So Finn not dying is both in service of his character arc across these two movies thus far, and of one of the film's most important themes.VinylGuy wrote:which themestip wrote:and finn dying at the end would have undercut one of the major themes of the film
As far as the arc goes, across both films Finn, like Rey, is looking for a home and a place to belong. It's not really about being a hero, since most of what Finn does he does either to help his friends, or to get revenge on those who have wrong him and his friends. He has courage, but he's not a part of something larger than himself. At the end when he's going to sacrifice himself to try and destroy the cannon he's doing so out of spite and revenge. It's not 'I have to save my friends', it's 'I can't let them win'. And the film doesn't give us much in the way of textual support to think that his sacrifice would have destroyed the cannon anyway. He likely wasn't going to make it, or do much to it. The lesson he has to learn is that the best thing you can do to support the people you care about is to live for them (or, if you're going to take risks and sacrfice yourself on their behalf, be clear that you are doing it out of love for them, rather than hatred for what you oppose - this is played out really nicely in Holdo's final sequences, or Obi Wan's death way back in A New Hope). You get that phrasing from Rose in her 'that's how we're gonna win, not by killing what we hate, but saving what we love' line. He also needs to survive that moment to complete his journey - he commits to the rebellion and the idea of being part of something larger than himself while he is on Snoke's ship (culminating in his exchange with Phasma) but he hasn't quite purified himself of the baser and angrier motivations - the desire to lash out and seek revenge.
In that way Finn represents a road not taking with Kylo. Someone deeply wounded and hurt by the world around them and doesn't quite yet know how to respond to it.
In terms of the larger theme you do get that really nice encapsulation by Rose (which is a bit of a cheesy line, but it is also a cheesy sentiment, but no less powerful for it). The Last Jedi really dives into the idea of legacy as a source of inter generational conflict. All the new characters (and Luke and Leia) grapple with this to a greater or lesser degree. How much are we shaped by the past, how much are we trapped by it, and how do we find a way to move forward. Rey and Kylo have this conversation explicitly in the throne room - with Rey needing to let go of the elements of her past that constrain her while wanting to keep the best parts of it (the exact same struggle luke is having - he gets there with Yoda's intervention. Rey actually gets there through her encounters with Han and Kylo). Kylo, on the other hand, wants to famously burn it all down. He is a mass of seething anger and resentment and is prepared to sacrifice anything in the mistaken belief that if he cuts and wounds and kills enough somehow the pain will go away. It's easy enough to track Kylo's arc because it is front and center. It's a bit easier to miss how Finn is going through a similar set of experiences. If he sacrifices himself in anger, even in an attempt to do good, he's basically validating Kylo's perspective. He needs to live (either to save himself or be saved and have that epiphany afterwards) so he can learn that it is more important to protect what you want to live for than punish the things you hate.
