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In The Force Awakens, as Rey watches Finn leave and pass the doorway outside Maz's castle a distant voice is heard, which only Rey seems to notice and that cries:

"No! Don't go!"

That voice leads her to the cave in which Luke Skywalker lightsaber is waiting and where she has a powerful "vision" of R2-D2, a damaged robotic hand, Ren, ... It appears as if Luke's weapon was calling Rey.

My interpretation is a bit different.

Let me clarify the context: what follows comes as an addition to my observation, both leading to my interpretation.

In my opinion Finn seems to wield a lightsaber even better than Luke did in Return of The Jedi when confronting Darth Vader before Palpatine[1]. He also lasts reasonably long enough against Kylo Ren — even badly wounded as he was, I believe Ren is still agile and powerful enough to deal with lightsaber novice much quicker than depicted.

You need the Force to guide you in a combat with a lightsaber. The latter without the former is useless. I don't really know whether Finn is Force-sensitive (which would enforce my theory) or not but anyway he seems to hold a lightsaber like a Jedi does.

Given the fact that Luke's lightsaber seems to choose the very moment Finn leaves and since, from my point of view, Finn doesn't seem bad at all at fighting with a lightsaber (regardless of how trained he might be), is it possible that Luke's lightsaber could be calling out to Finn and not Rey?

My question is not about why Finn is good enough at fighting with a lightsaber. The fact that he's well trained or not is irrelevant here.

[1] I'm aware it might be explained by the differences between the two epochs in how the actors were trained: nowadays there is a more pronounced focus on how realistic and "artsy" fighting stances are.

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    I do like your connection between Rey shouting "No! Don't go!" and Finn leaving :)
    – Josh B.
    Aug 18, 2016 at 22:25
  • I also stated clearly that I had an opinion about how tightly coupled I believe light sabres and the Force are. From the final version it no longer seems the case, as if I knew instead of "asking", sort of.
    – user70368
    Aug 18, 2016 at 22:26
  • And finally I did not talk about the moment when Rey touches the weapon — I've watched the movie 4 days ago so it's still fresh in my mind. How the question starts clearly is not what nor how I intended to introduce my question. You indeed hear a voice calling "don't go" long before Rey even goes down the cave.
    – user70368
    Aug 18, 2016 at 22:28
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    Don't ignore the fact that Finn has extensive military training in how to use staff type weapons and part of the training he went through included fighting against light saber users.
    – Joe W
    Aug 19, 2016 at 1:29
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    That voice that says don't go is Rey's voice, I always assumed that Rey thinking don't go to Finn's imminent departure triggered the abandonment issues brought up in the visions she subsequently had, and an awakening of her force ability. As to why no answers yet? Probably because any attempt an an answer is going to be highly opinion based.
    – Cearon O'Flynn
    Aug 19, 2016 at 13:51

4 Answers 4

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I have but one problem with the question, namely the "my interpretion" part. We have to stick to facts. So what is it we know?

  • Finn wants to leave and not to be involved in the events that are about to unfold, thats why he talks to the two aliens in the cantina who agree to take him with them for services done.

FINN: You don't know the First Order like I do. They'll slaughter us. We >all need to run.

Rey is stunned.

Maz, not so much. She crawls back to her chair. She points to some pirates >in the corner.

MAZ: You see those two? They'll trade work for transportation to the Outer Rim. There, you can disappear.

Finn sees them. Considers.

Afterwards, the discussion between Finn and Rey starts:

REY: What are you doing?

Finn gets up to talk to her.

FINN:(to Big Head alien) Don't leave without me.

Embarrassed, Finn moves her away.

REY: You can't just go. I won't let you.

FINN: I'm not who you think I am.

REY: Finn, what are you talking about?

FINN: I'm not Resistance. I'm not a hero. I'm a Stormtrooper. (STOPS HER) Like all of them, I was taken from a family I'll never know. And raised to >do one thing... (EMOTIONAL) But my first battle, I made a choice. I wasn't going to kill for them. So I >ran.

FINN: Right into you. And you looked at me like no one ever had. I was >ashamed of what I was. But I'm done with the First Order. I'm never going >back. Rey, come with me.

REY: Don't go.

FINN: Take care of yourself. Please.

Afterwards - and thats the important part here - hes leaving and the event you are talking about takes place:

Rey looks at him, crushed. With quiet resignation, Rey watches Finn return >to the aliens... And all three head off. He gets to the front door and walks through it. Rey is heartsick, but she turns as she hears the sound of a young girl in anguish, crying. She follows the sound into the castle, >turning so she can't see that Finn has looked back at her one last time.

Firstly, if the voice a.k.a. the lightsaber was calling for Finn, he would know it because it would reach him. Or at least, would most likely reach him if his mind wasn't too clouded which would be at least possible consdering what step hes taking there - namely parting with the girl he obivously starts to be in love with, following their conversation(s) up to this point.

