REVIEW: Star Wars Resistance – Season 1, Episode 8 “Synara’s Score”

Television Reviews

*Spoilers*

In “Synara’s Score,” Yeager receives a message from Doza that pirates will be attacking soon. Yeager tasks Neeku with staying in the shop working all day and sends Tam and Kaz to get a tracker chip. After being unable to find it affordably, Kaz asks Synara for help finding the part. Tam shows Kaz up with her knowledge of the part and the technology. Synara gets it quickly and sends them on their way. As Kazuta and Tam arrive at the Colossus, Synara tries to find out what’s wrong with its tracking system. She reports that the system is down, giving her boss the heads up to attack. Neeku announces that the crew has a visitor, which proves to be Synara. Kaz and Tam awkwardly try to act like nothing is wrong, but Synara sees their damaged computer and suspects that that’s what the part was for. She brings them additional parts to repair the system, and Tam takes her to lunch in exchange. Tam tells Synara all about her past as an aspiring racer. She’s only working as a mechanic until she has enough money for another racer ship. Tam races home to help repair the Colossus’s cannons, but of course, the pirates attack just as she gets back. It’s all-out war as the mechanics rush to get the defenses operational while pirates descend on the platform. Tam rushes to help Synara, unaware that she’s one of the bad guys. When she does find her, Synara is shocked that Tam would risk her life to help her. Meanwhile, Kaz and Yeager finally succeed in getting the cannons back online. The pirates flee, Synara still playing innocent with Tam. Yeager tells Kaz that he’s not the only spy on the platform, and that it’s convenient for the pirates to have shown up when they did. Doza contacts the First Order and says he wants to consider their proposal.

Regular Resistance stupidity aside, why does Tam consider Synara a friend so soon after being suspicious of her? I love to see friendships develop between characters over time, but of course, this show had to mess that up too. Tam is normally a pretty cynical person, treating Kaz like dirt and generally being a party pooper. But for some reason in “Synara’s Score,” after sharing a meal with Synara and accepting a tool from her, they’re “besties 4ever” or something? I realize that the writers and showrunners for Resistance don’t care about character consistency, but the shine Tam takes to Synara almost immediately seems very out of character for her. Even if Tam didn’t function as the resident stick-in-the-mud, it seems odd for anyone to embrace a dubious stranger so wholeheartedly after a single afternoon. Resistance is guilty of worse creative choices than this, but I do think this use of the major characters as mere plot conveniences is at the heart of why this show is so terrible. How can you care about Tam if her character is so undefined and inconsistent? Why does she like Synara so much and give her so much trust, even going so far as to risk her life to aid Synara? Why change their dynamic so dramatically right off the bat instead of building it up over time? In fact, they could have used a blossoming friendship with the usually rude, distant Tam to motivate Synara’s eventual heel face turn. I definitely think that’s coming, and that may be part of the decision to make the two such good friends in “Synara’s Score.” But if they wanted to take Synara’s story in this direction, they should have taken time to show why and how the two become friends, how she earns Tam’s trust, etc. For someone as jaded and street-smart as Tam, it seems pretty stupid to go soft on a mysterious newbie just because she gave you something shiny. Did it even occur to her that Synara could be trying to butter up the crew (and her) to more easily infiltrate the Colossus? As for Synara herself, so far the only distinctive thing about her is her design. This is one of few designs in the series that actually looks interesting. That being said, it would look better in animation that didn’t look like spilled honey mustard dripping onto the table.

Yeager is yet again barely in the episode, but I did wonder if he’s actually still a spy and that’s part of what he was trying to tell Kaz. Neeku simply performs his usual tomfoolery in “Synara’s Score;” near the beginning, when Yeager gives everyone jobs, he tells Neeku not to tell anyone anything about them repairing the cannons and tracking system. Naturally, Neeku literally covers his mouth with his hands and stays this way for almost the entire runtime. I don’t know why the writers think this is funny, but it’s not. It goes well beyond juvenile humor into the realm of gags that aren’t funny at all. Kaz just trips and stumbles his way through the episode, trying to get Synara’s attention. Naturally, Tam’s knowledge makes her a better conversationalist. Much like Tam, I have to wonder why Kaz even likes Synara so much. As I previously mentioned, she’s very pretty and unique in appearance, but he literally doesn’t know anything about her. One would expect a Resistance spy to be somewhat savvier in dealing with people and particularly strangers, but Kaz is just every annoying, boring protagonist from every bad children’s TV series you’ve ever seen. He doesn’t have the bravery of Luke, the earnestness of Ahsoka, or the determination of Ezra. While I haven’t liked any of the leads in the recent Star Wars films, I feel confident in saying that Kazuta Xiono is one of the worst Star Wars characters ever conceived, and quite possibly the very worst lead character.  

At this point, it’s starting to feel redundant complaining about Star Wars Resistance; so many of its capital sins are the same from week to week. The characters are poorly conceived, and it feels like the showrunners don’t care enough to flesh out their personalities and motivations. It’s still early, but the animation looks like dog poop, and I doubt it’ll improve. The voice actors aren’t bad, but they don’t make anything of the characters. I never get the feeling that any character had to be voiced by that certain actor, or like the actors and writers really love the characters. It feels like everyone is just making this show because it was ordered. By now it’s easy to imagine that that’s exactly the case, but it doesn’t make Resistance very fun or engaging. I will give credit where it’s due, however; the music is a big improvement in “Synara’s Score,” particularly during the battle on the platform. It’s a shame this is such a stupid and cartoony fight sequence, and with no tension, as it’s hard to care what happens to these bland, irritating characters. Nonetheless, kudos to series composer Michael Tavera; may he be remembered as the only person who tried his best to make this project worthwhile. In short, don’t watch Resistance, folks. Not to boycott it or because it was produced under the Disney umbrella; don’t watch it out of love of self and preservation of your brain cells.