Star Wars Resistance: Captain Doza’s Imperial roots

Kaz has a successful mission in this week’s episode by grabbing the information he needs from Captain Doza’s office, but he discovers other secrets in his quest to help the Resistance.

It’s easy to paint the Galactic Civil War between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance as black and white, but it’s far from that. There was a lot of gray in between, and there were good guys on both sides of the war.

In “Secrets and Holograms,” we find Captain Imanuel Doza’s old Imperial uniform hanging in his closet. It’s a surprising detail about his past. The initial instinct is to think of him as a bad guy, but as we’ve learned from past Star Wars stories, not all Imperials are bad people.

Take Thane Kyrell, for example, from the Lost Stars novel by Claudia Gray. He was an Imperial TIE fighter pilot, but after seeing some of the atrocities committed by the Empire in person, he left. After drifting around the galaxy, he later joined the Rebellion.

There’s also ISB Agent Kallus from Star Wars Rebels. His crash landing with Zeb Orrelios on an icy moon turned out to be an illuminating experience for him. He started feeding the rebels information from the inside before he eventually joined their ranks.

That’s just scratching the surface. There are many more people who worked for the Empire and who later defected. Captain Doza happens to be one of these people, as mentioned in a behind-the-scenes video. He was a Captain around the time of Return of the Jedi before he eventually left.

We’re curious about the event that encouraged him to leave. Did he witness the mistreatment of an entire people? Was he forced to do something he didn’t want to do? Or was it because he fell in love with a rebel pilot?

According to Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy by Amy Ratcliffe, Torra Doza’s mother was a pilot for the Rebellion. He and his wife lived a life together after the fall of the Empire and had Torra 15 years prior to Star Wars Resistance, since she’s a 15-year-old prodigy in the series.

We don’t know what happened to his wife and whether she’s still alive. For now, we like to think she and Imanuel had an argument about the state of the galaxy and she went off to join the Resistance as a way to make the galaxy safer for her daughter. We hope this is the case because we refuse to accept another dead mother in Star Wars.

Going back to Doza as an Imperial captain, it’s interesting to look back at the past episodes and see how this particular detail informs his previous actions. For example, in “The Children from Tehar,” Doza kept looking at the wooden symbol that belonged to the older child, Kel. There’s no doubt in our minds he suspected what the First Order was up to and it’s probably because he was present when the Empire used to do the same thing. The Empire had invaded worlds and destroyed lives in the name of order and peace.

The question now is when the war between the Resistance and First Order breaks out, which side will Doza choose? Will he align himself with the First Order because they remind him of the Empire and he thinks it’s better to join than to fight against them? Will he join the Resistance’s cause and follow his wife’s footsteps as a rebel? Or will he choose to withdraw and hide in some corner of the universe until the dust settles?

Depending on what he does, it could potentially clash with his daughter’s views. We like to think Torra is Resistance material and has a place in their ranks as a pilot.

Speaking of Torra, since she keeps a close eye on her father’s business, we wonder if she knows about his past or if he’s kept that as a complete secret to her. Will knowing this detail motivate her into action and break away from her father’s overprotective nature?

We don’t know where these characters will be by the end of the first season, but we imagine Captain Doza, in particular, is hiding other skeletons in his closet.

The next episode of Star Wars Resistance, “Station Theta Black,” airs on Sunday, Dec. 9, on the Disney Channel at 10 p.m. EST and DisneyNOW.