Let It Snow – a Damerose winter romance.
When we finally kiss good-night
How I’ll hate going out in the storm
But if you really hold me tight
All the way home I’ll be warmAnd the fire is slowly dying
And, my dear, we’re still good-bye-ing
But as long as you love me so
Let it snow, let it snow, and snow
I’ve been thinking about which roles Finn and Poe could be playing in the Resistance in IX. Since they’re both leadership types there would be a great chance of the two of them tripping over each other narratively if they fill a similar capacity, especially since the Resistance according to Oscar is still very small. But with the new Star Wars show “Resistance” once more emphasizing Poe’s role in espionage I think they might give us general Finn and spy master Poe.
It would let both men play to their strengths and experiences while not tripping over each other plot wise.
Finn is a talented leader and great at inspiration. He has knowledge of, and talent for, unconventional battle tactics that works. One of the reasons Phasma wanted him for the officers track in the First Order before he noped out of that fascist regime in epic fashion. With any kind of sizable time skip, which we’re almost certain to see, Finn would have had to gain experience as well making him an excellent general for the Resistance.
Poe has experience with intelligence gathering and espionage from before he became involved in the Resistance. And a tiny Resistance would rely heavily on correct intel and prior knowledge of targets if their attacks were to have any effect against the First Order and not cost themselves too dearly in soldiers and materiel they cannot afford to lose.
In fact such a division could make for a good set up for roles for the entire heroic quartet as @lj-writes pointed out to me, with Finn leading the Resistance’s martial arm, Poe’s its intelligence capacities, Rey at least for the time being representing its Jedi/mystical capabilities and Rose rounding out the leadership by representing the all important support personnel – mechanics, medics, ect – without which the Resistance would not survive long.
~Mod Mara
The Resistance relying so heavily on intelligence would also be a nice dovetail into Poe being the Resistance’s overall leader, something he was being set up for in… pretty much every piece of franchise material he appeared in, most explicitly in The Last Jedi and the Poe Dameron comic.
This sets up an interesting dynamic between Finn and Poe, among others, because Finn has never been… how shall we say it… good with orders and bosses. I mean, ask the aforementioned Phasma. Wait you can’t lmaoooo
Even aside from the part where Finn understandably flips the bird to fascists, Poe himself tried to give Finn something approaching orders twice in two movies and Finn was 0/2 in following them. “We’re going back to Jakku!” “No, that’s stupid.” “Come back, this mission is a bust!” “Hell 2 the No!!”
This independence of thought is part of Finn’s strength and in fact in the best tradition of the Rebellion, e.g. Cassian, Raddus, Lando…, but it does mean that Poe would be foolish to expect a traditional superior-subordinate relationship with Finn. It’s interesting to speculate how Poe will carry forward his experience with Holdo and Leia in dealing with Finn. (I’m fine with the Holdo episode being quickly forgotten, personally. I mean, literally, “That’s not how the Rebellion works!”)
I think the franchise’s recent emphasis on maintenance and materiel–most prominently fuel–looks promising for Rose’s role. It’s also part of the reason I speculated that supplies will be a major part of Episode IX. As you pointed out, Rose’s technical expertise makes her indispensable to this side of the Resistance’s operations, making her vital for both intelligence and military operations. Rose started her career in the Resistance as a flight mechanic, serving aboard a bomber and providing real-time support in the thick of battle, and with the Resistance understaffed as it is she could reprise that role. It would lead to personal challenges, too, because the Cobalt Squadron book tells us that being responsible for lives in battle took a toll on her preexisting anxiety issues and she always flew with Paige before. The first time she didn’t, well, that was when Paige died.
