i love all the ‘poe has a wonderful singing voice’ headcanons for the obvious reason, but you know who else has a wonderful singing voice? rey. except where poe is a connoisseur of mellow space folk and lugs his space guitar from base to base and sings to his fellow pilots, rey has always made up her own songs and her own lyrics and her own stories to sing to herself about.
i’m saying: rey sitting at finn’s bedside, singing to him about the tiny desert critters burrowing in their tiny burrows with their tiny families for the night. it’s a strange combination, part lullaby, part counting song, something she made up when she must’ve been 7 or 8, and she’s never sung it to anyone else. but she’s singing it to finn, who’s unconscious, and it’s soft and sweet and poe walks by med bay one time and catches a glimpse and a couple of verses and he’s like
As with any organization, the Resistance found it necessary to produce training holovids on a variety of topics, from basic demonstrations of the use of important equipment to more nuanced vids on cultural or personnel issues. They were a small force, but tended to be somewhat geographically scattered by necessity, and it saved a lot of time to have a small collection of introductory holovids to show new recruits to get them quickly up to speed.
The most entertaining holovid, however, was widely held to be this one.
DEALING WITH YOUR INEVITABLE CRUSH ON POE DAMERON
The title music swells, epic and orchestral, over a black screen. Fade in: a photo, taken outdoors, head and shoulders, of Poe Dameron, squinting slightly into the sun, jaw set in determination. His hair is tousled and he is in a flight suit and leather jacket, ruggedly attractive.
Another flourish of music, and the title pops bright white text over a black screen:
DEALING WITH YOUR INEVITABLE CRUSH ON POE DAMERON
Fade to footage of Poe Dameron, in a sleeveless tight undershirt smudged with grease and worn-thin trousers that fit very flatteringly behind, bending over to demonstrate how to use a new system of tie-downs to secure equipment such as small spacecraft in inclement weather. His hair is a little too long and falls across his forehead; he habitually shakes his head a little to keep it away from his eyes, in a charming gesture, and he frequently looks to the camera for guidance, which gives him an appealing, almost supplicant aspect, especially since he frequently smiles at the cameraman.
Voiceover (male, smooth, cultured, the same one who narrates most of the rest of the instructional holovids the Resistance produces): “It’s not a question of if, but when. It’s a natural part of joining the Resistance. Everyone says, oh, it won’t happen to me, I’m immune to that sort of thing. But everyone in the Resistance eventually ends up with a crush on Poe Dameron.”
Cut to head-and-shoulders shot of a middle-aged mechanic, female, in work attire, clearly in a spacecraft hangar, holding a wrench in one hand. There’s a label at the bottom of the screen: Yana, Mechanic. Below that it says, He Remembers Her Name. “You may think you’re immune to his looks,” she says, “but then he remembers your name after only having met you once, and claps you on the shoulder, and calls you ‘buddy’ and smiles at you.” She sighed. “And it only gets worse from there.”
Quick cut to a shot, zoomed in from a distance, of Poe Dameron standing on the ladder to the cockpit of his X-Wing. It is a video; he is watching someone offscreen do something, the wind gently ruffling his tousled hair and his helmet under one arm. His mouth is slightly open; after a moment he licks his lower lip, then grins, like he’s about to speak.
Meanwhile, voiceover:
“Don’t be alarmed. These are natural feelings. Take comfort in the fact that you aren’t alone. And you can console yourself in the knowledge that he has this effect on everyone.”
Cut to head and shoulders shot of a young pilot, female, dark-haired; she is attractively dressed and made-up, but wearing her flight suit. The label at the bottom of the screen says Jessika Pava, Pilot, and is subtitled, He Has Saved Her Life About 100 Times. “It’s not his fault,” she says. “That’s the thing you have to keep in mind. He’s really like that. He’s really actually nice to people. He’s completely sincere.”
A still shot fills the screen: Poe Dameron, very young, aged perhaps sixteen or seventeen. He is standing on a table, possibly dancing, shirtless, wearing New Republic Academy uniform trousers and suspenders. The suspenders are slipping down his shoulders, and he has his head tipped back and is provocatively mock-fellating a bottle clearly labeled “Corellian Death Rum” while staring seductively into the camera. He is clearly intoxicated.
