#after the next addition to Defectors AU

[seth-shitposts]

I think

I'm going to go polish another part to post for the Defectors AU Concept fic on Ao3

Or

Polish up the post I made about the AU where Tua & The Grand Inquisitior lived and Kallus convinced them to Join the Rebellion/Switch Allegiances.

I'll figure it out when I get to the docs or if someone has a preference and tells me before I figure it out.

[lj-writes]

Finn's old squad and the identity of the Executioner

The existence of the Executioner Stormtroopers, a unit dedicated to rooting out disloyalty in the ranks, has set fans buzzing. The reveal provided more fuel to speculation about a possible Stormtrooper uprising headed by Finn, and The Last Jedi trailer only intensified the speculation.

Could it be that we know at least one of the Executioner Stormtroopers from tie-in media? Someone who is known to Finn and has/will have a complicated relationship with him, with the potential for really gripping conflict?

I believe, or rather was—very easily--convinced by @kyberfox, that Finn’s old squadmate Zeroes, Trooper designation FN-2000, will appear as an Executioner Stormtrooper in TLJ. He is the only other known survivor of Finn’s Stormtrooper squad, and appeared in the Before the Awakening novella collection and, according to Wookiepedia, The Force Awakens  junior novelization and The Force Awakens: Finn’s Story.

Full credit goes to Mara (kyberfox) by the way for this idea and even a possible casting choice for Zeroes, I’m just writing this up with her permission because I want this meta to be out there and because I spotted some stuff in BtA that further supports Mara’s theory.

Based on our chats I will also speculate briefly about the possible direction of Zeroes’ story, one obvious, one far less so and again suggested by the incomparable Mara.

So let’s briefly review the members of Finn’s luckless squad. Finn was the leader of a four-man squad composed of himself, FN-2000 (nicknamed “Zeroes”), FN-2199 (“Nines”), and FN-2003 (“Slip”). Of his squadmates we met Slip first. Alas, Slip's first appearance was also his last and his death at Poe’s hands led to the first hint that Finn was different from the other Troopers.

[Image description: A close-up of Slip's helmeted face just before his death]

We met the next member of Finn’s squad, Nines, during the battle of Takodana when Nines attacked Finn with a big baton and a bigger grudge. Before he went down at the business end of Chewie’s bowcaster he distinguished himself with the iconic cry of “Traitor!” and by nearly taking Finn down.

[Image description: The Stormtrooper with a shock baton who dueled Finn at Takodana, since identified as Nines]

As far as we know Nines’s first appearance was also his last, though depending on the protection provided by Stormtrooper armor and Nines’s luck we can’t completely discount the possibility that he survived. (For a headcanon/au of Nines surviving the battle, see this gorgeous moodboard and headcanon by @jakkus-storyteller.)

So that leaves two members of Finn’s old squad, Finn himself and Zeroes, who was not seen in The Force Awakens but did appear in tie-in works. For my purposes I will be relying on Before the Awakening for his characteristics.

[Image description: Zeroes in the background of a scene from Before the Awakening illustrated by Phil Noto]

What makes the mysterious Zeroes a likely candidate for an Executioner, and likely the most prominent member of the unit story-wise? For one thing there’s the fact that he and Finn knew each other, and that’s generally a better source of drama than an enemy who is a complete stranger.

What’s more, Zeroes was someone Finn once had a sense of responsibility for. If you read Finn’s story in BtA you know that when he feels responsible for someone he goes all out. His superiors’ only dissatisfaction with his performance was the way he protected and supported Slip, whom they considered a weak link. Finn would have done the same for Nines or Zeroes had they been the ones who needed him.

Further intensifying the drama is the fact that Zeroes may well hold a grudge much like Nines did. If the First Order’s stance toward defection and collective responsibility is anything like North Korea, which it was partly based on, both Nines and Zeroes would have been subjected to a metric ton of crap due to Finn’s defection. Due to their association with a defector they would have faced intense questioning and scrutiny, denunciation, demotion, demeaning treatment, and more.

In this context Nines’s scream of “Traitor!” is not just ideological but also personal. Of course most Stormtroopers, brainwashed with propaganda, are going to see Finn as a traitor anyway, but his old squad members may well have been tainted by association in addition to the usual reasons to despise a defector. In addition Nines was portrayed in BtA as an angry guy in general, so his outburst and rage-filled fighting style are consistent with his character.

