Finn tropes that need to go away:
I did some exploring in the Finn tag for different content such as Finn x reader, headcanons, character preference, etc. and Finn ends up with the same overused tropes that not only don’t match up with the character, but also show how little people think of him on this site.
Finn the fumbling virgin:
Pretty self explanatory. Finn is often characterized as a blushing virgin that is jumpy during sex scenes and is so inapt to do anything that his partner in the scene has to show him the ropes or explain his own anatomy to him. Either that, or he panics and goes to Poe for advice, which is connected to a problematic trope often associated with Poe. Another trope that gets mixed with this one is that Finn also is only interested in vanilla sex. There’s nothing wrong with that, but writers often like to use this as an excuse for Rey, in particular, to cheat on him or to write him off as a boring character and a terrible S/O.
While I do headcanon that Finn has an anxiety problem, many writers seem to think that people with anxiety are unable to do anything for themselves without having a mental breakdown. For example, I found a Finn x reader fic where the reader character gets sick and needs help with care, but Finn has a panic attack over the character’s state and the reader has to be the one to comfort him. This is a direct contrast to the Finn we see in the films, who is more than capable of helping out someone and doesn’t have an anxiety attack while doing so. It also is a bad stereotype for people affected by anxiety in general, making them seem like lose cannons that will break down at the drop of a hat. Some people do have crippling anxiety and are able to do some amazing things.
This is nothing new, but Finn is often characterized as a bumbling idiot that can’t figure out even the most basic of things. Connected to the Finn the virgin trope, Finn often asks questions to Poe about basic anatomy because apparently the First Order never taught stormtroopers about how to use the bathroom or something. Part of the problem is that the films don’t show or mention Finn’s time as being a top cadet in the First Order, but many of the tie-ins do show this and go into quite a bit of detail. Even though in-canon, Finn is one of the best blaster-using characters in the series, writers ignore this to make him seemingly infantile and create room for characters like Poe or Kylo to push him aside and be the real hero. Often, this is connected with the writer’s preferred ship with Rey as an S/O, though there are finnrey and jedistormpilot fics also guilty of this trope.
Finn as a violent, jealous character:
…This is just a racist stereotype that is often applied to black characters in fandom. Usually found in fics where Finn isn’t the preferred S/O of Rey and sometimes Poe, Finn is characterized as a violent and threatening man with jealousy issues. He’s possessive. He might even try to hurt his love interest. In any case, the writer really wants to prove that the big scary black man is the real bad guy, even though this is a direct contradiction to Finn’s characterization in-canon. If Kylo is Rey’s love interest, he and Finn almost always conveniently switch canon personalities or else the story doesn’t work.
When I read this content, I find that these writers are some of the most uncreative individuals in the fandom and their intentions are often very transparent. Finn is a very complex character and this doesn’t have to go away simply because he’s not part of your preferred ship. And the problem is that these tropes are so dominant in fanfiction that some fics start looking like copies of one another and allows some circles to confuse fanon with canon.
I was thinking of doing a Rey analysis, but to be honest, I’m really scared of what I will find in her tags. I already know some of the mainstream ooc tropes often associated with her and none of them are good.
