#WHOSE CHOICE WAS IT TO PUT ASAJJ ON THE COVER

[jewishcissiekj]

you lied to me.

[fanbynature]

CAN YOU FEEL MY HEART?

OBIKIN x AU /PART 4/PART 3/PART 2/PART 1

I am so sorry for this, if anyone is still reading it.

In my defense this is the first time I am sticking to a fanfic for so long. I truly hope I finish it.

There is an OC in this one, which is probably going to reappear again.        I am leaving them without a name on purpose, I think it adds to the purpose they serve. 

tw / poor life choices, spiking/drugging without consent, sexual assault (I try not to go too deep into it but still there are parts which may affect people) /

Enjoy!

Halfway into his shift, he heard a familiar voice from somewhere near the bar. It was Ahsoka, she was together with some of her University friends and her high school friend – Bariss. Obi-wan smiled a little to himself. He swears that these two have been pining for each other for years and the only times where either of them tries to confess, usually Ahsoka, is when they are drunk and nothing happens. If this continues any longer he was going to set them up on a blind date with each other or some bantha crap like that.

“‘Sup, Obi?” the younger girl greeted him brightly with amusement in her eyes. The older man looked at her first delightedly, then gave her a look that read in the lines of I am working, what do you think is going on or that was what he was trying to get across. And it seemed it got delivered as the younger girl smiled apologetically.  

“Anyways, we just came for a quick drink, because I have early classes and I have to be a responsible adult.” Ahsoka smiled amusingly her eyes travelling from Obi-wan to Bariss. The other girl returned the smile and spoke “Right, as you should always be. “

“Of course, what do you take me for?” the togruta looked exaggeratedly hurt and Bariss giggled at her friend. Obi-wan observed them sharply.

“So the usual for you and whatever else your friends want?”  Obi-wan drew the attention of Ahsoka towards him as he didn’t want to spend too much time chit-chatting idly while his co-workers were being productive.

“Yeah, sure,” the younger girl replied and turned towards her friends to ask them for their preferred liquor. After everyone received whatever they wanted to drink, Obi-wan attracted the attention of Ahsoka to him and pulled her to the side of the bar. He gave her a long look, to which she answered with a questioning look of her own and mounted a what. The older man sighed and retorted to his friend that it’s about time she got her head in the right space and make the first step. Ahsoka just gave him a bewildered look. The man clasped his hands on the girl’s shoulder, look at her and uttered Bariss. He couldn’t see Ahsoka’s reaction as he turned the girl around, pushed her forward and went back to do his job.  The girl stayed at the same spot, taken aback, for a few moments trying to get her mind back to reality. She contemplated whether she should turn around, go to the older man and argue whatever hints he was throwing were wrong. As soon as she thought of that her attention was drawn because of the said girl’s voice. Ahsoka looked over to where her friends were and she smiled to herself. What an idiot, I am the togruta thought to herself shaking her head, she headed to her friends. Well, it’s better late than never.

Obi-wan watched the younger girl out of the corner of his eye and grinned a little.

“Well, what was that all about?” Obi-wan heard Asajj retort while he was serving a customer. He smiled at the client and gave his order.

“Ahsoka needed a little bit of a nudge to do something so I gave it to her.” The man replied his co-worker as he was getting the order of the next client.

“Oh, is that so?” the older woman said amusingly. “How come your love life sucks so much but you give romantic advice to other people? “ Obi-wan tried not to bite back at the comment as he was in the middle of preparing the order.

“I don’t have the energy to get into that conversation with you, right now, Ventress,” the only response that was returned to Obi-wan was a long hum and then the older woman left him. For which he was grateful because he had not been able to settle his feelings and thoughts on everything that happened with Satine yet. Also, that night that was truly unclear and the only one that knew for now is Rex. He couldn’t allow his emotions to confuse his head now as things for the band were looking brighter.

He couldn’t let himself to ruin everything they have worked for and achieved. He knew that there are better ways to deal with this but right now he didn’t have time, it could wait. Everything will be fi-

“Hello, beautiful,” Obi-wan’s mind froze for a moment before he looked up from where he was scrubbing the wet glassware. He couldn’t believe it. Live was playing a sick joke on him for every distress he made his old man feels when he was a teenager. That must be it. There wasn’t any other explanation for the mockery of mockeries that was happening at this kriffing moment. That bastard was here. ���I can’t believe that we are meeting again. Here of all places.” You don’t have to say that to me Obi-wan wanted to bitterly laugh at the twi’lek man in front of him. But he couldn’t muster any kind of response.

