Star Wars is a franchise that as if lately many people take incredibly seriously. And that's fine. If you enjoy something, then of course you're going to be serious about it. However, that seriousness has birthed an almost abhorrent toxicity within the fandom. Many people forgot why Star Wars exists in the first place. It's not supposed to be deep, or complex, or even exactly what people want or expect it to be all the time. It's supposed to be fun. Harmless fun. If Star Wars was consistently what the older fans wanted it to be, where would the new audience come from?
The beauty of a franchise like Star Wars is that even after years of ups and downs, it still managed to stay relevant. It breached the generational barrier, thanks to so much new media. However, this is exactly what makes the franchise so polarizing. At the time if it's initial release, many of the older fans hated The Clone Wars when the feature length pilot hit the screens in 2008. However, as the show progressed, many people started to love it, because the show grew with it's audience. As the years went on, stakes were raised significantly to match the matured mindset of the regular viewing population.
The same thing applied to Star Wars Rebels, Disney's first audio visual entry in the series, and a direct sequel to Clone Wars. The show presented itself in a lighter tone throughout the early half of Season 1, and it was bad enough when you had the older fans against Clone Wars, but having a new and nostalgic generation of fans birthed from Clone Wars left Rebels as an easy target for mass criticism and flagging. However, it did attract a new audience, and Rebels too grew with it's viewers, and even brought in important plot points from Clone Wars. Many fans refused to watch Rebels because they felt that it was too light in tone, and paid no respect to Star Wars or the fans.
This echoes the opinions of the new movies. As a more diverse cast of characters are introduced, many dedicated fans aren't pleased. What? A new range of characters designed to relate to a new and more impressionable audience don't appeal to you, a long time fan who already had their own heroes to look up to in their childhood? What a surprise! These characters however will become the heroes of a new generation of fans, and most of these new fans will be younger, just like many of you reading this now were when you first saw a piece of Star Wars media. Nostalgia is wonderful, but it is also dangerous. It clouds your perception and leads you to believe in something that honestly wasn't as good as you probably remembered it.
Star Wars Resistance could very well be the entry point into the series for alot of young Disney Channel viewers. After the fantastic Rebels, even I was sceptical of the show. I had no hostile feelings towards the cartoon, merely complete indifference. The animation wasn't catching my attention and the new characters seemed fairly generic. However, I gave the show a shot, because unlike alot of fans I don't have a needlessly merciless agenda against things that are new or different. And to my surprise, the show was fun. It was nothing mind blowing, and incredibly silly at points, but my God the show was fun. Seeing the animation in context really helped, and as janky and generic as the cell-shaded CGI style can be in many other shows that use it, it's surprisingly smooth and full of character in Resistance. The colours are bright and appealing with great lighting. The voice acting as expected in a Disney production is top notch stuff with a pretty impressive cast of notable actors lending their pipes to a charismatic group of characters. Fight scenes are gripping but the flying sequences when ships are involved are an actual delight. Every vehicle had a great sense of weight that makes every shipbound battle feel like, well, a Star War! Even the race scenes are exhilarating.
Sure, the writing isn't always that gripping, but I like how much the show focuses on the more political side of the events, for example the galactic opinion on the First Order outside of the Resistance. Unfortunately alot of this interesting stuff is counteracted by a dumb line of dialogue or some vaguely amusing but ultimately cliché slapstick.
However, I've enjoyed my time so far with Star Wars Resistance, though I probably won't be sticking around to see where this series goes. Not because I don't like it, but because ultimately it isn't made for me, and I honestly don't get alot out of it. At least, I won't get as much out of it as the target demographic will. Who is that target demographic again? Oh yeah, kids. The new generation of fans who've probably never seen a Tie Fighter or an Aluminium Falcon (If you get that reference I love you) or those who have just started to get invested with Star Wars through the new films or comics or even their parents or friends in the school playground. This is an opportunity that these new impressionable potential fans may never get again, so don't be a child about it a ruin this opportunity for them. The show may not be for you, but that doesn't give you the right to boycott it, slander it and ultimately ruin the fun for everyone else. Otherwise you become the cynical older generation of your time, the grandparent who called your Star Wars a "load of bloody rubbish". Star Wars Resistance, just like every other Star Wars thing out there, is a bit of harmless fun. And ultimately, what else do you want?
