My Thoughts on Visions S2

SPOILERS for Visions Season 2 ahead:

Visions Season 2 premiered on May 4th, and I have to say, it’s spectacular.

I enjoyed Season 1, with a few that I loved, some that were fine, and a few I just didn’t care for. With Season Two, I can confidently say that I loved them all to some extent, with a few favorites, and none that I didn’t like. They are all wildly different on the surface, with different anime styles but all beautiful in their own way; with similar Star Warsy themes running through them like a thread connecting them all. Here are some brief thoughts on each (and please forgive any mispellings or mistakes on names):

Sith. (El Guiri, Spain). The first one is my absolute favorite. Not only is it fantastically gorgeous, but I loved the story and the message that it illustrates. Lola lives with her droid in a place that comes alive with her art. She has nightmares, and tries to erase the darkness from her paintings, to no avail. It wants to be a part of her work. We find out that she is a former Sith, who left that life, and now her former Master has come looking for her. He is terrifying, and Lola must face her fear and overcome it, and to accept the darkness within her. She is no Sith, as she asserts, but must accept both the light and the darkness as equal aspects of herself. This realization helps her defeat the Sith Master. As she leaves the planet, she states that she is the Master now–of her own destiny, free to paint it anyway she wants. I loved this episode so much; it wowed me from the very start. I never knew anime could do these things, that it could look and feel like this. Absolutely amazing, and for me, the best of the bunch.

Screecher’s Reach. (Cartoon Saloon, Ireland). This one has a more cartoony look, but an even darker feel than “Sith.” There is no light anywhere, except perhaps in the hearts of the young ones that accompany Dal to Screecher’s Reach. They all work in a miserable factory, and Dal can’t take it anymore; she seeks escape in a journey to the dark cave. Her friends treat is as a lark, an adventure, but as things get real scary, they want out. But Dal is determined to face the darkness of the cave, often talking to a medallion she has around her neck, asking it for strength and courage. She faces the ghost/banshee/demon Sith or whatever it is in the cave, and kills it with its own red lightsaber. Once out of the cave, Dal speaks to the medallion again and a spaceship lands near them. A strange, creepy being descends and tells Dal that she passed the test, and that she must decide if she’ll come with her. Dal has dreamed of escape, and is excited at first, but is sad she must leave her friends. To them, and to us, the strange being is not benign, and we suspect the being is a Sith. Dal chooses to go with her, but her last look at her friends is one of uncertainty and fear. We fear that Dal has made the wrong choice, that her life going forward will be one of darkness. Probably the darkest of the bunch, and a bit depressing, lol.

In the Stars. (Punkrobot Studios, Chile). This one has two sisters living on a planet that the Empire has taken over. They are the last of their tribe, as the others were killed when they fought against the Imperials. Their mother had led the attack, and she had the Force, but it wasn’t enough. We get this background story through the tribe’s art: glittering, living pictures brought to life by starlight. But the starlight (who they believe are the souls of their lost tribe) is dimming, as the Empire’s factories belch smoke into the sky, obscuring it. The younger sister is fierce in her desire to fight the Empire, while the older sister, impatient with her young, headstrong sibling, feels a responsibility to keep her safe. The young one insists they have “Mum’s power,” or the Force, but the older one scoffs. The Empire siphons off their water supply, so the older sister goes to the factory to steal some water. However, the young one follows and soon gets in trouble. They flee, but when the younger sister is captured and is thrown from a ledge, the older sister reaches and uses the Force to save her. Together, they use their mother’s power to destroy the factory, the smoke clears and they can see the stars again, and the world will heal. The younger sister was pretty annoying at first, but of course she was right.