Rey’s role as the Jedi is the vaguest, in some ways. Like you I am not enamored with the idea of her getting yet a third confrontation with Kylo Ren. This isn’t the Luke situation with Vader, where Luke was able to avoid confrontation with Vader altogether in the first movie, suffered defeat and a shocking revelation in the second, and was primed for a rematch in the third. She’s already beaten Kylo 2 for 2, there’s nothing to prove by kicking his ass a third time. She explicitly tried to replicate Luke’s Vader redemption ending, that bridge is crossed and burned. He tried Palpatine-style temptation on her, again, didn’t work. She was going for the RotJ ending and he for the RotS one, and they both failed. There’s nothing left in that direction that isn’t a boring repeat. As I said before, I’d find it interesting if she took point on eliminating the Knights of Ren so they can’t tamp down discontent in the FO ranks, causing chaos in the FO, kind of a “defeat the middle bosses to unlock the big boss” situation.
It’s Finn, not Rey, who is in Luke’s situation with this series’ Big Bad. Only it’s Luke’s sequence reversed, with a defeat and injury in the first movie and avoidance of confrontation in the second, leaving tension for the final confrontation. His position representative of the Resistance’s martial arm places him on a direct collision course with Kylo Ren. Now that’s a grudge match I’m up for.
What if Rose and Poe gets together in IX?
They have an already established relationship that goes back quite a bit before TLJ and Poe obviously likes Rose a lot. And Rose like Poe in return.
Not to mention that Poe’s, “How did did you two meet?”, followed by, “Good luck?”, when Rose answers, “Just luck”, can easily read as jealousy of Finn.
He has been developing romantic feelings for Rose but haven’t found the place and time to talk to her about it and now suddenly here’s Finn, the gorgeous, dashing young man who Rose obviously likes a lot and he feels defeated. Not that he think Rose owes him anything, he just wishes that Rose would look at him the way she looks at Finn.
And Rose clearly trust Poe above all else. Having outgrown her unhealthy hero worship of Finn and realized that she’s all the hero she’s ever going to need would make for an excellent basis for a romance between her and Poe.
Evidently there’s a passage in Star Wars Adventures where Rose saves Poe’s life by opening the Raddus’s hangar door where no one else knew how to. She’d just been… like… reading the manual like the giant dork she is. I can imagine her really standing out to him from that moment on.
(Does this mean I’m going to be killed in Spanish?)
Oh no! Not Familia Dameron fics! That is by no means exactly the response I wanted, have mercy please!!
Reminder that Poe Dameron Bey was born in wartime, two years after the Battle of Yavin and two years before the Battle of Endor. He was born in a time of uncertainty and ongoing violence. I like to think of him as a “hope baby” whose parents finally had the courage to conceive him (or were just carried away lol) after the Rebels struck a blow against the Empire. It finally looked like there might be a future worth raising children in.
One year after Poe was born came the setback in Hoth when the Rebels were scattered, a General of the Rebellion was captured, and the one living Jedi was badly injured. A year after that came news that the Empire was building a second Death Star, which if completed meant the total subjugation of the galaxy. Poe spent his earliest years in a time of constant turmoil when his lives and the lives of his caregivers could be snuffed out at any moment, whether by a weapon of mass destruction or in battle or execution.
It is canon that Poe rarely saw his parents during these first two years of his life, the first years that are so crucial to forming lasting attachments. These were the final years of the war when both his parents were away risking their lives in a fight against what seemed an unstoppable evil. Any call could bring the news that one or both of them were dead. Any knock on the door could be Imperial Security forces come to take Poe and his caregivers into custody as family members of Rebels.
The maternal grandfather who raised Poe no doubt shielded the child from these realities as best he could, but children know. They can tell when their caregivers are sad and anxious. They also miss their parents something fierce and ask, with or without words, when are they coming? Are they thinking of me? Do they love me? Poe would have grown used to the long partings because he had to, but his face would have brightened at any chirp of the comm, any knock at the door even as his grandfather’s heart sank.
Leaving a young child for even a day can be hard; what was it like for Poe and his parents to be separated for months at a time, never knowing when they would see each other again? How many hours did Poe’s grandfather spend hunched over the communicator while little Poe slept in the next room, trying to guess where his daughter and son-in-law might be deployed, wondering if he would be told in time if the unthinkable happened, wondering if he would have to grab Poe and run if things turned bad? Where could they even run to in a galaxy bent on their annihilation?
