Fin

.When first conceived, Fin was one of the most intriguing characters of the new Star Wars trilogy.  In many ways the concept of Fin as a reformed Stormtrooper was entirely new.  We've already seen prodigy Jedi in the form of Anakin and Ahsoka Tano, and hotshot pilots were numerous in A New Hope, not least of which was Luke, himself.  And we'd seen the clone troopers in the Clone Wars.

But Fin gave us a new perspective on the SW universe.  He broke through the impersonal facade with which the Empire cloaks itself.  The most impenetrable of all are the entirely armor-clad stormtroopers, where we never see a human face.  As a character, Fin takes off the helmet and reveals, not a clone, but a unique person with fears and moral principles and failings.  Someone struggling with what is right, and with the moral agency to choose not to participate in the mass slaughter of innocents.

In The Force Awakens, Fin had an entire arc of his own, more so than most of the other characters.    Fin went from chafing under the oppressive structure of the First Order to balking at the evil acts he was ordered to perform, to forming a brief alliance with Poe, to actively helping Rey.  He could have simply abandoned her the moment he heard the tell tale sounds of the tie bombers, but instead chose to warn her and aid her in fleeing, even to the point where she didn't need him anymore.  In many ways he needed to be helping someone.

So the brief opening scene shows us this entire character arc of Fin's but we also become aware of conflicts within himself.  Like Rey, Fin is looking for a place to belong.  Ripped from his parents as an infant, he has grown up within the First Order as the only family he has ever known.  Captain Phasma was in some sense the parent who raised him, and Fin was rebelling against her autocratic teaching  as well.  But in leaving the First Order, now Fin has no place in the Universe.  His interaction with the Resistance initially is more one of convenience than of any inner conviction.  At the same time, he doesn't want to continue to live a lie. And he wants to escape from the continuous violence that the First Order represents.

When he reaches Maz's smuggler's refuge on Takodano, he has gotten himself into a difficult situation on many levels.  He 's a fugitive from the First Order.  He's misrepresented himself to Rey as being associated with the Resistance, He wants to avoid conflict and the Resistance seems to be the center of the conflict.  Fin is the lonely ronin who has left his wicked master and now walks the earth in search of peace.  Only, he cannot find it

Instead, he is drawn back into the conflict, drawn by circumstances, by a plea from his friends, by his own sense of loyalty.