A Star Wars Reccing Community

Title: The Stormtrooper Paradox
Creator: Pop Culture Detective
Rating: -
Word Count/Length/Size: 10:47 minutes
Characters/Pairing: Stormtroopers, Finn
Warnings/Notes: Created before The Last Jedi.
Creator's Summary: The Force Awakens does what no other movie in the long running Star Wars franchise has even done before: it humanizes Stormtroopers. Strangely the filmmakers seem unaware of the rather profound implications their new narrative has for the rest of their cinematic universe.

Reasons for reccing: This is an interesting analysis and criticism of the sequel trilogy. It examines the implications of Finn being a humanized Stormtrooper and what it means--or rather should mean--for the world and franchise of Star Wars. He criticizes the “paradox” of humanizing stormtroopers through Finn, but then jarringly returning to treating the Stormtroopers as “disposable grunts” to be killed and defeated by the heroes.

I find this a really interesting analysis and it is one of my major criticisms of the sequel trilogy so far and the creator of this video does a great job of analyzing and creating a coherent and clear argument. The directors seem to be half-heartedly addressing the humanity of Stormtroopers but have failed to fully commit to the idea. I think this can also be seen in The Last Jedi.

There was a scene that had Finn briefly reunite with an old Stormtrooper he knew on the base, the two share a conversation and the nameless stormtrooper seems to share a friendly camaraderie with “FN-2187,” but the scene is ultimately deleted from the final product. There is another scene, an extended one of Finn & Phasma’s confrontations, which has Finn challenge the Stormtroopers loyalty to Phasma and the First Order and the troopers react by displaying a moment of questioning before being killed by Phasma. These two deleted scenes would have helped further humanize stormtroopers, but they were taken away from the final product. And the Stormtrooper Paradox continues.

Link: YouTube

Title: The Story of Finn
Creator: LullabyKnell
Rating: T
Word Count/Length/Size: 26,047 words, 7/7 chapters
Characters/Pairing: Original Stormtrooper Characters
Warnings/Notes: n/a
Creator's Summary: The story they hear is that of FN-2187.

He's a defector – a traitor to the First Order. He's not the first, nor will he be the last, and the First Order expects to retrieve him and end him quickly.

But that's not what happens.

The only thing Stormtroopers own are stories.

Reasons for reccing: This is an absolutely brilliant fic! Finn never makes an actual appearance, instead the story is entirely told from the perspective of Stormtrooper OCs, but they have heard of Finn’s story--the defector, and they become inspired by him. I love the idea of more Stormtroopers like Finn, defectors and normal people who have been brainwashed into loyalty, and this fic gives me all of that. And it does it all so spectacularly well. It’s a brilliantly written fic and one I’d recommend for anyone interested in Stormtrooper culture within the First Order.

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5594782/chapters/12891928