2024 UPDATE: I regret most of what I said here now, but I linked this post to many others on this blog now, so I can’t really remove it… Oh well…
So as promised recently, I’m planning to do a post in the near future for all canon Star Wars films and shows (pre-2021) for my “The Good & The Bad” series. Before getting to that, however, there’s just one more aspect of Star Wars that I feel should be addressed all on it’s own. This will be the last one of these “offshoots” I’ll be posting before getting to that big Star Wars post (I mean it this time!!).
But before getting into today’s topic, let me make one thing clear: the sequel trilogy was always going to have issues, no matter what. Both of the previous trilogies had set things up in a way that made it almost impossible for a sequel trilogy of any kind to be universally loved (read this if you haven’t yet). That being said, there are definitely some flaws that the sequel trilogy really only has itself to blame, and perhaps the biggest of them all can be traced back to just one of it’s many characters: Poe. Dameron.
Don’t believe me? Allow me to elaborate, then:
Director JJ Abrams and and his writing partners have confirmed multiple times that, when writing The Force Awakens, they originally planned to kill Poe Dameron near the beginning of the film (right when the TIE Fighter he stole with Finn crashes in the desert, to be exact), so that Finn can “take his place” for the rest of the trilogy and act as a “spiritual successor,” of sorts. What happened was that Abrams and co. realized that they liked Oscar Isaac so much that they wanted to find a way to keep him around for the whole trilogy. Furthermore, Isaac himself expressed interest in sticking around longer. As a result, Abrams and his pals did some last-minute rewrites before filming started on Awakens (using an older draft where Poe lived as the basis), thus working him into the entire movie. Initially, I didn’t blame them for making this move. Oscar Isaac is a great actor, after all, and he seems like a really cool guy. If I were a filmmaker, I’d probably want to work with him as much as possible too. Conversely, if I were an up-and-coming actor in the early 2010’s, back when Star Wars was still at peak popularity, I’d also want to try to stick around as much as possible.
But sadly, I think finding a way to keep Isaac around ended up only doing more harm than good, in the long run. This is for many reasons, but perhaps the biggest one of all is that, to put it simply, he gets in the way of Finn. You know how everyone always says that, as the trilogy progresses, Finn feels more and more sidelined? Now imagine if Poe died in the beginning of Awakens like he was supposed to? Would’ve left a lot more room for Finn to breathe, wouldn’t it? I always felt like Finn was meant to occupy that space of becoming the new rebellion leader (while Rey occupies the space of becoming the new Jedi hero). To be fair, however, The Rise of Skywalker tried to work around this by exploring the message of “people do their best when they work together,” and even had Finn and Poe both address each other as “General” as a cute little way of getting this point across. While I admire the effort, I still feel like Poe basically eclipsed Finn throughout the entire trilogy, and especially in Skywalker. Funny enough; Duel of the Fates (Colin Trevorrow’s canceled version of Episode IX) would’ve actually finally put more focus on Finn, but the cost for this would’ve been downgrading Poe to nothing more than just a generic love interest for Rey. This probably would’ve still been somewhat better, though, just for the sake of giving Finn more to do, for a change.
Furthermore, when watching Awakens in particular, you can clearly tell that Poe was “stitched” into the rest of the film passed the TIE Fighter crash. The way he describes his survival from that crash, with nothing more than a quick throwaway line, felt messy. Also, the fact that he was marketed as “one of the trio,” yet never once interacted with Rey in that film, just felt plain strange to me. As a matter of fact, I would go as far as to say that Kylo, of all people, fits better as the third member of that “trio,” after Rey and Finn. Yes, I know he’s the villain, but unlike Vader in Star Wars 1977, Kylo had a lot more character development going on right from the very get-go. Besides, trios are overrated anyways. Just because the original trilogy had one doesn’t mean that literally every story ever needs one now too (Harry Potter be damned!). Heck, even in the original trilogy the trio thing didn’t work the entire time, as I explained in my four-part series from awhile back.
So I bet you’re asking yourself right now “Yeah, but, if Poe wasn’t in the rest of the movie, how would the moments at Maz’s castle and Starkiller Base work, maaaan?” For Starkiller Base in particular, the answer is simple: BB-8. As long as you still have him there, the audience still has a character to connect to. While I’ll admit that seeing Poe there made it a little bit cooler, I wouldn’t go as far as to say he was necessarily needed. For Maz’s castle, I’ll admit that the situation becomes a little more complicated. I suppose you can just have all the x-wings there be random people. It would create a bit of a disconnect for the audience, but it’s not like that was a major, pivotal moment in the story anyways. More of a means to an end, if anything. At one point, Wedge Antilles (Luke’s x-wing buddy from the original trilogy) was also supposed to be there, but the actor refused to come back, saying that the role would’ve been “too boring,” so they wrote him out. Not sure why he came back for that quick cameo in Skywalker, though. Guess he changed his mind by then? I would’ve also been fine with them just recasting Wedge and then killing him early on in The Last Jedi, I guess.
