The Meaning of Every Star Wars: Visions Episode Explained

hello and welcome back to another episode of generation films my name is american ben and it's time to go deep deep deep into the universe of star wars visions visions is the long anticipated anime that has just been released on disney plus and it has arrived to rave reviews as a fan of anime myself i've been really looking forward to this series and indeed i'm fairly satisfied the artwork is beautiful and varied the writing is good enough and i'm interested in seeing more of course because this is anime we have to give it the standard treatment we would give it if we were covering the show on our anime channel generation ochi do subscribe that is to say we need to excavate its themes and underlying meanings now visions does seem to be intended for a general viewing audience so none of its stories are that complex or layered with social commentary however there are both overarching themes that serve to make the series cohesive and episode specific themes that serve to give each episode a purpose in the larger narrative what i really love about visions is that disney didn't just try to mimic anime no they actually had a slew of japanese anime studios create the episodes so essentially visions is an authentic japanese anime it's terrible english dubbing and all thus we have to look to japanese culture and society in order to pinpoint its messaging first what are those overarching themes i spoke of before well there's power for one multiple characters in the series are seeking power for a variety of reasons and additionally visions raises questions about the responsibility that comes with wielding power the series also sees a few of its characters question fate and attempt to change their stars to use a tired metaphor and finally the entire series sort of explores a wild galaxy where on some level everything is tied to the larger galactic conflict between the republic and the empire and yet at the same time there are plenty of characters who fall in between factions however i think it's best that we take a look at each episode and try to divulge their unique themes in order to piece together the large puzzle that is star wars visions episode one is entitled the duel and above all else it has the coolest artwork in the series mimicking an anime form a kurosawan samurai classic set 20 years after the fall of the empire this episode follows ronan a rogue samurai and sith as he attempts to protect a village from a group of imperial bandits and their powerful leader a former sith inquisitor the duel is fairly straightforward in terms of its themes it highlights just how vulnerable planets and villages like the one we see in this episode are to imperial remnants looking to reclaim their old glory especially given the failure of the republic to police the galaxy of course villages in post-feudal japan would have been similarly vulnerable to intruders after the collapse of the feudal system under the ashikaga shogunate a power vacuum resulted which left the kingdom's various samurai clans to battle over control of the land thus villages would have been left to defend themselves if some samurai warlord and his army showed up in town looking to make trouble and thus thanks to this episode we can draw parallels between the post-imperial galaxy and post-feudal japan episode 2 is entitled tatooine rhapsody and follows the story of a teen pop band that has to venture to tatooine to save their bandmate from the clutches of boba fett who is acting in the name of jabba the hutt this is probably the simplest episode of the bunch but it offers a window into the perspective of an interesting and oft unseen segment of the galactic population in the years leading up to the galactic civil war that is the youth population given all the serious conflicts taking place in the galaxy and especially following the abominable violence of the great jedi purge it's easy to fathom that the teenage generation would reject the politics of their elders and proceeding generation the members of the band in tatooine rhapsody are akin to punk rockers a group that in our galaxy is oft known to be part of the counterculture clearly the band members are connected to political conflicts in various ways to some extent no one not even kids can escape all of the war and warlords present in the galaxy yet just like the hippies rockers and emos of yore they cope with the dark state of affairs through art in this case music a peaceful endeavor rather than take part in the bloodshed tatooine rhapsody is not only about rejecting war but transcending conflict with music the band members do have to get involved in serious business to save their friend but ultimately even job of the hut comes around thanks to the power of youth and music episode three is entitled the twins and takes place just prior to the force awakens its story focuses on twins carrie and am highly intelligent clones commissioned by palpatine for the purpose of creating a new superweapon as powerful as the death star when kari who has unbeknownst to his sister and everyone else on their star destroyer turns to the light side and steals the kyber crystal powering the weapon his sister tracks him down the two engage in an epic fight in zero g in this episode we experience a theme that has recurred throughout star wars lore that of the tragic circumstances that are thrust on beings in the galaxy am and kari never had a choice