Zeroes’ circumstances as Finn’s old squadmate are largely shared with Nines. Would his response to these circumstances differ from Nines’s? Does Zeroes have personal characteristics that would result in a different response to similar circumstances, and that would suit him to being an Executioner?

Based on the brief characterizations of Zeroes in BtA my theory is that Zeroes is a very different character than Nines, and that his personality provides additional reasons why he is likely to be an Executioner.

So what kind of character is Zeroes? A lot of the time in BtA he and Nines are indistinguishable. There’s Finn, the leader of the pack in ability as well as in position, and then there’s Slip, who is always falling behind and subject to Finn’s protection. Nines and Zeroes are at the middle of the pack, not the pinnacle of excellence that Finn is but also not the problem that Slip is. They both are, in many ways, rank-and-file Stormtroopers.

The few times Zeroes stands out as an individual, however, the clues to his character are subtle but unmistakable. In a post-simulation briefing with Phasma, Zeroes shows more eagerness to please his superior than any other member of the squad when he is described as “[drawing] himself even higher” when Phasma pointed out the need to improve his marksmanship. No other member of the squad has a similar physical reaction to Phasma’s feedback, leading me to believe Zeroes had a stronger visible reaction than the others.

Then there is a passage later on when Zeroes figures out ahead of the rest of the squad that they are about to get sent on their first mission:

“It’s coming, you can feel it. No more exercises. An actual deployment.”

When they do go on the mission, he explains to the squad why Phasma didn’t brief them about their destination and target:

“She’s not going to tell stormtroopers the Supreme Leader’s plans, or General Hux’s, or even her own. She’s not asking for our opinion. She’s got a job she wants done and she’s counting on us to do it.”

Notice how he gets into Phasma’s mindset despite having no more contact with her than anyone else in the squad. He also shows exceeding ability in reading his surroundings and the people around him—a good quality for an information officer, including a secret police. In these matters of discipline and morale he comes across as more of a squad leader than Finn does, showing the makings of a fine political commissar.

True to his analytical and watchful nature, Zeroes generally seems to have a more even keel than the hot-tempered Nines or even the constantly self-doubting Finn. This makes it even more interesting when Zeroes does lose his temper after losing a match to Finn:

Zeroes shrugged [Finn] off, his anger evident even behind his armor. [Finn] figured that was because he’d broken Zeroes’s streak.

This situation deserves further analysis. I mentioned, from the above briefing scene, that Zeroes showed more eagerness to please his superior than any other squad member. The main flaw Phasma pointed out to Zeroes was his marksmanship. This is in stark contrast to Finn, who, as Phasma revealed, fired only 36 times but scored 35 hits.

Then came the melee training, which Zeroes discovered he was actually pretty good at. He beat four opponents in a row, the longest winning streak up to that point. The success must have felt good to anyone, but especially to Zeroes who likes to please authority and was likely feeling overshadowed by Finn.

Then what happens? Finn breaks Zeroes’s winning streak and breaks his record, outshining Zeroes even at this. Again. This is when Zeroes starts getting mad, unlike Nines who just started out angry according to Finn. Zeroes is not generally an angry guy, but he shows clear ambition here, a desire to shine.

To recap, Zeroes is a really ambitious guy who has a sharp eye for reading situations and people. He also knows his superiors exceedingly well and wants nothing more than to please them and climb the ladder of power himself.

Zeroes may not be quite the warrior material Finn is (as it is, I’m pretty sure Zeroes would have been squad leader if Finn didn’t surpass him so clearly in conventional evaluations), but he has very clear strengths in another area: Espionage, especially internal surveillance. Something like discovering and dealing with disloyalty in your own ranks, in other words. Something like the Executioner unit.

In fact, Nines’s and Zeroes’s differing abilities and personalities may well have led to different reactions to Finn and his defection. They would both have had to prove their loyalty in some way in addition to working out their personal grudges. Nines, with his temper and straightforward (and rather unimaginative) mind, thought that way lay in beating Finn in battle.

Zeroes, on the other hand, is very likely to have taken a more systematic, methodical approach. What better way to prove his loyalty than by uprooting disloyalty within the ranks, exposing future Finns before they emerged? This course of action both plays to his strengths and matches the way his mind seems to work. And he certainly showed the intelligence and imagination to engineer such a position for himself. In addition, I’m sure he would not say no to a rematch should he and Finn cross paths again—say, because Finn is trying to foment an uprising among Stormtroopers.