The singer was on his 7th or 8th glass of whatever liquor he had decided to order this time; he was mixing them and Rex couldn’t bother to remember them after the 4th one. The blonde man was giving worries glances to the older man but he was long gone to care. The man seemed like he had not drunk anything for months given the way how fast he was going through each glass. Rex guessed that the older man was trying to forget his problems with Satine. Their relationship has been steadily going downhill for some time now. Rex thought that even the two of them couldn’t pin-point exact point when it all started, probably started with small things and it grew. Obi-wan always tried to shrug it off as something every couple goes through but it seemed like it was getting to him.

Obi-wan turned to his friend smiling, trying to lean forward to his ear but he was having a hard time balancing and just draped himself over Rex’s right side. The older man giggled under his breath.

“Where is ‘Soka?” his voice raspy from the hour set they played and an hour screaming in the crowd after the set.

“She ordered a lift home and left about 15 minutes ago.” The ginger man pulled his face in a pout. Rex thought is about a time to get this man home. “She did even say bye.”

“You were rather occupied” the younger man made an effort to put bitterness in his voice as he replied. The older man had not been selfish with people who had tried to hit on him, flirting with them back, dancing on a very thin line that he shouldn’t even try to be near at. Rex wasn’t as close to Satine as he is to the older man, she is constantly travelling with her work so they haven’t been able to become. The blonde man has concluded that he wouldn’t feel remorseful towards the woman if Obi-wan and she decided to break things off. He would feel sorry for his friend as Satine seemed good for him but maybe things weren’t as perfect as they were at first. However Rex had also said to himself that if his friend goes and do something stupid, he was going to drag his ass to Satine and make him beg for forgiveness, they were still together.

Rex looked over to where his friend was but he was nowhere to be found. Crap the man thought. He franticly looked over the bar, over to the sofas spread in the cantina and the dance floor. He finally saw him – the older man was dancing and grinding his body over a male twi’lek, his skin yellow painted over with black tattoos, his left ear covered with piercings, his right nostril also embellished with a single ring piercing. Obi-wan’s back was facing the front of the twi’lek whose hands were on the human’s hips, holding him closer and grinding in synchronization with the man in front of him. Rex had made a few big strides towards the other men and grabbed his friend’s arm. The ginger looked at him surprised and shouted what.

“I think it’s time to get you home!”

“Oh, c’mon, Rex, don’t be a party pooper.” The twi’lek was grinning behind his friend and Rex was throwing laser blasters with his eyes. “Let’s get you another drink and find you a pretty lady to entertain you.”

“I am trying to help you so you won’t regret anything in the morning.” Obi-wan looked at him seriously for a moment then grinned back and shouted over the music. “I am just having a little bit of fun, buddy. Don’t worry.” His friend tried to move forward stumbling on his own feet. Before Rex could react the twi’lek behind them stretched his arm across Obi-wan’s abdomen and caught him, before he could face plant on the floor. Then the stranger looked over to Rex and sneered showing his sharp teeth.

After getting to the bar without anymore stumbling, Obi-wan ordered the three of them more drinks along with Rex protesting and his friend promising him that this is the last one, Rex sighed and excused himself to the refreshers.

When the blonde man was out of their sight the twi’lek started kissing and nibbling at the back of Obi-wan’s neck. Obi-wan moved his head to the side to give better accesses, allowing sounds of pleasure to escape his lips.

“As much as I enjoy this I really can’t go further. I am already committed to somebody. I have already-“ the twi’lek turned the human towards him and slammed his lips on Obi-wan’s, interrupting his explanation midsentence. Grabbing the back of the ginger’s head he bit his lips, slipping his tongue into the human’s hot mouth. Opening his eyes he looked over the bar and his surroundings, then grabbed a small bottle of his back pocket on his pants, the twi’lek dumped the substance of it in one of the drinks that had just been put down next to them. Without stopping giving attention to the human’s lips in front of him, he mixed the spice sloppily inside the drink. He slowly withdrew his lips from the singer, licking the small trail of blood on the other’s lips. As the human seemed slightly out of breath, trying to take his composure back, the twi’lek took advantage and started trailing kissed down his jaw and neck, licking and softly biting him. Out of the corner of his eye, the twi’lek could see Rex, coming back and withdrew back from Obi-wan, giving him the drink with spice in it.

