After watching Hal’s newest Ascendant update and then rewatching Legendary, I had AI voice on the brain and I happened to get a thought about the Holdo subplot in The Last Jedi.
After Poe wakes up and Leia explains to him on the escape craft what the plan was all along, Leia ends by saying “She was more interested in protecting the light than she was seeming like a hero.” We then get a shot of Poe as he looks back at the capital ship leaving Holdo behind.
What if, in the brief space after that line, Leia then said something like, “She figured you’d want to take her place.”
The implication, then, would be that if Poe had learned the plan, he might have wanted to be the hero and be the sacrifice himself, given his impulsiveness for jumping into danger and taking what he wants. Holdo would have picked up on this, knowing that he’s a “trigger-happy flyboy,” and she also would have known that Leia was fond of him (being Leia’s close friend, as their parting words imply). Holdo even tells Leia that she likes Poe herself. But for this part of the plan, as Holdo puts it, Poe is “exactly what we don’t need right now”… because she knows his skills may be needed later, and this is something that she needs to do. Holdo is keeping Poe locked out for his own sake, and for the sake of Leia, and for the sake of those who will come to rely on him in the future.
I think this would make Holdo’s secrecy a bit more palatable and allow the audience to give her more credit for her role in the story, which is ultimately to be a supporting character servicing Poe’s growth and arc of becoming a leader and swallowing one’s pride. And I think this would be more faithful to the original film in that it would feel more like clarifying something that was already present (two well-meaning characters having a breakdown in communication) rather than inserting something contriving something new (like the often-suggested “spy within the resistance” concept).
