Guys. GUYS. Can we talk about how Poe’s idol CANONICALLY is Leia? Like, I think Poe has too much self-awareness as an irreverent shithead to ever scribble Mr. General Leia Organa all over his schoolbooks but I will bet you every last cent I have that there was a time in Poe’s adolescence when he had these super-intense heroic fantasies about taking down an entire fleet of Star Destroyers at Leia’s command and, like, dying in her arms or something.
Of course by the time TFA rolls around, he has long let go of the dream of General Organa touching his hair and telling him that was the best Skywalker Swoop she’d ever seen – because lbr that’s not a fantasy that will survive Leia’s withering stare – but he was probably 200% more thrilled than he ought to be at being sent on a mission to Jakku.
… I really want a fic of Poe getting into fights as a kid over arguments on who was the best Rebel Alliance hero with his father sighing in the background and going, well I guess falling for badass women runs in the family.
(Also at a meta level I just find it really awesome that Poe Dameron as a character could’ve easily been conceptualised as idolising Wedge Antilles or Luke Skywalker, but nope, it’s Leia Organa.)
Well here’s the thing. Per Shattered Empire, his mother (who was a pilot, and the one whose footsteps he follows in) flew a mission with Leia on Naboo. I’m betting bb!Poe pestered his mom about every single detail she could remember. And after his recruitment, one day the General came up to him while he was tuning his X-wing or something. “Let me tell you about flying with your mother and the Queen of Naboo,” she said, and he listened, completely rapt, wondering how this was his actual life.
Oooh ooh Greg Rucka’s Before the Awakening features Poe’s first meeting with Leia, and it’s GREAT.
She was short, but that was only her height, not her stature. Something about her didn’t seem just to fill the space but to command it. She was in uniform, but it wasn’t Republic, not quite. It looked as if it had started that way and then, at some point, turned in favor of serviceable rather than ceremonial. She was unquestionably beautiful, almost regal.
“Commander Dameron,” the woman said. “Do you know who I am?”
Poe nodded. He was acutely aware, now, that his flight suit was soaked with rain and sweat, that he likely smelled like the hind end of a bantha, and that he had disobeyed direct orders that had come down not just from Deso but higher. From as high as Command. From as high as the Senate, perhaps.
[…]
“You should see your expression,” General Organa said. She smiled, and that, too, touched her eyes, gave them a warmth that made Poe feel like he was nine again. “I’m not that frightening, surely.”
“No, ma’am. Not…no, ma’am.”
“The problem with a reputation is that it can become a legend.” General Organa tugged at the shoulder of her uniform, adjusting it. She shrugged. “Don’t be deceived, Poe. I’m not a legend.”
Poe grinned and shook his head. “You’re not sitting where I’m sitting, General.”