Tear Jerker / Star Wars Resistance

And of course, it isn't Star Wars without its tales of hardship and tragedy.

Spoilers are off.

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General

• The beginning of the series is marked by hardship and tragedy, especially for Kaz. It's bad enough that Kaz has a strained relationship with his father, he can't do his job right, and he's ridiculed by everyone in the Colossus. As the Season 1 midtrailer came up, it's only going to get worse; he and Torra end up having to watch General Hux's speech, and considering what happens afterwards, it will be one huge Trauma Conga Line for him.

Season 1

"The Recruit"

• Kaz telling his teammates to flee without him while he holds Vonreg off. And then he promises "I'll be right behind you.", a phrase that viewers from Rebels associate with last words.
  • In fact, Kaz would've died right then and there had Poe been a moment too late.
  • Kaz doesn't say goodbye to his teammates before leaving for his spy mission, and given the secrecy of the mission, they may have believed he died saving them.
• Kaz making one last transmission to talk to his father and ask for his help. Senator Xiono is frustrated that Kaz is squandering everything he's worked for by throwing his lot with "the extremists" and complains that he has to do everything for his son and that's the only reason why he's successful, leading to Kaz changing his mind on asking for help and angrily hanging up the call.
  • This can be Truth in Television for kids who have grown up under My Beloved Smother, as they end up finding it difficult to be independent due to their parents doing everything for them out of mistaken belief that they're protecting their children as opposed to gradually teaching them how to do things on their own so that they don't need their parents when the time comes.
• Yeager and Tam giving Kaz a What the Hell, Hero? for getting secondhand parts to repair the Fireball, since now they'll have to spend some extra time making sure the parts are good enough. A frustrated Kaz walks off, muttering that "Everything I think I do is right is wrong."
  • In the following scene, Kaz gazes out at Castilon's twin moons and explains to BB-8 how his father was strict and did everything for him because he believed Kaz couldn’t do anything right on his own.

"Triple Dark"

"Fuel for the Fire"

• Kaz finding a picture frame in Yeager's office, showing him as a younger man celebrating the victory at the Battle of Jakku with his squadmates, with another picture depicting him with his wife and kid. Kaz senses that something must've happened that Yeager doesn't want to talk about, and shortly after, Yeager finds the misplaced pictures and takes a moment to look at them before putting them back.

"The High Tower"

• Hype trying to make a genuine effort to reconnect with Tam. Every time she snaps at him he seems genuinely sad.

"The Children From Tehar"

• Kel and Eila, orphans who watched their home planet wiped out by the First Order forced into living on the streets. When Kaz finds them they have to steal food just to get by.

"The Platform Classic"

• We find out what happened with Yeager's family. He was in a race with his own brother, who cheated and loaded his fighter with hyper-fuel. And just like in "Fuel for the Fire", he lost control. Worse, he struck Yeager's racer and caused a crash that killed his family. To say that Jarek and Marcus ended up on bad terms after that incident would be an understatement.

"Descent"

• Yeager breaking his stoic, rational demeanor when Bucket is shot off of the platform. Kaz has to hold him back and tell him that they have to keep moving. Fortunately, Bucket turns out to be fine thanks to the Chelidae.
• How everything falls apart for Tam. Her dream ship is to be impounded and she's learning truths about Kaz and Yeager that had been kept from her.
• When they get cornered by First Order stormtroopers but have been able to send a message to the Resistance, Yeager realizes that both he and Kaz are in danger of getting captured or worse. Yeager tells Kaz he did a good job before pushing him into the water and staying behind while Kaz and CB-23 escape. Kaz lets out a "No!" before he hits the water.
• Neeku's reaction to Kaz confessing to him that he's a Resistance spy. Initially, he takes it as a bad joke, and later, when he sees Leia's message addressed to him, a hurt Neeku (in a both comical and serious way) asks why didn't he tell him.

"No Escape, Part I"

• Having to see the destruction of the Hosnian System again. What makes it even sadder than in the film is that now, it's more personal for Kaz because he loses home and family. It gets worse when you remember that the last time he had contact with his family was when he contacted his father all the way back in "The Recruit", and that conversation ended on bad terms. Now, it seems Kaz will never get the chance to repair his family relationship.
• Tam angrily rebuffing Yeager when he finally gets to explain his side to her. It was clearly pretty harsh from her end, yes, but there is an element of hurt to her anger from not feeling that he and Kaz could trust her.

"No Escape, Part II"

• And as if seeing the Hosnian system blow up again wasn't enough, the episode starts by showing it one more time. We see Kaz cry out and Torra has to hold him back and tell him that they have to keep moving.
• Kaz telling Yeager that his home is gone.
• Tam giving a What the Hell, Hero? to Kaz and Yeager, using everything Tierny told her about them. If the heartbreak in her voice doesn't get to you at the very least, then nothing else will.
  • When Kaz asks Tam what the hell is she doing, she hurls back that she's getting away from him and everything he's done to her. We've come a long way from Ice Queen to Defrosting Ice Queen to We Used to Be Friends...
  • Tam taking Tierny's hand, thus cementing her Face–Heel Turn, and throwing one last angry glare at a shattered Yeager as the ship's boarding doors close.
  • After Tam leaves, Kaz, Torra, and Yeager accept that there's nothing else they can do for her. The way Yeager reacts to it is as if Tam is dead to him.
  • Remember that Yeager's young daughter died ten years ago, so if she were still alive, she would be around Tam's age... so in a way, Yeager lost another daughter, this time to an enemy he fought years against yet it still found a way back to hurt people again.
• At the end, though everyone is relieved that they're finally out of the First Order's control, Kaz laments that they've lost Tam, and as far as they know, they may never see her again, or at least on the same side.