“Drink this, beautiful.” The twi’lek said, voice low and full of suggestion, in the human’s ear, loud enough for just him to hear while caressing the left thigh of the ginger, going dangerously high. Then a hand stopped him. He looked up the man in front of him, his gaze was cold and he was shaking his head. The twi’lek just looked amused at Obi-wan and drank from his drink. The human then turned to his friend, smiling and talking.

About thirty minutes later Obi-wan excused himself to the refreshers, swaying a little bit from side to side. That left the other two men in an awkward setting; the absence of their conversation was filled with the noise of the music and the voices of other people. After a few moments, the twi’lek announced that he also had to use the refreshers, Rex only giving him a nod. The twi’lek made his way to a quiet place where he could order a hovercab. After that, he started walking towards the refreshers. Once inside he scanned the place for his human companion and found him over a sink, splashing his face. With a slow and confident stride, he started advancing towards the ginger man.

“Hey there, gorgeous,” Obi-wan looked up at the twi’lek, his face had started to sweat and his breath had become uneven.

“I think I-I don’t fe-el that well.”

“Yeah, you don’t look good either. Actually, your friend is ordering us a lift home; he said he is going to wait outside, so I think it’s for the best if we leave, yeah.”The twi’lek leaned to the human, grabbing him across his back so he could lean on him for support. Obi-wan just nodded and made approving noises and the twi’lek smiled at him.”

After exiting the refreshers he looked around for the other human, trying to get around unnoticed while heading for outside. When the twi’lek managed to get them both out of the cantina without being seen, he nudged the other man towards the hovercab persuading the ginger man that his friend was already inside the cab. After getting them into the vehicle and giving the address to the driver the twi’lek shifted his focus to Obi-wan, trying to find his communication device on him. Having found it he searched for Obi-wan’s friend contact and sends him a message that he is going to get Obi-wan safely to his home and he didn’t have to worry. And before the spice took full control of Obi-wan, the twi’lek asked the man for his address so he could get him home after he finishes with him. The drugged-up man mumbled barely allowing for the other men to understand him but still catching the full address.

After finishing everything as planned he relaxed next to the other man, caressing his right thigh as higher as he wanted to before, cupping his cock through the pants, feeling the hardness that was growing and smiling to himself as he thought that the spice was surely working. He started kissing the other man’s neck while continuously paying attention to the hardened member which earned him low whimpers that made the twi'lek's cock to twitch in anticipation. He imagined how hot and tight the human must feel; how deep he was going to be in his little human. I am going to fuck this little kitten so nice and fast, he is going to feel it for a week the twi’lek thought to himself as he captured the ginger’s lips with a rough kiss, biting his lips and shoving his tongue inside the other’s mouth.

“Fuck, baby I have been watching you – watching me all night. You have been teasing me with your little hips and twinkly eyes. And that voice of yours – shit, you are going to scream only for me tonight, baby. I am going to make you scream so good for me.” The twi’lek whispered in the human’s ear and snuck his hand inside the other’s trousers, grabbing his cock at the base and tugging it, which made Obi-wan to jerk his hips forward and let a sweet low moan.

“Yeah, baby just like that. Sing for me, beautiful. “

“It must be fate or the Force bantha crap all that Jedi talk about. What do you say; we go for a second round after you finish here? “The sultry voice of the man in front of Obi-wan was making him feel sick to his stomach, making the hairs at the back of his head raise.”Well, a fourth time. You- hey, where are you going?”Obi-wan had turned to Asajj excusing himself to the backroom explaining he wasn’t feeling well and trying to discreetly but quickly to get out of the situation. He could still hear the voice of that man but didn’t want to register what he was saying. Obi-wan moved swiftly between the tables and the clients, trying not to get noticed. He could hear the man getting louder but it wasn’t directed at him. The bodyguards were trying to extract him from the premise. Obi-wan guessed that Asajj figured out what was happening. Making a note for himself to endlessly thank the woman and even buy her a dinner or something, he entered the staff room, headed straight to the back of it where the sinks were and threw up in one of them, then turned the faucet on, waiting for the water to wash his stomach’s residues. Straight after that, he splashed cold water over his face, drinking a little of the transparent liquid to wash up his mouth. After that, he went to his locker to grab a towel he kept for showering after work. He sat on the floor with the towel pressed to his face, breathing deeply trying to calm himself. He stood there for a few more minutes until he decided that he felt stable enough to go back. He headed for the door when it suddenly opened.

