Why Finn Is Not a Star
Dec. 14th, 2011 01:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whoisthemonsterNOTE: THIS POST WILL INVOLVE FINN HATE AND SPOILERS FROM TONIGHT'S EPISODE.
Let me preface this by saying that I liked tonight's episode. I thought the Christmas Special portion was freaking amazing and I know I'm going to watch it over again. There were some things I didn't enjoy (I could have done without them reciting scripture to me and I miss the Klaine present scene we were promised), but for the most part I was happy.
And then we got to that scene where Finn gives Rachel her Christmas present and all the happiness I'd accumulated throughout the episode left me in a fit of rage.
For those of you who haven't seen it yet (why are you reading this if you haven't, seriously), Finn gave Rachel a star for Christmas. Now, on the surface this seems like a sweet gift. Rachel, after all, is a star. Except the star isn't named Rachel Berry. Oh, no. That's giving Finn too much credit. No, the star is named Finn Hudson.
That's right, he named it after himself.
Before I continue I think I need to talk about how I feel about Finn in general. I hate him so much it's not even funny. He is a privileged asshole who is terrible to pretty much anyone who has the audacity to not be in his privileged group. The worst part is he doesn't even realize he's doing it half the time because...
a) this is the way life has always been for him. He's always been at the top of the heap and...
b) NO ONE TELLS HIM WHAT HE DOES IS WRONG.
I mean, just look at some of the other scenes this season. He publically outed Santana and then decided he was going to try and help her BECAUSE HE FELT SORRY FOR HER. No one said, "Hey, Finn, maybe you shouldn't have told her to come out in the middle of a crowded school hallway". Of course not. Oh, and also Santana apologises to him at one point. Because he's Finn.
We could also look at how he treated Blaine this season, making him feel like a second class citizen who will never belong in this new school he joined just to make his boyfriend (and Finn's brother, although the show seems to forget that) happy. It took eight episodes of build up before Blaine blew up because Finn found New Directions a new hero (someone who is also a straight, white male, mind you) instead of actually listening to his ideas (with this being said, I'm not okay with what Blaine said to Sam, but that's another post for another time). When Blaine finally does get angry Finn just says, "I was jealous of you", and EVERYTHING from the past few months is swept under the rug like it was nothing.
With all of this being said, let's get back to Finn and Rachel. I have never been a fan of how Finn treats Rachel (or Quinn when he's with her, but again, another post for another time). He doesn't back her up when she has ideas in Glee club practices and is only willing to give her loving pep talks when they're alone and away from the rest of the club. He insults her when he's trying to compliment her too which is just...not okay. He basically just treats her like crap a lot of the time. He is also socially better than her at McKinley and he knows it. At least, that is, until this season.
Finn's not doing too hot right now. His graduation day is fast approaching and he has no idea what to do with his life. His dreams of a football scholarship fell through and he's basically looking at a life of working in Burt's garage (or joining the army if the preview for 3.10 is any indication). Rachel, on the other hand, has big dreams. She has the talent and the credits to get into the school of her dreams, make it to New York and be a bigger star that Finn could ever hope to be. She has, in terms of future success, essentially beaten Finn.
This brings us back to the star. Let me give you the quote of what Finn actually says in regards to his present.
Finn: It's your own star.
Rachel: You named a star after me?
Finn: No, I thought about that but then I named it Finn Hudson, because there's already a star named Rachel Berry. And she's right here on Earth and she's brighter than any of those stars up there. So I just wanted to make sure that whenever she feels lonely, she can look up in the sky and no matter where I am she can know that I'm looking down on her.
(this quote was taken from tumblr so I'm just hoping it's 100% correct)
Finn acknowledges that Rachel is a star and she's going to grow up and be an even bigger star. He's not blind, he can see it happening. The things he says about it seem nice enough. However, the part I really want to talk about it the bolded part. Finn bought Rachel a star named after him so, when she's big and famous and doing ten billion times better than Finn could ever hope to do, she can look up and know that, even then, Finn Hudson is looking down on her.
Finn knows now that in the long run Rachel is going to do better than him, is going to be better than him, but, again, he's Finn and so he always has to be on top. Rachel's going to be a big star? Finn names a star after himself so he can be one first. Rachel's going to go to New York without Finn? He assumes that means she's going to be lonely. (Even though she'll have Kurt and hundreds of fellow theater geeks, are you kidding me? She'll be in heaven.) Rachel is going to higher up than Finn? He gives her something to remind her he'll always be above her.
So there you have it, Rachel. You can go to New York and be your fabulous self. You can date a whole bunch of hotties until you finally reunite with Jesse St. James and get married and have lots of talented babies. (I can dream, right?) You can have the leads in a ton of Broadway shows and become super famous. But all the while, Finn will still be up there, forever looking down on you. Because he was a star first. There's no escape. You started as lower than Finn and like hell is he going to let you change that. Because he's Finn. He's the hero of this story. And therefore he has every right to be superior, right?
Let me preface this by saying that I liked tonight's episode. I thought the Christmas Special portion was freaking amazing and I know I'm going to watch it over again. There were some things I didn't enjoy (I could have done without them reciting scripture to me and I miss the Klaine present scene we were promised), but for the most part I was happy.
And then we got to that scene where Finn gives Rachel her Christmas present and all the happiness I'd accumulated throughout the episode left me in a fit of rage.
