If there’s one thing all the Star Wars movies have in common, it’s a hotshot pilot or two. Luke Skywalker is a natural, Han Solo can perform miracles at the controls of the Millennium Falcon, and even in the prequels, characters like Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi have serious flying skills.
Still, none of them seem to be quite as talented as Resistance pilot Poe Dameron. A fan favorite even among a strong group of new characters in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Poe has multiple chances to shine. Seriously, go watch the battle above Maz Kanata’s place on Takodana again and tell me if there even needs to be other X-Wing pilots in that fight.
In the original Star Wars, Luke got to be the best pilot and the one destined to walk the path of the Force. It’s cool that this time around, J.J. Abrams and company decided to split those roles, with Rey looking like the Jedi hope (though it must be said, she’s also a badass pilot, no surprise given her likely parentage) and Poe getting to be the One Pilot to Rule Them All.
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Anyway, no big deal. Poe Dameron is simply a product of good genes — Wookieepedia says his mother was a pilot and his father was a Rebel commando — and hours of practice, right? Well, maybe … and maybe not.
While there’s nothing in The Force Awakens itself to make anyone suspect Dameron had any assistance to become the best pilot in the galaxy, there are other in-canon works that suggest he might be channeling the Force. Specifically, the Marvel comic Star Wars: Shattered Empire #4 reveals that Poe grew up in a home with a special Force-sensitive tree outside of it, made possible by Luke Skywalker himself.
The tree wasn’t something invented by comic writer Greg Rucka either. It grew from the remnants of a previous tree that grew in the Jeri Temple on Coruscant, one that was seen in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series and also has its own Wookieepedia page.
So the theory here is that Poe somehow was affected by being around the tree in his youth. He probably doesn’t have enough affinity with the Force to become a Jedi, but he might be using it subconsciously when he flies. It’s a cool idea, and one that we could see followed up on in later Star Wars films.
Next: Is Yoda in Star Wars: The Force Awakens?
In fact, here’s a fun idea just for the heck of it: you know that speech from the first The Force Awakens trailer where Luke is explaining the history of the Force in his family to someone and ends it by saying, “You have that power too?” What if he’s not talking to Rey, but is instead explaining the Force to Poe? Just something to consider.