Finch Webster

"America, you great unfinished symphony, you sent for me."

- Hamilton - The World Was Wide Enough

Finch Webster [he/him] is the son of Daniel Webster from The Devil and Daniel Webster, a short story by Stephen Vincent Benét that has become embedded in American folklore, as part of the Daniel Webster Romance tradition.

A well-spoken young boy straight from New Hampshire, Finch is meant to represent American Law and Patriotism. He loves his destiny, but his strong sense of justice and love of debate compels him to challenge the ideals of Ever After High.

Personality
Finch Webster gets through life with vibrant confidence. He's always in smiles, or with a smug smirk. He’s got a tough, slick exterior, and comes across as that guy with his life together, a dude who can manage by well on his own.

A natural extrovert, Finch talks to people with ease, and always has the right thing to say in the right situation. This is a boy born for a career in politics and law - his speech ability is evidence enough of that.

Due to his love for wit and rhetoric, this boy lives for debate. Finch could never turn down a decent argument or a quality banter session, and never ends a dispute until he ensures that he has defended his own points to the best of his ability (or, alternatively: has been convicted by the other side - a loss he would accept with a respectful handshake and a promise he’ll be back for more debate next time). However, this does mean he has a habit for throwing himself into discourse. Finch has no trouble in picking his fights. The problem is: he ends up picking all of them.

During a debate, Finch highly prefers logical and reasonable routes, rather than loopholes or semantics. He thinks that it’s “more just” and “accurate”, and holds those sorts of arguments with more weight than any otherwise.

That said, he’s not above playing Devil’s Advocate and arguing for a position he’s against. Rather, he sees the activity as a fun exercise to stretch his debate abilities.

Additionally, he gets highly defensive, too. That defensive nature - finding a reason or an argument for his actions, always justifying what he’s doing, trying to let others know that he’s right - does have a root cause. Finch is a third son. He’s only granted the destiny out of superstitious fairytale fortune and good luck. Therefore, he always wants to prove himself and make sure that others know he’s got a good head on his shoulders and the competence to carry out not only his mother’s story, but also serve as a representative for American Law. Furthermore, he’s now in a new environment - an entirely different continent, without the protection of his older brothers. It feels troubling, he feels unsure, and is constantly on edge, trying to defend himself from this unknown.

Because of this, Finch is pugnacious. If you want a fight, you get a fight. His weapon of choice, as evident from above, is words, of course.

Finch holds a very particular set of idealistic values, mostly centered around the idea of justice. He places heavy importance on helping people, building relationships and being kind. Most of that are relics from his time in the Boy Scouts. Through that organisation, a strong belief in community, support and growth was solidified and cultivated.

Due to this particulate nature, he does tend to get politically involved. Although Finch does try to change the world through legal and conventional means, history paints success with a different method. And being so trusting in the subject - and in the past -, and being so determined to succeed, he has thrown caution to the wind before, and has engaged in less “acceptable” forms of protest. Finch has been arrested before, and bailed out by friends and older brothers. His senator mother has also been involved a few times, being all “hush hush” by covering up his political mishaps with good PR and media diversion.

That said, Finch is very patriotic. He’s so incredibly patriotic that if you cut him, I wouldn’t be surprised if he bled stars and stripes. He loves his country dearly, and speaks of the United States as if she’s a sweetheart back home. In fact, he can be so overcompensating in his love that it gets obnoxious. You might think it’s strange that he’s such a heavy social activist and yet criticises his country, but such activism is built off an inherent desire to see it grow and improve.

Beyond everything, Finch is a determined boy. He wants to be remembered, to leave a legacy and to contribute something of value. He’s more than his mother’s son, he’s more than Daniel Webster. Change and improvement isn’t just something he wants to see in America, or the whole of Ever After. He wants to see it in himself, too.

Appearance
Finch is mixed-raced: half Japanese and half white American. He's light-skinned, with only the mildest scattering of freckles and prominent dimples. Body-wise, he's on the shorter side, but is built sturdily.

His hair is dyed an Asian ombre, going from his natural black hair, to brown, and to a light orange-red. He will insist that the colour at his tips are purple, much the chagrin of everybody else. His eyes are brown.

Due to his involvement with the outdoors and his frequent run-ins with authority, he does have a couple of scapes here and there.

Debate
He loves debate. Will debate for the sake of debating. Half of his personality is based around debate. I'm not kidding, literally half of his personality section talks about his love for debate.

Politics & Activism
He loves this too. Gets heavily involved. Gets loud and political. Has gotten arrested. I've talked about this is his personality section as well.
 * Finch frequently tries writing for Student Body President. He never manages to get the position.

Scouting & Educating the Youth
Finch used to be a boy scout. Now he's a scoutmaster, and leads a troop of small fairytales in BookEnd. He's very proud of his position and loves his scouts dearly, and they're all fond of him as well.

He's hugely fond of the idea of educating the youth and making sure they're aware of current events and all that jazz. He especially likes talking about media sensationalism and how to criticise the content you consume.

Other

 * Likes writing/journaling about his life.
 * Keeps a stamp collection.
 * Finch can shoot a gun fairly well, and did bring a set with him to Ever After. He rarely uses them, though, preferring words and politics.
 * As an American attending highschool in Ever After High, Finch is really, really, really pumped about the drinking age.
 * He gets lit. He gets so lit.

