Bodhi Rook is a survivor of genocide, a genocide that the Empire committed against his people and culture for years, possibly for as much as two decades - we don’t know exactly when the Empire occupied Jedha and began destroying it, but inferred from the Guardians of the Whill’s novel it was probably not long after RotS.
This is what Bodhi grew up with. On a planet that was occupied by oppressors that was viciously destroying his culture and poisoning his planet. Who was killing his people, either quickly by blaster fire or slowly by working in the mines or just breathing the air that the Empire was increasingly making unbreathable and corrosive to human lungs. And then his only recourse to help his own family survive was to work for them and ignore everything?
Then there’s the fact that he had to profane objects he likely considered deeply sacred. I don’t even know how to begin to describe how terrible such an action feels to people who probably only have Christianity as a point of reference, because in most Christian traditions the concept of scared has been so watered down as to be meaningless.
Bodhi has likely been in a state of simply surviving for his entire life, putting one foot in front of the other and not thinking too closely because it’s not just him, it’s his family too.
But now Jedha is gone. That’s not just his support system, it’s his whole home and his childhood and youth, and so much more. Whether or not his culture will even survive is an open question, depending on so many unknown variables that it is pointless to address here. If it doesn’t he effective rootless and adrift, and even if it does it’ll be deeply affected by the genocide.
As will Bodhi.
What happened to Jedha, not just in Rogue One but has been happening for years, is going to leave deep wounds in his heart and soul. Wounds that may indeed never heal. Wounds that he won’t even begin to know how to deal with. Wounds that therapists won’t know how to help him deal with because how do you assist someone who’s had their roots cut off, who at best can be replanted if his culture can find another place in the galaxy to grown, and then you hope for the best?
In a universe where he lives and finds the time and space to do more than just be in survival mode, Bodhi may legitimately not know how to do that. And even if he finds a way over the years, the mental and emotional scars the Empire left on him - and on every single other Jedha who survived - will last for generations.
re, using words other than betray or traitor to describe bodhi or finn: gee, it's almost like bodhi didn't even SUGGEST the word "rogue" for their callsign??
I didn’t bring up rogue because it carries an air of illegitimacy to it and is more a word I’d used in connection with Han.
That said, I’d take rogue over traitor any way of the week. So if people must, can you all start using rogue instead?
It really is notable though that both Finn and Bodhi gets defined by the very connection they spend the whole movie rejecting. That this is who they don’t want to be, but fandom prefers to shoehorn them back in there more or less subconsciously and to paint them much darker than they are morally.
But then, that’s been going on since ESB and Lando’s time as pointed out in this post. It’s even much of the same damn language that’s used first for Lando, then for Finn and now for Bodhi. Though I could add that similar things were also said about Mace Windu. And heck, it’s hitting Cassian too.
(If I have to sit through one more meta about Cassian being bad at the beginning of R1...)
Rhetorical question. What do all these lead characters/major side characters have in common I wonder?
I just recalled something from Rogue One. This: (Sorry for the grainy quality, best I could find right now.)
The scene where they’re all running out of Saw’s base and towards Cassian’s ship and we see Bodhi from behind as he stops and watch the explosion coming towards him.
He must know that Jedha City is destroyed, his home and family along with it and that soon all of Jedha itself will be gone as well.
How guilty must he feel in that moment? Wondering if the Empire targeted Jedha because of him, because he dared stand up to it and now everyone he loves and all his past is being wiped out.
Of course he wants to fight later. Like Cassian, like Jyn, Bodhi just lost everything.
Bodhi is definitely headstrong and stubborn, and probably a little bit reckless too.
He wouldn’t have accepted Galen’s mission if he wasn’t a bit reckless, it is a very risky endeavor. Yes he has a conscious and it’s been bothering him with increasing frequency over the years, but here he’s going out on a complete limb.
He’s stubborn and headstrong or he wouldn’t have been able to complete the mission.
And he’s strong willed. He kept his mind despite Bor Gullet, he’s spaced out and traumatized, but he’s still him.
Finally, he has so much emotional fortitude. He has her moment of seeing his whole world destroyed and his reply? To fight back harder than ever. To not give in or give up, but push back as hard as he can.
But he’s also a quiet man, maybe even a bit reserved. You don’t see many of those qualities when you meet him, not at first anyway, because Bodhi doesn’t flaunt them. And if you praised him for them he’d likely blush and shake his head. He doesn’t think himself as anyone special, but anyone who spends even a little time with him realizes how special he is.