I Am Your Mother. (Aardman, UK). This one was used with stop-motion technology, and is a sweet story about a young girl learning to appreciate her mother, who, let’s face it, is pretty embarrassing, especially to a teen. Annnie (Ani?) goes to a fancy flying school taught by none other than Wedge Antilles. There’s a family race taking place, but Annie doesn’t tell her mother. She forgets her lunch, though, so her Mom shows up with it just before the race. At one point, she hurts Mom’s feelings by telling her how embarrassing she is, but Mom’s a tough cookie, and when the snotty rich girl and her horrible mother make fun of them, Mom is all in for the racing to show them a thing or two. They win, of course, and it’s a fun, light-hearted story, the lightest of all of them. I do love a particular Easter egg in this episode: when Annie and her friends are walking through the street, you can see Maz Kanata’s arm reach out and take Luke’s lightsaber from the items alongside the street. I never would have caught it myself; I learned about it from an interview with the creator on an episode of This Week in Star Wars, and I looked out for it on rewatch. Also, Annie calls her Mom “Red Leader” and Annie is “Red Two.” I think Wedge was Red Two in ANH.

Journey to the Dark Head. (Studio Mir, South Korea). So this one seemed like your more typical anime, with some over-the-top lightsaber battles and histrionic screaming matches, which isn’t really my favorite type. I didn’t like it at all at first, but on a rewatch decided it wasn’t too bad. Atta is a girl who grew up on a remote planet which has two statues: a buddha-like head that represents the Light, and another the Dark. When it rains, the rocks below can be prophetic, and she sees something with three figures that may take place in the future. When she’s grown, she goes to the Jedi Council and tells them if the Dark head is cut off, then the Sith war that has been raging will end (I’m assuming it will cut off their power or something? Not sure of the significance). They agree and send a young Jedi with her, Tal, who has a lot of anger in him. His Master had been killed by a Sith, and he is restless, seeking vengeance. The Sith had recognized it in him, and told him they’ll meet again and he will join him. The Sith follows them to the planet with the statues, and engages Tal while Atta tries to blow up the Sith head. But a problem occurs: both the heads have red and blue light, representing the Light and the Dark. Clearly, one cannot exist without the other. They will always co-exist. So she can’t blow them up; she uses the explosives to help Tal in his battle with the Sith. Tal kills the Sith after realizing why he was sent there: to face himself, and the anger within himself. Not a bad message, and the banter between the two is charming.

The Spy Dancer. (Studio La Cachette, France). The Spy Dancer is another one of my favorites. It tells of Louie, a dancer in an Empire-controlled world who uses her art for the Rebellion. Her swirling fabrics cascade around her as she twirls down gracefully and elegantly, all the while attaching trackers to the stormtroopers who are in attendance. It kind of reminds me of a Star Wars Moulin Rouge, lol. Years ago, her baby son was taken by an Imperial commander, and she hasn’t seen him since–until this night, when he returns with his “father’s” cloak and staff. Louie recognizes him, and though she fights him, she does not hurt him. The fight goes to the top of the building, where she escapes with the help of her friends, but not before embracing the frustrated, puzzled young man and telling him who he is. A beautiful, poignant story that’s at the top of my list.

The Bandits of Golak. (88 Pictures, India). This is another one high on my list. The story of a big brother helping his Force-sensitive younger sister get to a safe place, this one is visually stunning, and I love the Indian influence. The young sister, Ronni, is, again, annoying, being incredibly stupid in using her powers in public. Aside from this, I loved the Inquisitor, and the old Jedi woman who fights him. Parting the water in the pool, revealing a secret passageway, is super-cool, and I’d like to think it leads to the Path, the sort of underground Jedi railroad we saw in Obi-Wan Kenobi. I just loved the feel and the visuals of this one.

