Everyone says stormtroopers can’t shoot.
Poe’s heard it for years. It’s a joke he hears in the barracks, in the war rooms; it’s the first joke they tell the new recruits: Don’t worry, buddy, stormtroopers can’t shoot. Stormtroopers couldn’t hit the Death Star if they were in its orbit. Stormtroopers couldn’t hit a rancour in a closet. We’ll come back safe and sound, his friends say as a farewell, we’ll be fine: You know that stormtroopers can’t shoot.
Stormtroopers can’t shoot, they say, but Poe knows it’s not true, because he’s standing here with Finn’s hand on his arm and Finn is looking at him with such goodness in his eyes and saying he’s here to rescue him, Poe Dameron, and Poe knows in that instant that everything everyone’s ever said about stormtroopers is wrong, all wrong, because here is Finn, wearing his goodness shining all over him like shining armour, and it hits Poe right in the heart.
They say stormtroopers can’t shoot, but here is Finn in the copilot’s seat of their TIE, his back pressed against Poe’s, and they are working in tandem like they’ve done this for years, like they’ve trained together and fought together and sweated together, felt each other’s fear and tasted glory together, like they have been fighting on the same side all along. Here is Finn, aiming to kill, taking a shot at the institution that told him he was nothing but a number and a pair of arms meant for holding guns. He’s a good shot, someone you’d want by your side in a furball. Someone you’d want by your side, through thick and thin.
They say stormtroopers can’t shoot, but here is Finn, fighting for what he believes in, rushing to save the ones he loves, and when he sees Finn, ready to race after his friend no matter where it will take him, it is then that Poe knows he wants it for himself: Finn’s devotion, his loyalty, his love. This is it. This is all he wants. He wants Finn fighting for him.
Here is Finn, doing what he believes to be right, and Poe’s always had a type, anyone could tell you; he has fallen in love with stories of knights and warriors, the ones who fight for justice and peace, and here is Poe, still reeling from Finn’s dark eyes and careful hands, and he never had a chance, he’s a standing target, and Finn’s aim is true.
Here is Finn, smiling right at him, and It hits Poe right in the heart.
It’s instant, it’s fatal, and they say stormtroopers can’t shoot.
(via cthulhu-with-a-fez)
