There are spoilers below. Don't read this piece if you haven't seen The Last Jedi.

ok? Seriously. Don't read it if you haven't seen it.

It doesn’t matter whether you loved or hated The Last Jedi there is one irrefutable truth that makes itself aware in this movie and that is the fact that BB-8 is the most powerful and influential being in The Resistance. I don’t even think anyone comes close to the level of power and resiliency the small sphere droid shows in this movie. There were insinuations of his power in the first movie of the new trilogy, the simple fact that it’s BB-8 who holds the map to find Luke Skywalker and that he’s also the one who finds Rey should have clued us into his importance in the grand scheme of things but Last Jedi really went above and beyond in showing us the grand power and might of our globoid savior.

The movie starts with our hero, BB-8 facing down a Dreadnought and flying right at it with with no fear. Notice I pointed out BB-8 is the one flying right at the massive “fleet killer”, not Poe Dameron. Even Poe himself lets us know who’s responsible for this maneuver when he says “BB-8 punch it”. As an astromech droid BB-8 is responsible for co-piloting the spacecraft which he sits in. I contend that all the heroic feats that have been attributed to Poe Dameron are in fact as much BB-8’s achievements as they are his if not more so. Consider for example the attack on the Dreadnought if not for BB-8 fixing the ship’s weapons system that vessel would still be flying. Additionally we never see Poe Dameron flying his X-wing without BB-8 in it in The Last Jedi so there’s no way to know exactly how good Poe Dameron is when the stakes are high without his overpowered astromech droid pulling half the weight.

As if being the best pilot in The Resistance wasn’t enough BB-8 is also exceptional at Special Ops and may be the best special operative in the entire Resistance. While at the casino in Canto Bight our hero pretends to be a slot machine for a small drunk alien then proceeds to take all of his money while at the same time being the only member of the party to take the mission seriously. While Finn and Rose are out watching a space horse race and forming a bond over their repressed childhoods BB-8 finds the master codebreaker and alerts the slackers to his presence. After being cast out of the casino due to his partner’s being thrown in jail BB-8 breaks INTO the prison, disarms the guards and SOMEHOW tapes their mouth shut then handles one more guard by pelting him with coins until he collapses all before stealing a ship that rescues our two star crossed lovers after they were gallivanting all about the casino in their mega-greyhounds.

Once aboard Snoke’s vessel BB-8 is the only one who is able to withstand a ship cutting through them at light speed without being shaken up and commandeers and AT-ST using it to destroy all but one of the stormtroopers who were attacking him and his partners. Though ultimately the mission is a failure it is only BB-8 that allows the others to even survive and is the only competent member of the mission party.

At the end of the movie we see an image of the new Rebellion and its leaders all have one thing in common. They were all brought into the fold by none other than the orange sphere himself. Rey, Finn, Rose, and Poe all owe their status, their friendship, indeed their lives to BB-8 and if not for him none of them would even be here.

Rest easy Rebels, the galaxy is safe in the metal appendages of our spherical overlord. Long live BB-8.