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latestageglee · 2 years

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what I find fascinating about Finn's, "overcoming homophobia," arc is that at no point in the story does he actually show that he's changed in any real way. in season one, when he's in the basement angrily shouting homophobic slurs at Kurt, we're meant to see this as a moment of growth for him. we're meant to see Burt's, "don't say slurs," speech to him immediately after this as a lesson well paid. we're meant to see him standing up to Kurt's bully the next day as our ultimate proof that Finn Hudson, while incredibly flawed, is an ultimately good person who wants to put in the work to be better. except... that's not what we're actually shown. we're shown Finn beginning that journey, sure, but he never does more than that.

in season two, Sam Evans joins the Glee Club. when Kurt asks Sam to be his duet partner, Finn takes great issue with this. Sam, notably, does not. he's a bit taken aback by Kurt's forwardness, but he's willing and ready to sing with him, because Kurt is talented, and Sam likes him. Finn, however, takes this unconventional duet pairing to mean that Kurt must've forced Sam into a situation that he didn't really want to be in. Kurt doesn't know how to take no for an answer, and yes, Finn was wrong to call him that slur back in season one, but Kurt had a crush on him and he went about it inappropriately at times, so can you really say that Finn was in the wrong? he goes behind Kurt's back to Sam and says, "you can't sing with him; you're both guys." Sam says, "I didn't realize you had a problem with gay dudes." Finn flounders. ultimately, this attempt to break up the duo works. Kurt, worried that maybe he is taking advantage of a sweet, unsuspecting straight boy, backs out of the duet, and Finn leaves the situation not only being proven right, but having further pushed an already bullied and othered kid deeper into ostracization. talk Valentina, I guess.

in season three, Finn stops whipping out his sexy little bag of slurs (for a moment, at least) and trades it in for a savior complex, because guess who comes to the rescue when our favorite lesbian, Santana Lopez, is cruelly outed by one of her supposed friends!

oh, wait? what was that? you said- you said that Finn was the one to out her in the first place? oh, okay, hold on-

Finn was the one to out her in first place! after screaming that she was a coward that needed to come out of the closet in the middle of a crowded hallway during passing period, she's outed to the state of Ohio in a conservative campaign commercial (with a lovely little picture of her attached, in case we accidentally mistook her for a different head cheerleader on Sue Sylvester's cheer squad). this incident is of course treated with the incredible care that it deserves, and Finn immediately apologizes and takes accountability for what he did-

sorry, what was that? oh, he- he didn't do that? okay, give me a second-

actually, no he doesn't! he doesn't do any of that! our favorite queer ally just blackmails Santana into temporarily joining the Glee Club because he thinks that she might kill herself, and he doesn't want her to do that because he lost his virginity to her, and then him and the rest of the Glee Club sing at her about being queer (kind of, they couldn't even do that part right) for a week.

anyway. not to, "the narrative," my way through the rest of this post, but the narrative always tried to frame the events leading up to Finn's actions in a way that allowed him to seem justified when he inevitably did something bigoted. yes, he shouted slurs at a gay kid, but come on, he wasn't solely in the wrong; Kurt was being creepy, and he was coming on to Finn too strongly! yes, he manipulated Kurt into dissolving his partnership with Sam, but he only did it because he wanted to protect Sam from the school's ridicule; and really, Kurt is quite forward. yes, he outed a lesbian in small town, conservative Ohio before she was ready to come out, but she was constantly insulting him and making horrible comments about his appearance and his weight. Finn was consistently allowed to get away with the horrible things that he did to others, specifically queer people, because it could all reasonably be held under the umbrella of, "well, he's still a good person; he's just flawed!" that's the funny thing about being a good person, though; you have to actually be good. Finn was never too great at that part.

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latestageglee · 3 years

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For the remake of the original show, you have been asked which plot you’d completely reverse and rewrite

1) Let Santana come out unforced in her chosen time

2) Let Kurt get into Nyada first time, and Rachel have to reapply

3) Finn generally

4) season 6

Which would you choose?