The Pit. (D’Art Shtajio and Lucasfilm Ltd, Japan and the US). This one has no Jedi or Sith, but it has plenty of Imperial stormtroopers. The stormtroopers had gathered a group of prisoners to mine kyber crystals in a large pit (for the Death Star, one would assume). Once the mine is spent, the Empire simply abandons them, leaving them behind in the pit. With the workers despairing, a young man, Crux, climbs to the top of the pit and travels to the nearby city, seeking help to get everyone else out. His pleas fall on deaf ears at first, as the people go about their business. But once he makes clear what’s happening, the Imperials in the city capture him and drag him back to the pit, hurling him down back into it, killing him. But the people of the city heard him, and head out to the edge of the pit. They are drawn to it by the trapped workers shouting “Follow the light!” over and over. The stormtroopers try to drive them away, but they do not succeed, and the city folk send ships down to save the pit workers. It’s a great story about ordinary people coming together to help each other.

Aau’s Song. (Triggerfish, South Africa). I’m not a big fan of the stuffed-animal look, but this one was charming, and links music with the Force. A young girl named Aau lives on the planet Korba, which is filled with kyber crystal, but they had been corrupted by Sith a long time ago. The Jedi often come to the planet to help heal the crystals. Aau’s father works in the mines, but she is not allowed to go, as her voice has an effect on the crystals that they don’t understand. The Jedi who comes to the planet senses that she has a gift and encourages her to use it. So she sneaks down to the mines and sings, and her voice heals the crystals–all of them. A sweet story about using the gifts we possess, even if we don’t always understand them or where they will lead.

I loved the international flavor of these shorts this time around, and I really hope this becomes an annual thing. Visions is a great way for creators to make unique stories with Star Wars flavors, something different in the fandom that we can all look forward to. If I had to choose my top three this year, it would be Sith, The Bandits of Golak, and The Spy Dancer.

Did you enjoy Visions? What were your favorites? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

Five Star Wars Moments That Give Me Joy

My last two list-type posts–about sacrifice in Star Wars and Order 66–-were definitely on the sad side, so I thought I’d write a post listing the moments in Star Wars that give me joy. Star Wars can hurt sometimes (okay, a lot), but let’s face it, we also love it because it’s fun, hopeful, humorous, or just heart-warming in general.

The big victories of the good guys (Triump of Good over Evil) are certainly joyous–the destruction of the two Death Stars and Starkiller Base, the defeat (twice) of Palpatine, etc. are all excellent examples of this. But I wanted to look deeper and point out the smaller, maybe quieter moments and themes that make me stop and think, yeah, this is why I watch. Again, no books or comics, just movies, shows, and animation to simplify it. There’s actually a lot, so I limited myself to five joyous moments or situations in Star Wars (in no particular order):

Not a dry eye in the house with this scene.

The relationship between Din and Grogu (Found family). These two are just a sweet pair. Grogu is initially just a job for Din, but after he delivers the “asset” he changes his mind and goes back to save him. That moment is so satisfying, when he gets on his ship and fingers the little round silver ball the child likes to play with. Nope, he thinks, and goes back with guns blazing. Din knows what it’s like to be an orphan in a dangerous galaxy; he had the Children of the Watch to adopt him and become his found family. He decides he will be the one to look after this child.

Rey/Finn/Poe friendship (Found Family, Friendship). I love that these three are all just good friends; there’s no need for romance between any of them. Sure, there’s plenty of shipping that goes on (Rey and Finn, Rey and Poe, Finn and Poe, etc), and I do have my own opinion on that, but for now they’re all just friends and I like that. All three trilogies had their two men and one woman formula, with a romance thrown in there somewhere. And while I like a good romance, sometimes it’s just not needed.

Yee-haw! Let’s blow this thing and go home.

Anytime Han does something selfless (Being A Better Person). Han worked hard from the very beginning to convince everyone around him (and us) that he was a scoundrel. But we knew better. There’s a heart in there, whether he likes it or not. When he and Chewie come back to help Luke destroy the Death Star, we cheer. We know he’s that kind of guy. When he falls for Leia, when he joins the Rebellion, when he confronts his deeply troubled son to try to connect with him again (and dies for it)–this is why we love him. Even in Solo: A Star Wars Story, when a young Han is desperately trying to build his scoundrelly image, he gives the coaxium to Enfys Nest for her cause. He doesn’t join her, but he gives up a lot of valuable assets, because he knows it’s the right thing to do. We need more scoundrels like him in our lives.