How it Goes
Wikipedia does a really good summary of it.

How does Finch come into this?
Finch grew up comfortably. His mother was the previous Daniel Webster - distinguished lawyer, amazing in speech, and renowned senator. He was your standard upper middle-class good American boy from New England: Ivy League-bound, from the suburbs with a white picket fence.

He was the third son of Daniel Webster. In most cases, with most destinies, firstborns get the destiny, and all following siblings would be left to his own devices. But not in this case! Two reasons, you see: Webster's sons (two of them) die in warfare, as dictated by destiny, and third sons are often ones who are blessed by fortune. Being reasonable folks who know how to hedge their fairytale bets, Finch's parents decided to leave their older sons off to their own devices, and make their third son the next Daniel Webster.

It was a decision that paid off. Neither of the older two brothers were into politics as intensely as Finch, neither did they possess the same skill. Both were more into numbers, and into physical weaponry more than verbal weaponry. A choice that works out in the end. I think.

Opinion on Destiny
He likes it a lot. Thinks it’s cool, glad that his wits and wordplay will get him out of tricky situations, and is actually really excited to meet all the historical figures on the jury. Finch genuinely has no complaints about his destiny. It’s an honour to serve in it by itself, and to come away victorious is naught but a bonus.

Oh, and he loves being American. Representing the spirit of American Law is an honour, being able to talk about what makes him American is an honour. He finds it hella rad that his mother was the previous/current Daniel Webster, and he finds it also rad that he, the biracial son of a Japanese immigrant, is the next Daniel Webster.

Personally, he's a Royal through and through. However, that doesn't mean he's all for the destiny system. He finds parts of it cruel and "unconstitutional", and often speaks up against that.

In summary, Finch describes himself as a “personal Royal, collective Rebel”. He believes that it is his federal duty to question the Storybook system and dissect what it wrong and what is right with it - only that way can it be used to its full benefit and fixed accordingly. At the same time, he is intensely fond of his destiny and happy to live it out.


 * However - yes, there's always a however - Finch is highly aware that his older brothers (who he looks up to! Dearly so!) are meant to die as part of his mother's fulfillment of destiny.
 * And he's also aware that his own children will die!
 * But that just seems so far off in the future that it doesn't really bother him. Not yet, anyway.
 * A part of him is also scared shitless of being seen as a traitor of his own state, or a traitor of the North. However, he's reassured by the fact that Daniel Webster will always remain an iconic patriotic symbol.

Parallels
References to the story:
 * Like Webster, he's skilled in rhetoric.
 * The first line of the story references the merging of Masachuchetts with Vermont and New Hampshire.
 * Finch is, without a doubt, representative of New Hampshire. His second older brother works in MIT, in Masachuchetts, and his oldest brother lives in Vermont right now. The three siblings therefore encompass all three states mentioned in the story.
 * Is patriotic. Dear America, he is so strongly patriotic. Anyway, the story itself just oozes patriotism - real patriotism, the kind where you love your country where you acknowledge the wrongs and strive to improve, not cheap dirty nationalism.
 * Webster's two sons both die in the Civil War. For this reason, Finch's older brothers (who are meant to represent the two sons) are associated with warfare.
 * The one at MIT is researching nuclear weaponry and power. The one in Vermont is... I don't know yet, but it's war-related.
 * Additionally, Webster had a daughter. Finch has a younger sister.
 * Finch never gets his intended position as Student Body President, just as Daniel Webster never gets the chance to become president.

References to Daniel Webster (historical):

Note that the story itself makes references to the historical Daniel Webster, but here are some parts of it that are not touched upon in the story.
 * There is a boy scouts troop in New Hampshire named after Daniel Webster. Finch is a boy scout / scoutmaster.
 * Daniel Webster has appeared on US stamps at least three times. Finch collects stamps.
 * Daniel Webster is Straight From Dartmouth. Finch's family is all Dartmouth stock, and Finch himself is set for attending Dartmouth.

References to the state of New Hampshire:
 * Finch is named after the state bird.
 * The state bird is the Purple finch.
 * However, the purple finch is actually red in colour.
 * I frequently joke about how Finch will call things that are red "purple". For instance, his hair tips are red, but he insists that they're purple.
 * He's also a Royal personally (ie, a Royal inside), but goes by a Rebel externally (ie, a Rebel in name). Just as a purple finch is purple in name, but is actually red.
 * He wears the state seal of New Hampshire on his shirt.

Trivia

 * The name Finch was picked for several reasons.
 * The state bird of New Hampshire is the purple finch.
 * Atticus Finch is an iconic fictional American lawyer. Daniel Webster is an iconic historical American lawyer.
 * The real Webster had a son was named Fletcher, which alliterates with Finch.
 * Finch cites his greatest inspirations as "Atticus Finch", "that guy in the musical Hamilton", and "Feel the Bern".
 * Has the worst shit-eating grin. It's oddly unsettling, and would strike fear in any reasonable person's soul.

Quotes
"Tell me, Axeman, can you divide by zero? The answer is indeterminable - selling my soul is an utter impossibility. You're welcome to test that, but I won't promise success."

- when asked by Eddie what it would take to get him to sell his soul

"The first bite of apple pie, the smell after the rain... simple pleasures, I'd think. Things that make life worth living. What is a simple pleasure in your life that you appreciate immensely?"

- the question Finch poses in the same thread.