This month Disney’s latest instalment to the Star Wars universe arrived on the small screen. Star Wars Resistance is replacement for Star Wars Rebels that catered to the youth market.
I enjoyed Rebels a lot and enjoyed both the time it was set in and the story it told. It was neat, tidy and character driven. Resistance follows in this vein being light-hearted and focused definitely on a younger audience, younger perhaps than Rebels did. I have watched the first three episodes and feel there is less there for the interested adult than the other series, but lets set up the premise before critiquing it.
Resistance is set just prior to The Force Awakens and is based on a way station called Colossus Base on the ocean world of Castillon. Colossus is a refuelling station for star-fighters and ships. It has attracted all manner of undesirables and a fair few hot shot pilots who double as a fighter arm to protect the station and as racers who compete daily on wagered races.
Into this a young pilot, Kazuda Xiona, is sent. He starts as a New Republic pilot who is recruited by Poe Dameron to become a spy for the Resistance on Colossus. Someone on the base is passing secrets to the First Order. Kazuda’s cover is as a mechanic working for an old Rebel hero.
Kazuda is a likeable bungling character who is ill equipped as either spy or mechanic and despite help from BB-8 lurches from mishap to mishap. The first few episodes have focused on setting up the background but so far the themes have been very child orientated without the subtle bigger themes that Rebels had. The animation backs this up with a style which is abundant on Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon.
The choice of time frame is an interesting one, The Force Awakens thrust us into the new post-Jedi universe with very little background, it was hard to care for the New Republic or the new Senate on Hosnian Prime. This series will hopefully pad out this era and explain the rise of the First Order and the unusual relationship of the Resistance and the New Republic Senate. Kazuda is actually the son of a senator so expect some more input in this area.
The series shows some promise but will take greater effort from me to stick with. Its perhaps something I ll watch with my niece as I think the nuggets of the Star Wars universe that will appear will be sporadic and small. One definite bonus is the range of aliens on show, the two new films thus far seemed to have avoided showing established aliens and it is refreshing to see Rodians, Sullustans, Chadra Fan and Nikto.
The show has potential and I look forward to slowly picking out the bits of Star Wars lore that will fill in some of the blanks created by the new films.
Into the Nebula 
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