Star Wars-Gundam Connection: Finn and Amuro

What a time to be a Star Wars fan! We just experienced months of Star Wars: The Force Awakens being in theaters and have lots of other content on a regular basis to satisfy our appetite. I’ve been really enjoying following Hera, Kanan, and the rest of the Rebels crew on their journeys across the galaxy with Dave Filoni’s animated series and the Star Wars: Kanan comic written by Greg Weisman and penciled by Pepe Larraz. I have even started reading A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller to go even deeper into the Rebels’ world.

Because of the slow and steady stream of Star Wars goodies I’ve started delving into another complete franchise set in space: Mobile Suit Gundam. I just finished the first series in the Gundam canon, Mobile Suit Gundam 0079, and became fascinated with the main character, Amuro Ray. He really reminds me of Finn. I see peculiar similarities between the two major characters in their respective universes and hope to use the comparison to anticipate what Finn will be like in Episode VIII.

Before we get to comparing, I wanted to give some background. Believe it or not, both Star Wars and Mobile Suit Gundam started around the same time. As we all know, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was first released in 1977. Mobile Suit Gundam’s first of many subsequent animated series began in 1979. The basic premise of Gundam is that hundreds of years into the future (known as the Universal Century, U.C.), Earth has established space colonies around the planet and Moon. Eventually, after years of tense political relations between the colonies and Earth, a number of colonies unite under the Principality of Zeon and declare independence from the United Earth Federation. This leads into a horrible one year war with death and destruction on Earth and in Space.

Both Finn and Amuro were drawn into a conflict by force. For Finn, he was kidnapped as a baby by the First Order to become a stormtrooper and fight their enemies for them. For Amuro, Zeon forces attacked his home space colony forcing him to evacuate with his friends aboard an Earth Federation warship, White Base. During the attack, Amuro is forced by the White Base commander to pilot the powerful prototype mobile suit gundam to fight back.

Both Finn and Amuro have a very genuine and honest temperament where an unsure sense of confidence belies great talents. Sure, Finn attempts to lie to Rey for most of the time after landing on Jakku. However, Finn is a horrible liar that can’t help but come clean in Maz’s Castle. In my opinion, a big reason so many love Finn is his genuine reactions when put in very dire situations. With Poe in escaping the Star Destroyer and Rey while escaping Jakku, Finn lets his fear (very natural) shine through. But later in the film, when defending Maz’s Castle all the way to confronting Kylo Ren, Finn grows into himself as he discovers he has a power (and I mean this generally, not the Force) he had no idea existed. Amuro goes through a similar transition. Amuro wears his heart on his sleeve with the crew of White Base. When first piloting the mobile suit gundam in the beginning battles of the series, Amuro looks and sounds terribly stressed. His voice quivers and you can see pools of sweat dripping down his face. Nonetheless, by the end of the series, after proving time and time again that he is an extremely talented pilot, Amuro shows immense confidence and decisiveness to become the key piece in defeating the Zeon forces.

When all is said and done, Finn and Amuro gain a much greater sense of responsibility fighting for something beyond themselves. Both go through a period of hardship where they question their purpose for fighting and have a strong desire to run away from it all. However, after seeing the stakes that are being raised by their respective conflicts, Finn and Amuro realize that they fight to defend their friends and those they love. For Finn, it’s Rey, Poe, Chewie, and BB-8. For Amuro, it’s his friends on White Base. Given this realization, I can’t imagine that either Finn or Amuro would value fighting as soldiers for their respective militaries above serving their friends. With Episode VIII on its way, I foresee a conflict within Finn–>what Resistance wants from him vs. his own personal desires to fight for his friends above all. I could honestly see him coming at odds with Leia if she wants him to do something for the Resistance when it precedes him protecting his friends. I can already imagine him having really good dialogue with Poe (100% sense of duty with the Resistance) if this issue arises in the next film. The galaxy has become even more dangerous for Finn and Rey, which should make these already strong characters even better.

The Cantina Cast

The wretched hive your Jedi Master warned you about!

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