Meanwhile, voiceover:
“Methods of coping with this affliction vary by individual. Some people pretend they don’t feel it. Others give themselves over to it. A few daring individuals have tried to actually go for it. But it seems that despite a wild youth, Poe has settled into a reasonably responsible adulthood. It is not recommended that you pursue him aggressively.”
Cut, footage of a very attractive blonde woman in her early thirties, in a New Republican Starfleet uniform. She is labeled Garella Unaeron, and subtitled Shared Single, Memorable Wild Night Of Passion. “I just broke into his quarters and got naked and lay in his bed until he showed up,” she says, looking smug. “It went well for me, but I mean, we were also like eighteen. So. I don’t imagine that’d go as well now he’s defected to the Resistance.” She tosses her hair, clearly taking a moment to remember. “But I mean, if you go for it,” she went on, “much as I loathe his politics, I gotta say, he’s really great in the sack. I don’t imagine he’s lost the knack, it’s not the kind of thing you get worse at with practice.” Suddenly her expression changes, twisting into suspicion. “Wait, who did you say you were again?” The camera jerks and the footage ends abruptly.
The next shot is a craggily-handsome man in his late thirties, with a scar down one cheekbone that speaks of a life of action. He is labeled Naeher Adamant, and subtitled Had Actual Grown-Up Sexual Relationship. “A gentleman never kisses and tells,” he says, unsmiling, but he looks pleased nonetheless, or perhaps fond. “I can tell you, though, that Dameron is never other than entirely genuine. There’s no need to play games.”
Another cut, another interview subject, head and shoulders of a shiny-polished droid. Titled CR-31T, Mechanic, and subtitled He Is Really That Nice All The Time. “I’ve never worked with any other human who went so out of his way to make sure I understood that he considered me a person, on par with a biological organism,” the droid said, a little shyly. “It’s not— I don’t mind, you know, I know what I am, but he’s just— he’s so nice.”
Cut to footage of Poe Dameron, dressed in his flight suit, clearly training footage of some kind as he is watching someone offscreen and gesturing a little hesitantly to parts of his gear, as if in demonstration. He is apparently a little bored with making training videos, however, and is making amusing faces at the offscreen person, exaggerated expressions of wide-eyed wonder and grimacing trepidation.
Meanwhile, voiceover:
“So when you find yourself suffused with inappropriate feelings for this particular individual, just remember, you’re not alone. Speak to your counselor about what coping method is best for you. And above all, don’t make it weird: we’re relying on him, and his possibly-unholy combination of dashing charm and uncanny good luck. Try to use your misplaced erotic energy wisely.”
The music swells again, and the scene cuts to another video of Poe, zoomed in on him from quite a distance; he is outdoors, watching something at a distance with a vacant half-smile. The wind, again, ruffles his hair slightly, attractively, and he laughs silently, eyes crinkling up fetchingly. The title rolls up the screen again:
DEALING WITH YOUR INEVITABLE CRUSH ON POE DAMERON
As the scene fades to black, the title is the last thing visible, then winks out as well.
____
This is part of a longer thing that’s not really coming together yet but I promise it will. @artgroves and I are working together on it and I am more excited than I can even express.
I am crying. Try to use your misplaced erotic energy wisely.
Poe is just so nice to BB-8 that I imagine he’s like that to all droids. And you know BB-8 always talks him up to the other droids too, like “I have the best Master! He is good and kind and mine!”
Imagine the droids deciding to investigate and finding that they like this human, that he is Good and he is Friend. And eventually, Poe has this huge line of droids following him around like a mother duckling. You never have to look for Poe anymore; you just have to follow the beeping and chirping of a tiny army of droids, and there he is.
poe canonically gets super excited about cool-looking spacecrafts (he describes a TIE fighter as having a “deadly beauty” in the tfa novelization, god) so i’m just imagining poe gushing on and on to finn about his favorite types of space ships, and finn’s just like “you’re SUCH a nerd but i love you anyway” and is happy to listen to every word because poe’s so cute when he’s excited
And Rey casually bringing up her scavenging inside dozens of Stardestroyer’s and her new ownership of the Falcon, and Poe’s face just falls in shock before lighting up as he starts reciting about the Battle of Jakku with the air battles and the many exploits of the Millennium Falcon she never heard about. Finn just points a look at her saying “now he’s at it for hours, good job,” but he’s trying and failing to look exasperated while he’s fighting this huge goofy grin and stars in his eyes because he’s like “wow I love you two too much, I can’t ever be mad at you two for long.”