Okay well if I choose to fix 3 then 1 is automatically fixed so... Two birds one stone! I have to go with number 3

I mean full disclosure if it was just a remake then I wouldn't bother bc I probably wouldn't watch. The actors are the ones that made the show what it was tbh. Anyone else just couldn't do what they did. But if I were able to go back in time and somehow worm my way into the writers' room and RM actually gave a shit about what I had to say, then that's what I'd do!

After typing everything out... This has to be the most wordy rant I’ve ever written at once. What follows is literally 2250 words of pure uncut Finn hate. So please do not proceed if you know you don’t want to read that.

Finn is just such a fundamentally broken character. He was horribly written in canon. Worse than Rachel, and that's saying something. His whole being is one giant walking contradiction

He storms out of the club more often than Rachel does. He was forced to join before any of the other jocks, sure, but he was on the fence time and time again while Puck, Mike, and Matt already made their decision to join and stay. Yet he's constantly praised as the uniter of cliques, the first jock to cross the line and try glee, the one who made glee club "kind of cool"

They say he was the first jock to be nice to any of the "losers". When he was still willing to slushy Kurt in ep 8 - again, after the other jocks chose glee over football. Not to mention the actual slurs he used. Doesn't sound very nice to me

He was always insulting Rachel, even when he was sooo into her. CONSTANTLY telling her how crazy she was, giving her backhanded compliments, was at a complete loss to come up with something nice to say about her besides she's a good singer. No problem cheating on Quinn with Rachel. Even when he thinks Quinn is literally carrying his child, he's fine ogling Rachel right in front of her. And he had no problem leading Rachel on and letting her think she had a chance with him, just to manipulate her to rejoining the club for his own gain. That almost feels like giving Finn too much credit but. It did happen

He only manages to choose Rachel bc he learns Quinn was lying to him. Then the second he chooses Rachel, he gets bored of her and wants to go around with Santana and Brittany instead. He fucks Santana, then lies to Rachel about it for as long as he can manage

And god. Santana. He fucks her, tells her it didn't mean anything to him, then expects her to keep his mouth shut so he can keep lying to Rachel's face from now until infinity. Then flash forward a couple of years and he literally outs Santana. Not just to the whole school, but to the whole entire fucking state. And he's supposed to be the good guy in this situation bc he clumsily tries to make up for this horrible offense that was 1000% avoidable, and entirely his fault in the first place

AND HE TELLS HER SHE MEANS SOMETHING TO HIM BC SHE WAS HIS FIRST. Absolutely NO other reason comes to mind, just that his penis was in her vagina in sophomore year. And that's why he doesn't want her to kill herself. It's been almost exactly a decade since that, and I'm still in complete fucking disbelief. And then he's hailed as the hero for singing the most offensive song on the entire show to "help Santana accept herself" or whatever bullshit they tried to spin. Seriously, I'd rather listen to Mr. Schue sing La Cucaracha on a loop for three hours than try to get through Finn singing Girls Just Want To Have Fun even one fucking time

And back to Finchel bc I'm not fucking done with them. He is the worst boyfriend in the entire fucking world. He shows time and time again that he knows so little about Rachel. He feeds her meat bc he forgets she's a vegan. She literally gives him a list of things she wants for Christmas (which was stupid anyway but) and he gives her a fucking pig when 1) vegan, again, and 2) she's Jewish and pork isn't kosher. Double whammy

And the way he gets offended that she won't consider what he wants to do with his future. When she's been dreaming of NY and Broadway practically her whole life, whereas he just thought of LA like five minutes ago. And now she's the unreasonable one for not wanting to give up her dreams for that? Ok buddy...

And this is all s3, supposedly the middle part of their epic romance. When Rachel loses her virginity to him. Bc her pussy is a consolation prize for being passed over by the football recruiter. And when Finn proposes to her. Bc he literally thinks he has nothing else going for him so he might as well have a wife. And Rachel only accepts bc she thinks she won't get into NYADA and she'd rather have a husband than nothing. And then the second she gets accepted to NYADA she's like "oh right, Finn..."

And then he makes a huge life changing decision for her on his own, without her input. It was the right decision, but she still deserved a say in her own fucking future. He forces her onto a train to NY and then drops all contact with her FOR MONTHS. And then he shows up in NY expecting to just pick up where they left off! He's pissed to see her with someone new! And she straight up tells him (and us) that she HATED him for what he did to her! And I don't blame her. How can you??