Mara even had an idea of who might play Zeroes if he does appear in TLJ and beyond: Bronx-born actor and model Dante Briggins, who played uncredited Stormtrooper roles in TFA and is slated to appear again in TLJ as one or more unnamed Stormtroopers.

[Image description: Picture of Dante Briggins]

Mr. Briggins matches Zeroes’ physical description of having dark brown skin; the character’s other distinguishing characteristic, a scar on one cheek, is not difficult for professional stage makeup artists to simulate.

What can we expect from this character if he does appear in TLJ? The more straightforward path is that of the implacable yet methodical enemy, and it’s certainly something one can expect from Zeroes’s ambition, his intellectual detachment, and his lack of hesitation when shooting unarmed people at the end of Finn’s story in BtA. Where Finn fought a physical battle with Nines he may find himself in a battle of wits with Zeroes in a game of intelligence and counterintelligence.

A much less predictable and, in my opinion, more interesting story was suggested by Mara. In this theory Zeroes is a part of the uprising, likely part of their leadership given his position and abilities, and is their inside man in the Executioner squad. You can flip everything we know about the guy on its head and it still works—yes, he’s a sharp and canny guy, but that also means he can make himself seem to be exactly what the FO brass want. His lack of hesitation in shooting the miners? We have no idea what he was thinking, and this may well be the act of a man who doesn’t want to commit murder but is also ruthless and pragmatic not to blow his cover for people who will die no matter what he does.

I find this possibility of a rebellious Zeroes fascinating because he would provide such a perfect foil for Finn. Where Finn chose to flee due to his revulsion for the First Order’s crimes, Zeroes chose to stay and topple it from the inside. Where Finn chose individual moral purity, Zeroes chose to stay with the other troopers and share in their suffering and also their crimes. Where Finn turned his weapons on other Troopers in the quest for his own freedom (which was fully justified, I want to make clear), Zeroes is working toward getting as many Troopers out alive as he can, though his chosen path no doubt leads him to kill, directly or indirectly, those he cannot help. I mean I’m pretty sure the name “Executioner” isn’t just for the cool factor.

Just think about the possibilities for conflict. In Finn’s eyes Zeroes is a criminal for participating in the Order’s war crimes and turning in disloyal Troopers. In Zeroes’ eyes Finn is selfish for seeking freedom only for himself and killing other Troopers. Under this scenario Finn and Zeroes personify the conflict between individual freedom and moral purity on the one hand, and the search for collective freedom at the price of getting one’s hands dirty by staying in a criminal organization.

Each man is a coward in the other’s eyes. To Finn, Zeroes didn’t have the courage to leave. To Zeroes, Finn didn’t have the courage to stay.

Finn and Zeroes may also learn from each other, however, and complete each others’ journeys. Finn might realize his quest for individual freedom, while brave and admirable, is incomplete unless it includes others. Zeroes might learn the value of Finn’s individual vision and heroism in making collective freedom a reality. They’d both have to swallow a lot of pride before they come to this realization and work together, but if they do they’d be unstoppable as a team.

If Finn and Zeroes do work together, they would parallel an ancient story of two men with very different values and temperaments working together to free the enslaved—Moses and Aaron, the brothers from Exodus who led their people out of slavery in Egypt. I won’t go deeply into the Finn-Moses and possible Aaron-Zeroes parallels here, but I’m hoping Mara will (nudge nudge).

Suffice it to say Finn is definitely the fiery visionary who went off on his own and who was forced to defend his ideals with violence much like Moses. On the other hand, a theoretical rebellious Zeroes would be the communitarian trying to keep his people together and sharing in their suffering as well as their moral compromises, much like Aaron.

The possibility of the fourth member of Finn’s old squad, the only other surviving member so far as we know, making an appearance as an antagonist—and even more intriguingly, a grudging ally—enriches and deepens the overall story and the character of Finn. Even if it doesn’t turn out to be canon it’s great material for speculation and fan works.

At the very least I hope we get to meet Zeroes in some form in the movies, and hopefully he’ll prove a more lasting character than the other members of his ill-fated squad.