Star Wars: The Last Jedi..Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac)..Photo: Jonathan Olley..©2017 Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Poe Dameron (The Last Jedi)
Most fans feel The Last Jedi did Poe wrong, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Poe is a straightforward character in The Force Awakens. In fact, he’s too straightforward. He’s a brave, loyal, and incredibly gifted Resistance pilot, with more than a touch of arrogance as well. There’s not much more to him than that in The Force Awakens.
Poe thinks he already has what it takes to be a leader. Leia and Vice Admiral Holdo put the hotshot pilot in his place and make him realize there’s far more to being an effective leader than he ever realized.
Poe is forced to grow beyond the privileged, cocky hero he’s always been. He learns how it’s more important to protect the spark that will light the fire than to be a recklessly brave hero. He learns about the essential difference between a smart sacrifice and needlessly endangering or dooming the lives of others. Poe comes out as a better and wiser character for the ways Leia and Holdo challenged him, and he helps the Resistance live to fight another day.
With Poe being one of the central characters of the sequel trilogy, he deserves to have more character development and complexity than what The Force Awakens gave him.
Fortunately The Last Jedi pushed his character forward in positive ways, making him the kind of leader the Resistance needs and poising him to have one of the best arcs in The Rise of Skywalker.