Speaking of The Last Jedi; while that movie has grown on me a lot recently, I can still say without hesitation that my least-favorite part of that film is the Poe storyline. It really felt like Rian Johnson needed to make up something for Poe to do to make him feel like “a main character,” just like Rey and Finn both were, and didn’t have much of anything to work with. Most people may not remember this now, but Jedi was originally supposed to be released in May 2017, just a year and a half after Awakens, but shortly after the release of that film, and after the character of Poe in particular had been so well-received by audiences, it was announced that Jedi was being delayed for six months so that Johnson could have time to tweak the script, to give “a character that was introduced in The Force Awakens” more to do. An insider then revealed shortly after that the character in question here was Poe.
At one point, Poe was supposed to be the one going to Canto Bight with Finn, but Johnson then separated them, because he felt they “got in the way of each other.” At first, I didn’t understand what he meant here, but now, I totally get it. That being said, a big part of me still thinks that giving Poe his own storyline was a mistake. If I were in Johnson’s shoes, I probably would’ve just kept Poe in the background during the entire middle section of the film. The “set-up” with Leia demoting him early on and the “pay-off” with him encouraging the Resistance to retreat (and Leia approving) later on was enough, I think. Holdo could’ve still been around to kamikaze into the Star Destroyer, of course (yes, I’m one of the people who actually likes that scene), but I’m not sure if the whole mutiny thing with her was really needed. I admire the idea behind it, but I feel like a plot like that would need to be it’s own movie altogether in order to work, honestly. Something that morally “gray” needs a lot of breathing room. That’s just my opinion, though. Take it however you will… Oh, and for what it’s worth: Yes, I’m glad Johnson added in Rose. She grew on me a lot recently too (for the most part).
Getting rid of Poe in Awakens would’ve also allowed for Jedi to be shorter. If there’s anything I still don’t really like about that film, it’s that it’s too damn long! In addition, out of all the characters in the entire sequel trilogy, Poe feels like the one who is the least “realized,” if that makes sense. In Awakens, he’s presented as a super nice and loyal Resistance fighter. He even goes as far as to give Finn his clothes, and a name! Around the time that film came out, I heard a YouTuber describe him as “how I would write Superman,” and I honestly agree. But then in Jedi, he feels like nothing more than Han Solo 2.0. Yes, he had “Han-like qualities” in Awakens, but there was so much more to his character in that film than just that (even with the little screen time that he had, compared to Finn and Rey).
This sudden character-shift gets even worse in Skywalker. By that point, the filmmakers even stopped pretending like he was anything other than Han 2.0 now. He acts like a jerk for nearly the entire runtime, and is even mean to droids now, like 3PO and D-O (so is BB-8 the only droid that he likes?). Heck, in Skywalker they even say he had a smuggler past, just like Han! What makes this even worse is the fact that, before that movie, there were years and years of comics that established Poe as having been with the Resistance his whole life. His parents were both Rebel fighters. They even conceived him at the Battle of Endor! I’m not joking: One of the comics heavily implies that they had sex behind some bushes, after the Rebel victory (hopefully no Ewok children saw!). There’s a new book that just came out called Free Fall that explains that Poe temporarily left the Resistance when he was a moody teenager to go join a smuggler gang, which is fine, I guess, but aren’t there already enough retcons as is? Actually, this isn’t even the only continuity issue that Poe has caused! Remember the lesson he learned in The Last Jedi? That it’s important to know when to fight and when to retreat for safety? Poe already learned that lesson in the pre-Awakens comics, TWICE! Also, remember in Skywalker when he seemed just as surprised as Finn that Stormtroopers could fly now? He has seen Stormtroopers fly in the pre-Awakens comics… Multiple times…
So now you may be thinking to yourself “It’s not Poe who gets in the way of Finn! It’s Rey!!” Sorry to say, but I respectfully disagree. I used to think this way, but not anymore. A while back, a friend of mine and I tried writing our own version of the sequel trilogy, and what I learned through this process is, when you have two Jedi protagonists going on their own Jedi journeys at the same time as one another, it doesn’t work. I’m sorry to say, but Star Wars just simply works when you have a central Jedi hero, and then everyone else pretty much acting in service to them. You don’t need to look any further than the original trilogy to see this. Rey was always going to have to take priority over Finn, Poe, and anyone else, whether anybody likes to admit that or not. So if Finn can’t occupy the “Jedi space,” then all that’s left for him to occupy is the “Rebel space,” and then hint at a Jedi future (like what they did with Leia in the original trilogy). This is pretty much what they did, but having Poe in the mix fucked everything up, as far as I’m concerned…
And for the record, the original trilogy also didn’t pull off the trio thing perfectly. As I’ve said in past articles, Han and Leia both felt pretty “undercooked” in both The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. What made it a little more passable in those films however was the fact that there weren’t multiple generations of heroes to catch up on and keep track of. Unfortunately, the sequel trilogy did not have this luxury, so a sacrifice needed to be made somewhere…
Back on topic; some Poe moments in Awakens and Jedi are still cool (not really in Skywalker, though). Despite their flaws, the aforementioned “set-up” and “pay-off” scenes from Jedi are actually my favorite Poe moments in the entire trilogy! And while he had already learned that same lesson in the comics, seeing Poe go from being a fighter to a leader, while Finn becomes more a “fighter” in his place, was cool to see in Jedi, so losing that aspect would suck, but if it’s for the greater good of giving Finn more breathing room, then so be it. Even if Poe had died in Awakens as planned, I would've still wanted Jedi to open with that WWII-style sequence. Having Rose’s sister die there probably provides enough of an emotional connection for the rest of the story anyways. I like how the moment where Poe disobeys Leia’s orders told us right away what the theme of the movie was gonna be, but I’m sure the film would’ve still been able to hold itself together, even without that bit.
