The Zorii stuff is interesting. I’m all for cutting the spice runner backstory as I’m sure many are, but I wonder if there’s some way we could replace it with something else? Feels like there’d be some obviously missing info about Poe’s connection without that there. Zorii being a part of the Resistance seems like a nice solution but I’m not sure the connection is obvious as to what Poe did to make her mad.
I don’t think any specific connection is needed, honestly. Between what Poe says (“I had some bad luck on Kijimi.”) and Zorii figuratively bitch-slapping him as soon as she sees him, it’s pretty obvious already that they have some backstory, and that it didn’t end well. What that story is, I dunno - maybe Poe had a Resistance mission on Kijimi, and he crossed paths with Zorii - but does it matter so much for this story?
It’s basically the infamous elevator scene from AOTC, but with blasters. It’s two characters referencing [event] that happened [at some point in the past], that bears no immediate relevance to the story at hand. It emphasizes that they have a history together, and you get of sense of their dynamic; the specifics of that history are ultimately just pointless details.
Poe’s and Zorii’s relationship is pretty apparent as soon as she draws the blaster on him. What do you effectively lose by cutting the…five(?) “spice-runner” lines?
To be clear, if anyone likes the spice-runner backstory, then that’s great! But if you want to remove it, I don’t think it will cause too much of an issue, conceptually.