Star Wars: Poe Dameron’s new backstory felt unnecessary and out of place

Poe Dameron’s added backstory in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker didn’t work. It felt forced and unnecessary while adding a racial stereotype.

Up until Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Poe Dameron was portrayed as a do-gooder pilot. A hot shot ace that stood for friends and galaxy.

Every bit of backstory we had of him up until the movie told us how his family fought for the Rebels and that he was a decorated pilot that followed in his parents’ footsteps.

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And then …

He suddenly knew how to hot wire a speeder. And he knew shady back room, black market droid dealers. Then it turned out he was also a spice runner. That was a little wild.

Poe’s new backstory did not work for me for a number of reasons.

First, how is Star Wars going to make the Latino character a drug dealer? This is straight up playing into stereotypes and ridiculous. Of all the backstories they could have given him, apparently spice runner was the thing they landed on.

Give me a break.

The backstory didn’t actually do anything but force connection they needed to fit in The Rise of Skywalker. The problem with Rey and Finn coming from limited backgrounds means that to find anything else in the wider galaxy, it would have to rely on Poe. Of the main three characters, he is the only that realistically would have any experience beyond his four walls when the same could not be said for Rey and Finn.

Also, by giving Poe this new backstory it allowed Star Wars to create another revenue path as it already announced a novel coming out going into Poe running away from home and meeting with the spice runners of Kijimi.

Am I going to read it? Of course! But it’s probably a book I will be borrowing from the library.

His whole backstory felt forced and out of place. While Poe always had cockiness as a personality trait, it never felt as though he learned any of skills and tricks in the slums of Corellia.

The backstory was convenient when it needed to be in The Rise of Skywalker and didn’t really add anything extra to Poe’s character development. Instead, of looking back, J.J. Abrams and the writers of The Rise of Skywalker would have been better suited by looking forward.

Poe dealt with major tragedy in The Last Jedi, some of which was addressed in the Resistance Reborn novel. Yet it seems he forgot it all and went back to the tendencies he showed in The Last Jedi without actually growing much.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker could have done better by Poe Dameron’s character.

Where do you stand on Poe’s new backstory?