Poe and tens of thousands of other children like him endured countless hours of fear and loss along with their families. He knew what it was like to feel a love like cold burn in the absence of the people he yearned for. He knew what it was to have his young heart pressed and shaped by the unending weight of fear. He was one of the lucky ones who got his joyous reunion with his parents, but the effect of those early years would never have gone away.
Six years later, just at the blossoming of his promised happily-ever-after, came the shattering loss that even war had not managed to wreak. Standing with his father to bury his mother, eight-year-old Poe would have been reminded that peace guarantees nothing and that life can be as uncertain and as cruel as war.
He carried forward these lessons, the terrors and the joys, the ache of sorrow that would never go away, to honor his parents’ courage and to make sure other children would not endure what he had. He could not take away tragedy and loss, that was way above his paygrade anyway. What he could do was choose how to react, and he took to the skies after his mother, he fought with principle and honor like his father, and he chose courage and caring like his grandfather.
His parents and grandfather were with him when he abandoned the certainty of military life to wade into a murky fight against a shadowy threat. They were with him when he fought battle after battle, not only in the cold of space but in the thickets of intrigue and espionage. They were with him when he refused to abandon a village doomed to slaughter. They were with him when he was tied to a torture chair, when he was having his mind turned inside out in such agony that he shattered a droid’s audio receptacle with his screams.
The child born in war grew to be a warrior in another, the one thing his parents sacrificed so much in the hopes of preventing. None of them could help the outbreak of this second war that was all their nightmares come to life, but they could choose what they did in response to it. Poe chose to fight, to protect, to sacrifice. The power of choice, after all, was the only power he had in a universe without guarantees.
Guess who went to see tfa another two times or “Loading all seven seasons of Amar en Tiempos de la Antigua República onto bb8 was a mistake”
You know, that whole thing about Anakin being a false Messiah made me think. Anakin never did do what the Prophecy of the Chosen One said he would, did he? Even if we take the narrow Jedi interpretation of it.
Like he was supposed to a) destroy the Sith and b) bring balance to the Force. But he only managed part one, dying before he could do anything about part two.
Which makes him the Star Wars equivalent of a false Messiah. He never did fulfill the requirements.
Of course we end up once again with the question, what is “bringing balance to the Force” supposed to mean anyway? To destroy the dark side? Or the ability to use the dark side?
In that case not only did Anakin fall woefully short of accomplishing that, the Jedi were truly blind if they thought just destroying the Sith would do that. While the Sith were the strongest dark side group, they were not alone. Not by a long short. We have the Witches of Dathomir just for a start.
And then there’s Yoda’s words about fear, anger and hate leading to the dark side. Which essentially means that the dark side lives in all of us and cannot be erased.
A balance between light and dark? Except the dark is shown as being pretty constantly evil. Like tyranny and genocide kinda evil. Plus that would never have gone down with the Jedi would it?
So how do we bring balance to the Force? And how do we prevent the galaxy from repeating the same story over and over again? That Finn, Rey, Poe, Rose and all the rest 20, 30 or 40 years down the line will be facing the same struggle all over again, the way Leia, Han and Luke did?
“The only fight, against the dark side. Trough the ages evil has taken many forms. The Sith, The Empire. And now the First Order. We must face them. Fight them. All of us.”
These are Maz’s words to Rey when she asks what fight it is Maz is talking about.
The difference between Judaism and Christianity in the view of bringing about the Messianic age is that Christians – white Christians at the least – sits around passively for it to come when God decides it. For Jewish people it is an active process we’re all a part of, and it won’t arrive until we have done the work and are ready for it. It’s a state we work to achieve, not something arbitrarily bestowed upon us from on high.
In the original Star Wars the universe’s equivalence of the “Messianic age” is bestowed upon the galaxy when Anakin kills Palpatine and dies himself, erasing his own sins and bring “balance”.
In Jewish eyes it’s just not that easy.
As I already pointed out Anakin failed in doing anything to address the “imbalance” of the Force. And the rest of the galaxy seemed content to go on its own fucked up way and continue as it had always been. Perhaps because the fight against evil and “the dark side” was something that resided solely in the hands of the Jedi to their way of thinking.
