Star Wars: Resistance

RIght, well I initially skipped on the 2018 release of "Star Wars: Resistance", solely on the trailers, because they made it seem like a lousy animated show aimed at a very young audience. And me skipping on it is a bit odd, given my huge love and admiration for all things "Star Wars".

Then now in 2020, I opted to sit down and watch it, and I binge watched all 21 episodes of season 1 in about a day. I must admit that "Star Wars: Resistance" turned out to be way more interesting that I had hope to dream of. And actually I find it more enjoyable than the "Clone Wars" animated series.

While "Star Wars: Resistance" is set in the time of the New Republic, which is definitely not my favorite era in the "Star Wars" timeline, then this series was actually rather enjoyable given the characters and the storyline. So my disliking of the appearance of the First Order stormtroopers and such was pushed to the background, because the characters and the storyline dominated this series. And that was just marvelous.

The characters in the series are nicely fleshed out, and they have some really great voice actors and actresses to give life to the drawn characters. I can't really claim to be familiar with the voice performers, but they definitely were cast well, because they portrayed their individual characters quite nicely.

And the drawing and art style used in "Star Wars: Resistance" was also appealing to me, especially when compared to the style of "Clone Wars". There was a more linear, mainstreamed, and retro feel to the art here. Sort of reminiscent of the old classic 1980s cartoons in a sense.

What really impressed me in "Star Wars: Resistance" was all the background characters, because there were such a grand display of various known and lesser known races to be seen here, and that was just glorious. Especially to someone playing the "Star Wars" roleplaying games and being familiar with the extensive races of the galaxy.

There is a good amount of action throughout the series, mixed in with a great storyline and equally great character interactions and growth. There is a connection to the characters, even though they are just merely drawn characters. And there is also a good mixture of classic "Star Wars" space dogfights and on-the-ground action. Thumbs up on that.

One thing that was bothering me throughout the entire season one was the music score. While the music was adequate, it wasn't traditional "Star Wars" music, and it all together lacked the unique sound there is to the music in the movies. That was a shame, because it could have added just another layer of enjoyment to the series.

I am very, very pleased with "Star Wars: Resistance" and rating season 1 a six out of ten stars. And I am most definitely going to sit down for watching season 2 as well.

This show leans towards the younger demographic which is great. My 5 year old daughter and I really enjoyed watching this together. The last quarter of the season really picks up plot wise and we look forward to season 2.

I don't really like the art style but the story is pretty interesting and I hope it improves

It seemed really childish and the animation and writing weren't on-par with the other Star Wars animated series. However, I remember feeling the same way about Rebels and even The Clone Wars when those shows first started, so I defended it on the grounds that the show would likely mature with its audience and get darker and more dramatic as the series progressed. By the end of the first season, that seemed to be the direction the show was going in. One of the main characters joins the First Order and now our heroes are on the run. What's going to happen next?? Mostly a bunch of stupid standalone adventures that don't really progress the plot or develop the characters. Yeah, the second season felt really meandering compared to the first season, most of the episodes didn't even have the main conflict set up at the end of the first season in them. Then it shows up again, and then the show just kinda ends before it really even got a chance to begin. This show was a whole lot of nothing, ultimately. For a show titled Star Wars Resistance, it does not really give any larger context to the Resistance and the sequel era the way Rebels did for the Rebellion and the originals or The Clone Wars did for the Republic and the prequels. It feels weirdly separate, most of the show technically doesn't even have the Resistance in it. It feels more like LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures than Rebels. To be very honest, I believe this show was cancelled behind the scenes. I think the show was supposed to go on for longer, but was cancelled prematurely because it wasn't successful enough. I don't have any evidence to back that up, but it just feels that way to me. There are some strengths to the show, the voice acting is good, it's designed well, the main setting is very well-developed and the characters are likeable and memorable, but that's still not enough to make up for the lacklustre writing. Overall, if you really like Star Wars and are starved for new content, check it out. Otherwise, I'd say skip it unless you're under the age of 12, but even then I'd recommend Rebels and The Clone Wars over this show any day. Very disappointing.

Overall, this show is massively disappointing, but not because it's really that bad - it just has such a vaunted legacy to live up to, and had such promise that it doesn't reach.

First, the artwork is beautiful. I only wish the the other Star Wars cartoons had anime-inspired artwork like this instead of the awful, dated, digital style they have.

But the other SW cartoons succeed in spite of their artwork, the writing is that good -- and the inverse is Resistance. In spite of the beautiful animation, the show never takes off, the writing is that directionless.

In contrast to the other SW cartoons, there's almost no tie-in to the specific plot of the SW movies, with an exception or two. It's just broad strokes about life in the SW universe during the time of "The First Order", centered around a "platform"/station. There's little about Jedi. It makes this cartoon into something else entirely. It's slow and mundane with occasional action. It's basically a lighthearted drama. Similar to SW Rebels, the main character isn't very likable. But it almost works.

While Resistance tries to keep it relatively light and humorous, it's rarely actually funny -- but admirably, it's not cringe-worthy either. There are some flashes of quite clever and unexpected humor with surprisingly nuanced comedic timing, in fact. Such as when a good-guy droid tries to get a prisoner to talk by submitting them to nails-on-chalkboard sounds..only to have another of the good guys abruptly tell them to stop bc it's annoying. Not easy to pull-off.

The character development is decent, like the other SW cartoons, and overall the writing is far better than the sequel SW movies - unfortunately that's the universe that this show operates in, so perhaps it's for the best it doesn't waste time trying to make sense of nonsense and cuts it's own path.

If they made a third season, I'd come back for it. For me, Rebels only took off in its 2nd season, before becoming my favorite over the Clone Wars series. Regardless, I appreciated this effort overall - when the beautiful artwork of Resistance gets paired with the writing success and compelling narrative of the previous SW cartoons, it's going to be an absolute winner.