As we close out Black History Month, I decided there was no better character to close our highlight series this month than one of my personal favorite Star Wars characters, Tam Ryvora of Star Wars Resistance.
I pretty much instantly fell in love with Tam when Star Wars Resistance started. She was witty, hardworking, smart and very clearly layered. And as the show progressed, my love for her only grew as she quickly had one of the most interesting character arcs I'd seen in Star Wars. She gets sucked into the First Order thanks to a mix of Agent Tierny's manipulation and her own feelings of insecurity around her role in the family she'd found in Team Fireball. Through the compassion of others and a lot of her own sense of morality, Tam finds her way back and reconciles with her family.
Tam's story is endlessly fascinating. Being left out of the loop when Kaz uses Yeager's shop as a cover leads her to feeling inadequate and underappreciated by the father figure she had in Yeager, even if that can't be further from the truth. It leaves her vulnerable, though and she makes the huge, hurtful mistake of joining on with the First Order. Tam's journey in season 2 especially is so interesting- seeing her figure out what to do after such a huge misstep really made me understand her, and her complicated feelings on forgiving herself and worrying about her family forgiving her were as heartbreaking to watch as they were relatable.
Tam is such an important character to me because I really connected with her journey. She's a real inspiration- not just in how great she is (because she is absolutely amazing), but because of how she's able to realize when she's wrong, picks herself up and does what it takes to make up for her mistakes, even if it's hard and even if she's afraid. The galaxy far, far away is much better for having a character like Tam Ryvora in it. We were very lucky that Star Wars Resistance was able to tell us her story, and I hope some day we get to see her again in future chapters.
As February ends, that concludes our Highlighting Black Characters/Creatives in the Galaxy Far, Far Away Series for this year. But appreciation for Black characters is important to show all year round, and there is plenty of love for all of them here.