Poe Dameron

Poe Dameron was a human man and one of the finest starfighter pilots of his generation, who served the New Republic Defense Fleet before joining the Resistance and rising to become its acting general during the war with the First Order. The son of two veterans of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, he flew under the callsign Black Leader in his customized T-70 X-wing, Black One, with the astromech droid BB-8 at his side. Disillusioned with the Republic's inaction against the First Order, he defected to the Resistance and became one of General Leia Organa's most trusted operatives.

Early life and the New Republic Navy#

Poe Dameron was born in 2 ABY on Yavin 4, the son of Lieutenant Shara Bey and Sergeant Kes Dameron, both of whom served the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War. He learned to fly in his mother's RZ-1 A-wing interceptor, sitting in her lap as she took him into the air. His mother died when he was eight, and he was largely raised by his maternal grandfather. He went on to join the New Republic Defense Fleet, earning command of Rapier Squadron, where he first met the astromech droid BB-8 and quickly rose through the ranks of the Starfighter Corps. Growing frustrated with the Republic's refusal to confront the First Order's violations of the Galactic Concordance, he defected to the Resistance, where he commanded squadrons defending the base on D'Qar and flew under the callsign Black Leader.

Recovering the map to Skywalker#

As the conflict with the First Order grew desperate, Dameron was sent to Jakku to recover a data chip from Lor San Tekka containing part of a map to the location of Luke Skywalker. He entrusted the chip to BB-8 before being captured and interrogated by the First Order, eventually forced to surrender the location. He escaped with the help of a defecting stormtrooper he named Finn, and the two were shot down over Jakku. Dameron survived and returned to the Resistance, later providing air support at the Battle of Takodana and flying in the assault on Starkiller Base, where he fired the shots that destroyed the superweapon and saved the Resistance from annihilation.

Crait and the cost of recklessness#

During the Battle of D'Qar, Dameron disobeyed orders and led a costly attack on a First Order dreadnought, for which Leia Organa demoted him. As the First Order tracked the fleeing Resistance fleet, he opposed the cautious strategy of Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo and worked with Finn and the mechanic Rose Tico on a secret plan to disable the enemy's hyperspace tracker, even staging a mutiny against Holdo. He had not realized that Holdo intended to evacuate the survivors to the old Rebel base on Crait, and the failed scheme exposed the escape and cost many lives. After Holdo sacrificed herself, Organa gave Dameron command, and he led the survivors to safety while a Force projection of Skywalker distracted Kylo Ren.

Leading the Resistance#

Over the following year Dameron continued the fight across countless worlds, eventually learning that Kylo Ren had made contact with the resurrected Darth Sidious. He joined Finn, Rey, and Chewbacca in the search for a Sith wayfinder, traveling to Pasaana, where they found the retired general Lando Calrissian, and on to Kijimi and the wreckage of the second Death Star. When General Organa died, Dameron took up the leadership she had passed to him, comforted in his grief by Calrissian. He promoted Finn to co-general and planned the final assault on Exegol.

Exegol#

Dameron led the Resistance attack on the hidden Sith world, sending Calrissian to rally support from the wider galaxy. The initial assault faltered as the Sith Eternal picked off Resistance pilots, and Dameron came close to despair. Then Calrissian arrived with a vast Citizens' Fleet drawn from across the galaxy, and Dameron became the spark that rallied them, leading civilian vessels in the destruction of the Sith fleet while Rey and Ben Solo fought Sidious below. Victorious, he returned to Ajan Kloss and reunited with Finn, Rey, and Zorii Bliss to celebrate the end of the war.