Welcome to the second 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. So, insert your kyber crystal and let’s do this!
1. Free of continuity, full of familiarity
“The Twins” is a really fun, really familiar Star Wars story that is both totally removed from any sort of required knowledge of any kind and instantly familiar. Not unlike “The Duel,” a deep love/knowledge of Star Wars will add layers to your enjoyment, but there’s nothing that you need that isn’t shown on screen. Sure, you can hear echoes of Darth Plagueis, Luke and Leia, R2D2, Kylo Ren, and more in the words and actions of these characters, but it honestly has nothing to do with any of them.
In fact, this felt the most like a Legends era story of anything we’ve seen yet.
2. Symbolism aplenty
This episode focuses on twins, ‘born of the Dark Side.’ This has many antecedents in Star Wars, as do twin force-wielders, as do people rejecting their upbringing in search of the ‘right’ thing to do. All throughout this episode, we are given reminders of these two being joined together, from their matching, kyber-infused armor to their ‘Gemini’ class Star Destroyer, which is conjoined at the metaphorical hip. If you can forget the kiss at the end of The Rise of Skywalker, this feels the most like Kylo Ren and Rey’s relationship, where they both think they have the answer for the other, and those ideologies hide what appears to be a genuine connection.
3. An interesting word choice
“The Duel” clearly is set in some sort of alternate universe. “Tatooine Rhapsody” is very much set time within the first trilogy, due to the presence of Boba Fett, Jabba the Hutt, etc. This story doesn’t immediately sound a timeframe alarm, except for the mention of ‘Resistance’ ships. There’s also mention of the Galactic Empire, but that’s unclear if it’s talking about ‘modern’ times or the past.
Of course, none of this matters at all, it’s just interesting to see how these assignments were understood differently by the different producers.
4. A visual feast
This episode, of all three, felt most at home in the overall Star Wars universe, visually. There are a lot of tweaks of common visuals: X-Wings, Star Destroyers, droids. And, again, more than any of the other episodes, this felt like a place for future Star Wars stories to crib from. Nearly everything on screen looked fantastic, with a sleek, Imperial/First Order approach that eventually gives way to more chaos. Specifically, those kyber-powered suits were dope.
5. Spin this off NOW
Lucasfilm appears to be going all in on multiple live-action Star Wars series, but appears to be doing one animated tale at a time, with The Bad Batch being the show of choice right now. That’s a bummer, and not just because The Bad Batch‘s first season was lackluster. But if they can juggle the budget/production of multiple series in multiple stages of production, there’s no reason at all why two animated series can’t live side by side.
And, while there may very well be 6 more worthy options down the line in this season, this seems like the short most rife for continued adventures. Spin this off now, Disney!
