leofgyth:

Coming from the perspective of someone who loves Kylo and hopes for a redemption for Ben Solo: I don’t pay a lot of attention to anti-Poe discourse so I can’t say for sure, but there are a few things I can think of:

1) A reaction against antis who want to match up Rey with anyone who isn’t Kylo/Ben. With the “I’m Rey” “I know” at the very end of TLJ, I guess there were people popping up who wanted to compare this with Leia and Han’s “I know” moment (which was quite different!). So, new Poe/Rey shippers, not “I think this would be a cool pairing” shippers but “this is the canon ship now, Reylo is dead” shippers. So there’s a tendency for Reylos (and others who like Kylo) to push against that (naturally, I think).

2) I do think Poe came across quite badly in TLJ, in ways that Finn (for example) did not. Finn did his very best, completed his arc from “I just want to save Rey” (which is itself admirable) to “Rebel Scum”. Poe, on the other hand, disobeyed direct orders at least twice, although he was forgiven at the end. His heart was in the right place, but the way it was framed in the story was decidedly negative. 

Honestly those are the only two things I can think of, shipping discourse stuff and his slightly negative presentation in TLJ. 

As for why Poe stans don’t like Kylo, I guess for the same reason most antis don’t like him (he’s so evil, killed lots of people, killed his dad, yada yada yada, you know, the usual) (Edit: I’m not saying that Poe stans are antis, I phrased this poorly – “most antis” is distinct from “Poe stans in the first sentence of this paragraph)

I hadn’t considered this before so I’m interested to hear what other people think about it, actually. I personally think Poe is okay, and I love the idea that he and Ben were friends as kids, although I’m not convinced that’s going to be canon. (I do love fan fics that explore their dynamic, though)

I can only speak from myself but part of what puts me off about Poe is the way certain folks in the fandom frame him and talk about him. I high-key hate the whole “he’s the son Leia deserves” “he’s the man Rey deserves” “he’s the Han Solo” kind of discussion because it’s just… icky. (Brief sidebar: if anyone has parallels to Han, it’s Finn. Poe is much closer to Leia. But I really don’t like the ST v OT comparisons like this because the ST are all new characters on different journeys and while some comparisons can be made they’re very different characters and arcs. And also there are way more important “pov” characters in the ST than the OT… so.) 

The other thing that really puts me off is the false dichotomy, which even thought I know is false, I wind up falling into, I guess. If you like Kylo/Ben you can’t like Poe. If you like Poe you can’t like Kylo/Ben. That’s really arbitrary but somehow it’s stuck. I’m less interested in Poe than I am Finn, Rey, and Kylo so I don’t want to put time and energy into correcting the assumption that I *have* to hate him when I’ve got other characters to play with. It’s just not worth the drama that I could endure, honestly. I’m sure the number of people who Stan Poe and hate Kylo and vice verse is probably small, but I don’t feel much like stumbling upon them over a character I’m not super excited about. I think that’s probably most of it, tbh. I think most people don’t actually feel that strongly but worry about stumbling onto people who do so they just all stay away. It’s kind of the issue the whole Star Wars fandom has right now. You either love the ST or you hate it, you either loved Legends or you’re glad they’re de-canonized, you either watch the cartoons or they’re silly garbage (because no one ever has mixed feelings or things they like and things they don’t, apparently). With everything so fragmented, why bother trying to bridge the gap if you don’t even really care that much about one of the sides anyway, you know? 

And there’s just personal preference, too. Poe is my usual kind of character, even after TLJ (more so after TLJ, actually). He’s a bit cocky, suave, loud, determined, headstrong, dedicated, absolutely sure of who he is and what he’s going to do… like yeah, normally that’s my kind of dude. Even if/when he pushes it too far and makes a decision that costs people their lives. Those things that usually attract me to a character are the same things that make other people stay far away, which makes sense, of course. Some folks like cockly flyboys and some folks don’t. 

And, for the record, I don’t hate Poe. He’s fine, I just like other characters more. And I personally dislike the way Poe is often framed by people who don’t like Kylo as “the son Leia deserved” so that makes me less enthusiastic to actually write or play with the character. I also really like the headcanon the he and Ben were childhood friends (maybe even best friends) and even though it’s probably got a zero percent chance of happening, I adore the headcanon/theory that Poe and Ben built BB-8 together as children (because bb-8 totally acts like a droid that was built by little boys). I like fic where they were childhood friends or neighbors, and I think the potential for that kind of drama is often under-explored in fandom.