The quick and simple label that’s been slapped on Star Wars Resistance – just as it was for The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels before it – is that it’s ‘just a kids show’. With it’s primary colour-heavy pallette and clear anime influences, that’s a fast and obvious cliche to paint the show with, but Sunday’s new episode The Children of Tehar, name-checked a character that has no right to be anywhere near a ‘children’s show’.
Kylo Ren.
That’s right, Kylo got a shout-out and over at io9, Germain Lussier took a closer look at the details of the episode and what it could mean in the broader picture of the pre-The Force Awakens era.
How’d Resistance get to Kylo? Well, it started with Kaz and Neeku on the look out for two missing kids with a bounty on their heads. Kaz believed, if he found them, he’d be doing a double good deed: returning two missing kids to their parents and getting himself some much needed money. However, once Kaz ran into the kids—literally—we found out that it’s actually the First Order that is offering up the bounty. It turns out that Kylo Ren murdered the kids’ entire village, including their family, and they were the only survivors. The First Order wants them to tie up loose ends. Once captured, it would insure their planet, Tehar, “fades from memory” and the First Order’s plans stay out of reach of the Resistance, according to Captain Phasma. Thankfully, the Resistance has a spy on the Colossus in the form of Kaz, who radios all of this information back to the Resistance.
Lussier goes on to point out the similarites of the Tehar massacre to that of Tuanul Village on Jakku at the beginning of The Force Awakens, which begs the question is Ren already hunting for Luke Skywalker? Presumably this tale will overlap with the Poe Dameron comic series at some point as it steams past the first sequel and into the depths of the new trilogy. Either way, this episode more than any other so far asks a lot of questions, and steers the show into new waters – as did The Clone Wars and Rebels – which bodes well for a more substantial feast as the show develops.