“No you’re not serious!”
“I am! The breach was on the right side, made by an X-Wing?”
“Yes!”
“I pulled salvage from that ship! Nobody managed to make the climb before I came along! There were compressor coils and functioning actuators that I took from the X-Wing wreckage and–”
“Woahwoahwoah,” Poe said, waving his hands to stop Rey. “That was the Blue Leader X-Wing: The ship that turned the tide of the Battle of Jakku by taking out the flagship Star Destroyer and you pulled salvage from it?”
Rey blinked and then wet her lips, not sure if the pilot was upset or impressed.
“Yeah…?” she said, voice breaking, ending on a questioning high note of uncertainty. Poe let out a noise somewhere between a shout and a laugh. He laced his fingers behind his neck as he leaned back, expression incredulous. Rey still wasn’t sure if he approved or not.
“Holy shit,” Poe said after a second. He laughed. “Holy shit!” he repeated, “That’s incredible!” Rey released a quiet breath of relief and mirrored the grin on Poe’s face. He leaned forward, reclasping his hands in front of him. “You know that Star Destroyer was responsible for fourteen Imperial victories after the destruction of the second Death Star? When Blue Leader–the pilot’s name was Remi Jouin–was critically damaged, the fleet was meant to retreat. His ship was on the way down, and would have been deflected off of the Stardestroyer’s shields. But Remi made a last-second lightspeed jump that phased him through the shields and crashed him straight in to the command bridge. Oh his way down he went over the comms and said–”
“–hold your ground and give them hell for me,” Rey finished for him, practically bouncing in her seat. Poe blinked at her.
“I’m sorry, you’ve heard this story before?” He asked, brows knitting together.
“No,” Rey said, grinning so widely her cheeks hurt. She leaned forward, as if to share a secret. “I didn’t just pull compressor coils and actuators from the wreckage. I took the black box. I had it in my shelter on Jakku.” Poe visibly started in his seat.
“Y-…” he stuttered, laying his palms against the table. “You’re serious?” he whispered. Rey nodded.
“I had a screen I could hook it up to so I could–” Poe stood up abruptly, nearly knocking over his chair as he did. Finn, who had been dozing with his head propped up on one hand, jumped and blinked sleepily at the sudden commotion. Poe swept around the table, seizing Rey’s wrist as he did and dragging her out of her chair after him.
“What’s going on?” Finn asked, half standing.
“We’re going to Jakku!” Poe called over his shoulder. Finn ran a tired hand over his face, a deep frown set in to his expression.
“Jakku…? Wha… why do you always want go go back to Jakku?”
instead of only meeting when they’re about to lose eachother, rey, finn and poe all meet at the start of the movie when rey goes rummaging through the wreckage of the tie fighter they crash-landed in, and finds two mildly concussed strangers and a bunch of parts that require serious scrubbing but will probably keep her fed for a week.
points to consider:
rey already found bb-8 before she finds finn and poe, so: emotional reunion between poe and his droid while rey and finn look on and think, independently of eachother, what a swell guy
rey offers to share her rations for the day, but makes them do the scrubbing while she sits in the shade and relaxes for once
they end up at rey’s place and by this point rey already knows they’re with the resistance and she’s a little bit flustered because she lives in a literal wreck that she decorated with flowers and dolls and scavenged rebel alliance paraphernalia. she’s kind of glaring and i-dare-you-to-say-something at first, but the boys love it. finn is looking around trying not to be too obviously wide-eyed at all the home-y touches b/c he grew up in such a sterile, uniform environment where they probably didn’t have a lot of personal effects. poe comments that it’s cozy and actually reminds him of the squad dorms on d’qar because pilots always have a mess of parts lying around and little model ships and things, and rey would fit right in; rey is trying to be Very Dignified about everything but inside she’s all !!!!
