Welcome to the eighth of our nine days of covering Star Wars: Visions! Some notes up front: we’re not going to be talking much about the studios that created these short films, both because of my general ignorance of the various producers involved, and also because I want to attempt to take these stories at as close to face value as possible. Today, we get an episode that is strange for a few reasons, but is one of the most emotional of any of this season’s titles. So, grab the family heirloom and let’s get to it!
1. Imperial Hardships
This episode does a really effective job of showing why the Empire was both so powerful and so effective. We meet Ochō, the daughter of Boss Yasaburō, who appears to be the governor/leader of either an entire planet or a part of a planet. When Ochō is a child, she is brimming with compassion, and encourages her father to take in Lop, an off-world slave as her sister.
But seven years later, Ochō is grown and sees that her father’s opposition to the Empire is futile, and thinks that the only way to help her home survive is to join the Empire. While we are not supposed to sympathize with Ochō, her way of thinking is clearly logical. The resistance she feels from both the Empire to protect her homeland and from her family to reject the Empire are punishing and forces her to make a choice. To Ochō, she can join the Empire without destroying her family, but she doesn’t feel she can reject the Empire and save her home. To her, this is the only option. It is a very understandable position.
2. A surprising connection to the Force
For the first 2/3 of this episode, it appeared that this would be, like “Tatooine Rhapsody,” almost totally free of the influence of Jedi and Sith. This allowed other Star Wars contrivances, like wipe cuts, Lobot/R-Zone eye pieces, and Imperial Star Destroyers to make up the familiar elements. But once the lightsaber shows up, the episode falls more in like with what Visions has been this season, which is extremely Force-dependent.
That said, treating the lightsaber as a family heirloom and not necessarily a Jedi’s most important possession allowed the episode to retain its family, not Force, focus.
That said? Lop doesn’t not resemble Jaxxon. Just sayin’.
3. A brutal ending
The episode doesn’t end in a satisfying way for a one-shot episode. Lop has, temporarily, defeated Ochō, but Ochō gets away after blinding their father in combat. This story is not over, even though the episode very clearly is. The dark tone of the episode is interesting, considering the relatively light visual tone. If this episode looked more like “The Elder” or “The Duel,” it wouldn’t be surprising at all that the tone wasn’t going to be uplifting at the end.
But there is a lot of hope here, even if it feels incomplete. Lop has ascended to leader of her land, and will continue to improve with her lightsaber. She’s not giving up on her sister, and she has her, now blind, father to guide her. It’s not all doom and gloom at all, but it feels a bit like the end of The Empire Strikes Back, only there’s no guarantee we’ll get a conclusion to this story.
