Entertainment

A New 'Star Wars' Love Story Was Started In 'The Last Jedi' & Fans Want More

by Ani Bundel
Lucasfilm

The Reylo shippers went nuts over Star Wars: The Last Jedi, with the script heavily suggesting that Kylo Ren is in fact in love with Rey, even if she only returns those feelings to Ben Solo and not to Kylo. But theirs wasn't the only Star Wars romance implied in the film. By the end of their adventure, Rose and Finn seem to have fallen for each other. With only one more installment to go, will Finn and Rose get together in Episode IX? Or are we destined for more galaxy-level heartbreak?

Finn and Rose meet-cute in the movie, as she catches him trying to run away in the escape pods. Despite her earlier fangirling over his hero status, Rose does what is necessary, and stuns Finn rather than let him leave, dragging him to the brig where the other deserters are locked up.

It's only luck that Finn manages to change her mind, when he tells her about the hyperspace tracker, and then come up with a daring (and desperate) plan to disable it. The two of them get sent (with BB-8) to Canto Bight to find a codebreaker to help them.

Lucasfilm

As my parents used to say, nothing propinqs like propinquity. The stress of the situation, and Finn's assistance in helping Rose take down the rich weapon traders and the 1 percent of the galaxy and their party casino, draw them closer together than before.

But it's the betrayal by DJ and their near-death experience on the dreadnought that really bonds Rose and Finn. By the time they are trying to take down the cannon on Crait to save the Resistance, neither can bear to think of the other not surviving.

Finn reacts by trying to sacrifice himself so Rose can live. Rose reacts by crashing her fighter into his at the last minute, saving his damn fool life. It's as romantic as anything Han and Leia ever did in the original trilogy.

By the time Rey arrives with the Falcon, and her newfound ability to float rocks on command, Finn has gotten Rose back to base and to medical, and the next time we see him, he's hovering over her on a berth on Han's old ship. It's great for him to see Rey and all, but any hint of chemistry that might have existed between the two of them is gone. Finn's heart has been stolen away, by the plucky maintenance worker.

Fans are loving it.

From the start, the romance of "Reylo" (shipping Kylo Ren and Rey) was controversial. It's a cliche of fan-fiction to have the hero and the villain get together. (See: every Harry Potter and Draco fan-fiction ever written.) Many corners of the fandom didn't want to see this happen.

But Finn and Rose is something everyone can agree on. Where Poe is the overdog, the ace pilot, the one being groomed for command, Finn is the unlikely underdog hero, an unwanted child raised by the First Order. And where Rey is the traditional "chosen one" of the story, the one plucked from obscurity to fight the great evil, Rose is merely a hard-working woman who grew up in poverty and managed to find a place in the world by joining the Resistance and using her skills to help them.

A romance between the two of them — where they survive this fight and find a nice planet to settle down and raise the next generation — would be a true happy ending for at least two characters in the final trilogy. In a world where there is so little hope left, you'll have to excuse me while I hold on to this one.