A/N: Further explanation of this piece may be found at the bottom of the page.
DISCLAIMER: At the time of writing, a) TLJ was only available at cinemas, so I had only seen it three times and could not refer back to it, and b) The novelisation was not released. As a result, all dialogue is not movie-accurate.
Sacrifice
Kylo Ren stared out into the blackness of space, at the shattered hulks of what used to be his fleet. Debris drifted lazily past, the momentum of the light-speed annihilation still fuelling its flight.
He clenched his fist. The rage was building.
"Supreme Leader –"
"I want Walkers on the ground." He replied, surprised at how calm his voice sounded, "We are going to march into that base and destroy every last one of them."
Hux stood behind him – that hateful face betraying the lack of confidence, lack of loyalty –
"But the fleet – "
"NOW!" Ren roared. Without even thinking about it, his lightsaber was in his hand. The glare from the red blades taunted him.
Hux gave no reply, save for hastily retreating footsteps. Ren didn't know how Hux would manage to conjure up Walkers, and didn't much care. He glared out at the remains of the fleet, saber still glowing hateful red in his grip.
He would show them. He would end it all, here and now.
The cruiser descended.
The sound of the Walkers had been slowly growing louder as the metal behemoths approached. Inside the base, the few survivors huddled, unable to rejoice at the luck of their escape with the perpetual boom, boom, boom of approaching death. It seemed that, even though pilots had been rallied and fighters had been salvaged, all knew, deep down, that the end was near. There was no escape.
It was with no hope that those left watched the fighters tear out of the base.
All was falling apart around them. That interminable machine kept up its blazing beam, and Rose could almost hear the sizzle of the metal as it ate its way through the steel gate, that was all that stood between the First Order and Resistance. This was pure imagination though – she could hear nothing over the whine of the ancient ship she piloted, and the rattle of the engine.
She could see Finn's ship – bouncing and weaving inelegantly across the salt flat. She tightened her grip on the controls. If he wasn't afraid, then neither was she. She would die bravely, fighting, like her sister. Like Paige.
She heard, to her left and right, the boom and crash of fighters struck down by laser fire. Still, she kept going. If this Resistance was going to take her whole family, so be it.
The noise of the battle seemed to fade, and in her mind's eye, without even quite realising, she saw her sister.
Even as the battle raged, as she swerved and dodged, she found her inner mind dwelling on the thought – they would both give their life for the Resistance. And then, as she fired on the approaching Walkers, a tiny voice in the back of her head piped up.
For what?
Her sister had done the same. She had died to destroy a Dreadnought, as had so many of the Resistance's best pilots. They had gone out fighting insurmountable odds.
And what had they gained? The First Order had lost one ship. The Resistance had lost so much. And still they were dying.
Had Paige died for nothing?
"Retreat! Return to Base!"
The voice startled her back into herself – she realised what a miracle it was she had survived so far.
"Return to base – that's an order!"
And in that instant, she knew it was the right thing to do. No pointless death for glory. The Resistance had to survive. The galaxy needed them.
They all swerved, spinning and heading back.
Except one fighter. She instinctively knew it was Finn. And she knew exactly what he intended to do.
And she would be damned if her would let him. She knew that an honourable death was not worth his life – not when they could run, survive, and fight again when success was possible.
She spun her fighter around and careened after him.
He was not going to die. Not for this. No blaze of glory. Survival.
She flew towards him, so close, so close – she would have to ram him off course -
And then the slipstream of the burning beam of light hit her fighter, and she sailed, right past. The outermost tip of her fighter clipped the back of his, and sent her into a tailspin. She screamed as the ship tumbled toward the ground, the impact sending hot metal tearing through her clothes and flesh.
There was a pause.
Then a huge, ear-splitting boom.
And she screamed again, because she knew Finn was dead.
Kylo Ren saw the flash and then heard the sound a split second later.
"NO!" He screamed, "NO!"
Hux started forward, but Ren threw him back against the wall with barely a blink. White hot fury burned within him.
"Ren!" Hux croaked.
"Fire on the base!" Ren screamed, "Fire all cannons! BREAK DOWN THAT DOOR!"
A hail of red jets shot at the door to the base – a barrage of thuds and cracks. Ren stared, watching, waiting, waiting for the door to finally split and reveal the cowardly, snivelling survivors.
"Supreme Leader – We do not have time…" Hux said, standing once more, blood on his cheek.
"Enough!" Ren hissed, eyes intent on the base, "They are trapped, and I will end them!"
"Ren listen to me – We do not have time!" Hux was almost pleading with him. "We need to break them, now! It will take us too long to break down that door! There will be a back exit, a secret passage, something! The longer we wait, the longer they have to find an escape route."
