction in it as a force for good no longer is. Cults are frequently about certainty in an uncertain world, and he shows that in spades here, though as a person who is caught on the wrong side of that certainty.
Not only can the audience see this shift in gear, the characters can see it too. Look at Rey's reaction here. She and Han both give Finn a look when he starts talking in this way, indicating they've noticed a change in his behavior. While Han is too jaded/experienced to show much consternation, Rey is increasingly agitated at Finn's change in demeanor and shows it.
To be sure part of her shock and upset is because she still thought of him as a Resistance fighter at this point, but the thing is, he was so convincing to her in that assumed role. He had been brave and skilled in fighting and running from the First Order, yet still showed caring and compassion. He was good at thinking on his feet and never gave up even in impossible situations. There had been nothing to suggest that he was, at heart, despairing of the fight and so certain of the First Order's victory.
Yet here he was, telling her with eerie certainty that the fight was hopeless and they all needed to run to save themselves. It must have seemed like the guy she got to know and had fallen for in such a short time had turned into a completely different person.
Even Maz comments on the change, if you take the novelization into account. After Finn's first outburst about the futility of fighting the First Order, she says:
I'm looking at the eyes of a man who wants to run.
In Chapter XIII of the novelization after Kylo Ren took Rey, however, she says:
Oh wow... I see something else now. I see the eyes of a warrior
This passage also describes Finn out of breath, tears glistening on his cheeks as he gasps to Han, "He took her!" I am going to die of the feels right now thanks
These reactions and lines of dialogue strengthen the case that Finn's pivot from a kind of calm despair back to a willingness to fight isn't inconsistent writing, but rather symptomatic of his being a survivor of the mind control cult that First Order indoctrination was for Stormtroopers like him.
Dreamwidth entry URL: https://lj-writes.dreamwidth.org/2019/02/07/finn-cult.html