they're designed as tools for the empire to use despite what their personal thoughts feelings hopes and dreams may be they don't get to carve out their own moral paths in life but the tragedy we alluded to before lies in the fact that oftentimes galactic denizens under imperial control do want more than they've been allotted in life and aren't necessarily fulfilled doing the empire's dirty work there's something fundamentally human about this even dark side creations can develop their own senses of right and wrong and their own dreams even if they're sith creators never intended for them to be so individualistic however i think there's an even more interesting theme inherent to this episode though it's possibly an unintended theme i speak of loyalty the obvious play is to pit am as blinded by the ways of the dark side consumed by it and this is why she attacks her brother in seeking to protect the superweapon and then we might posit kari as a brave hero who risks everything to do the right thing however am actually seems to be driven by a sense of loyalty and piety towards her masters or better yet towards those who raised her and entrusted her with great responsibility we were made to bring back order with this power that transcends even death itself must i remind you of the purpose of your birth kari on the other hand claims his actions are not motivated by some desire to protect the new republic but to prevent his sister from dying an event thanks to a psychic vision he's experienced he pretends will happen if he does not remove the kyber crystal from ams reach so am is bound not only by the dark side of the force but by duty something that can be viewed as a principled stance and kari is bound by his love for his sister over his duty there is a philosophical conflict here that arises over the ordering of duty and family or love on the spectrum of morality and we can infer from that questions about utility when it comes to what is best for the overall empire or even galaxy episode 4 is entitled the village bride and takes place some years after the great jedi purge the story takes place on a remote planet in a village where the native population is peaceful and lives a mostly primitive life seeking a spiritual oneness with nature however conflict has reached this planet as well separatists have stripped the world of its resources and worse yet left some of their battle droids behind when they took off a group of bandit raiders reprograms these droids and use them to terrorize the village fortunately a jedi warrior shows up and helps the villagers fight back against the bandits this episode shows the reach of conflict even on this far removed planet the war machine has had a negative impact on the lives of the peace-loving population there what is a minor oversight to the separatists leaving droids behind has created a living hell for the villagers given the constant state of conflict the galaxy is in the amount of weapons in the galaxy is probably a staggering number and many of these weapons have probably fallen into the wrong hand that is the hands of local criminals who use them to dominate helpless populations this episode also speaks to how difficult it is to be pacifistic in a galaxy consumed by war and without a virtuous or capable central government to protect them the villagers argue over whether to fight back against the bandits or not some of the villagers find it hard to maintain their peace-loving principles when their lives are at stake we'll fight back for our families for the village fighting is useless the land is on our side i think the events of this episode also speak to the need for the jedi or heroes noble warriors who will protect the defenseless from malicious actors the existence of the jedi as in a benevolent armed force allows for peaceful villagers to stay out of conflict and even flourish episode five is entitled the ninth jedi the story is set long after the rise of skywalker in a time when the jedi are mostly lost to the past the plot begins with a mysterious figure named juro the margrave inviting a select few force users from around the galaxy to his temple where he promises to provide them with lightsabers and now long-lost technology in the hopes of forming a new jedi order when nefarious forces show up on the planet looking to get their hands on the lightsabers joro his sabre smith jima jima's daughter kara and an aspiring jedi named ethan must team up to guard the famous swords from falling into dark side possession given how far into the galaxy far far away's future this story takes place i think what it speaks to is the eternal nature of the galaxy's conflict no matter how many sith lords are destroyed no matter which republican senator or imperial emperor rises or falls no matter how long periods of peace last the conflict between dark and light and thereby between jedi and sith is everlasting because the purpose of the conflict is larger than just overcoming evil perhaps it's even the very spark that keeps the galaxy moving forward the jedi will always be needed because there will also always be sith episode 6 is entitled t-o-b-1 or t0b1 and is set shortly after the great jedi purge the story takes place on a deserted desert planet because we obviously don't have enough of those in star wars and centers on a young or presumably young droid named tob1 or toby who lives with his wise and kindly creator professor mitaka and spends his days dreaming of