Furthermore, while I respect Skywalker for trying to create a “full circle” effect by emphasizing Rey, Finn and Poe as a trio (in reference to the trio dynamic in Star Wars 1977 as well as the fact that they had been separate up until then), I feel that it was just simply too late to make those three new characters feel like “a real trio,” all of a sudden. In the end, given the fact that this new trilogy had to introduce us to new characters and catch us up on all the old characters too, I feel like there just never was any real room for a legit trio. They should’ve just stuck to the idea of Rey and Finn being a duo (with Kylo as the “third-wheel” there). I suppose you could’ve just kept Poe in the background, but coming off the heels of Awakens, there was suddenly a lot of demand from fans to see more of him. And yes, killing a young hero in one of these movies does go against the idea of this franchise being primarily for children, but since his death would’ve been very early on, audience members (kids in particular) probably would’ve gotten over it rather quickly, me thinks.
If the suits at Disney really needed a “Han 2.0,” then maybe they should’ve given those character traits to Finn. If anything, he embodies that idea more than Poe does, given the fact that, like Han, he too was an Imperial defector who questioned his own moral code and whatnot. In fact, even Oscar Isaac himself seems to agree now that Finn should’ve had more of his role in the story. During the promotional run for Skywalker, he said “I probably should’ve just let them kill me off in the first one like they were going to. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.” Now, to be fair, he could’ve been joking. But if you go find that video and watch it, he seemed pretty “dead inside” (at least to me).
At the end of the day, at least Poe and Finn had great chemistry together throughout the entire trilogy. That much I can say! Also, while eliminating Poe early on would’ve helped Finn’s character development a lot, it still wouldn’t fix one other massive issue with Finn; which is the fact that he was marketed as a Jedi during the promotional run of Awakens. To be fair, I understand why they did this. The whole point of that movie was that it was about Rey’s “Jedi origin,” so they wanted to preserve the climatic moment of her igniting the lightsaber for the first time. And with the way that story played out, the only other character who used that saber was Finn, and you can’t really market a mainline Star Wars movie without a saber fight of any kind, so they were kinda fucked one way or another. That being said, if I were them, I would’ve just bitten the bullet and market Rey with the saber from the very get-go instead. For one, it’s less “deceiving” that way, and would’ve warmed up the audience to the fact that she’s the new Jedi hero instead of Finn. I get that Abrams loves his mystery boxes and all, but sometimes, you gotta just say “screw it” and do what you gotta do, frankly.
Lastly, I would like to reiterate the fact that I do still love Oscar Isaac as an actor. He’s been great in pretty much every movie he’s done before, during and after Star Wars (that I’ve seen, at least), and I can tell that he really tried his best with the material that he was given for the sequel trilogy. I wish him, and all of the other newer Star Wars actors, the best of luck going forward. They all have the acting chops to live out fruitful careers, long after this trilogy…
Peace!
UPDATE 1: Since publishing this, I realized something that actually makes me enjoy the Poe & Holdo subplot a little more now. Through Poe’s eyes, we aren’t sure how to feel about Holdo at first, and then are meant to think she’s evil, only to then find out that she actually really is good. Similarly, through Finn’s eyes, we aren’t sure how to feel about DJ at first, and then are meant to think that he’s actually good, only to then find out that he really is in fact evil. Lastly, though Rey’s eyes, we aren’t sure what’s gonna happen to Kylo, and then are meant to think that he is now good (when he kills Snoke), only to then find out that he really is still evil (for now, at least). Clever, huh?
UPDATE 2: I suppose another way to solve “the Finn problem” without killing Poe is to make it so that Rey never existed in the first place (meaning Finn would be the new central Jedi hero instead of her) and/or make Kylo a more generic villain who isn’t related to the heroes and doesn’t turn good. Though if it were up to me, I would still keep Rey and Kylo the same and just kill Poe early on and give his role to Finn (for the most part, at least).
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