Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (#2)
Welcome back everyone! After last week’s opening discussions of Finn’s arc and themes related to everyone can be a hero, I decided it would be best to discuss another one of our main characters: Poe Dameron. Along with that, I want to discuss that big Lando and Lannah moment and some of the spin-off potential to come out of this movie. To this point in the franchise that is Star Wars, we’ve only had one spinoff focused on characters from the saga films, but because of discussions by cast members and the new nature of Disney’s ownership of Lucasfilm, it’s looking more likely than ever that at some point we could see some of these characters return. Without further adieu, lets dive into the story of Poe Dameron!
Poe Dameron - Spice Runner
I wish I could meet Oscar Isaac and shake his hand, because he managed to portray one of the most quietly nuanced characters in the history of Star War: Poe Dameron. A true man of the people, Poe purposely chooses only to act in what he believes is their best interests, sometimes even against his own well-being. Arguably holding one of the best developments throughout the trilogy, his story develops naturally, going so far as to show the pitfalls of his style of leadership, resulting in him attempting a mutiny at the Resistance’s most dire moment. Seeing him rebuild himself and his honor in the eyes of Leia and the Resistance made the new Resistance Reborn novel and all of his scenes in The Rise of Skywalker even more worth it besides just getting more story from these characters.
With the limited runtime that these films can have, and the main character being arguably Rey, it meant that Poe’s story often had to take a back seat and be explored through other formats like novels and comics, like Resistance Reborn mentioned previously. For those hardcore fans, it was great to see some of this history, but what Rise did so well this time is give us a hint at, as Finn says: Poe Dameron – Spice Runner. Poe before his time in the Resistance, doing what he had to to get by. When we travel to Kijimi where we are really given a bit of Poe’s previous life. Seeing him interact with his old crew who he presumably abandoned helped to fill in gaps for the character and help to understand his motivations and reasons for wanting to keep everyone on the same page. You get this sense of regret that Poe understands he abandoned Kijimi and it’s people at an important time, for a chance to become part of something bigger, but was never able to return and pay his dues. Zori and Poe have a great connection (due to great work by Keri Russell and Oscar Isaac), but I’m quite glad they didn’t lean too far into the romance with them. There were hints but it felt right that these two wouldn’t come back together and be love interests once more. And, without a doubt, it helped us get the fantastic Babu Frick! I did end up really enjoying the history for Poe, and while it could have potentially led to a prequel film focused around the Kijimi crew, Oscar Isaac has seemingly shot that down. Regardless, it was excellent history for the character.
Closing Poe’s arc also was one of my favorite moments of the film that I’ve already mentioned, but in a different context. Poe’s entire time with the Resistance has been about building up a true fighting force that can stand against the First Order. And in doing this becoming a leader of these people who were brave enough to fight. With his attempts to rebuild himself in the eyes of those that matter most to him being at the forefront of his mind, his most powerful scene came from within the cockpit of his new X-wing, as all seemed lost at the battle of Exegol. Seeing him finally break down under the weight of everything that was against him, and seeing the cracks in his hopefulness was incredible. What made it that much better though is seeing everything he believed in finally prove true with the arrival of the people of the galaxy to stand against tyranny. It was the perfect ending for a man who spent his whole adult life fighting for what’s right.
"Well, let’s find out.”
Something that’s been picked up on from the final moments of Rise is a specific, very important, but extremely short story beat between Lando and Jannah after they return to Ajan Kloss. Jannah is sitting on some containers, wondering about her future, and Lando saunters over and asks her about where she’s from. When she responds with “I don’t know,” Lando gives the most hopeful response ever “Well, let’s find out.” There’s a smile exchanged between the two, and I can’t help but imagine that this scene was meant to serve two purposes. The first being to show an aged and more mature Lando, rather than being a swindler and a swauve man, he’s a caring elder with some fatherly instincts (especially after the loss of his own child to the First Order). Secondly, it opens up the door to a story being told in some format about Jannah and Lando finding her parents.
Speculation has been abound with this moment, as some have lined up the timelines and see that theoretically, based on all the information we have that Jannah could in fact be Lando’s child, but I don’t believe that is what it was trying to portray. As I mentioned in last week’s piece, a large part of Finn’s story has been about finding his family. Found family is an extremely strong theme among these characters, and something I want to dive into in more depth when I discuss Rey’s parentage and arc. So, it makes sense that Disney would want to pay off these threads of family in some format, and I could most definitely see some sort of story as a result.
Evaluating Spinoff Potential
Like I said at the top of the article, The Rise of Skywalker opened up a large amount of potential stories to come in the future, and I’ve been discussing quite a few of them throughout this piece. I wanted to quickly circle around on those ideas and give you my thoughts on their potential likelihood. First: the idea of a potential Poe Dameron prequel focused on his time as a Spice Runner with his crew including the likes of Zori Bliss and Babu Frick. This seems like a story ripe for the telling, but unfortunately the potential problems come from Oscar Isaac, as he has said that he has no true interest in a spin-off story. This hurts me as a fan of the character, but I understand his uneasiness about returning. As a result, I could likely see this story told through a book or a comic so that Oscar Isaac doesn’t have to be involved, but that storybeat could be explored.
The other major story that could be explored is the Lando and Jannah connection. At one point I thought this story could include John Boyega’s Finn, but he has also said he would only return if his two other co-stars would be interested as well. Personally, I believe this story is likely to happen in some format, whether it be a limited series on Disney+, or a film down the line. It’s such a prime opportunity to tell a new story, that furthers the universe without opening up a new galactic threat. Finn could be satisfied with the family he has, so he chooses not to come along, but Lando and Jannah, along with her squad could all be involved in finding lost archives from the First Order about their history. It’s a story begging to be told, and I’m excited to see it whenever it does potential come to fruition.
Next Week!
There’s so much more that I want to talk about, but I don’t want to flood it all out at once. Next week, I want to spend some time discussing two huge moments of redemption and growth from The Rise of Skywalker: Ben Solo and Luke Skywalker. Specifically, we’ll be looking at Ben Solo as a character, and his triumphant turn to the Light in the ashes of the second Death Star. The other moment will be Luke’s newfound mindset on Ahch-To. I can’t wait to explore these and a multitude more in the coming weeks! May the force be with you, and I’ll see you all again very soon.