because of reasons, poe and finn are stuck on jakku for a couple of days before the resistance can pick them up, so rey takes them scavenging. poe is very bad at climbing things, but finn manages to keep up and he knows a lot about star destroyer junk and he and rey get a little geeky about it and finn starts thinking that if the resistance won’t have him after all, maybe rey will and he can stay on jakku and be a scavenger with rey and live in rey’s lovely home. tl;dr by the end of the day he’s mentally scribbling ‘mr. rey’s husband <3 <3 <3′ in his journal.
rey still ends up beating plott’s thugs to defend bb-8 and the boys are like …oh.
when they board the falcon during their emergency getaway, both poe and finn assume it’s going to be poe flying it, but he ends up in the co-pilot seat hanging on for dear life and by the time they’re in orbit he’s pretty sure he’s about to do something incredibly inappropriate, like ask rey to marry him
finn still gets the jacket. idk does he still have that cynical ‘we can’t win’ moment at maz’s place and after he and rey say goodbye poe follows him all hey buddy i’m sad that you’re going but i totally respect your choice so here’s something to remember me by?
poe introducing finn and rey to leia. they’re all in various states of exhausted dishevelment but poe’s got his arms tight around them and his sweet, crinkly-eyed smile and leia decides on the spot that yes, she will officiate this wedding.
trying to find that one post where y’all speculate about Finn realizing he needs to provide a surname, and he just goes with “Dameron” because that’s the first one which comes to mind (none of his old friends had surnames or even names beyond their official designations, and he can’t remember that much of his family)
and Rey is like “yeah solid choice, makes sense, I like the sound of it” because Rey is a feral desert child and doesn’t know any better
and of course Poe is charmed, and is like “sure I am happy to provide jackets, surnames, my elite piloting skills, my hand in marriage: anything for my friends”
and idk at some point, someone is like “okay Rey do you have any other name, what’s with the mononym shit” and she’s like “uhhhhh DAMERON” because really if it works for Finn, it can work for her
and the long and short of it is: they see nothing unusual in this and completely miss any implications, and eventually this nonsense gets back to the Resistance fighters and Poe’s entire squadron smirks at him for days
Are Poe’s parents still alive? Because he’d be getting messages asking for an explanation why they had to find out third hand that he got bonded, at the very least?
I have been thinking about this and I have decided that I was completely wrong: this entire mess is Poe’s fault, he totally started it.
accidentally! and with the best of intentions! he woke up in the desert with the ship and Finn both missing, and while he feared the worst, he still had hope. when he made contact with the Resistance, he tells them about Finn and has him listed as MIA; he felt responsible for the kid, he felt awful that this boy took a courageous leap with a total stranger & got smashed to bits in the desert for his trouble.
Poe has some vague notion that if Finn was ever found, he’d ask him to join the Resistance, or help him get settled in a new quiet life somewhere safe. He knows Finn doesn’t have anyone else, so he writes “Finn Dameron” and lists himself as next of kin.
when they reconnect, he’s so happy that Finn is okay (a bit distracted by how gorgeous the kid is, he hadn’t had time to notice before), and genuinely touched that Finn kept his jacket, that Finn was equally worried and upset over him. it occurs to him that the name thing could be awkward, so he explains his concerns, he explains next-of-kin notifications, and “you didn’t have anyone else that I knew of, so I wanted to make sure you’d at least have me.”
after that, Poe doesn’t think anything of it.
…but Finn! Finn is like, COMPLETELY VERKLEMPT, that this cool dashing hero person was looking out for him! Finn has people now - he has Rey and Poe, and the entire rest of the Resistance have embraced him wholeheartedly. also!!! next-of-kin, that’s SO NICE, he has kin now, he’s not just cannon fodder whose passing won’t matter to anyone but his squadmates. he’s a person, he has kin, he has people, he belongs. it’s so great.
he tells Rey all about it and she gets why he’s excited; it IS awesome. he signs everything “Finn Dameron” and she addresses her messages to “Finn Dameron,” it’s all very exciting. and she thinks about it, too, she thinks about next-of-kin, about Finn coming back for her, Finn choosing her.
when she rejoins the Resistance, she asks Finn if she can be “Rey Dameron” so that they can have next-of-kin too. (it simply doesn’t occur to either of them that they can get next-of-kin notifications without exchanging surnames; Poe did it that way, and it made sense to them, and they never thought about it beyond that.) and of course Finn agrees!
he forgets to tell Poe for another five weeks, and then mentions it in passing. Poe is like, professionally unfazed, so he just finds the whole thing charming. they are so cute and he can’t stop smiling over them; they are the best. and again, Poe moves on & doesn’t think anything of it.