Finchel was never a good couple. In the first two seasons, it was all cheating and lying and indecision. In s3 it only calmed down bc all the outside forces left them alone. They had nothing to do with Quinn, Santana, Puck, or Jesse. All the turmoil was coming from the two of them. They never agreed on anything. Even every one of their so called amazing romantic gestures was tainted by something foul. Consolation pussy, marriage as a fallback, etc

And god. Don't get me started on Finn's horrible violent streak. You already know how I feel about this. In the best case scenario, he's kicking and screaming and throwing furniture around. Worst case, he's assaulting people left and right. He beats Puck up twice, constantly trying to fight with Sam, with Jesse, even with poor sweet Joe who's honestly too dumb to be mad at

In s3 he comes close to assaulting Quinn at prom. She's been in a fucking wheelchair for months and he sees her walk two feet and automatically assumes she's been lying about everything and can walk perfectly fine without any assistance. So he causes a scene in front of the whole school, calling her crazy (bc that's the only way Finn can describe women), SCREAMING at her, and grabbing at her like he's trying to pull her out of her chair! That is literal psycho behavior, I don't care how you try to slice it

The Brody fight. I know I don't have to say it. But lurking in a hotel room in order to jump a sex worker is also psycho behavior. I hate him for that. And then bc it's Finn, he's praised as the good guy and Rachel is flattered he did that for her. To "defend her honor". Whereas irl she'd probably be taking out a restraining order on his crazy ass

And then he fucking dies. And he apparently ascends to sainthood. I know it was a tragedy what happened, but oh my god. It makes me sick how they treated this character after he died. There was never so much bullshit spewed on the show than any time they talked about Finn in the later seasons

He sought out Sam in order to find someone worthy to take over the club for him when he graduated. What?! That is the funniest fucking thing Glee ever wrote. He did the same thing with Rory, going up to the new guy and being like "I'm the quarterback :) That makes me very cool!" to try and get them to do what he wants. Like trying his damnedest to keep Sam from singing with Kurt even tho Sam was totally cool about it and also not homophobic. And then Sam gets quarterback and Finn definitely stops trying to recruit him lol. And then they fight off and on for the rest of s2 basically. So yeah. That was certainly a selfless and altruistic mission for Finn

He didn't bother with Blaine in s3 bc he knew there was no point in even trying to manipulate Blaine. He might be the new guy at McKinley, but he was already wise to Finn’s bullshit thanks to Kurt. So instead he just acted antagonistic towards Blaine from the start. Blaine literally only opened his mouth to agree with something Finn said, and Finn is already jumping on him, telling him "this isn't the warblers we don't wear blazers here we're a team" while still holding onto his leader position with an iron fucking fist

He literally intentionally tried to get under Blaine's skin by getting his hopes up for the number in 3x06. He says "let's give the solo to the new guy" and Blaine smiles like he means him. And Finn literally looks right at Blaine when he says "Rory". For what. But of course Blaine turns right around and is like "you can do it, rory!" bc Blaine is classy and not a fucking antagonistic moron

Honestly Finn's beef with Blaine is one of the most insulting. I mean there's no excuse for his behavior towards anyone. But even if you tried your damnedest to excuse him (and plenty of people do) then it's like. "Oh Kurt was coming on too strong" "Oh Quinn and Puck lied to him" "Oh Rachel is annoying and I hate her and she deserves all the bad things" but with Blaine it's literally like. He's the new guy that Finn can't keep under his thumb so he's not even going to pretend to tolerate him. He literally says "I was kind of jealous. Your talent freaked me out" and so that's why he's been acting like such a cunt for two months. And of course the show paints that as totally valid and now it's okay and he and Blaine are besties they even fist bump <3 Like give me a fucking break. It makes me sick. I block every single Flaine gifset I have the misfortune of seeing on my dash

I'm sure there are so many other specifics I didn't cover but I probably have covered them at some point or another in another long anti Finn rant on my blog. Literally everything about his character is handled poorly. Glee shows us time and time again that he's an angry, rude, petty, vindictive asshole with a violent temper who acts impulsively and cares about no one but himself. But they tell us he's a fearless leader, selfless, kind, generous, altruistic, nurturing, and an all around great guy! So which one would you believe?? I know my answer!