Ezra and a Lothwolf. Kanan also communed with the lothwolf, and those scary spiders!

Anytime Ezra (or any Jedi) communes with an animal through the Force (Compassion). The Jedi are a big part of what I love about Star Wars (the Jedi at their best, that is). Their compassion for all life forms, especially animals, just grabs my heart. We see examples of this with several Jedi, but Ezra in particular seems to have an affinity with them. Lothcats, lothwolves, purgill, an assortment of scary beasts–he connects with them with the Force and can communicate with them at a certain level, getting him and his friends out of some sticky situations. Ezra and other Jedi view the animals as living beings in the galaxy who deserve respect and compassion.

Senator Chuchi, Howser, and Echo. I love how Senator Chuchi is trying to give the clones a voice in the Senate, and just generally help them.

Rex and Echo helping their Clone brothers (Family, Loyalty). The Bad Batch has been focusing on the Clones after Order 66 and what their fate will ultimately be. Clone Force 99 themselves have had to reassess what their purpose is, but clones like Rex, and lately Echo, have felt the call to help their brothers in this new, cruel Empire. Many clones come to realize the wrongness of Order 66 and go AWOL, many are facing decommission in the face of the stormtrooper program, and others are being arrested for “insurrection” and brought to Mt. Tantiss for Dr. Hemlock’s nefarious experiments. When Hunter asks Echo what the point of fighting the Empire is when they can’t win, Echo replies, “It’s not about winning. It’s about helping our brothers.” Well said, Echo.

These are more like situations and themes than single moments, but you get the idea. These are the things that warm my heart, give me joy, and keep me invested in Star Wars. Along with a lot of other things, like awesome lightsaber duels, thrilling space battles, aliens, larger-than-life heroes and villains, and everything else that defines Star Wars.

What do you love about Star Wars? What part of it gives you joy? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

Sacrifice in Star Wars

One of the main themes played out in Star Wars is sacrifice, which is often tied to redemption, but not always. Saw Gerrera pays a lot of lip service to “sacrificing for the greater good,” but we rarely see him put that idea into practice himself. But there are other, far more noble characters who do (Can you tell he’s not my favorite person right now? Lol.) With the recent sacrifices made by characters in both The Mandalorian and The Bad Batch, I thought I’d explore characters in Star Wars who truly sacrificed themselves for the greater good.

For the purposes of this post, “sacrifice” denotes a character making a clear decision to give their lives for a higher purpose, as opposed to those “making the ultimate sacrifice” in war, like the clones, for example, or just regular soldiers dying in war (and I’m sure there are examples of soldiers making a clear decision to die to save their comrades, as well). I’m also not including any from books or comics, just to make it simpler.

Anyway, these are the main characters off the top of my head, though I’m sure there are more:

Obi-Wan Kenobi in A New Hope

The sacrifice: Obi-Wan allows Darth Vader to cut him down in a lightsaber battle on the first Death Star.

Obi-Wan clearly stops fighting, raises his lightsaber and steps back, giving Vader the opening to strike him down. This was mostly to allow Luke and his friends to escape. From a story standpoint, Obi-Wan was the wise mentor that had to be removed from the equation to allow Luke to overcome obstacles on his own. And perhaps Obi-Wan felt it appropriate for his “failure” with Anakin, though he had long accepted and let go of Anakin’s turn to the dark side. Plus, he knew he would become a cool Force ghost, and perhaps help Luke better that way.

Pain scale: 5 out of 10. When I first entered the Star Wars universe, I saw The Empire Strikes Back first, so Obi-Wan was already a ghost. When I went back and watched ANH, the death scene was expected. If I had watched SW in chronological order, with prequels first, and the Clone Wars series, I would have been much more attached to him by the time I got to his death, and the score would be higher. He’s now one of my favorite characters, but his death was there from the very beginning.

Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi

The sacrifice: Vader picks up Palpatine, who was electrocuting Luke at the time, and throws him down an air shaft, thereby saving Luke but destroying the life support system of his helmet and chest plate.

Vader sacrificed himself for the life of his son. After years of being a slave to the dark at the Emperor’s side, he finally had enough. It took his son’s compassion for him to be reached, and Luke nearly died himself to save his father. This is one of the examples that involves redemption with the sacrifice. Is it complete redemption? I don’t know–after all the atrocities that Vader committed, what’s enough? Did he truly repent, or was he just focused on saving his son? Whatever the case, it was a very satisfying scene, and truly moving to see.

Pain scale: 5 out of 10. At the time I saw it, it was very shocking, and sad, but it didn’t pain me like some of the others here. Vader was a monster, after all. He was the villain (although a puppet of Palpatine, too, who was the real big bad) and was defeated, though in a very unexpected way. All I can say is that I hope Anakin has found peace in the Force.

Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi

The sacrifice: Luke Force-projects himself onto Crait from his location on Ach-To in order to distract the First Order so the Resistance can escape. The effort drains all of his Force energy, and he dies, disappearing into the Force.

Say what you will about Luke’s character in The Last Jedi, you gotta admit he made a very Jedi-like sacrifice in the film to save the ragged remnants of the Resistance–and his sister, of course. It was quite a clever ruse, and no one was hurt by his actions, proving it was a very Jedi move. Was there an element of redemption in there? Perhaps a little bit. Luke thought he was doing the right thing by staying out of it all, AND he was very grumpy doing it, lol. But he was wrong, by his own admission as a Force ghost in TROS. This sacrifice made up for it and more.

Pain scale: 7 out of 10. It was hard to see Luke, the main character of the originals, fade into the Force. But he went out on his own terms, and that’s satisfying.

Amilyn Holdo in The Last Jedi

The sacrifice: Holdo pilots an empty Rebel ship into a First Order Super-Star Destroyer by going into hyperspace, thereby destroying it by going through it at light speed.

Some people were frustrated with the character of Holdo, mostly because she wouldn’t tell Poe and the rest of her crew her plan to evacuate the Resistance to the planet Crait. While I do wonder why she couldn’t simply tell them the plan, I do think Poe was out of line to disobey her and mutiny. But that’s a debate for another post. She redeemed herself at least in Poe’s eyes by sacrificing herself so the Resistance could get away. A really cool way to go out, all told, and I bet she didn’t feel a thing, lol.

Pain scale: 4 out of 10. We’d just met Holdo in this film so it wasn’t a great wrench to lose her, though it’s always sad when the good guys die. I usually tear up a little bit when Leia says, “I can’t take anymore,” but that’s Leia’s pain I’m feeling, not mine.

Ben Solo in The Rise of Skywalker

The sacrifice: Ben Force-heals a near-dead Rey, draining what’s left of his own Force energy, and dies.

Ben Solo giving up his Kylo Ren persona and rushing to Exegol to help Rey was a very satisfying part of his character arc. We only got about ten minutes of Ben Solo, which saddens me. The fact that he had no dialogue (except “Ouch,” I guess) is telling–Kylo liked to shoot his mouth off a lot, but Ben’s actions spoke louder than words. Giving all his Force energy to Rey so she could live is a pretty big act of redemption. Almost makes up for him killing his father. Not really, but the scene of his memory of Han Solo goes a long way in helping us forgive him.

Pain scale: 8 out of 10. Even though I swore when I saw The Force Awakens that I’d never forgive him for killing Han, by the time of TROS it really hurt to see him die. Mostly because we had just met Ben Solo, and then he was gone within minutes. I would have liked to get to know him better.

Kanan Jarrus in Rebels

The sacrifice: Kanan uses the Force to keep the flames of an explosion from killing those he loves, and when he uses the Force to push them back out of the way, the flames overtake him.