Season 2

"Into the Unknown"

• Near the end of the episode, Kaz manages to send a message to Tam. Trying to explain himself and apologize for lying to her. Tam receives it, but she immediately turns it off in a fit of anger.

"A Quick Salvage Run"

• Rucklin, having joined the First Order catches Tam with her commlink and the message Kaz sent her. So naturally, he turns her in for it.

"The Engineer"

• Nena's past as the Galaxy Far Far Away's equivalent of child trafficking (if not outright child trafficking). As a kid, she was captured by pirates, who sold her as a slave to the Hutts. She managed to escape and make a life for herself, but her trauma has shaped her perception of life for the worst.
• Nena's guilt over betraying Neeku.
• At the end, when Neeku talks about who he considers his friends, he considers Kaz one, and Buggles, and Bibo... but he doesn't bring up Tam, and Kaz doesn't even question that.

"Rendezvous Point"

• While fighting off the First Order when they intrude on their rendezvous point for Venisa, Torra and her father accept that they can't wait for her any longer and are forced to escape on the Colossus... only for Venisa to show up immediately after they jump to hyperspace.
• Torra's mother left six years ago, meaning she's been gone for a little more than a third of Torra's life.
• According to Yeager, ever since Venisa convinced Imanuel to leave the Empire, the two were inseparable... until the First Order came into the picture.
• Venisa telling Tam that leaving Torra was the hardest decision she had ever had to make, but she did it so that Torra could live in a safe and peaceful galaxy.
• Venisa assuring Tam that Yeager loves her and misses her as if she were his own daughter and is probably hurting from losing a daughter again.
  • Speaking of, it's clear Venisa saying the above struck a nerve somewhere in Tam; she is aware of that fact, and felt it was all a lie.
• The fact that Torra went on thinking no one in the Colossus cared enough about her to celebrate her birthday, which is why she never tells them about it.
• Doza watching a recording of his and Venisa's goodbye (which he does regularly, apparently, to comfort himself in her absence) as he and Torra accept that the rest of the Galaxy needs Venisa right now, completely unaware that she dropped everything to try to see them again.

"The Mutiny"

• Synara having to turn against the Warbirds, who were her adoptive family; Kragan took her in when she was an orphan, and she and Valik grew up together, but in the end what they all did was wrong, and Synara knows it.

"No Place Safe"

• Yeager telling Kaz that Tam made her choice to betray them, and that he cannot hold back against her, just as she didn't. Even though we know both Yeager and Kaz wish she could find her way back to the light, they also have to accept the Awful Truth that they may have to hurt and perhaps even kill Tam to defend themselves.

“Rebuilding The Resistance“

• This episode clearly shows the heroes personally facing the First Order at their nastiest; The TIE Squadron Tam is part of is set on destroying unarmed shuttles with extreme prejudice. The heartbreaking part? Rucklin mercilessly guns down one of the shuttles out of nowhere, leaving everyone devastated.
• Tierny's past. We don't go into full detail, but she reveals that she grew up scraping by and blamed the New Republic for it. It was somehow bad enough that it led to her wholeheartedly following the First Order.

"The Escape"

• Kaz and Yeager reminiscing on Castilon how much things have changed.
  • Yeager comparing Tam to Marcus in that they both live life on the move. When Kaz asks him why didn’t he just give Tam the Fireball after he remembers how Tam lost everything when she came to the Colossus, Yeager reveals that he was scared that Tam would leave him. Another choice that also pushed her away from him.
    • Also the Fridge Horror that Marcus has no idea where Yeager is or if he's even alive. Or if Marcus is still out there and alive either, considering the First Order almost certainly would have made use of someone with such a close connection to supposed Resistance spy.
• As Tam hugs Kaz, she looks as if she's going to cry.
• Upon reuniting, Tam and Yeager instead get into an argument over the latter lying to her and the former betraying them.
• When it becomes clear that Rucklin won't ever defect, Tam gives up on him and knocks him out cold. Soon after, the Star Destroyer blows up, almost certainly taking Rucklin with it. Let that be a lesson.
• Though they've been nothing but trouble, you have to admit you felt bad for Tierny and Pyre.
  • Tierny asking Tam if her betrayal was because she had failed her somehow, because she can't see why she would do this after she gave her everything. When Tam answers that she never gave her family, Tierny tells her that she can watch her "family" get destroyed. If it wasn't clear before, it's obvious Tierny saw herself in Tam and that's why she kept her close, but she can't ever comprehend the meaning of "family" or do anything that could get Tam to consider her "family".
• How the show ends. As a glimpse into the lives of normal people who are just trying to figure out a way to survive in a newly war-torn galaxy, the glimpse ends on a happy note that in spite of whatever may happen next (regardless of whether you've seen The Rise of Skywalker), the First Order will still be after them and they've only touched the surface of what a war is like.