Star Wars Resistance: The Forgotten Show
In Star Wars, the two titans of animation are Clone Wars and Rebels, with both long-running shows having legions of fans and spin-offs now existing in both animated and live-action form. But in 2018 Lucasfilm quietly launched another animated show called Star Wars Resistance – and almost nobody knows about it. Let’s explore it today.
The Concept
Based in the Sequel Trilogy timeline, Resistance starts a few months prior to the events of The Force Awakens / The Last Jedi and carries on for some time afterward – but not beyond The Rise of Skywalker. It follows the adventures of young pilot Kazudo “Kaz” Xiono as he takes a secret mission from Poe Dameron to act as a spy aboard the floating city / fuel station Colossus. Kaz arrives on the Colossus and starts to work as a mechanic for the former Rebel pilot Yeager, where he makes friends, makes enemies and has many light hearted adventures battling pirates, the First Order and even the surly citizens of the Colossus.
Resistance exists on the peripheral of the Sequel Trilogy story, with BB-8 acting as Kaz’s constant companion for much of Season 1, Poe Dameron making occasional appearances, and even some cameos by Captain Phasma and General Hux. It has enough connection to the Sequel movies to feel very much a part of the saga, but its storylines are independent of the films and it explores a different corner of the galaxy at the same time.
Is Star Wars Resistance Any Good?
Reviews are mixed on Star Wars Resistance. It takes a lot of flak from the haters simply for being part of the Sequel era, but some legitimate complaints can be made regarding its “silliness”. Resistance is definitely aimed at the younger viewer, with lots of slapstick – honestly, Kaz can’t go around a corner without stumbling – some dialogue that serves up the message with a shovel, and a sidekick character named Neeku who asks a lot of dumb questions. Unlike Clone Wars and Rebels, that expertly balanced tone and dialog to appeal to both kids and adults, Resistance is firmly in the camp of kid’s show in its tone.
So if you’re already a Sequel hater (and by extension probably also an Ewok hater) then trust me, this show isn’t for you. It’s cute, aimed at kids and firmly ensconced in Sequel lore.
That said, Resistance is actually pretty good. It has a gorgeous art style that really captures the sense of wonder that the Sequel Trilogy is great at. The animation is tight, the voice acting is solid and each episode moves with a crisp pace.
The main character Kaz starts off pretty annoying, but he grows with each episode. His character arc is that of the talented innocent who sets out on a journey into the world. Honestly, he’s not much more annoying than early Ahsoka Tano, or early Ezra Bridger, and like those two Star Wars icons he grows, matures, changes and becomes a better person.
His friend and fellow mechanic Tam Ryvora is another fascinating character. She starts the show set up to be a friendly foil to Kaz, but her arc takes her in a shocking direction at the end of Season 1 and she endures her own story in Season 2 mostly separate from Kaz and their friends as she struggles with ethics and morality. Few other Star Wars characters follow Tam’s path and she brings surprising depth to what is supposedly just a silly kid’s show.
How does Star Wars Resistance Compare to Clone Wars and Rebels?
It’s hard for any show to stack up against Clone Wars and Rebels, and allow me a moment to praise those two fabulous shows.
Clone Wars ran for seven seasons and single-handedly rescued the Prequel Era movies from the dustbin of history after the snarky OT kids (like me, admittedly) gnashed our teeth at how “Star Wars had been ruined”. Clone Wars is the foundation upon which the Prequel era is now built and it contains some of the best television ever made.
Rebels was the very first production in the Disney-era of Star Wars and it did a phenomenal job of getting people excited about Star Wars again by returning to the Original Trilogy era. In its music, its style and its supporting characters, it was the perfect bridge between the Prequel and Original eras. But more than that, it was a model of efficient storytelling that packed a full plot into each 22-minute episode while still painting longer mega-plots against a vast canvas of love, friendship, intrigue and war.
Resistance is not these things. But it’s a good show in its own right. With beautiful animation, tight stories, tons of fun lore (for Sequel lovers) and some real surprises, Resistance delivers an entertaining and engaging world of diverse, memorable characters in style. It might be because it was only released on Disney+ and didn’t air on network TV like Clone Wars and Rebels that Resistance never got the wide exposure to audiences it deserved. I only discovered it by digging deep into Disney+. It also no doubt suffered from the Star Wars fandom tearing itself apart over The Last Jedi and it was perhaps just ignored by too many people drawing devil’s horns on pictures of Kathleen Kennedy.
But don’t forget that Clone Wars was very controversial went it released. The Prequels were deep in their darkest period of hatred by the fans and no-one knew quite what to do with Star Wars animation at the time. I can only hope that, given enough time, those Star Wars fans who were kids in 2018 and who loved Resistance for what it was – those who laughed at everything Neeku said, and who cheered whenever Kaz slid around a corner – will find their voices and express their praise for the most overlooked and forgotten Star Wars series.
Bennett R. Coles is an award-winning, best-selling author and ghostwriter of science fiction and space fantasy series. His newest novel, Light in the Abyss, is now available here.