Officer Peavey frowned.
"How can you be so sure there is an escape for them?" he yelled, over the endless barrage of lasers, "I see nothing on the maps we have."
"Because," Hux replied, still managing to sound scathing through the fear and the noise, "This used to be a fully operational Rebel Base, purposely inhabited. No commander would ever settle in a fortress that has only one entrance and exit!"
His voice grew desperate, "Even the rebels are not stupid enough to build a base that has no point of evacuation! If we give them time, they will escape!"
Hux was right, and Ren knew it. He did not reply though. Inside him was a battle. The rage that was calling for his lightsaber to slice down each and every one of them, but it was warring with that desperate need to end it, here and now, and finally leave the past where it belonged.
Satisfaction or victory?
For the first time in so long, the rage lost.
"General Hux," he said, in barely more than a whisper, "Have we established contact with the nearest First Order base?"
He heard more of that wretched sarcasm leak back into Hux's voice, as he replied, "The Walkers did not appear out of thin air – Supreme Leader."
Ren took a deep breath, letting the anger bubble just below boiling.
"Then call in a Dreadnought."
Rose lay, barely conscious, in the shell of her shattered ship. Beside her she could see the burnt shell of Finn's fighter. Blackened beyond recognition.
She had no tears left.
Above her came a faint, but very distinct thud. A shadow – too big to be a cruiser – rocketed into existence above them.
With difficulty, she turned her head to look behind her, at the base. The massive door was singed and still burned red from the intensity of the battering ram, but it held. And now, lying in the destroyed fighter, she realised.
It had all been for nothing.
Because she recognised that shape in the sky.
If the First Order had gotten through the door, their forces would have been pulled into the base. The Walkers couldn't have made it in, so they would have had to enter on foot. It would have taken time. Time the Resistance could have used to escape. Now that time was gone. She could only hope that some of the few who remained might find a secret exit. But after everything, she couldn't even muster up that hope.
She kept her eyes fixed on the base. She thought she heard it – the distant whump of the Dreadnought's cannons.
Then the door to the base exploded.
A great spray of sparks rained down upon the salt before the door.
Another whump. Another explosion of sparks, rocks and salt. The roof of the base collapsed.
And again, and again, in an endless succession. The light was so bright, the sound so loud, that Rose could see only bright white, and hear only a shrill whine. White hot pieces of metal and rock and salt showered over her, and still the barrage continued.
Rather than chance the Resistance's escape, they had destroyed it all.
Just above the explosion of rock, she glimpsed a single ship fleeing the carnage. It left behind a trail of blue. She recognised the ship – the one that had drawn away the fighters. Perhaps at least a few of them might escape this. That thought gladdened her.
Rose collapsed back. He eyes flickered upward, past the shadow of the Walkers, past the hail of rock and death, to the ominous shape in the sky.
It was the last thing she saw.
Kylo Ren looked out, over the wreckage of the old Rebel Base. He wasn't sure what he felt.
He would have preferred the ground assault. He would have preferred to walk in on his own two feet, lightsaber in hand, to cut the Rebellion down, personally.
But this was better than letting them go. Hux would be smug – Hux was always smug. But then, perhaps it was time to remove the man from a position of power. He had served what little purpose he had.
Ren closed his eyes, and felt the death of the Resistance through the might of the force.
At last, he was free.
End
A/N: So that was my response to the one strident criticism of TLJ that I had never understood – that Finn should have been allowed to sacrifice himself on Crait. I disagree, because it would most likely have been an entirely futile gesture, gaining the Resistance very little time, and probably not affecting the overall outcome. At worst, it could have killed a whole bunch of people.
HOWEVER I do acknowledge that this particular imagined circumstance hinges on Kylo Ren making a genuine, smart decision instead of having a hissy fit, which is an utterly unrealistic expectation of any Skywalker other than Leia.
And yes, I do like Rose. No she didn't contribute a huge amount to the story (at least, not in a way that no other character could have), but she is brave and hopeful and has so much compassion. Whatever faults I think the story has – and I think most people are blowing them all out of proportion – her character is very genuine, if under used.
So, in short, no, I don't think she was stupid to save Finn. His sacrifice was not guaranteed to buy the Resistance anything, and was simply one of the reckless 'dying in a blaze of glory' things that the opening of the film very blatantly discouraged. To have Finn die would have contradicted one of the very first morals set up by the film.
Then again, perhaps his sacrifice would have further cemented in Poe the need for rational thought, rather than heroics?
We'll never know. :-)