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Five Thoughts On Star Wars: Resistance‘s “The Core Problem”

By | February 18th, 2019
Posted in Television | % Comments

The First Order is ascendant and their stranglehold on the Colossus continues. As an awakening in the force looms, Poe Dameron arrives on the scene to grab his buddy and head off to Jakku. But before we do that, Poe takes Kaz on one last mission…

1. Leaving For Jakku & A Farewell To BB-8

Just last night, I was catching up on Marvel’s Star Wars comics and finally got around to reading the final arc of “Poe Dameron” where Poe details where he was when he wasn’t on camera during The Force Awakens to Finn and Rey after the Battle of Crait. Something I noticed is that he mentioned having to make a stop to pick up BB-8 before heading to Jakku and, lo and behold, this very episode is about that stop.

We knew this day would come and I appreciate that the moment was as thought out as it was across multiple mediums. “Poe Dameron” ends the ‘Legend Found’ arc with Poe still accompanied by BB-8, but then opens ‘The Awakening’ arc after the Battle of Crait, allowing for the entirety of Star Wars: Resistance to happen in that gap. It’s a nice nod and it’s the kind of thing I live for when it comes to the new Star Wars canon.

2. The Widowmaker

Boy, they sure got more out of Oscar Isaac for this season than I was expecting. This makes, what, his fourth appearance in the show? And for the last couple of appearance, they have primarily been episodes where he and Kaz have a mission off world. I’ll admit, I was curious if the show was planning something similar and how they’d pull it off what with the First Order occupation of the platform.

Clearly, I was right in assuming they’d make a whole thing of it instead of having Kaz and Poe attempt to undermine the First Order occupation because they need to draw that drama out a little bit more. Still, I appreciate a good X-Wing stunt and the Widowmaker absolutely slapped.

3. The Core

This episode reminded me a lot of Season Three of Rebels and specifically the Geonosis-based episodes where the Ghost crew where investigating the Death Star and kept just missing it. Those episodes frustrated me primarily because they were coming out around the release of Rogue One and, let’s face it, we already knew the characters of Rebels had nothing to do with Rogue One. So why would we care about characters almost finding out the Death Star?

I think what I liked about this episode is that we knew Poe has a direct connection to the discovery and destruction of Starkiller Base so having Poe and Kaz find evidence of the Starkiller’s weapon so close to the destruction of Hosnian Prime (which is probably, like, less than a week away, right?) actually heightens the drama knowing Poe is about to go experience the events of The Force Awakens and that the Colossus is just a week away from being a key theatre in the rapidly heating Galactic Cold War. This is everything those Rebels episodes wanted to be done right.

4. Rogue Squadron Of A New Era

One of the key criticisms I have and I’ve seen of Star Wars: Resistance is that it’s a show of too many masters, one that doesn’t really have a key identity beyond being, y’know, Star Wars. Is it a show about Kaz being a spy for the Resistance, working undercover as a mechanic on the Colossus? Is it a show about a backwater racing league on a remote planet where it’s the only escape? Is it a show about how Leia’s burgeoning Resistance discovers the true intentions of the First Order? Is it… all of those things to varying degrees from episode to episode?

This episode really leaned on that last point and was clearly one of the more action-packed than most Resistance episodes and, frankly, it was awesome. It was one of those key episodes that reminded me why I keep up with this show and I almost think more episodes like this could really elevate this show to capture that same squad-based, war-meets-espionage feel of the “X-Wing: Rogue Squadron” novels and comics.

Continued below

5. The Tam Situation

I don’t want this to be the thing I go on about each episode for this season, like my agenda against Ezra for most of Rebels, but this episode couldn’t go a full 20 minutes without annoying me in how it positioned Tam in the episode. The last few episodes has portrayed her as a very centrist voice, countering Kaz’s staunch anti-First Order opinion, despite the series firmly portraying them as child-kidnapping, mass-murdering space fascists.

Here, they’re going full steam ahead into a character beat I staunchly hate: a character keeping a secret from someone younger than them in order to “protect” them. Tam very clearly knows that Kaz isn’t what he seems, but instead of being open about that at this point, Yeager decides to keep her in the dark.

It’s clearly an effort to extend the drama of Kaz’s secret identity, but I think it leads to something of an infantilisation of Tam, a character who could easily be the third part of the trio with Kaz and Neeku, but has been relegated to the straight, no-nonsense role. It’s a shame because I really wanted to like Tam, but her portrayal continues to leave a lot to be desired.


//TAGS | Star Wars: Resistance

Alice W. Castle

Sworn to protect a world that hates and fears her, Alice W. Castle is a trans femme writing about comics. All things considered, it’s going surprisingly well. Ask her about the unproduced Superman films of 1990 - 2006. She can be found on various corners of the internet, but most frequently on Twitter: @alicewcastle

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