OFFICIAL NEWS General 'Visions' News, Rumours, & Chat Thread

Watched them all definetly The Duel, The Ninth Jedi and Akakiri are my favourites. Loved all 3, with a very deep, introspective canonical stories, great animations and soundtracks. Very Star Wars but at the same time very samurai, western, adventure and misterious vibes.

Liked other 3. The Elder is my next choice, followed by TO-B1 and Lop & Ochó. I really loved Lop & Ochó animation and colours cause reminded me the old Studio Gibli's Sherlock Hound from 1984, which I absolutely loved when I was a kid (still have my album card XD).

The other 3 were, in my opinion, underdeveloped. And as some of the good ones, there are some abrupt ends.

Hope for a season 2 with more studios, animations and stories.

 

Penguin Random House just published an extended excerpt (5 Chapters) from Star Wars Visions: Ronin, the novel inspired by The Duel episode!

https://sites.prh.com/ronin

Love it

 

My friend and I finally finished!

We had a lot to talk about while the episodes were going, from the Astroboy/Pinocchio story of TO-B1 to the Akakiri's Hidden Fortress plot* to how "Lop and Ocho" was a metaphor for Japan's history with globalism and Admiral Perry. We also talked about the episodes we liked, didn't like, and what we wanted for a second season.

Before I get into some of that (make sure to like and subscribe; and it that notification bell), I want to talk about the idea of Visions, my own view of the show leading up to its release, and where I think it could - and maybe should - go.

When Visions was announced, I was less than enthused. Despite wanting an anime style Star Wars show for years - this didn't excite me. In fact, I felt...mad. I was burnt out on Star Wars** and upset that it took an idea and something I had been planning in my head for a little over seven years and turned it into something real. (Yes, the latter reason is completely invalid, but it was real to me.) Star Wars had been plotting and planning things that felt like it was just fanservice in the worst of ways going forward, and openly avoiding what I considered its problems - instead of looking beyond the ST so we can move forward, the franchise has done nearly everything in its power to move backwards. The Mandalorian has stripped the power of away from Bo-Katan in order to give it to a man. The Book of Boba Fett is entirely about a character I couldn't care LESS about. The High Republic is interesting in concept, but it's looking back in time; and The Bad Batch was like the unholy child of it all - moving back in time, focusing on characters I didn't care about, and exploring concepts that were already well-mined in the Star Wars universe.

But then the first season of TBB came out, and despite my criticism, I really enjoyed it. Still, that didn't fix my issues with Visions. But like TBB, once I sat down to watch the show, I found myself truly enjoying it. Now, onto Visions proper.

Visions is an interesting creative endeavor, perfectly in-line with modern-day Lucasfilm practice of letting creators and studios have free-reign over their story. KK embraces the idea of the universe and the property being the ultimate playground. Of course, this approach has major tradeoffs, but it's still interesting to see. Visions fits into this well, allowing each studio to tell its own story with shockingly little restrictions. In a way, it's reflective of Lucasfilm under George, where Canon was a little looser. But it's also reflective of Kathleen, who truly wants the creators to shine through the story.

But if that was ALL Visions was, then I'd be terribly upset, honestly. I think a lot of these episodes have a great foundation for Star Wars shows. Not all of them would work that well to me, of course - "Tatooine Rhapsody" is a good one-shot - and several other episodes probably would fizzle out after a solid season or two. Still, if those two seasons are a tightly-woven narrative, then they could totally work. However, that leaves the issue of Visions Season 2. If Lucasfilm is afraid or unwilling to put a full season's worth of finances and effort into a show, or if the production studio doesn't have the time, does Lucasfilm simply have Season 2 have a sequel episode to these? Or does it let these exist as tantalizing possibilities for viewers and move on to new ideas and studios for Season 2? I personally hope some of these episodes get full seasons and Season 2 is its own thing, but we'll see.

Anyways, onto this morning's episodes.

"The Ninth Jedi" is my new favorite. It had a solid story, fun animations, great action fights, and a very solid twist. I want to see this continued onward going forward.

"TO-B1" brought up questions about droids and the Force that, while I never had a problem with, my friend did. So talking about that was pretty fun. It was Astroboy, and things happened a little too fast for my liking, but it wasn't a bad story.

"The Elder" felt more like an alternate universe take on "what if Qui-Gon taught Anakin" than it did it's own thing, but I still very much enjoyed the episode, and want to see the characters travel around more. Star Wars shows are surprisingly short of stable and caring Master-Padawan relationships: Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan didn't get along very well in Master & Apprentice, and then Qui-Gon died in Episode 1. Obi-Wan and Anakin were vitriolic at worst and snarky at best. Anakin and Ahsoka were more like siblings, and Anakin never had that "safe" aura that Qui-Gon had. Obi-Wan barely mentored Luke, Yoda was a taskmaster, and Luke himself was a self-righteous jerk when we see him teach Rey. So the relationship here was far more refreshing, and I want to see far more of it.

