roccondil:gffa:BEFORE I BEGIN: I want to make it clear that this is not an argument against this vi
roccondil:gffa:BEFORE I BEGIN: I want to make it clear that this is not an argument against this video’s view of the Holdo vs Poe storyline, nor is it an attempt to say CinemaWins is wrong on the internet or whatever. I mean, fair enough, he does kind of go at others’ arguments, so I don’t feel guilt using his comments as a jumping off point, but still. Ultimately, this isn’t about CinemaWins’s video [x] at all, but about what this crystalized for me.But it was sort of a smack in the face moment of finally being able to articulate why this doesn’t work for me. “Tell me why the leader needs to answer to one pilot.”BECAUSE THAT IS POE’S CHARACTER TRAJECTORY IN THIS MOVIE. He is being set up as the next leader of the Resistance, that is made clear by the end of this movie, by the supplementary material, and, hell, even TROS follows through on that arc.Poe isn’t just some random pilot and maybe Holdo doesn’t know that (but then what kind of leader is she if she doesn’t know that Poe is being groomed for this role? she and Leia were in conversation, presumably? Also, they have a conversation at the end about how they both like him) but the audience sure as hell does and having the character who is supposed to be learning to step up, as in that is his whole arc in this very movie, is undercut by Holdo treating him like he’s just another pilot.If the movie had made the argument that Poe should have trusted her because that’s what you do when you’re leadership material, you trust your fellow Resistance members, then that might have worked better for me. But he’s treated as a hotshot pilot who was just demoted and nothing more.So, when Poe fucks up over the course of the movie, then is suddenly back in charge by the end of it, like nothing happened, like his mutiny didn’t just badly hurt them, but Leia is still like, “What are you looking at me for? Follow him!” despite that he was just treated as just “one pilot” doesn’t work for me.Either Poe is being groomed for leadership, in which case you bring him in on these decisions or else tell him, “You have to trust me. As the future of this movement, you need to learn to work with people.”, OR he’s “just a pilot” and then you have to cut out all the stuff about him being groomed to be the next leader of the Reistance.And if Holdo doesn’t have a plan at this point, if she’s still working on it, then you have to let him in on that, too, because I think it would be fair to make a case that she does owe the FUTURE OF THEIR MOVEMENT at least some answers.To add to this, Holdo is a brand new commander that seems to have taken control out of nowhere. She’s untested, the characters she’s leading have no confidence in her abilities to lead. She basically has no CV/Resume.Leia, on the other hand, has a history with many of the Rebels/Resistance. She’s led squads, worked on operation plans. She also has a very personal and personable relationship with everyone she’s leading. Everyone knows that her plans have a high success rate, and if she needs to keep things a secret sometimes, she’s earned that blind faith.Another commander to talk about is Thrawn. He also got to where he was by working his way up the leadership ranks, quickly proving that he could do the job. And when he was Grand Admiral, people respected him, or learned to very quickly. That included any time he had to make a maneuver that required secrecy or was confusing to his own men, it would pay off almost immediately, rather than be drawn out to the point that those he commanded broke ranks because of despair. At least at the beginning; once he executed enough of those operations his forces also trusted that while they might not understand their orders, their commander always had a definite reason and plan to back them up. -- source link