Inspired by a discussion with @barricadebakesale. I initially meant this as a reply to something they said, but I think it’s good enough that it deserves its own post.
Casual question, how long do you think Bodhi was with the empire? His whole life? How much family do you think he has? Like one family member? A mom? Or sibling? Also what exactly would've been your ideal way to showcase his death scene/ have it be treated with respect. I kinda wish we woulda saw more of his relationship with the other crew members cuz him being along during his death felt awful.
So here we go. Finally.
Beneath a cut because it got long.
Casual question, how long do you think Bodhi was with the empire? His whole life?
We know that Bodhi is from Jedha originally and that the planet is occupied by the Empire and I think it’s been that almost from the time the Empire became a thing. Which is 20 years before Rogue One.
Bodhi is 23, so he’d have “been with the Empire” for really his whole life in some ways. On Jedha there’s no real option to not work for the Empire, whether in the Khyber mines or in some other respect.
So yeah, Bodhi went to work for them because there was never any other choice if he wanted to survive. For him or his family he had to, but he is never comfortable with it. He knows what the Empire is, he knows how they operate, he’s seen it on his home planet. He wants to do something, but he doesn’t know what and he’s scared. For himself and those he loves that would inevitably become a target for Imperial retribution if he ever acted.
I think that might be one more reason why he’s willing to carry Galen’s massage to Saw. Saw is on Jedha and I think Bodhi hopes that Saw will either take his family in too or offer them some protection from the Empire and not just him.
How much family do you think he has? Like one family member? A mom? Or sibling?
Life on Jedha is hard, but Bodhi is as I said only 23 I think his parents are still alive, probably his grandparents too. He might have one or two siblings.
Also what exactly would’ve been your ideal way to showcase his death scene/ have it be treated with respect.
This one I really had to think about. I so rarely kill of major characters in my stories - I prefer to hurt characters but keep them alive to deal with the fallout - that I don’t spend much time thinking about how to handle it.
Well I came up with something and it ended up pissing me off (again) n how easily fixable this was.
So Chirrut dies in accordance with his character, believing in the Force and letting it guide him. And Baze dies in accordance with his character. He no longer believes in the Force he seems to only believe in Chirrut now when Chirrut dies it send him on a suicide run but it also guides him back to the Force if for no other reason than to find his partner again.
Cassian and Jyn dies fulfilling their mission and neither runs because there’s not where to run.
Bodhi’s death isn’t just abrupt, it makes no narrative or character sense. He’s the messenger and he’s the pilot, neither arc is really concluded as of his death. Plus he’s the only character with the option to get away and the desire to do so at that moment. yet he makes no move.
So here’s what I’d do.
Everything happens in the movie as it otherwise does, but when the grenade flies into the ship Bodhi takes a dive for the open hatch behind him. Halfway down it explodes and we see him thrown through the air and land hard on the tarmac.
For several moments we just see him lying there, by all means let the audience think he’s already dead, then he struggles to sit up a bit blaster shots flying around his ears. He’s bleeding and dazed and his ears a ringing.
Bodhi looks up and sees the destroyed shuttle.
Remember Cassian told him to keep the engine’s running because he was their ride out? As far as Bodhi knows, that’s still happening only there’s no ship.
So he goes ‘oh no’ and we see him stagger to his feet and scramble across the tarmac muttering ‘I need to find a ship, I need to find a ship’.
Cut back to everything else which plays out as it does, up until we have Cassian and Jyn down on the beach.
As they’re kneeling there Bodhi comes running up to them.
Bodhi (as he kneels down next to Cassian): “They blew up the ship. I tried to find another, but they’re all destroyed.”
Cassian (a little tired): “It’s okay Bodhi. We did what we came to do.”
Bodhi (anxious and confused): “But we’re getting out?” He can see the answer on Cassian’s and Jyn’s faces.
Jyn (reaching out and putting a hand on Bodhi’s arm): “We did it Bodhi. We got my father’s plans to the Alliance. They know about the trap, they know how to destroy it. You delivered my father’s message. *softer* Galen would be proud of you.”
Bodhi nods and lowers his head, a small smile on his lips. It’s okay, they got the message out. That’s the important thing.
The three of them then sit together, hugging each other as the explosion comes in.
In this way Bodhi not only doesn’t die alone, we get a satisfactory conclusion to his narrative role. He was the messenger, he helped get the message out.
Though frankly I have to say that if it had been up to me they’d all have made it off Scarif. Why we don’t hear about them in the OT is pretty easily explained so there’s no real reason to not let them live.
