ST Kelly Marie Tran (Rose Tico) in TLJ

Thank you @clockpenalty

 

I'll add to this. Was Poe correct that taking down the Dreadnought was worth the sacrifice? Leia didn't think so. Was Holdo's sacrifice necessary? Who can say? Hindsight is 20/20 and it's hard to make the right choice sometimes. Not everything is black and white and easy to see. There are multiple shades of gray and not always a perfect solution. We just do the best we can. After losing her home and her sister, Rose has a philosophy of valuing life and living to fight another day. The Resistance benefits greatly by having someone like her around.

 

Rose's storyline -

It works better if I imagine Rose is a mole for TFO. Every action makes so much more sense, like crashing into Finn's hovercraft. Causing a ruckus on Canto Bight (trying to get captured). Preventing ppl from escaping the Raddus ship...

 

yes and no.... i mean obliviously no if they could have escaped into hyperspace with out being followed. As they would have been able to regroup and rebuild and plan a better attack.

Yes if after they were followed the Dreadnaught could have been able to take them out. But there is no indication that it would have been fast enough to catch up to them. It does arrive much later then the other ships and seems much slower to move.

Now of course if the events in the movie needed to happen to rebuild the rebellion ie they needed to end up on Craite and Luke needed to sacrifice himself then sure.

you do realize that Finn wouldn't have stopped the canon... even if he did the FO still would have gotten in the base through the tunnels that lead from the trenches into the base right?

 

The thing is, in TLJ, when the First Order is readying to fire the cannon, it's reasonable to assume that if the cannon isn't destroyed, this is the end. The few -- VERY few -- remaining members of the Resistance will be killed, very shortly. There is no reason to anticipate Luke's intervention, or Rey's. The Resistance is trapped, and crazily outgunned. In fact, even taking out the cannon may, realistically, only postpone the inevitable.

Granted, Finn's suicide run may accomplish nothing, even if he survives long enough to crash into the cannon. But given the situation, there is quite literally no sane alternative. (That fact also mangles what is meant to be a demonstration that Poe has learned a lesson, when he calls off the attack. Calling off a costly attack with long odds of success is one thing; calling it off when it is your ONLY chance?)....

Rose's sentiment is lovely, but in this context, it's pretty bizarre.

 

I don't realize that Finn couldn't have stopped the canon. The moment Rose hits him is literally right before the canon after he has flown up the mini death star ray for quite a while. The hull of his ship is still hard enough to clang with Rose's. He's still alive and not burned. Of course it's possible it wouldn't have burned up all the way in the next three yards to the source of the canon and it could have actually caused an impact.

Moreover, in terms of movie logic, we've seen this scene 1000 times. Someone flies their ship into the source of an alien sci-fi weapon and that causes the whole thing to blow up in a heroic sacrifice. The audience was primed to think it would work. My family thought it would work and this inexplicable moment was the single biggest cause for immediate complaint after watching the film (not for me, I had so many, but for my GA family it was). It caused laughter and "wtf was that?!" reactions.

This moment makes Rose's character look absurd. Throughout the film she's an idealist, all about being willing to die for the cause. Then she prevents someone trying to do that in a heroic sacrifice that was attempting to save the last survivors of the Resistance from imminent mass execution. And with that kiss, apparently she did it for a boy she had a crush on. What stereotypically nonsensical character writing.

 

That's called human nature though.

How many times have we, the audience, sat in our comfy armchairs and said "oh I would have done this" or "I way would have gone into that burning building and rescued everyone" sure she's an idealist, but she was also someone who had never been in battle before, you can call her being naive if you wish in saving Finn, which itself is consistent with her character, or you can, like I did, see it as a sweet and charming action that reminded my why I fell in love with that fairy tale set in space in the first place.

 

I'm talking about narrative structure and characterization, not your definition of human nature that I personally disagree with anyway.

Rose in the film is mourning her sister, but admires her sister's sacrifice. She is trying to live up to the ideal of it. Then, her ideals and principles go out the window for a crush, thanks to the man writing it. I think it's awful.

 

and I don't.

so glad we got that sorted.

 

I mean, you responded to me to engage with my point, supposedly lol. But cool, I'm always happy to agree to disagree without getting into substance. I even do it without getting irritated by different opinions.

 

I don’t think it’s sweet or charming even if I ignore all the idiocy involved.

I wasn’t a big fan of it, but the hand holding on Jakku was more like something sweet and charming in a fairy tale.

 

It is as absurd as Rey after being held captive at Takodana developing all of the sudden certain feelings for a suddenly topless Kylo Ren.

 

well I wouldn't say those two things were equal at all but each to their own.