There's been an Awakening....

A little late for that question, don't you think? ;P

But yeah, this was already answered years ago:

"Since the disappearance of Luke Skywalker and the shattering of his fledging Jedi following, the cosmic Force has lain dormant, seemingly quieted to those able to sense its presence. The adventures of Rey and Finn on Jakku coincide with a turbulence in the cosmic Force, sudden ripple indicating the awakening of newfound ability. With the Jedi and their records vanished, few - other than Kylo Ren and his mysterious master - are able to appreciate this occurrence."

 

Finn+Rey+Ben = The Force Triad
(and no, I'm not alluding to that horrible CW arc )

 

which one?

 

I was thinking about this the other day. I think the awakening was the force making itself manifest (or a higher power making itself known) amongst the galaxy/population after being dormant for a very long time. I used to think that it was just about the force awakening in Rey. But after examining the conversation between Finn and Jannah where the talk about being former ST I sort of get a clue that it pertains to a wide section of people.

It looks like Finn deserted--due to a feeling, and then Jannah and the rest of her friends left shortly after that. Jannah said that they were persuaded to put down their weapons due to a collective feeling. This all seemed to happen around the same time, so I suspect that it's the force coming.

 

Mortis.
I must be the only Star Wars fan in the world who finds the Mortis arc a horrible regurgitation and a reductionist spoonful of poop. People seems to really love that stuff, for some inexplicable (to me) reason... but I shan't go on about it

 

One of the dozens JJ's mystery boxes.

 

It's from the official visual guide.

 

I don't think that's what happened.

This make it sound like they didn't deserted, because it was the right thing to do, but the will of the force. I rather want SW to be about people who can choose their destiny and are not puppets on a string.

 

I assumed it was a reference to Rey piloting the Falcon on Jakku.

Finn: Now that was some flying.
Rey: Thanks.
Finn: How did you do that?
Rey: I don't know.
Finn: No one trained you?
Rey: I've flown some ships, but I've never left the planet.

Seemed to me like a mild callback to Anakin’s podracing in TPM.

Anakin: I'm the only human who can do it.
Qui-Gon: You must have Jedi reflexes if you race pods.
…
Qui-Gon: He can see things before they happen. That's why he appears to have such quick reflexes. It's a Jedi trait.

Rey, to navigate the Falcon as deftly as she did in that chase, was unconsciously tapping into the Force the same way Anakin did. That’s maybe what Snoke and Kylo picked up on.

Though, I like @Veronica's POV a big bunch. It wasn’t just one person’s awakening. Heck, that scene with Finn at the start certainly gave the impression of someone ‘waking up’ to what was happening around him.

Me too. But I don't think the two ideas are mutually exclusive. Just because the Force maybe opened your eyes, doesn't mean it wasn't your choice to do what you did.

 

It was written in the context of TFA. It was Rey hence why she was missing from the merchandise and holding the sabre. Even the Disney buisness arm in 2016 admited this. Anything from other films is retcon or fans attributing a different standard which brings along with square pegs in round holes approaches. All three film titles are about Rey other mentions are about pushing other characters to the front and adapting false narratives.

The cosmic force I believe is what brought about the return of Qui Gon Jinn in the Clone Wars. No doubt it will be in the Mandlorian too. There's no consise description to what it is apart from it been an energy field that holds balance. No doubt it will be fiddled about with Filloni because he's fiddling about with everything, which am not sure is a positive.

 

I always thought that the "awakening" was Rey, and the menace that she would represents to the plans of Snoke.

 

Your logic makes zero sense. What does the holding back of the reveal of a Rey toy figure have anything to do with that specific line? Not putting out that toy was JJ's way of not revealing early on in merchandise that Rey was going to be a Jedi and that's about it (although most hardcore fans already guessed she was). It was not meant as proof that Rey was being alluded to in the film with the "there has been awakening" line. Any argument about Rey being the one referred to can only be taken from TFA itself and there is a lot of evidence within that film to support such a viewpoint. It seems silly to think a small piece of merchandising though was being used for the purpose of confirming an answer regarding that narrative.

With that said that "awakening" remark could have easily been applied to others too like Finn without an ounce of retconning in later movies. Every thing that occurred with Finn when he first made it to Jakku, including his unwillingness to go along with the slaughter and Kylo's sudden awareness of him, can be viewed in retrospect as both an awakening in him and an awareness of this awakening within him by others. There were other little nuggets and hints regarding Finn that could be interpreted as signs of a connection he had with the Force too. And it didn't take years for many people to point this out , people were doing this hours after TFA made its debut. The problem was that plenty of others were invested in stamping out such suggestions by dismissing out of hand those who were of that opinion. Well, JJ pretty much settled that with The Rise of Skywalker. And considering he was the one who created the characters and set up their journeys, he is a bigger authority on this than anyone else.

Also while Rey was meant to be THE main lead, JJ also made it clear during the lead up to TFA that the story was about the journey of not just her, but the movie's co-lead which happened to be Finn. And the publicity department of Disney pushed this particular viewpoint throughout the entire lead up and promotion of The Force Awakens. If any retconning took place for this sequel it was elevating Kylo into the spotlight as the co-lead to Rey and the pretense that the sequel trilogy was all about his road to redemption.

Now with the Rise of Skywalker, JJ's comments and the Lego soecial, Finn's place as one who is capable of using the Force is now canon. This ticks a lot of people off which brings a smile to my face. They'll just have to deal. They are partly responsible for this mess because they were so insistent on Finn being of no one of significance (ultimately following Rian's lead) that JJ felt the need to, in admittedly clunky way, correct that perception.

 

I saw an interview with JJ Abrams on the TFA dvd; he said the title referred to the Force Awakening in both hero (Rey) and villain (Kylo).

He never mentioned Finn, which is why I'm pretty convinced he wasn't meant to be FS at the beginning, even before TLJ.

 

I remember hearing that quote in a TFA trailer. I was so excited for this trilogy then! Some of those TFA trailers were absolutely awesome.

I always guessed that the "awakening" was Rey being discovered.

 

That’s how I see it. Luke hid his light on Act-too and when Rey awoke to the force, Snoke and Kylo felt it. In the time of Rey, strong light or any powerful force user would be rare to feel in the force.

 

Have you felt it?