…..and then. AND THEN, eventually, Rey finds out that she’s a Skywalker. [This was foreshadowed so heavily in the movie, I’m 99.999% certain they’re gonna go there.] and obviously there’s a lot of feelings and drama, but when it dies down a bit, she’s hanging out with Finn and they’re drowsily curled up together on his bunk because they want to talk FOREVER but they’re so tired but the have SO MUCH TO SAY.
Rey doesn’t totally understand what all of this means for her, what it means to have that family and their legacy. but she does know what it means to have THIS family, the one she has with Finn. so it makes perfect sense to make him part of her new family, to mesh the identity she’s inherited with the identity she’s made, so she asks him, “you are my people, you are my next-of-kin. do you want to be a Skywalker too?” and of course he’s like “YEAH!”
and like. throughout all of this, Poe is their buddy and means a lot to them, and they think of him as their people. (the entire Resistance has noticed how much the kids adore him & hero worship him, it’s hard to miss; they would tease Poe more about it, but he clings grimly to his virtue and hisses “CRADLE ROBBING” every time it comes up, so they mostly let it go.)
so when there’s some Big Dramatic Space Mission, and his squadron goes missing briefly, Finn & Rey are both really messed up about it. and then one of them is like, “…you know what we forgot to do?” and the other one is like “OH OF COURSE.” as his next-of-kin, they have the right to get his records updated, so that’s what happens while Poe spends several miserable weeks fleeing across the muddiest, swampiest continent in the galaxy. when he finally makes contact with the Resistance, he has acquired (1) space cholera, (2) space ticks, and (3) a new surname, though he doesn’t learn about that last one for a while.
His mothers find out around the same time he does, and they are Not Amused. “Why wouldn’t you TELL US,” they ask, and “it’s hardly classified, apparently your whole base knows,” and “we had to hear about it from your commanding officer, young man,” and “were you ever planning to introduce us, what do you have to say for yourself”
and like, there’s a totally reasonable and rational explanation for all of this - “it’s not what you think,” he says feebly, and his moms huff, unimpressed - but he’s still shaken up from the influx of engagement/wedding presents and General Princess Leia herself visiting his bedside to fix him with a gimlet stare and a completely deadpan, “Welcome to the family.” He’s had a long day, he might be married, and he’s not sure how but it’s at least 30% his own fault.
guys someone talk to me about poe dameron - best pilot in the resistance, top dog, guns-blazing male protagonist - and how he was so kind. how he took an ex storm trooper at face value and with unconditional, immediate trust and even a fierce kind of joy- yeah, you go buddy! fight the darkness. i’m here to help you. i’m here to work with you. i’m not here to take control- we won’t get out of this unless we work together.
how he didn’t treat him with suspicion or macho posturing despite the fact that he’s a top tier pilot and has probably been at war with people like FN 2187 for years. how the first thing he does once they’re out of immediate danger is give him a name, treating him like a person worthy of respect and not like another faceless white mask. how he is patient with a panicking Finn even under the incredible stress of a life or death situation, ensuring he knows what to do and being endlessly positive and encouraging instead of berating him when he falls short.
how he gets out of his jet at the end of the big firefight and sees BB8 and his whole face just lights up. how he unselfconsciously runs to BB8 like a kid, automatically lowering himself to BB8′s level.
how he doesn’t need to be the spotlight, the center of attention. when they gather around the hologram to strategize, star pilot and battle veteran poe dameron shuts up and listens.
how he never has a Trek-reboot Jim Kirk-style playboy sequence, no endless string of girls. not even a hint, and you know they could have stuck it in there if they wanted to. how we never see him treat another being, human or otherwise, with anything less than respect, optimism and good nature. i’m just. i mean. do you realize how significant this is?
you guys, if poe dameron is the future of male protagonists in big action movies, sign me the fuck up.
I WAS ALREADY IN LOVE WITH HIM I DIDN’T NEED THIS POST TO REMIND ME