I honestly don't know what I'd do to change him. The devil in me says to just take him out completely. The show would instantly improve. Glee is supposed to be about the underdogs. We don't need a six season through line about how the minority kids need to open their hearts and minds to accept and follow the lead of the cishet white male jock

I understand focusing on him in s1. Like I said about Mr. Schue earlier, he's one of our original main characters. And he projects all his childhood missed opportunity bullshit onto Finn. So of course we'd see more of him through Will's eyes. But holy shit. Put him in the background of s2 and beyond

By the end of s1 he did about everything he had to do at least once. I get so fucking tired seeing him have to go through the same bullshit and learn the same lessons over and over again. I don't want to see him be a bigot just to be hailed as the hero five minutes later bc he did the bare minimum to fix his own horrendous fuck up. Same with his bullshit relationship drama. Oh he cheated? Oh he lied? Again? Groundbreaking. I'm on the edge of my seat! What'll he do next?? Oh, more of the same? Ok...

Honestly Finn is one of my least favorite parts of the whole show. I can't even imagine how amazing Glee would be if it didn't rely so heavily on being tethered to this one horrible little boy. If the entire show didn't act like it hinged on the super hero Finn who can do no wrong and is the fucking king saint god of the entire universe. If the show was even half as much up Finn's ass, if he just got fairly reprimanded for the bullshit he did... It would instantly be SUCH an improvement

Obviously every character on this show has their problems. But Finn is the worst of the worst of the worst. Nothing about him makes sense. The character is fucking rotted from the inside out. Like I said, every single tiny thing we're shown vs told is a contradiction. If you just went by word of mouth, Finn would sound fucking amazing! But I have eyes and ears and a brain, so I can see what Finn does and hear the things he actually says. And I know that the Finn we're told about, and the Finn we see, have absolutely zero overlap. And that's why his character is the bottom of the fucking barrel :)

So yeah that's what I'd fix about Glee if I had the power to fix one thing. Thanks for the ask babe! xx

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latestageglee · 3 years

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latestageglee · 3 years

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Thinking about how Tina’s progression from S1 to S6 would have been brilliant had it been intentional and not the result of laziness and a blatant disregard for Jenna Ushkowitz.

Thinking about how her going from the token shy girl who fakes a stutter to get out of socializing to a brazen diva-type who craves attention could have been beautiful if they'd explored it. She feels unloved and unappreciated, but doesn't know how to say so because she's spent her entire life avoiding socialization; not only does she not know how to address it, but she's built her persona around being quiet, so she can't speak up without losing her "Tina." So she does what any insecure teenager would — imitates the successful / popular girls by adopting their diva mannerisms, but because it's not natural to her, it comes off as awkward and unlikable rather than a cry for help.

Thinking about how her sudden wardrobe switch reflects this perfectly. She's been reduced to the gothic Asian introvert rather than a talented & multi-faceted individual, and her ditching the clothes that once made up her identity could be an attempt at a fresh start. This is reinforced by the direction she takes with her clothes, i.e. styling her hair like leading lady Rachel and favoring similar dress styles to alpha-bitch Santana.

Thinking about how the running gag that she ~ always falls for gay men ~ could be further indicative of her low self-worth. She's convinced nobody could ever love her, so she only falls for those she knows she can't have / won't reciprocate as a way of shielding herself. (Brief aside: some psychologists think this is part of the reason why celebrity crushes are so common!)

Thinking about how her sudden "must propose to Mike Chang ASAP" could be one of two things: a) her pent-up feelings of worthlessness finally exploding after seeing her friends go on to lead seemingly great lives, causing her to latch onto the one time she felt really seen and loved, or b) an attempt at going back to the authentic Tina, the down-to-earth one we'd seen in the first three seasons, after she realized trying to be someone she isn't won't earn the respect of a group who never appreciated her, anyways.

Thinking about how her ending up with Artie, if rather abrupt, is a great way of showcasing their growth: they started off together, broke it off, grew, and returned to one another as changed, improved people.

Thinking about how it would've taken an episode, tops, to add in that context and make the weak writing seem genius, but that's just too much effort, huh?

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