For those of you who haven't seen it yet (why are you reading this if you haven't, seriously), Finn gave Rachel a star for Christmas. Now, on the surface this seems like a sweet gift. Rachel, after all, is a star. Except the star isn't named Rachel Berry. Oh, no. That's giving Finn too much credit. No, the star is named Finn Hudson.
That's right, he named it after himself.
Before I continue I think I need to talk about how I feel about Finn in general. I hate him so much it's not even funny. He is a privileged asshole who is terrible to pretty much anyone who has the audacity to not be in his privileged group. The worst part is he doesn't even realize he's doing it half the time because...
a) this is the way life has always been for him. He's always been at the top of the heap and...
b) NO ONE TELLS HIM WHAT HE DOES IS WRONG.
I mean, just look at some of the other scenes this season. He publically outed Santana and then decided he was going to try and help her BECAUSE HE FELT SORRY FOR HER. No one said, "Hey, Finn, maybe you shouldn't have told her to come out in the middle of a crowded school hallway". Of course not. Oh, and also Santana apologises to him at one point. Because he's Finn.
We could also look at how he treated Blaine this season, making him feel like a second class citizen who will never belong in this new school he joined just to make his boyfriend (and Finn's brother, although the show seems to forget that) happy. It took eight episodes of build up before Blaine blew up because Finn found New Directions a new hero (someone who is also a straight, white male, mind you) instead of actually listening to his ideas (with this being said, I'm not okay with what Blaine said to Sam, but that's another post for another time). When Blaine finally does get angry Finn just says, "I was jealous of you", and EVERYTHING from the past few months is swept under the rug like it was nothing.
With all of this being said, let's get back to Finn and Rachel. I have never been a fan of how Finn treats Rachel (or Quinn when he's with her, but again, another post for another time). He doesn't back her up when she has ideas in Glee club practices and is only willing to give her loving pep talks when they're alone and away from the rest of the club. He insults her when he's trying to compliment her too which is just...not okay. He basically just treats her like crap a lot of the time. He is also socially better than her at McKinley and he knows it. At least, that is, until this season.
Finn's not doing too hot right now. His graduation day is fast approaching and he has no idea what to do with his life. His dreams of a football scholarship fell through and he's basically looking at a life of working in Burt's garage (or joining the army if the preview for 3.10 is any indication). Rachel, on the other hand, has big dreams. She has the talent and the credits to get into the school of her dreams, make it to New York and be a bigger star that Finn could ever hope to be. She has, in terms of future success, essentially beaten Finn.
This brings us back to the star. Let me give you the quote of what Finn actually says in regards to his present.
Finn: It's your own star.
Rachel: You named a star after me?
Finn: No, I thought about that but then I named it Finn Hudson, because there's already a star named Rachel Berry. And she's right here on Earth and she's brighter than any of those stars up there. So I just wanted to make sure that whenever she feels lonely, she can look up in the sky and no matter where I am she can know that I'm looking down on her.
(this quote was taken from tumblr so I'm just hoping it's 100% correct)
Finn acknowledges that Rachel is a star and she's going to grow up and be an even bigger star. He's not blind, he can see it happening. The things he says about it seem nice enough. However, the part I really want to talk about it the bolded part. Finn bought Rachel a star named after him so, when she's big and famous and doing ten billion times better than Finn could ever hope to do, she can look up and know that, even then, Finn Hudson is looking down on her.
Finn knows now that in the long run Rachel is going to do better than him, is going to be better than him, but, again, he's Finn and so he always has to be on top. Rachel's going to be a big star? Finn names a star after himself so he can be one first. Rachel's going to go to New York without Finn? He assumes that means she's going to be lonely. (Even though she'll have Kurt and hundreds of fellow theater geeks, are you kidding me? She'll be in heaven.) Rachel is going to higher up than Finn? He gives her something to remind her he'll always be above her.
So there you have it, Rachel. You can go to New York and be your fabulous self. You can date a whole bunch of hotties until you finally reunite with Jesse St. James and get married and have lots of talented babies. (I can dream, right?) You can have the leads in a ton of Broadway shows and become super famous. But all the while, Finn will still be up there, forever looking down on you. Because he was a star first. There's no escape. You started as lower than Finn and like hell is he going to let you change that. Because he's Finn. He's the hero of this story. And therefore he has every right to be superior, right?
I completely disagree
Date: 2011-12-16 06:29 am (UTC)Re: I completely disagree
Date: 2011-12-16 07:14 am (UTC)You asked why I hate Finn so much. The main reason is that Glee is marketed to the masses as a show about equality and diversity. While it's true that they include characters of various ethnicities, sexual orientations and the like, it rubs me the wrong way that the character in the most privileged group is often shown as being a leader of the group. It's like Glee is saying, "Oh yeah, we'll include everyone, but the straight, white, boy is going to be their leader. Don't want to upset social norms, after all." Again, if you like Finn and disagree, that's fine, but I don't like that Glee sells one thing and delivers another.
As for the last comment, romance is a subjective thing. What could be completely romantic to one person might not be for another. Different strokes for different folks, as they say. I didn't find Finn giving Rachel a star named after himself to be romantic, but if you did then that's fine as well.
I'm sorry if I offended you with this post, but I did warn for Finn hate so I guess if you really didn't want to read it you could've scrolled on by. Just saying.
Also, I'm curious as to how you found the post in the first place. I don't really participate in fandom more than posting to this journal (which I don't talk about with anyone but my irl friends) so I'm wondering what lead you here. Not meant to be rude, I'm just curious.
Sorry about the massive reply. :)