@meghanlightle replied to your post “Honestly I think one of the biggest problems w/r/t Poe’s...”
I just wonder if his reaction would be the same with a male vice admiral. I hate the idea of Poe valuing a man over a woman and it didn't seem *gendered* but I just can't picture him talking to a dude boss the same way he talked to Holdo so idk. It bugged me a lot that he committed mutiny but taking in all the other factors I kind of get it? But I still don't like it.
An interesting question! Before the Awakening provides something of an answer:
“It’s unfortunate,” Major Lonno Deso said. “It’s never easy to lose one of your squadron, Commander. But I’ve reviewed the flight data, I’ve reviewed the entire engagement up to and including the astromech telemetry, and there’s nothing you could have done. Lieutenant Muran’s death is tragic, but it’s my considered opinion it was unavoidable.”
“I disagree,” said Poe.
“You can’t blame yourself.” The sympathy in Deso’s voice and expression were unmistakable, so much so that Poe felt a sharp, almost hot spur of anger in his breast. He clenched his fists, unclenched them, then looked past Deso at the wall of the briefing room behind him. A display showed the galaxy, color overlays marking realms of political influence. Their position at the Republic base in Mirrin Prime was marked by a gently pulsing gold dot at sea in the royal blue that represented the New Republic’s sphere of influence. It stretched far and wide, from the Inner Core to great swaths of the Outer Rim. A gray band designated the neutral region of the Borderland, and beyond that was a pocket of crimson, First Order territory. For the first time, Poe saw the map and thought it was lying
“I don’t blame myself,” Poe said. He looked at Major Deso pointedly. “I’m blaming the First Order.”
“Commander.” Deso sighed. “We are not having this discussion again.” [emphasis added]
“This isn’t another isolated incident, Lonno. I’m seeing the same intelligence reports that you are.”
“The Senate Intelligence Committee has reviewed the reports and has found them inconclusive, at best grossly overstated, Poe. This is a non-issue. It’s a big galaxy. The First Order is a remnant born of a war thirty years gone. Yes, they persist, yes, they continue, but by all accounts they do so barely. They are, at best, an ill-organized, poorly equipped, and badly funded group of loyalists who use propaganda and fear to inflate their strength and their importance.”
“They’re flying state-of-the-art TIEs, they’re using commando boarding parties and latest-generation attack shuttles in clear violation of the Galactic Concordance.”
Poe leaned forward, pressing his index finger into the table. Deso raised an eyebrow, looking at the offending digit, then at Poe. Poe went on. “They’re training troops and pilots. We interrupted a military operation, Lonno, not some snatch and grab. They wanted the Yissira Zyde and they got it. They wanted it badly enough they paid for it with eight TIEs, those pilots, and however many people were aboard the shuttle that Muran and Iolo shot down. That’s not a poorly organized force. That’s not a poorly motivated force. That’s a real threat.”
“An emerging threat, then, Commander Dameron.”
Poe straightened, returning his hand to his side. “Give it to the Resistance.”
Deso scowled, as if Poe had just offered him a particularly bitter piece of fruit. “Don’t be absurd. The Resistance is as overstated as the First Order.”
“They’re at least doing something about them!”
“Rumored to be doing something about them,” Deso said.
“We have to act.”
Major Deso cleared his throat. “I’ll pass along your concerns to Command.”
“That’s not enough. We need to know what the Yissira Zyde was hauling. We need to know why they took it and, more importantly, where. I’d like permission to take the Rapiers out, try to track the trajectory, see if we can’t find the freighter.”
“Denied.”
“There are questions—”
“I said denied, Commander. Rapier is assigned Mirrin sector patrol, that’s all. Your orders are to continue as before. Nothing more, and nothing less.” Deso cocked his head as if trying to watch the words enter Poe’s ears.
“Am I clear?”
Poe tried again. “It’s going to happen again, you realize that, don’t you?”
“If it does, it’ll be dealt with then.”
“So we do nothing? That’s the solution? An emerging threat, and we do nothing?”
“That is correct.”
“That is insane,” Poe said. Deso opened his mouth, then thought better of what he was about to say. He sighed and went around the table to stand by Poe’s side. When he spoke next, his tone was much more subdued. “I don’t like it, either, but this is the order from Republic Command, do you understand? We don’t engage the First Order, we don’t provoke the First Order. I don’t like it any more than you do, but those are orders, Commander. You break them, you’ll be up on charges. You’ll lose your commission.”
“It’s going to happen again,” Poe repeated.
“Then we’ll respond when the time comes.”
Poe shook his head.
I would argue that Poe is even more strident with a male superior officer than he was with Holdo -- there’s an implication that he’s brought this up repeatedly with Deso, to the point he’s tired of it and implying if Poe keeps at it w/ the ‘let’s go after the First Order’ thing he’s going to get demoted.
And then Poe goes off and does something about it anyway, b/c y’know, that’s Poe, and when he comes back:
Bay twenty-two was empty when Poe brought the X-wing in to land, shutting down the repulsors as the fighter settled on its landing gear. He powered down the ship’s systems, considered letting the engines remain on low-power standby for a moment, and then decided there wasn’t any point. If he was about to be arrested, if he was looking at a court-martial, he wasn’t going to try to run. He’d face the consequences of his actions, and he’d defend them as the right ones.
