Welcome to the fifth 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. This episode, and I feel like this is a theme, is rife for more stories spun off from it, so let’s let our lightsabers choose their color and length and start it up!
1. The most Star Wars thus far
While “The Village Bride” only had a few elements of Star Wars sprinkled throughout, “The Ninth Jedi” was about as Star Wars as you could get. From the familiar language of ‘Sith,’ ‘Jedi,’ and ‘kyber crystals’ to the overall tone of the episode, there was never any doubt what franchise this was a part of.
However, I think it’s important to note that even though this was very much set in a galaxy far, far away, it didn’t lose any of its uniqueness or tone by hewing closer to the ‘standard’ Star Wars story. In fact, the clear pathway to the films allowed the moments of differentiation to really shine, spotlighting why this such a fantastic episode.
2. Lightsaber mishegoss
Much of this episode is focused around lightsabers. We meet a sabersmith who is crafting the first lightsabers in quite some time, and “The Ninth Jedi” uses this to re-write some of the rules around lightsabers. In The Clone Wars, we see younglings finding ‘their’ kyber crystals to build their lightsabers around. Here, the wielder doesn’t pick their crystal, but the lightsaber naturally adjusts to whoever is using it. So, when a Sith holds a lightsaber, it turns red, but if a Jedi grabs it from them, it matches their chosen color and length.
This also means that if a non-Jedi/Sith picks up a lightsaber, it glows clear, waiting for the Force to tell it its color. This is a small, but really fun detail, and we realize early on that Lah Kara is special, despite the clear saber. One of the best parts about this episode is that, despite being full of tropes/clichés, all the emotional beats feel earned. Whether it is seeing the sabersmith captured, the Sith reveal, or Lah Kara’s lightsaber beginning to glow green, all of those moments feel earned.
Also, we see our second ever purple lightsaber!
3. Truly wonderful design
This episode continues the series’ trend of having really inventive designs throughout. In addition to the gorgeous hilts of the various lightsabers, we also get the upside-down temple that acts as a giant lightsaber and, my personal favorite, the tea-sipping pilot droid. We saw the least of this corner of the galaxy than we have in any other episode, but it doesn’t suffer for that. The little we see if extremely interesting.
4. Fuck the rule of 2
This episode features a few different Sith lords, and does away with the ‘rule of 2’ that has been a crutch/hindrance for Star Wars storytellers for two decades now. It’s a rule that is bent, stretched, and nearly broken all the time, but still remains. This tosses it out the window, thankfully.
A room full of Sith is something we’ve never been privy to before, and that’s a damn shame. The sequence of the three (well, technically four, but purple-saber dude is influenced by the evil around him) Jedi fighting off their Sith counterparts was exhilarating and something truly new for Star Wars.
5. Who doesn’t love a good misdirect?
The episode only works because the Sith are convincing in their roles as Jedi, but also because the Margrave is so mysterious. If he was revealed to be a human earlier, it would’ve been less of a red flag. If he had appeared early on, a la Mr. Body in Clue, it would have been easy to guess as well. But the mixture of the ‘why are we all here?’ moments and the planned surprises led to an episode that was not what was expected from the initial voice-over narration, and one that kept getting better and better as its runtime went on.
I keep saying this, but this episode begs for expansion.