“What was that about?” Ventress was watching him concernedly and sounded worried too” Spit it out fast before Cody goes to the bar and asks, not so nicely, why is there just one person” she continued with urgency in her voice now. Obi-wan contemplated a bit before answering.

“It was an ex. A really old one”

“An ex? ”The woman retorted, her facial features full of distrust.”Are you saying that just so I get off your business?”

Yes the man thought “Maybe” he tried to shrug it off but he didn’t know how successful he was. Asajj gazed at him for a bit before reassuring him that if there is anything that is troubling him she is here for him. He nodded and thanked her before exiting the room and returning to the bar.

 The next morning Obi-wan woke up with a migraine, wanting to erase everything from last night and not wanting to get up from the bed. However, today is the day the band has the meeting for the studio. He felt a bit of a positive rush coming into his body and mind but still felt ill in his stomach. Obi-wan got up with a huff and started to get ready for the day. He wanted to keep himself as busy as possible so he won’t have to remember and face the memories that are strongly trying to arise. He thought that maybe blasting music will keep his head occupied but he ultimately decided against it as he had good relations with his neighbours and didn’t want to change that, so he settled for a medium volume.

30 minutes into Obi-wan trying to get ready, his communication device started going off.  It was Asajj. Unusual the ginger thought as he picked up the call.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” the man started lightheartedly.

“Just checking on you, to hear how you are doing.” replied the older woman. “Shut up, Quinn, I am not giving you the phone.” Obi-wan could hear the hushed voice of Asajj on the other end of the line, probably trying to restrain her boyfriend. Obi-wan tried to suppress a laugh but he was also reminded about last night, which until now he was having a marvellous time ignoring it.

“I am good, very uncharacteristic of you, Asajj, to call me for something so minor.” The ginger was keeping his voice stable and tried to sound casual.  

“You didn’t look like it was okay. I didn’t want to raise the question yesterday as we were at work but…” Asajj seemed to mull something over in her head as she stopped.”Really if there is anything don’t hesitate to tell me, okay. “There were a few beats of silence before Asajj cleared her throat and continued “Well, Quinlan is very insistently saying “hi” but as you are probably busy with your band and stuff I am going to end this call and see you soon.” Obi-wan heard the change from genuinely pleasant voice to trying to keep the façade of being polite in Asajj, probably caused by her boyfriend.”No, Quinlan, just-“the line on the other end cut before Obi-wan could say anything else. He stared at the device for a few seconds before snickering and leaving it on the table so he could return to getting ready.

[lj-writes]

Is Finn immune to the Force?

It still bothers me that Kylo Ren never used the Force against Finn. I mean, we’re talking about the guy who's been shown doing this

and this

and this

also this

and so much more to his enemies and even people who just kind of annoyed him in the moment. The dude has oodles of Force power and is not at all shy about throwing it around. Other Force users are not immune, as shown with Rey who is even more powerful than he is.

So why, in his fight against Finn at the end of TFA, did Ren never even try to use the Force? Finn went running to an unconscious Rey after Ren knocked her out. Finn had even thrown his blaster aside, not that blasters work against Ren as Poe found out at the start of the movie. Why didn’t Ren throw Finn against a tree, too, or lift him into the air and choke him? That’s more like the guy’s usual MO.

Instead Ren not only dueled Finn but even resorted to punching him after disarming him, which had viewers commenting that his animosity against Finn seemed very raw and personal. It is true that Ren seems to have a personal beef against Finn (link), but again, the new Supreme Leader of the First Order has never been hesitant to use Force power against people regardless of how well he knew them or how strongly he felt about them. He revels in making people, from total strangers to hated rivals, helpless with his power. So why not Finn?

My hypothesis is that there’s another layer to Ren’s animosity against Finn beyond the usually-discussed ones of Finn defecting and making the opposite choices he did, and Ren’s hatred being the manifestation of his regrets. That’s a valid point and I have argued it myself (link), but what if there’s something more immediate and visceral going on?

Let’s go back to that moment in the village near the beginning of TFA, when Ren stared for a long moment at Finn before he turned away. He then unfreezes Poe’s blaster beam to strike a pole Finn was standing near, startling him and showering him with sparks.

What exactly prompted the staring and the intimidation here? There have been many speculations, from his realizing that Finn had not fired at the villagers to sensing Finn’s Force sensitivity. These are sound possibilities, but what if there’s something else? What if this scene is key to their interactions throughout the movie, and ties into the abovementioned duel scene at the end?