Secondly, the voice is the voice of a girl and I'm hereby assuming the "No! Don't go!" is a vision of the young Rey running after the shuttle of "her parents" taking of from Jakku, leaving her behind. This is supported as part of the vision is the shuttle of her parents taking off.

Lastly, Rey is following the voice and finds the lightsaber. What follows is an introduction to the force by Maz who - and here is where I start to make assumptions - is known to the force. She somehow got the lightsaber, but does not tell (yet) where she got it from. But she knows what the force is, how it feels and what it can do to someone. Taking this plus her sudden arrival after Rey found the lightsaber, its only leaving way for two options:

(1) Maz got down there to retreive something or saw Rey walking down to the basement.

OR

(2) And more likely, she has heard the voice aswell and waited for Rey to make her experience with the lightsaber because she says:

MAZ: That lightsaber was Luke's. And his father's before him and now, it >calls to you!

Meaning that she heard the voice indeed - when she could hear it and Rey could hear it, its highly likely other force sensitive beings nearby would have heard the voice aswell. Which, as Finn just walks by - leads to the assumption, that Finn is either, as said above, clouded and cannot hear it or - He is not force sensitive and for some reasons, the lightsaber kept by Maz called for Rey.

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  • Thanks for your detailed explanation. I considered somehow Maz could be mistaken about the sabre calling Rey (who could have stood as an intermediary between the sabre and Finn, way overthought maybe) but I think you've finally nailed it. I mean what you explain makes sense enough to discard my "perception". I obviously was not Force sensitive on this one.
    – user70368
    Aug 19, 2016 at 14:39
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No, it is not calling Finn, I feel Finn is force senstive. The Saber was calling Rey, because the first sound of was a sound of a girl crying, was Rey when she was a child. If the lightsaber was calling Finn, why would it be making small girl crying out? Because it was not calling Finn, it was calling Rey with something she is familiar with her own voice with an event that effect her life when her family left her.

Right after her force vision, Finn had also his experience with the force. When he was packing up the ship, he can hear the voices calling out in the Hosnian system which he turns around off guard when hearing those screams and they show you the back of his head which he is shaking in shock, and they show up to let you see where he hearing from, then right after they they showed you the same sounds he was hearing in the Hosnian system those same cries screaming because their death is near.

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I am going to have to say no for several reasons.

  1. When Rey first picked up the lightsaber there is an important scene about the visions that she received from it. There is no indication that Finn has any sort of similar experience. As for the case of your example there is no indication that he even heard those words.
  2. When the scene you are talking about happens it is when Rey is running off into the forest and where she is setting herself up to be captured by Kylo Ren. What is happening with Finn doesn't really matter more than the fact that it lets him see where she is going.
  3. Rey has already shown herself to be a strong force user, yes an untrained one but still strong. With no training she was able to resist the use of force on her by Kylo Ren and was able to turn the tables on him.
  4. Rey was able to use a mind trick on a first order trooper without any training at all.
  5. Rey was able to use the force in order to gain skill with the lightsaber during the fight with Kylo Ren and in fact was able to put up a better fight than Finn did even though he has more weapons training and experience.
  6. During the fight Rey is able to use the force to retrieve the lightsaber and prevent a more trained Kylo Ren from retrieving it which might indicate she has a strong connection with it.
  7. Finn has shown no ability to use the force at this point even though it is speculated that he might have the ability.
  8. Comparing lightsaber fights from episodes 4-6 when they treated them as slow and unwieldy to the rest of the movies where they considered them fast and deadly will give you a wrong impression of things.
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    That answer doesn't answer as to why Finn could not have been called upon by the lightsaber, you only indicate that Rey is force sensitive and Finn might not - again, bad thoughts, such as breaking up with someone, can cloud someones mind in the SW universe, making it likely Finn is FS but just overheard the calling. Apart from the first argument, 2. - 5. take place after the event the question circulates around. 7. is an Out of universe answer and 6. idk, Finn is quite good with guns and superior reflexes (Tie vs falcon pursuit) indicate connection to the force.
    – Devaron
    Aug 19, 2016 at 14:13
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    @Devaron Points 3-6 are there to show that Ray is a powerful force user with a strong connection to the force and that there is no indication that Finn has any force abilities. I also added a point where she was able to retrieve the lightsaber over Kylo Ren which might indicate that she has a strong connection with it. As for point 7 the reason I included that was because it was mentioned that Finn was better than Luke with the lightsaber in the movies.
    – Joe W
    Aug 19, 2016 at 14:24
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To me the answer would seem to be that it all depends on whether or not Fin is force sensitive. Also could turn out to be a solid no if it all turns out to be a family lineage thing. We just really don't have enough info yet, to make a clear cut answer. Hopefully after episode 8, we will know.

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