one day becoming a jedi professor mitaka tells toby that in order to reach his goal he must find the kyber crystal hidden on the planet however exasperated from scouring the land to no avail toby enters the basement of his house a place professor mitaka has forbade him from entering to check if that's where the crystal is hiding in the basement toby finds a starship which he accidentally uses to send a signal out to a sith inquisitor in space who descends upon the planet to wipe out any jedi that might be hiding out there professor mitaka who reveals himself to be a jedi dies in the ensuing skirmish and toby is left all alone to battle the inquisitor and protect his home thematically speaking this episode has two important tracks to cover the first is an exploration into the minds of droids most of the droids we see in star wars are barely sentient and express little emotion and rarely a thought that reflects a complex psyche however tob1 has dreams dreams that somehow come from within he aspires to be a jedi in the same way any kid in the galaxy mind this begs the question is he designed to dream or designed to believe he dreams or do the dreams come about inexplicably well it's revealed to us that toby is powered by a kyber crystal presumably the one that professor mitaka tells him he needs to find in order to become a jedi well this brings us to our second thematic track the idea that the force comes from within it isn't found somewhere in the sand or in a basement and by extension the path to becoming a jedi also starts in one's heart that toby is powered by a kyber crystal creates a very intriguing dynamic we're supposed to believe that the force lives organically in all things and to engage with it one must look within themselves where do i find the force then everywhere the force is present in all things however at the same time it's possible that the reason toby can use the force is simply because it was installed within him this forces us to ask very difficult questions about the nature and origin of the soul is it a soul that toby has in the crystal or is he just a collection of mechanical parts i am one with the force the force is with me it's fitting that professor mitaka says this line in the episode this is no trivial reference to cherrydimwee's constant refrain in rogue one both that film and tob1 share a similar idea that anyone can use the force if they just believe hard enough we never really know for sure if him we exercise his force power or not but it's possible he does and the same goes for toby is he truly ever force sensitive or is he just a powerful robot that has a kyber crystal can anyone or anything be force sensitive or only a select few endow with an abundance of midichlorians from birth episode 7 is entitled the elder and is set a few hundred years after the death of darth bane and supposed fall of the sith a time that probably still precedes the clone wars by many centuries the episode follows jedi tajin and his padawan dan who while exploring the outer rim sense disturbance on the force and follow it to a nearby planet there they discover the eponymous elder who has hiked onto a mountaintop the elder turns out to be a surviving sith and he attacks the two jedha this episode is about the impermanence of power and really just impermanence overall what defeated the elder in the end was not me but time he couldn't win against the weakness that comes with age no matter how powerful you become no it will not last forever tajin is getting up there in age and thus is far past his peak he no longer has the strength he used to and cannot defeat the elder as easily as he might have years ago on the other hand he acknowledges that the only reason he's able to defeat the elder is because the sith is well elderly and growing weak time ends all things eventually and all things within the universe must humbly accept their relative impotence and smallness vis-a-vis the entire scope of reality it is the same for all things death follows life and no one retains power forever however while one has power he must choose wisely how to use it and if one were to ask tajin what to do with it he'd probably advise using it to help the helpless in the galaxy there is this idea rifling beneath the surface in this episode that power is a privilege a sort of mysterious privilege and a gift that should be presided over with noble stewardship and then when taken away the law should be accepted with humility as the forces in the universe and their purpose for being assigned to specific individuals are larger than the individuals themselves finally dan is someone who is young and so he has not yet reached his potential power and todgen advises him that he can only do so if he remembers his training and is kind to others you think i'll get stronger quite possibly so long as you remember this do not forget your training and your kindness thus tajin throws out an additional prerequisite for cultivating power one must be kind however the show never explains how kindness supplements power especially given the strength of the elder but perhaps we are to suppose that tajin believes that the greater strength is born of the light side of the force episode 8 is entitled lopin ocho and takes place sometime during the height of the empire the story starts on the planet tau where the tradition-bound native population has welcomed in the empire in exchange for help with industrial advancement we follow lop a