Star Wars Resistance First Impressions

“You lost, but you lost well.”

So, this one snuck up on me. Maybe, after the negative backlash that the trailer for Star Wars Resistance received, the producers felt it wise to keep a low profile until the first episode was out. Or maybe I’m just completely unaware. Both are viable theories. So, how does Star Wars Resistance stack up? Is it as bad as the trailer led everyone to believe? Weeeellll… it’s definitely problematic, but the problems that plague it might not be any more significant than the ones that afflicted its predecessors. In fact, one could argue the key unifying element of the Star Wars animated series isn’t the Force, the camaraderie among allies or any of that. It’s that our lead character starts out being pretty insufferable. Fortunately, it appears the other aspects of the show including the art and comedy were simply sold short by a terribly edited trailer, though neither of those elements are exceptional. Some jokes actually undermine the logic of… how anything works in any galaxy regardless of whether it’s far, far away. As it stands, it’s fair to assert that Star Wars Resistance has the weakest opening of the three key Star Wars animated series, but there is potential here. Now if it could just stop getting on my nerves.

The plot of Star Wars Resistance follows Kazuda “Kaz” Xiono, a human New Republic pilot who gets drafted into the Resistance to serve as a spy tasked with collecting intel on the First Order’s activities in the lead up to The Force Awakens. The biggest problem with this first episode, The Recruit, is that it doesn’t really have an antagonist or stakes. A couple things happen but looking back on it, the episode just comes and goes. I don’t remember much of it, and the fact that this was an hour long premiere just baffles me. Did I really watch 43 minutes of television? The setting of the Colossus is interesting. It’s a fuel tanker depot which is now used to stage races. If the episode listed the name of the planet then I missed it. I alluded to Kazuda being annoying and this is going to sound worse than it is, but… could the show stop trying to make him into Jar-Jar Binks 2.0? There are some occasions where he gets to calm down, show off his competence and display some nice motives and emotions. The rest of the time he’s blundering into trouble, talking about how he’s a pilot and generally messing thing up. The side characters are largely fine, but not exceptionally memorable yet. Josh Brener voices Neeku Vozu a Nikto mechanic who takes things too literally. He’s about 50/50 in the annoying/funny ratio. He also succeeds in spreading a rumor that Kaz is the best pilot in the galaxy through the entire Colossus base in about 10 minutes. This was almost a fun gag, but it becomes a plot point, and that’s not how rumors, conversations or . Then there is Jarek Yeager, a former Rebel voiced by Scott Lawrence who has supposedly moved on and wants no part in the Cold War that’s heating up. Poe also plays a prominent role in this first episode, but the show doesn’t seem entirely clear on what to do with him.

The art is actually far more promising than I was led to believe by the trailer, even if my primary criticism holds true. Resistance needs to mute its colors, particularly its green. I love green, but come on. I even performed some experiments with the visual settings on my computer and even with my half-assed alterations was able to find more appealing leveling. Still, the anime inspired CG looks decent, probably better than what Clone Wars and Rebels could boast when they began. Furthermore, given the inspiration that Lucas took from samurai films, it seems appropriate that an animated series would draw inspiration from anime. Furthermore, the timeframe for this series is particularly interesting. I’d love to learn more about the inner workings of both the Resistance and the First Order as well as the details surrounding the cold war that led into the new trilogy. It’s a nice detail that most of the actors could play their characters in live action, and I’m curious to see if there will be further crossover. Ultimately, Star Wars Resistance is the epitome of a mixed bag, but if it can find some proper footing, I’d love to see where it goes.

Before I wrap up, a few Notes and Nitpicks:

• My Star Wars wishlist includes: More Chiss! We only ever got to meet Thrawn. It would be nice to see how other members of his race, whether it be protagonistic, antagonistic or any flavor in-between, make use of their calculating minds. Also, more Thrawn please!
• Okay, I looked up the details of the Colossus and found that it is located on the planet Castilon. It’s unique to this show, which is a mild shame. I thought it could be the Manaan of Knight of the Old Republic.
• I know that Adam Driver and Gwendoline Christie are slated to make appearances. I’d be curious to see an appearance by Finn since he was technically an elite First Order Stormtrooper, though the films didn’t make that abundantly clear.
• Okay, we’ve had enough of the word jager and variations on that term for the time being.