I am pursuing a Finance degree. I just finished taking the general pre-requisite accounting courses - Financial and managerial. I struggled in both courses and because of that I really dislike accounting. However, I am more interested in stocks and investments, so I prefer Finance. Can I do well as a financial analyst (or finance in general) if I struggle with accounting? How different are they?
Nobody here can predict how you will do in finance. Take a class and find out.
I have had a lot of classmates that struggled in accounting but excelled in finance. It is easy to get by in introductory level finance courses without accounting knowledge as it is typically focused on concepts, theory, and memorization. However, once you begin taking your advanced electives or graduate level finance courses you will tackle case studies frequently in which case you will need to be extremely adept at accounting as you build your own models. Knowledge of accounting is strongly required as a foundation for junior year interns at large firms and it is likely going to be a part of your interview process.
In short, you can excel at finance without excelling in your accounting COURSE, but you will have to learn it eventually. Personally, I performed extremely well in accounting under one professor and poorly under another so I would definitely learn it either way.