Poe Dameron is one of the new big three, but to a certain extent, a lot about him remains mysterious. I hesitate to say we know less about him than Finn or Rey, because something tells me we have a lot to learn about both of those characters…Nevertheless, let’s dig up the latest info on Poe and see if we can piece together news and spoilers to figure out anything about him.
Some new pieces of news emerged in the Shattered Empire comic book. Because sof this, we learned more about Poe’s motivations as a character. There is a strong suggestion that Poe’s parents fought in the battle of Endor. Although it isn’t explicitly stated in the book, other readers around the web share this feeling. At least, we have two characters introduced that are married and could plausibly be Poe’s parents:
There is also suggestion that Leia knew Poe going way back. This kind of gives a little frame of reference to the idea that Leia entrusts Poe with a very important mission. If we recall from Celebration, Oscar Isaac’s claims that “He’s been sent on a mission by a certain princess. He comes across John Boyega’s character and their fates are forever intertwined.”. It could be that Leia’s long-time connection to Poe and his family plays a big part in her entrusting this kind of a mission. That is, if we need more of a reason than him being the “best friggin’ pilot in the galaxy”!
We haven’t read the Leia young adult novel “Moving Target” either, but others that have read it suggest that when Leia asks about Jakku in this book, she is possibly asking about the pilot to whom she entrusted that mission, given that we know he is there at the start of TFA. This indeed suggests a strong connection and friendship between Leia and Poe. Some have even gone as far as to speculate that Leia is a type of mother-figure for Poe, maybe due to him losing his parents many years before TFA.
For me, the fact that Poe’s parents fought in the Rebellion sheds some more light on Isaac’s comments at SDCC that he could have been watching a video of the battle of Yavin (actually he says Yarvin) and looking up to the likes of Luke Skywalker. The dates would be off for him to see it live, but he may have watched videos of it because of his parents. Certainly his parents would make sure that he learned of the Rebellion and the Empire from a young age, and instilled a sense of loyalty from an early age. In fact, we have an early suggestion from Oscar Isaac (although I can’t seem to find the original source) that his character is in fact from Yavin IV. If this is true, given the timing of everything and his age, this would suggest that his parents moved back to Yavin IV after the battle of Endor. There is some speculation out there that the shot of X-wings flying over the rivers surrounded by mountains from the trailer is in fact on Yavin IV.
What else have we recently learned about Poe? Because of a recent update to the StarWars.com databank, we know that Poe was the “Black Leader”, a leader of a squad of Resistance X-wing fighters. We know that at least Poe flies a dark hulled X-wing in this role, shown in this toy and the image below to have red accents. It isn’t clear to me whether the rest of the X-wings in the squadron that Poe leads are also pained black. For example the photo above from StarWars.com shows nothing but the blue and gray X-wings. Makes me think that the “Black Leader” is the only pilot to have a black X-wing.
There was a claim earlier on MakingStarWars.com that Poe would be part of the “Black Squadron”, but it seems that it has recently been confirmed that the “Black Squadron” is in fact a First Order squadron of TIE fighters. Therefore, this strongly suggests that Poe’s squadron of X-wings is not called the Black Squadron. If that is the case, the idea that the “Black Leader” is the only resistance X-wing fighter with a black hull seems more plausible.
All I know is, black TIE fighers fighting a black X-wing in space is going to look pretty sick.
That last linked article also shows us that Poe’s helmet changes from blue to the black one we see in the trailer. That could mean that Poe starts associated with another (blue?) squadron, and at some point in the movie, Poe is promoted to black leader.
We also have that quote from MSW “The black TIE makes all the difference”. This quote is getting more and more confusing. It sounded like that Poe wanted to paint a TIE that he stole from the First Order black, so that people would know that it’s him, the “black leader”. However, given that we know that the black squadron was a TIE squardon, and we also know that Poe and Finn steal a TIE that certainly looks black (see image below) and crash it on Jakku, then this seems a big confusing. What could it mean?
Going back to X-wings, have you seen the Lego commercials? Check out the X-wing commercial here because that server isn’t getting hammered enough as of late. Who is that bearded X-wing pilot that greets Poe? Might be Greg Grunberg’s character. Maybe we will see a lot of interaction between these two in the film. Certainly plausible if not likley.
So to recap, here’s what we got:
- Poe might have been born on Yavin IV
- Poe’s parents were in the Rebellion
- Becomes Black Leader
- Flies a Black X-wing
- Knows Leia from way back, probably through his parents
- Best starfighter in the galaxy
- Entrusted by Leia on an important mission
- Meets Finn in the brig after being captured by the First Order. They team up and escape in a TIE figher, Poe possibly knocked out from the crash, Finn takes Poe’s jacket, eventually they meet back up, possibly saved by Poe.
It’s definitely easy to see some parallels with ANH here. Leia entrusts R2D2 with the plans to the Death Star, and similarly, Leia entrusts Poe with a mission on Jakku. So there is a possible parallel with Poe and BB8 mirroring R2D2 and C3P0. It seems like BB8 ultimately carries away the lightsaber similar to the way that R2 continues with the plans to the Death Star. So the parallel kind of crumbles after that, but it is clear that they are playing some of the same notes, just re-imagined. Ultimately, in the rest of the sequel trilogy, it seems that Poe will take the place of Han as the key pilot character (or at least one of them if Rey pilots the Falcon). If Han and Leia are married, one would expect that Poe also knows Han, but that is definitely not for sure as many suggest that Han and Leia have been separated for a while.
Beyond this info, I gotta say I’m grasping for more. If I’m missing something, hit me up on twitter and let me know.
davestrrr