Poe Dameron

Poe Dameron was a human male who originally served as a member of the Spice Runners of Kijimi, before becoming a pilot in the New Republic and eventually joining the Resistance, rising to become acting General of the Resistance, during the Cold War and subsequent war with the First Order. The son of Lieutenant Shara Bey and Sergeant Kes Dameron of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, Dameron followed in his late mother's footsteps in becoming a pilot, serving the New Republic Defense Fleet as the commander of Rapier Squadron, but grew disillusioned with the Republic's inaction to the First Order's violations of the Galactic Concordance. Dameron defected to the Resistance, where he became one of General Leia Organa's most trusted operatives. Dameron flew under the callsign of Black Leader while piloting his specialized T-70 X-wing starfighter, Black One.

As the conflict with the First Order grew more desperate, Dameron was sent to find Lor San Tekka on Jakku, who had a data chip containing part of a map to locate Organa's brother, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. Though Dameron entrusted the map to his astromech droid BB-8, he was captured by the First Order and interrogated for the location of the map, eventually being forced to hand over the information. He escaped with the help of a defecting stormtrooper, whom Dameron nicknamed Finn, and returned to the Resistance base on D'Qar on his own. He aided Finn, Rey, Han Solo, and Chewbacca with air support during the Battle of Takodana, and he later flew during the battle to destroy the superweapon known as Starkiller Base. During the battle, after the base was damaged by Solo, Finn, Rey, and Chewbacca, Dameron fired the shots that destroyed the Starkiller weapon, saving the Resistance from certain destruction.

During the subsequent battle of D'Qar, Dameron disobeyed orders and led an attack on the First Order Dreadnought Fulminatrix, but his reckless actions caused him to be demoted from Wing Commander to captain. As the First Order pursued the Resistance by tracking them through hyperspace to the Crait system, Dameron did not approve of the passive strategy of Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo and worked with Finn and mechanic Rose Tico to break into Supreme Leader Snoke's flagship, the Supremacy, and disable the First Order's hyperspace tracker before eventually staging a mutiny against Admiral Holdo in an effort to buy Finn and Rose time.

However, Dameron and the mutineers had not realized that Holdo's plan was to discreetly transport the Resistance to an abandoned Rebel base on the nearby planet Crait, and his group's actions caused the First Order to discover the Resistance's escape vessels and destroy many of them. Even so, General Organa gave Dameron command after Holdo sacrificed herself, and he led a last-ditch counterattack against the First Order during the Battle of Crait. The counterattack was unsuccessful, but Dameron was able to lead the surviving Resistance fighters while a Force projection of Luke Skywalker distracted Kylo Ren and the First Order, where they found their way to Rey and the Millennium Falcon, allowing them to escape.

After the escape, the group took the brief moment of peace to catch up on recent events, and as he left for the Battle of Ikkrukk, the ace was promoted back to commander. After that, he reflected on what it truly meant to be a member of the Resistance, and how he believed it was about bringing light to dark and saving one's galaxy.

Serving the Resistance over the next year, Dameron continued the fight against the First Order on countless worlds, soon obtaining knowledge that Kylo Ren had been in contact with the resurrected Darth Sidious. Bringing this knowledge back to the Resistance, Dameron, Finn, Rey, and Chewbacca departed from their newly established base on Ajan Kloss and went to Pasaana to the search for the Sith wayfinder. There, they found the retired general Lando Calrissian, who directed the heroes towards the Bestoon Legacy, where his search went cold years back. Poe and his friends then encountered the First Order and Kylo Ren, and Chewbacca and the Falcon were captured. Dameron brought his friends to the Spice Runners' Den on Kijimi to visit Babu Frik to uncover newly read forbidden Sith translations from C-3PO's memory banks. Rey, having sensed Chewbacca's presence on the Steadfast, alerted the others, and they boarded the destroyer to rescue their friend, finding the unexpected help from the traitorous Hux. The Resistance crew then traveled to Kef Bir, the ocean moon of Endor, to visit the wreckage of the second Death Star, while meeting Company 77, a group of First Order deserters.

Upon Rey departing and returning to Ajan Kloss, Dameron received the news that General Organa had passed away. He took this very hard, burdened with the leadership role she passed to him. In a moment of vulnerability, Dameron confessed his hopelessness in Organa's chamber, but was comforted by Lando, who returned to help the Resistance. With this newfound hope, Dameron promoted Finn to co-general and they planned their final assault on Exegol, using the course plotted by Rey in Luke Skywalker's T-65B X-wing starfighter. The co-generals launched their attack, sending Lando to the core worlds to gather support. The Resistance's initial attack was a bust, as the Sith Eternal picked off their pilots one-by-one. Dameron lost hope and felt personally responsible for the losses.

Suddenly, Calrissian arrived at Exegol with citizens from all over the galaxy in tow in a massive Citizens' Fleet, and reminded Poe that he is never alone. Together, leading the people of the galaxy, Dameron became the spark that lit the fire that would burn down the First Order. Civilian vessels began to take out the Sith Eternal's fleet of Xyston-class Star Destroyers, the Final Order, while Rey and Ben Solo fought the resurrected Sith Lord on the ground. Having briefly restored his strength, Sidious unleashed a storm of Force lightning, disabling the fleet for a short time. Rey managed to stop this however, and Dameron was able to continue leading the citizens of the galaxy.

Victorious, Dameron and the fleet returned to Ajan Kloss to celebrate. Inspired by the Resistance, the rest of the galaxy begins to rise up against the rest of the First Order. Dameron reunited with Finn, Rey, and Zorii Bliss, and embraced in their victory.

Text and facts from the “Poe Dameron” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.