Let me propose an alternate scenario: Kylo Ren, having ordered the slaughter of unarmed prisoners, senses a disturbance in the Force--or rather, a lack of disturbance where there should be one. Remember what Chirrut said in Rogue One: “The Force moves darkly around a creature that is about to kill.” Given that the Force is the connection between living beings, I can imagine that this dark movement of the Force would persist for at least a little while afterward.

So let’s say Kylo Ren senses that there is no dark movement of the Force around Finn that indicates he had killed or intended to kill someone. He turns and stares directly at that point of light amid the darkened swirls in the Force.

Now, this alone could be enough to annoy him and he might find it reason enough to bully Finn. But what if his stare was about more than sensing the Force around Finn and realizing this Trooper had not obeyed his orders? Wouldn’t you be at least a little curious at such an anomaly, maybe try and see if the Trooper had simply lost his nerve or if something more was going on? 

What if the intensity of Kylo Ren’s stare indicated that he was trying to skim the surface of Finn’s mind, something the target might not even feel unlike a full mind probe? Just enough to tell what thoughts and emotions were going through the Trooper’s mind?

What if it didn’t work?

Imagine the turmoil, even embarrassment Kylo Ren would have felt in this scenario. His entire life was defined for better and for worse by being a powerful Force user. It was the source of his self-worth, the reason for his perceived superiority, the means by which he dominated others. Then to have something so simple as a mind scan fail to work on a lowly Stormtrooper, as though he had been walled off? Imagine his astonishment, then fury.

At this point it is entirely in character for Ren to unfreeze the blaster beam in a pique, intimidating Finn and reasserting control over the situation in his own mind. It was a reassurance to himself that his Force powers were still as potent as ever--the blaster beam hovering obediently in the air was proof enough!--and still worked on even the aberrant Stormtrooper, if not directly. Ren would have soothed himself with the thought that he could have killed the Trooper if he had wanted. He was still in control. Still powerful. Still Kylo Ren.

He could tell no one. He couldn’t even kill the Trooper, at least not outright, because it would raise too many questions. He had to figure out what had happened, who that Trooper was, and fix this situation before Snoke or Hux had any clue of what had happened.

A lot of Ren’s fixations with Finn start to make sense under this scenario. When Hux said they were searching the registers for the Stormtrooper that had sprung the Resistance pilot and escaped, Ren’s mind immediately went to Finn. Why? Because he had been reading that particular Trooper’s file himself, combing it for clues. He thought this Trooper could very well have run away to preserve whatever his secret was.

Even Ren’s mention of the clone program to Hux takes on a new meaning in this light. He may have realized in a panic that it might not be just Finn--the entire Stormtrooper program might be a danger. All those multitudes of humans taken in and trained with no idea of their Force potential. How many others like that escaped Trooper were out there, right in the Order’s ranks? How could he prevent it from ever happening again?

To him, the clones would have seemed a promise of full control. With a single, known template he would know exactly what he was getting. Obviously there’s no saying that whatever made Finn special was genetic in nature, but to someone like Kylo Ren, who believes so strongly in the supremacy of his heritage, that would have seemed the paramount factor.

As the movie progresses Ren certainly gains more and more reasons to hate Finn. But the hatred he has for Finn seems different from what he feels for the many others who oppose him, as though Finn touched on his rawest nerves and his very existence is an insult. Again, there are other perfectly valid explanations for this hatred. But then we return to the first question: why not use the Force on Finn? Not during combat, and not even when he finally has Finn helpless and under his power?

This may have been another reason for Ren’s interest in Rey. His cover was that the scavenger could give him the map to Luke Skywalker just like the droid could, but another key point about her was that she had traveled with Finn and might be able to provide information about him that a droid could not. Ren must have had a wealth of information from mechanical scans of Finn, which likely revealed nothing, but what he didn’t have was the impression of an organic being who had cared enough to interact on a personal level with him and so provide vital clues.

Besides, it wasn’t like he could conduct in-depth interviews of First Order personnel without drawing suspicion, not that he trusted any of them in the first place. The scavenger on the other hand was a prisoner from whom he could, as he put it, take whatever he wanted. It would also explain why he would take her as his personal prisoner and interrogated her himself from the start rather than leave her to Stormtroopers and droids. The information about Luke Skywalker he might share with the First Order, but he could not afford to let anyone else know about Finn’s mysterious qualities should the prisoner give up any salient details. The discovery of Rey’s Force abilities and her ability to push him out of her mind would have thrown a wrench in the works, obviously.