Maz tells us no. It is on everyone if the fight against evil is to be won, if the dark side is to be defeated and the “Messianic age” arrive.
So where does that leave our heroes?
Well, with a whole lot of work cut out for them that’s for sure. And the ST’s conclusion will not be the Christian fairy tale ending that George gave the OT trio. The fight against the dark side and the balancing of the Force is almost certainly going to reach far beyond the ending of IX.
That doesn’t mean that it won’t be hopeful or optimistic. In our current political climate what better message to send that the idea that we can all make a difference. That a better tomorrow is in our own hands. That we can win this fight, though it will be a long one, but we have to stand together. We have to each do our part. We can’t wait for other to come save us, nor should we passively expect rescue. Doing that leaves only room for evil and oppression to win.
But if we do? Then we can win. We can bring evil, the dark side, to its knees.
So rather than passively waiting for an anointed family or an order of clerics to come save them, or the government for that matter (the clerics were government enforcers in the old Republic era, with all the problems that implies), the peoples of the galaxy must rise up themselves to fight oppression? Works for me, and I think in its bumbling and confusing way TLJ set up that endgame by showing the downfall of the “holy family” and “priestly class.” Rey’s faith in both was cruelly dashed by the very men she pinned her hopes on, and she had to realize that she, not they, were the hope the galaxy was looking for.
The same theme can be seen in a roundabout way through Finn’s story. He was trained to see himself as either helpless to stop the overwhelming force of the FO or, to the extent he had any effect, as an expendable cog in the machine. Therefore he swung from the extreme of wanting to run because he couldn’t hope to do anything except get killed, to the other extreme of accepting his own death as a cost in the fight. Rose’s and then Luke’s intervention flipped the script by showing that no, he was not expendable, in fact it’s one of the “chosen” ones who would sacrifice himself for the ordinary Resistance fighters.
Poe’s story can also be seen as him going from reliance on Leia to being a leader in his own right, again in a terribly executed plot but that seems to be the intention. The comics show this angle more clearly by portraying him respectfully disagreeing with Leia on a matter that concerned the very heart and soul of the Resistance and reaching a compromise, then turning out to be right and saving the day. Because Leia trusts him, for a good reason! Because Poe has, in fact, never been a selfish gloryhound who sacrifices people right and left for the sake of victory! And the Rebellion/Resistance has never been the kind of military where the superior expects to be obeyed because she says so without question or input, which is a terrible way to make decisions anyway!
Salt aside, though, I can see TLJ following up from TFA to set up IX for a giant “fuck you” to the supposed Skywalker legacy and for the fight against evil to be a broad-based one, not just a slugout between superpowered beings.
THE BLOOD OF WARRIORS
It is an odd time for the Organa Family. Former-General Leia Organa has entered her fourth year as the Chancellor of the New Republic’s Senate. Her position is far from secure as the opposing parties have been vocal about her oversight. Though war is at an all time low, there has been a recent rise in missing children, both in the Republic and Mandalorian space.
With support from the New Republic Intelligence Services, Leia has devoted most of her time to focusing on this crisis. Unfortunately, this effort has yielded no results, and drawn the ire of the Mandalorians. The ungoverned clans have not taken kindly to either the loss of children or the breaches of privacy.
Espionage agent Captain POE DAMERON has followed a secret lead to Hosnian Prime. Should the information prove reliable, the star pilot may have found the source of the missing children. With the assistance of his friend, BB-8, Captain Dameron is on the case…
Chapter I: The Unkar Plot
Poe Dameron’s Wall-Watcher exited out of hyperspace above Hosnian Prime. The first time Poe saw it he mistook it for Coruscant. The atmosphere was equally stained with lights, but the color was different. Still, who could blame him for his confusion?
“Got some memory in your banks, buddy?” Poe asked his floating companion as they entered the atmosphere. BB-8 responded with a disgruntled beep, not unlike one her dad would quip.
“I know, I know,” Poe responded. “Just make sure you’re rolling.”
