Summary

• Star Wars: Resistance is aimed at young viewers, but still adds depth to the sequel trilogy while focusing on low-stakes storytelling and goofy protagonists.
• The series showcases the journey of characters like Kaz and Tam, exploring themes of morality and redemption within the Star Wars universe.
• Despite its focus on child-friendly content, Resistance fills narrative gaps and provides context to the events leading up to The Force Awakens in a unique way.

When Star Wars: Resistance first debuted in the fall of 2018, it was a surprisingly inauspicious time for the series meant to be a companion to the sequel trilogy. Set on a grounded space station called the Colossus, fans expected this show to be a companion to the films the way Star Wars: The Clone Wars was for the prequels. At the time, Resistance was judged harshly for not being that kind of show, but the Star Wars series doesn't deserve to be ignored, especially by younger fans.

At the time Resistance was created, Dave Filoni was best known for pairing original and legacy characters in stories that accentuated and contextualized the Skywalker saga. However, with both Rebels and The Clone Wars, the films they connected to were finished. Even if the sequel trilogy had been a story mapped out by a single filmmaker far ahead of time, the difference in production times meant the animated series would have had to drive the storytelling into Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker. Still, while Resistance was easily targeted towards children, there are still plenty of reasons for fans with kids or the joyful completionists to tune in.

The Tone of Star Wars: Resistance Was Not an Accident

Even though everything Star Wars minus Andor is for kids, Resistance is the series that's most aimed at a young audience. The protagonist, Kazuda Xiono is a goofy, clumsy silly-goose that kids will love and adults may not. What makes this clearly intentional is how the character of Kaz (as he's called) plays when Poe Dameron or another serious adult figure shares his story. Since Poe is his Resistance mentor and Certified Star Wars Hero™, the episodes with him are the ones most palatable to all-age fans. Just as kids do when trusted by favored adults, Kaz tries to rise to the occasion. Left on his own? He does things his way, making bad choices and failing as often as succeeding.

Neeku Vozo -- a Nikto mechanic with an over-the-top sense of literalism -- is purely a vehicle for comedy. Tamara Ryvora was a young mechanic and stickler for the rules. Tora Doza was the daughter of the station commander, a good-hearted child of privilege and hotshot pilot. These characters were the ones kids were supposed to latch onto most directly, thus ended up leading most of the stories. However, the adult characters like Tora's father, Captain Imanuel Doza, Jarek Yeager and the other Ace pilots were the characters adult viewers most likely find interesting. Still, even with the backdrop of the sequel trilogy, this series is different from its predecessors in a major way: Resistance is the only show to begin without a war on.

The First Order is a vague Outer Rim threat and the New Republic is the stuffy, but mostly good, authority. The first season provides the best look yet at what life was like in the run-up to Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens. Kaz's father is Senator Xiono, seen in Ahsoka, a politician on Hosnian Prime. When the season ends with the destruction of that system, it carries far more emotional weight than even in the film. Everyone that Kaz knew and loved was on that destroyed planet. The second season is its own story. While the events of Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi are referenced, only the future of the Colossus is addressed.

Why the Star Wars: Resistance Setting Works For and Against the Show

This series exists to be a bridge between the final two sequel films for kids who were actively watching DisneyXD in between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. Since none of the characters have really re-emerged, it remains its own thing in the larger saga. This both works for and against the series. It means the low-stakes storytelling and goofy protagonists aren't messing things up while the fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance. In fact, before the destruction of Hosnian Prime, the First Order barely feels like a threat to the characters. Thus, save for the odd adventure with Poe Dameron, the series opens up the galaxy to new locations and adventures.

By the end of their much longer runs, both The Clone Wars and Rebels were intimately tied with massively important canon events. However, because the storytellers weren't in the loop about what The Rise of Skywalker would be, its second season stands alone. In fact, the heroes mostly run from the fight until finally deciding to "join the fight" in the vaguest terms possible. With hindsight, this works incredibly well. The Colossus and a number of the Aces' ships are at the Battle of Exegol, part of the fleet of "just people." Resistance shows, in its own way, how a group of people can go from wanting to just flee the enemy to live free and in peace to risking themselves to make sure everyone can.

Still, with a name like Resistance, audiences may have expected the series to be more closely tied to that organization. While figures like Poe and General Leia Organa pop into the story, the only real connection to the Resistance is Kaz, who is supposed to be a spy. This means not every First Order encounter ends with blaster fire. Once the Colossus is on the run from the First Order, who wish to annex the station, most of the story is about escape and survival rather than fighting back. For kids, it makes the First Order seem that much more intimidating. Kaz and company aren't constantly embarrassing them like Ezra and Phoenix Squadron in Rebels. Yet, Resistance has one big emotional story neither of its predecessors did.

Resistance Shows How Star Wars Heroes Can Go 'Bad' Without the Dark Side

Tam Ryvora is a unique character in Resistance. At first, she's a kind of stick-in-the-mud, obsessed with rules and hard work. She resents Kaz who, especially early in Season 1, enjoys a place of favor with Yeager despite not "deserving" it. She doesn't know that both Kaz -- and to a much lesser extent -- Yeager are tied to the Resistance. When she finds out they have been keeping this secret, she is so hurt she joins the First Order to become a pilot. Tam is a good person, who believes in doing the right thing and gets pulled into an evil, fascist regime. It doesn't get more Star Wars than that.

Because this series is primarily aimed at small children, the atrocities she witnesses aren't on the level of the horrors The Clone Wars or even The Bad Batch included. What makes her story so brilliant is that her "redemption" is left to ideas of morality and emotion. The violence is vague and unspecific. But because the youngest audiences understand Tam's sense of right and wrong, they still understand why the First Order is evil. The final few episodes of Season 2 are a Star Wars-worthy adventure about both saving the Colossus and rescuing Tam from execution by the First Order for defection. Even at its most childish (at least, before Young Jedi Adventures), Star Wars is centered on politics and moral philosophy.

Film characters appear throughout on the villains' side, too. Captain Phasma appears a few times, as does Supreme Leader Ren in Season 2. General Hux's Starkiller speech is recreated almost one-for-one from The Force Awakens. Resistance is a perfect companion piece to the sequels for Star Wars fan families with kids. Still, if adult fans can remind themselves children are the target audience, they can look past the goofy hijinks and see a story that still adds depth and context to the sequel trilogy. It fills in narrative gaps the films left open about politics, society and why everyone didn't just rise up against the First Order right away. Either just through select episodes or the entire series, Star Wars: Resistance is worth a second look.

Star Wars: Resistance is available to own on DVD, Blu-ray, digital and streams on Disney+.