Could be wicked and wouldn't

[ljwrites]

“I wouldn't want to marry anybody who was wicked, but I think I'd like it if he could be wicked and wouldn't.”

This quote from L.M. Montgomery's Anne of the Island sums up my feelings about Finn, marriage part very much included. He tends to get portrayed as either this hopelessly good, nice dear who couldn't hurt a fly or a ruthless killer who turned on his former comrades without a second thought, but the character as presented in canon is neither. He is good and conscientious not because he couldn't be any other way but because he actively fought to be.

That's another way he and Kylo Ren are foils. The former Ben Solo was brought up to be a protector and has capacity for good (+ gets a fuck tonne of credit for it despite never acting on it</salt>), while the former FN-2187 was brought up to violence and has the capacity to be evil. Both men chose in the opposite directions, and their choices and not their upbringing are what would come to define them.

Finn's subversive decency

Comments

[dhampyresa]

I am not sure I understand the quote? /is tired

[ljwrites]

I really should stop assuming that people spent their teen years geeking out over the Anne books like I did XD

So the quote was part of a longer conversation about Fred, the fiancé of Anne's best friend Diana. Anne is still adjusting to the idea of her BFF getting married, and has the following exchange with her foster mother Marilla and a woman, Mrs. Lynde, from the neighborhood:

“It seems funny and horrible to think of Diana’s being married,” sighed Anne . . .

“I don’t see what’s horrible about it, when she’s doing so well,” said Mrs. Lynde emphatically. “Fred Wright has a fine farm and he is a model young man.”

“He certainly isn’t the wild, dashing, wicked, young man Diana once wanted to marry,” smiled Anne. “Fred is extremely good.”

“That’s just what he ought to be. Would you want Diana to marry a wicked man? Or marry one yourself?”

“Oh, no. I wouldn’t want to marry anybody who was wicked, but I think I’d like it if he could be wicked and wouldn't. Now, Fred is hopelessly good.”

“You’ll have more sense some day, I hope,” said Marilla.

So the fandom's discussion of Finn is very reminiscent of what Anne says here about Fred, as in he's inherently good and soft-hearted etc. My point is that he's a lot more complex than that, that he made an active choice to be good when he could very easily have been anything but. And of course, I'd totally marry him if I could. I hope that helps!

[dhampyresa]

It's just the syntax contrast between could and wouldn't that's confusing me. it sounds like word salad? /is so tired but also french