I was a little late to the party with Rebels, so I already knew through various social media channels that Kanan was going to die. Did that make it any easier? Not by a long shot. In fact, because I knew it was coming, there was a horrible dread clinging to me as Season 4 got nearer. And the fact that he already made a sacrifice, though not willingly–his sight–made it all seem so unfair, even though the blindness endowed him with a deeper wisdom. I do like that he knew his death was coming (thanks to the Lothwolf), so he could prepare for it and say his goodbyes.

Pain scale: 9 out of 10, because I really, really liked this guy. The way the Force gave him back his sight at the last moment so he could see his family was a nice touch, and cranked up the tear factor.

Tech from The Bad Batch

The sacrifice: Hanging over a precipice from a malfunctioning rail car, Tech decides to sever the connection and fall to his death rather than bring the whole squad–his family–with him.

So this is one of the most recent losses, and it is still an open wound for me. It totally blindsided me and I’m still coming to terms with it. I cried about Tech’s death in this post here, if you want more of my grief. It hurts so much more because it didn’t have to happen at all, if it wasn’t for a CERTAIN SOMEONE insisting on blowing up the place with no discernable results at all. There’s a lot of debate about whether Tech is still alive or not, and I’m about 50/50 on it. But until Season 3 comes along and we learn otherwise, I’m in total mourning.

Pain scale: 10 out of 10. Probably because it’s so fresh, so unexpected, and he’s a sweet nerd boy who shouldn’t have died. But he’s a hero in my book.

The Rogue One Crew in Rogue One

The sacrifice: Virtually all the members of the Rogue One crew are killed on Scarif in their attempt to steal the Death Star plans.

So even though I said I didn’t want to include military sacrifices, this one is a bit different, in that the Rogue One crew were, well, rogue. They all made a clear decision to disobey orders, go to Scarif on their own to do what they could, without any expectation of back up. They didn’t necessarily choose to die in the moment–their lives were just taken from them–but they had a pretty good idea that they probably wouldn’t be coming back from this mission, or at least, that chances were low of coming out alive. But they chose to go anyway, and that’s why I’ve included it here.

Pain scale: 8 out of 10. I figured several of them wouldn’t make it out alive, but ALL of them??? I loved them all, but to see even Cassian and Jyn waiting for the blast of the Death Star to consume them….it hurt. Knowing they accomplished their mission and that cursed space station was doomed helped a little bit.

Honorable mentions:

Leia in The Rise of Skywalker

Let’s not forget that Leia, still recovering from her unscheduled space-walk in TLJ, gave up the last of her life force to reach her son across the galaxy. I think it was more a personal need to try to reach her son one last time, rather than sacrifice her life to save anybody, but it turned out she did save Rey from Kylo Ren.

Pain scale: 6 out of 10.

Val from Solo: A Star Wars Story

Okay, so this one isn’t in service for a greater good. They were stealing coaxium from the Empire for Dryden Vos. But I was impressed how Val didn’t hesitate to press that button when her crew was in trouble. Unfortunately, the mission didn’t end well and she died for nothing.

Pain scale: 2 out of 10.

Paz Viszla in The Mandalorian

In the latest installment of The Mandalorian, Paz Viszla, a member of the Children of the Watch, sacrifices himself to try to save his people from Moff Gideon and the Imperials. It takes a whole squad of beskar-plated stormtroopers and three Praetorian Guards to kill him, the guy’s such a big brute. And perhaps there’s a bit of redemption in his sacrifice for the Viszla family, as Pre Viszla (from the Clone Wars, and maybe his father?) was the leader of Death Watch. I appreciate his sacrifice and am saddened, but his disposition didn’t go far to endear him to me, lol.

Pain scale: 3 out of 10.

Did I miss any obvious ones? I couldn’t think of any from the Prequels, what do you think? Whose sacrifice hurt you the most? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!