The next time Kylo Ren sees Finn it’s at the oscillator on Starkiller Base after Han’s death, and he is enraged for so many different reasons at this point. Is there also some fear behind that anger, though? Is there a reason he’s focused so specifically on Finn over Rey, whose Force powers have proven even greater than Ren’s? If Finn represents a vulnerability for Ren that not even Rey does, the idea that Ren’s power itself might have holes and might not work, that would go a long way toward explaining the intensity of his reaction.

When Finn and Rey escape, Ren tracks them down personally despite his injury and is waiting for them. “We’re not done yet.” Of course he’s not done with Rey, he wants her on his side and is under orders to take her to Snoke, but what if he’s also addressing Finn? Finn is still a riddle he has to solve, and if that is not possible a threat to eliminate.

Now let’s go into the leadup to Finn and Ren’s duel. One point I found interesting is that Finn and Rey were standing very close together, within what looks like 4-5 inches apart, when Ren knocked Rey into a tree. They were standing close together in the first place, having instinctively closed ranks on seeing Ren. 

See how Finn’s left shoulder and Rey’s right actually overlap while she calls Ren a monster:

So my question is: Why was only Rey pushed, and not Finn? We know it’s possible to Force push several opponents at once if they’re close to each other, it happened frequently in The Clone Wars for instance. See, for instance, Asajj Vetress pushing two mooks at once (all Clone Wars gifs are from a Force push compilation on YouTube, and have been very slightly slowed down):

Or two Force users in close quarters being pushed away together:

Jedi get this treatment, too.

So do droids.

Compare the above to Finn and Rey in the woods when Ren used the Force push:

Does this seem incongruent to you as well? Finn and Rey were standing as close to each other as any of the Force pushees in The Clone Wars examples, likely closer together than any of them in fact, yet only Rey is blown back and Finn is not affected at all.

Sure, maybe Ren was immediately focused on Rey because she was the more immediate threat with the blaster, and maybe he wanted to concentrate the push to send her particularly far. If these other examples are any indication, though, it seems at the very least unusual for someone who was standing so close to the intended target to be so entirely unaffected by even a byblow.

And speaking of focusing on Rey, there’s another thing about the Force push that always bothered me. Anti reylos have pointed out, correctly, that throwing Rey that high against a tree could have killed her. Yet, to me, that doesn’t fit what Ren was trying to achieve. He was intrigued by this girl’s powers and was thinking about recruiting her, why would he try to kill her? Throw off her blaster beam, sure. Gain an advantage in the fight with the aim of capturing her, yes. But throw her so high and hard he ran the risk of killing her? That doesn’t make sense, not because he’s any less evil but because it’s not in his self-interest.

Unless... what if he didn’t mean to push her that high? What if he had been aiming at both Finn and Rey and had meant to achieve something much like the Clone Wars examples above, pushing them both to distract them and throw them off? Except the Force push, having met an immovable object in Finn, channeled around to hit Rey and Rey alone, hitting her with far more power than Ren intended?

If it’s true that Ren was aiming at both Finn and Rey, or at least pushed in a way that would normally have affected both, he would have gained yet more confirmation that Finn was, as Phasma put it in a different context, a “bug in the system.” Beyond being his opposite in every way Finn was something that shouldn’t exist, that reminded Ren that he could not control everyone and everything.

Finn is far from invulnerable, of course, as Ren himself took great lengths to prove. Yet he did so entirely by physical means, in contrast to his usual style of throwing his Force powers around especially on people who can’t defend themselves. Viewers interpret this as a choice on Ren’s part, a physical expression of his grudge against Finn. What if he had no choice because physical means were the only ones that worked?

And what does Ren do once he has wounded and incapacitated Finn? Instead of finishing off his enemy he reaches immediately for Anakin’s lightsaber, calling to it through the Force. It’s like he has something to prove, especially after the sight of Finn holding it and using it against him.

In sum, I think there’s a case for saying that Ren never used the Force against Finn because it doesn’t work against him, and that this discovery early in TFA was the driver behind his and Finn’s tension throughout the movie. This means that Finn has a unique Force power, something Ren finds more threatening than even a powerful Force user like Rey. Such a reveal would have tremendous implications for the ongoing story and the nature of the Force itself.

Of course, it’s also possible the whole thing was simply an oversight on the filmmakers’ part, but if so I find it an interesting speculation to fill the gap.