First of all, I already told you not to condescend to me.
Second of all, it seems you’re having a problem differentiating fiction from reality. I was very clear that my post applied “In the realm of live action fictional characters.” Yes. I am saying that actors either get along and can sell a story together or they can’t and that the script, writers, directors–THE NARRATIVE–dictates (not “interprets”) what their relationship will be.
For example, Hollywood seems to believe that Jlaw and Bradley Cooper have loads of chemistry and keep casting them in films together. Sometimes they fall in love, sometimes they’re enemies. They are actors and they will attempt to portray what the script tells them. Funny how that works, huh? Shaliene Woodley and Ansel Elgort literally played soulmates and lovers in The Fault In Our Stars and then played brother and sister in the Divergent series. THEY. ARE. ACTORS. ACTING. OUT. A. SCRIPT. THE. CONTEXT. MATTERS.
Now, in the real world, sure, there are different kinds of chemistry. My best friend in the world is a straight guy and people are constantly telling me that we should get married. But guess what, I don’t have romantic feelings toward him. But people SEE our chemistry because we get along and work well together. and obviously have a deep love for one another. And if we were actors getting paid to pretend to be madly in love with each other? I. WOULD. SELL. IT. AND. YOU’D. BELIEVE. IT. BECAUSE. WE. ARE. ACTUALLY. FRIENDS. AND. HAVE. CHEMISTRY. THAT. PEOPLE. CAN. SEE. BUT. INTERPRET. IN. DIFFERENT. WAYS. DEPENDING. ON. WHAT. THEY. WANT. TO. IMAGINE. BETWEEN. US. Funny how that works, huh?
Lastly, and I want this to be really super clear, I do not give a hot liquid shit what you ship. I’m FUCKING TIRED of people bringing up Finn/Poe in conversations of racism in fandom AS IF IT’S EVIDENCE OF ANYTHING (and as if multishipping or just generally NOT BEING A FUCKING ASSHOLE ABOUT NON-PROBLEMATIC SHIPS YOU DON’T SHIP isn’t a thing). This is why even though I think Finn/Poe is cute (bc everyone should love Finn) I don’t involve myself with the Finn/Poe fandom. Too many of y’all think that because you imagine a Black and Latino man being in love that you and the fandom are the bastion of progressivism and the power of your shipping alone could end mass incarceration, xenophobia and police brutality so obviously you and your shipping buddies in no way shape or form could harbor racist attitudes and sentiments. It’s fucking ludicrous and tiring.
You’re in my inbox because you self-implicated yourself after reading one of my posts, but were you in the inbox of the person that wrote that gross Finn/Poe segregation AU? Were you out popping into the inbox of the person who wrote that blatantly racist Finn/Poe Gang AU with Finn as the Black kid from a bad neighborhood and family of “gang bangers” and Poe as the whitewashed cop who gave him a new name instead of the “stupid name” (read: stereotypically Black) he was born with? I bet not, because you don’t give a shit about actually addressing racism in this fandom, you only care about making sure you personally aren’t made to feel as if you are in any way racist. So do us all a favor and stop using Finn/Poe as your shiny token Black friend you trot out as a shield when people call out racism! STOP.
But ya know what, since you brought it up, the fact that you can bring up your shipping of Finn/Poe seriously, in a conversation about SEEING CHEMISTRY between characters when Finn/Poe is built off of a fraction of a fraction of the screen time, interaction, and depth of emotion canonically between Finn & Rey is fucking laughable. John and Oscar get along and are great actors and that comes across on screen. Poe bit his lip and thinks his jacket suits Finn (I agree). Cool. Even though the TFA narrative did /not/ establish a romantic relationship between them, you choose to enjoy imagining them being in love because YOU WANT TO. Which is all fine and dandy! But if you simultaneously claim to not see the chemistry and romantic set up between Finn & Rey, I’m gonna side-eye the fuck outta you, because once more, with feeling:
“Let’s clear something up right now. In the realm of live action fictional characters, there is no “romantic” chemistry or “friendship/sibling” chemistry. There is only chemistry. It is the /narrative/ that determines whether the characters are romantic or platonic. So, if you can see all the amazing “friendship/bffls/omg siblings” chemistry between a Black character and a white character but not “romantic” chemistry despite the romantic narrative set up, it’s because /you/ personally don’t want those characters to be in a romantic relationship. And that is on /you/. Investigate yourself.”
Because John and Daisy are both great actors, get along great, and it comes across on screen. Finn canonically opened his mouth to express romantic interest in Rey (”you got a boyfriend, cute boyfriend?”), which is a lot more blatant than a subtle lip bite. Rey threw herself into Finn’s arms after he did the one thing she’d been waiting her entire life for anyone to do–come back for her. Finn & Rey’s hug can be read romantically just like Finn/Poe shippers read their hug as romantic. And Finn & Rey even cling to each other and don’t even break apart to speak and instead whisper into each other’s ears and they have to be instructed to stop hugging because otherwise they would have stood there holding each other for who knows how long. Then, Rey sat vigil by his bedside and then kissed him before she left. But apparently, the word “friend” gets thrown around and suddenly everything is GRADE A FDA APPROVED PLATONIC ONLY (never mind that Poe calls Finn “buddy,” the same thing he calls BB-8, or that folks are shipping Rey w/ folks she’s never met or has called “monster,” but I digress).
The point is that the chemistry between Finn & Rey is obvious and the romantic set up is clear as day, and if you can ship Finn with Poe, Poe with Rey, or Rey with some OC or someone she’s never met, or someone who tortured her, but simultaneously claim NOT TO BE ABLE TO SEE THE CHEMISTRY AND ROMANTIC POTENTIAL between Finn & Rey when they have the same interactions as Finn & Poe do but like times 10, then YOU NEED TO INVESTIGATE YOURSELF. Stop hiding behind claims of “chemistry” because you keep using that word and you don’t know what it means.
What you really mean is that you personally don’t want to imagine Finn & Rey in a romantic relationship and you need to ask yourself why that is.
