REVIEW: Star Wars Resistance "Fuel for the Fire"
Well, that was certainly better. It's no secret that I wasn't the biggest fan of last week's episode,"The Triple Dark." Thankfully, I can safely say that I think that this week's episode, "Fuel for the Fire," is better...even if it's not that great and cliche. There are elements that I liked, and elements that I didn't like, but in the end, I left this episode feeling a little bit more confident in the show.
The episode sadly starts off on similar grounds than last week's episode. We get more of Kaz not wanting to be a mechanic, wanting to be a racer and a spy, and the side characters acting like stereotypes. It was disappointing to see Kaz act pretty much the same way he did last week and get into arguments and trouble again, considering I thought that was the point of last week's episode. I understand that characters need to grow over the course of a season, and I also get that Kaz is young. (I think he's a teenager, they never really specified his age)
Still, it just seemed strange to me that the show would focus on "similar" character storylines for two weeks in a row, with what appears to be no significant growth and the same lessons learned.
Eventually, Kaz comes across a new group of mechanics, led by a young hot-shot pilot named Jace Rucklin, voiced by Frodo himself, Elijah Wood. I'll say this, Wood does a good job voicing the character. However, if I'm being honest, and I hate to sound this condescending to a show aimed for children, but everything surrounding the character is cliche.
It's the same old things we have seen a thousand times before. Young hero grows frustrated with his superior, joins off with a "cooler" person who thinks they want what is best for them, only to find out the other person is just using the hero to get what they want. It turns out, Rucklin is only using Kaz to get to special fuel Yeager owns to help him in his races. Everything with the character I saw coming a mile away.
Here's the thing. I can hear the questions/concerns now. I understand the argument with cliches. It's the story of how there are only like 5-10 basic stories, so a lot of them are going to get retold. I completely agree with that. I also, contrary to what people may think, don't mind if there are cliche moments and/or story beats in shows. This is for both kids and adults' shows. Rebels and Clone Wars had a lot of cliche storylines, and a lot of my other favorite shows have those elements as well.
However, to me, what separates Resistance so far from the other shows is that they don't really try to branch out or try to do anything unique with those storylines. Instead, it almost feels like they simply relied on those cliche elements too much, and didn't try to branch it out in any way. Of course, that is how I interpret it, but I am not saying that I'm right either.
However, my favorite scene from the episode, and the scene that made me like this episode more, was the scene where Kaz finds a holo pictures of Yeager's past. It turns out not only was he a pilot in the Rebel Alliance, during the battle of Jakku no less, but he also had a wife and child as well. I think Yeager is a very interesting character, and I like the idea of teasing his past to set up for future storylines.
Rucklin steals the fuel, but it turns out it is highly dangerous and is prone to exploding. Therefore, Kaz risks everything in order to save him, which was a fun and entertaining scene, especially with BB-8. Though, I have to question the logic of NOT PUTTING A PARACHUTE IN YOUR SHIP!
In the end, Kaz and Yeager work things out...again...and things seem to go back to the way things were. Though, the captain of the Colossus is noticing Kaz's exploits now, which could get interesting.
I know I may have seemed too harsh on this episode, but the truth is, unlike last week, I was at least entertained from start to finish. I just thought the overall episode was ok. Not meh like last week, but not that great like the premiere. There are elements I'm interested in, and I just hope these last two episodes were building blocks or stepping stones to get to more interesting and fulfilling episodes in the future.
