Do the resistors affect every component of the circuit?
With components in series the same current flows through each.







simulate this circuit &ndash; Schematic created using CircuitLab

Figure 1. Alternate series connection of resistor and LED. The result is the same.

In both circuits of Figure 1 we can see that the voltage drop across the LED is 2 V and that 7 V is dropped across the resistor. We can calculate the current from Ohm's Law, \$ I = \frac {V}{R} = \frac {7}{1k} = 7 \ \text {mA} \$. The individual components have no way of knowing their order. The current flow is determined by the total resistance of each leg of the circuit and in this example they're both the same.


  The electrons will reach the LED before they reach the resistor so how can the resistor affect components behind it?


Think of "current" rather than electron flow. The current flows in all parts of the circuit simultaneously in much the same way as the links of a bicycle chain all move simultaneously.