The Wall-Watcher, cloaked in its field, aligned itself with a night-club tower. Poe’s target was on the top floor, and, unsurprisingly, seedy bars with illegal activities didn’t like to permit New Republic agents to snoop around the premises. Luckily, Poe had other means of entry.
As the Wall-Watcher magnetized to the wall, the hood popped open, and Poe, dressed in civilian clothes, began his ascent. His backpack doubled as a silent jet pack, and BB-8 followed quickly behind him. A quick landing on the balcony would only seem suspicious if the balcony wasn’t reserved for the drunkest clients. Poe made his way into the establishment.
If there was one thing for which he had to give his enemy credit, it was style. The night-club, known as The Niima Outpost, was both vibrant and subtle. The neon lights were constant, but the sparkle-pop tunes from the live band offset the more garish aspects of the club. Poe approached the bar.
A handsome Duros immediately bought him a drink. Poe thanked the man and downed the ale. Before his glass touched the counter, the bartender had moved over to another customer. Activating his contact lens thermoscope, Poe found three heat signatures in the kitchen, shorter than the chef. Just as he expected.
“So, what’re you doing here?” The handsome man asked Poe. “Business, or pleasure?”
“A little bit of both,” Poe responded. As he readied his pocket-pistol and braced his shoulder against the kitchen door. “Thanks again for the drink!” Poe’s jacket charged an electric shock disabling the door’s cyber-security system. The force of his shoulder was enough to break the physical lock. Poe quickly dispatched two stunning bolts to approaching security guards. The chef, a large Crolute man, had been preparing a meal, and quickly flung the contents of the hot pan at Poe. Dodging the steaming sauces, Poe dove behind the bar. As he rose, he saw the chef pointing a knife at one of the patrons that had run in to investigate.
“Drop your gun,” the chef commanded, “and get out of my bar.” Poe lowered his pistol to the floor.
“Easy,” he said. “No need to take things out of hand.” Hearing her cue, BB-8 activated her magnet and swung towards the chef’s knife. With the patron free, Poe delivered a flooring knee, ending the fight.
“Well,” he said to BB-8. “Do you think this is enough to call the local authorities?”
——
The Hosnian Police Force had responded to Poe’s call. The officers were happy to have something to do besides prosecuting parking violations. The Niima Outpost had been suspected for months, but was built like a fortress. Fortunately, the New Republic had better technology.
Poe was being thanked by a pair of parents of one of the children. BB-8 waited for a pause in the conversation to interrupt with a notification. Poe excused himself and walked away. BB-8 flipped her projector topside and landed in Poe’s hand. A fully-colorized hologram of Chancellor Organa flashed to life.
“Ah, Captain Dameron, I take it your mission was successful?” The Chancellor asked.
“Well, yes and no,” Poe returned. “We definitely busted a slave ring. So, that’s great news. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like the one we were after.”
“Well, as much as I would like to celebrate, I’m afraid we have another lead for you. How soon can you meet us on New Alderaan?”
“Us?” Poe asked. This sounded like a joint mission. Did that mean what he thought? “Uh, yes, Chancellor. We can get there in less than a day.”
“That’s great,” Leia responded, already distracted by her aide, Armitage. “May the force be with you, Captain.” The light of the hologram flickered off as BB-8 returned to her floating position. Poe and BB-8 made their way back to the ship, being met with thanks and congratulations along the way. It was days like this that Poe loved his job.
L.J.’s note: Here are the designs for Poe (link), BB-8 (link), and Poe’s Wall-Watcher (link) in this universe, also created and submitted by Moth!
The Resistance: No one gets left behind.
☆ DOWNTOWN ☆ the trio exploring the streets of Coruscant on a night out! (surely even the Resistance has some downtime when not on missions, right… and imagine experiencing the scale of this bustling city planet for the first time!!)
I was listening to the song Downtown a lot, which is ridiculous and catchy but also the chorus makes me want to dance down the streets of an intergalactic city too /o/
also just imagining the First Order trio running into them and doing the dance-off in the video haha
L.J.'s Obsessions 