"Lop and Ocho" was a surprise hit. I was a little worried about the "bunny people" angle, but it was handled decent enough, and the animation was GORGEOUS. I definitely want to see it continued in the future, as a sort of galaxy-spanning familial love story.

"Akakiri" was my least favorite, and it wasn't because of the downer ending. I just wasn't a fan of the art-style.

I do plan on re-watching this series in Japanese, as does my friend (and as did our third friend...or he may have just watched it in Japanese from the jump), but we'll see when that happens.

Overall, Visions is a must-watch for Star Wars and Japanese media fans, and probably a must-skip for anyone not in that Venn Diagram.

Now, onto my Big Complaint. According to TV Tropes and outside of "The Duel" (which will be discussed towards the end), many of these episodes take place within the PT-OT timeline. That isn't a problem for things like "Lop and Ocho," "Tatooine Rhapsody," or "TO-B1" but I find it really reductive and limiting to other episodes. Limiting events to that time frame don't give me the feeling that I can move forward past the ST into new uncharted waters. Instead, we're just bloating the same time period as we always do. Still at least the aesthetics are different with these shows...
But imagine if "The Villain Bride" took place after the fall of Luke's temple instead of Order 66 - F could meet up with Rey!** "The Ninth Jedi" happening in the future means that the Jedi fall AGAIN, something that makes the series feel repetitive in all the wrong ways. What if, instead, it happened in the far past, at a time before the Old Republic was as structured as it was now?**

"The Duel" and honestly "The Elder" are a little different. For "The Elder" it reminds me of an alternate take on the movie trilogies I've been noodling with...but that's an idea for another time. "The Duel" gave me bittersweet feelings because the era and whatnot reminded me of my own Star Wars movie draft/Old Republic Era Remake idea. I feel like these two stories could mesh pretty well. Oh well, they'll just have to mesh in my head.


*I think. I haven't actually watched The Hidden Fortress yet. I have the Blu-Ray, but I've been putting it off, partially so I don't have to be reminded of Star Wars in a way. I'm still pretty burnt out honestly (although I consider it more akin to "church hurt" or a bad breakup), so movies related to or that inspired anything in Star Wars that I don't have an external motivation outside of their relationship to Star Wars to watch, I'm hesitant on.

**As my friend and I finished "The Ninth Jedi," I was already looking on a way to have these two shows be one, interconnected show. One taking place with F post-ST as she tries to find survivors and restart the Jedi Order, while the other taking place in the far past with Kara as she and others try to restart the Jedi there, and go on to forge the Republic as we come to know it. It's pretty much the same idea as Rey getting a post-ST show about her trying to restart the Jedi Order while giving Luke flashbacks to doing the same thing. Both have the same problem of "if the narrative is the same in both, won't both have the same results?" It's one I can't fully fix without demeaning either character just yet. Anyways, I presented that idea to my friend, and he asked if I would keep both studios for the show in that case, or just do one style. I said both, but admitted I had no idea how that'd work out aesthetically or logistically.

 

Just wanted to chime in quickly to say that I finally started watching this yesterday (I've seen the first three episodes) and so far it's great. "The Duel" was especially well done; I even went back and watched it a second time.

I'll report in again once I've seen the rest of the episodes.

 

I've seen all the episodes now. Well that was a lot of fun. When this was first announced, I thought it sounded like a genuinely great and creative concept, and I am glad to see my sentiments proven right. "The Duel", "The Ninth Jedi", and "Lop and Ocho" were probably my favourites.

I can see now that setting these outside of the main canon was probably the right call. Still, a part of me wishes that they were proper canon anyway. I found while watching that I kept trying to figure out when each episode took place, as it seems like they still broadly fit into the timeline.

I am confused about when "The Twins" is supposed to occur. They were referring to their assault on the Republic; I'm assuming they mean the New Republic, which made me think that this was somewhere around the ST era or perhaps a bit before. But then the twins are stated to be affiliated with the Empire instead of the First Order. So are they part of the Empire Remnant then; as in, after Palpatine was vanquished in RotJ, but before his army was reborn as the First Order? Does this take place around the era of The Mandalorian then? Again, I know this isn't necessarily 1:1 with the main canon, but there's just enough details here that it seems like it could have taken place somewhere in the proper timeline.

 

Adored most of these they were so much fun to watch.
Like everyone else I thought the DUEL was a real highlight. But I also enjoyed The Twins it was just bonkers fun… ( how where the breathing?)
In fact there where loads of highlights The Ninth Jedi, The Elder, Akakiri we’re all awesome.
It was inly really Tatooine Rhapsody didn’t that I thought was a bit naff.
But over all loved the series hope there are more, maybe even some follow ups to some of these stories and characters

 

"Akakiri" has grown into one of my favourites too. I love the energetic music in the opening scene, and it has imo the most interesting villain of all the episodes. Pretty surprising ending as well.

 

Saw the two first episodes today.

The first one looks so beautiful with a strong influence of Kurosawa ( 7 Samurais and Yojimbo). Almost all black and white with that effect to make it old.

The second one look nice and the story its funny in some parts.

Will try to see two more episodes tomorrow.