slave who has escaped her imperial captors and is taken in by town's leader yasaboro and his daughter ocho seven years later the toll for imperial-backed modernization has come due as the empire has overrun the planet's natural environment and is stripping it of its resources yasuboro wants to rid tau of the empire while his daughter ocho still supports its presence for the sake of the technological advancement it offers as ocho falls farther and farther into the arms of the empire and embraces the dark side lop takes after her adoptive father not a surprise given her childhood as an imperial slave and attempts to fight off her sister and the empire's forces this episode really gets the assignment on one hand it stays consistent with star wars lore by adding another chapter to the complicated story of life in the galaxy during and after the reign of the empire many planets have had to decide over that span whether to acquiesce and join the empire for the benefits and protections it offers or to remain independent and risk suffering in poverty or ending up on the wrong side of the imperial war machine even after the fall of the empire the republic isn't able to competently protect and provide for all planets in their jurisdiction and thus at times imperial remnants step in to provide jobs and essential resources then beyond star wars lore la penocho is also an allegory for a transitional period in japanese history in the mid 19th century japan was lagging behind the technological development of the western powers and was looking to modernize but doing so would mean striking a deal that would open up their trade ports to the west and end their 250-year policy of national seclusion such a deal would also mean rapid industrialization at the cost of losing many traditional aspects of japanese culture such as the ways of the samurai the japanese did ultimately sign a treaty with the united states though somewhat under threat of force but one might imagine that the people of town never had much of an option either lastly episode 9 is entitled akakiri and takes place prior to the jedi sith war and the fall of the sith its story follows a princess named misa who is on a journey to confront her dark side aunt misago who has killed mises father the king and assumed power joining misa in her quest are two guides senshu and kamahachi and an old flame a jedi named tsubaki eventually the group makes it to the royal palace where they battle misago and her guards tsubaki ends up accidentally killing misa amidst the violent hoopla and distraught agrees to become masago's apprentice in order to resurrect misa using the dark side of the force this episode asks questions about free will and fate in the same way that revenge of the sith does just as anakin has premonitions of padme's death so too does tsubaki have visions of misa's death misago claims that it was the king's destiny to die and thus in a way absolves herself of the murder he was always going to die because it was written there is nothing that has not been fated tsubaki however believes that nothing is set in stone as a jedi he believes in free will and that masago is responsible for her actions it's his destiny to die this is divine punishment ridiculous nothing is predestined go on i'll find you later of course to tsubaki's disappointment his vision becomes a reality as misa dies by his hand and so we're left to wonder if indeed this fate was immutable after all padme dies as well also at the hands of her lover anakin who tries in vain to save her and once again we're left to debate the extent of free will that was involved here as in both instances it's the direct actions of the very men who are trying to prevent their premonitions from becoming reality which caused their loved ones to die anakin could have not choked padme tsubaki could have not cut misa with his sword or perhaps both actions were unavoidable that said in tsubaki's case the dark side promise comes to fruition he joins misago and misa is brought back to life however this is not necessarily evidence of a change in fate but rather exposes us to an important idea that while destiny may impose some inevitability on reality there is life after fate tsubaki has visions of mises death but what he cannot foresee is what comes after her resurrection and thus in this way no fate is sealed because time is infinite and there always exists the possibility for anything to happen somewhere down the line of endless time thus there's always reason for hope just as we have good reason to leave this episode with hope that tsubaki will escape misago's clutches and one day find his way back to the arms of misa anyways that's my breakdown of the many philosophies contained in star wars visions it was a really fun series to watch i hope you enjoyed it too do let me know what you think about it down in the comments below as well as what you think about everything i just said if you like the video please do give it a big thumbs up share it all over the place and remember to subscribe to our channel a lot more stuff like this on the way and hit that damn notification bell so you don't miss a damn thing for now my name is american ben and i'll catch you next time generation films peace

Channel: Generation Films

Views: 14,608

Rating: 4.9384613 out of 5

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Id: a9Y6gyc5NFc

Length: 21min 25sec (1285 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 27 2021