Volume Two of Star Wars: Visions is now in our eyeballs and our eyeballs are better for it. These nine short stories shine like kyber crystals in starlight.
They’re also a clear example of why creative freedom is more rewarding than a fealty to something as prosaic as ‘canon.’ Star Wars is as much about a spirit as a story, its semiotics sturdy enough to provide the framework for all kinds of approaches. Reconciling the light and the dark in each of us, coming to terms with family, aching for something beyond your daily life, these themes exist in every continent and culture.
The other theme that seems starkly relatable across the world is the struggle against occupiers and oppressors. It’s a rare society without any history of being occupied or being an occupier. The United States has a bloody history to account for, both at home and abroad; the UK just crowned a new king, whose family has presided over an Empire that caused boundless harm: I could go on, but there’s no need. Many of us live in countries that have been the Empire for someone else’s culture or nation. Many of the stories in Volume Two depict galaxies beset by dictators ruling by the other, less mystical, kind of force.
Battling against fascism is as central a theme to Star Wars as the struggle between the dark and the light. It is a deeply political story, intrinsically, and that’s abundantly apparent in the stories of Volume 2.
Here’s a few brief thoughts about each animated short.
Sith
Painterly and magnetic, Sith feels like an impossible mix of the organic and the inorganic. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. It seems dreamlike and abstract, and then angular and perfect; white as THX 1138 and then fiery orange like Mustafar. It’s lightsabers bleed like splattered paint, but the surfaces are reflective to the Nth degree.
The story is more workmanlike than its animation, a former Sith apprentice with her droid, found by her former Master. They duel. She can only overcome him by accepting that both sides of her must be engaged in the fight. It’s a sketch of a story, carried by design, but What A Design. It looks like nothing else in Star Wars, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.
Screecher’s Reach
My first thought after watching this was just wow.
By the studio that made Song of the Sea and The Secret of Kells, you’d expect it to be laden with tapestries and muted, water-color tones; affecting characters who are yearning and gentle, adorable and unruly. It’s exactly what I wanted from this studio, but it’s also an absolute heartbreaker.
Screecher’s Reach is inversion of the Luke Skywalker quest, the call to adventure as a journey into darkness, hidden in the promise of a life less ordinary. It’s haunting, turning the advice to “don’t look back” in The Phantom Menace into something far more foreboding.
This might be the high point of the Visions offerings for me. It’s not only distinctive, but takes the hope at the heart of Star Wars and stands it on its head. Bravo Cartoon Saloon.
In The Stars
After Screecher’s Reach gave us a very troubling ending, I was ready for this to do the same. Not sure why I didn’t expect the majority of the stories to end in a more traditional and hopeful way, but In The Stars follows are a path more traveled. This is about the power of togetherness and the willingness of the innocent to fight. “We can beat them!” says Tichina, with the naivety of the little sister. Of course, if no one believes exactly that, then who will stand up?
A unique piece with an environmental and tribal heart, this is filled with terrific action. In The Stars will make anyone with a sister give them a great big hug.
I Am Your Mother
From sisters to mothers!
Oh Aardman, is there anything you can’t do? The studio that brought us Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run brings their very British sensibility to the galaxy far, far away; sheepishness and silliness and charm. It’s just a delight.
One thing I loved in particular about this story was how it comes down on the side of the clunky and messy. The heroes of Star Wars fly junk, the slick and clean is for the swells and the baddies. This is straight up funny and sweet and cheeky, but it also embraces the grace and stubbornness of the lower classes to outshine the privileged.
Extra points for every thing about Dennis Lawson as Wedge Antilles, hero of the Rebellion with a merch table.
Journey to the Dark Head
The most anime-style of the second volume, a piece that feels like it would have fit in well with Volume One. This is a flashy, emo story with anime-teens at its center. Petulance is the order of the day with the characters, who don’t seem to like each other much until they suddenly kinda do.
The quest itself, also, feels like the first chapter of a story that needs more information to come together. Chopping off this head will end the war because of a feeling, but then we realize, no, not really? There’s lots of expedient storytelling here.
So, I enjoyed this one but didn’t feel moved by it. It is, though, without a doubt, freaking cool. It’s the slickest of volume two, has an imposing Sith villain, and the showdown plays out with fantastic acrobatic anime violence. Plus, the scale is massive. This sounds like shade, but it’s not intended as such: this would have been my favorite one when I was younger.
(I could also not help but think that if I were in the military, this title would imply I had to use the latrine in the middle of the night.)
The Spy Dancer
The Spy Dancer, though, gave me the chills. Not only because its filled with swirling, balletic action and instantly drawn characters, but because it’s so incredibly moving.
The story of a woman who is fighting the Empire because they stole her child from her is so incredibly well-communicated here that it reminded me of how often this actually happens. It’s happening to the people of Ukraine. The US’s family separation policy has caused incredible emotional violence in the name of racism and xenophobia. In Star Wars, we barely touch on the fact that Finn has a family out there he’s never known, and that the First Order is so evil it harvests the galaxies children.
Many of the Visions stories are carried by style and inventiveness, and because they have just a little time to tell their story, those stories can be pretty basic. The Spy Dancer is emotionally layered and rich, painful and triumphant all at once. It’s a great example of how to tell a story entirely and efficiently.
The Bandits of Golak
The Bandits of Golak made me truly feel what it would be like in an alternate timeline where Star Wars was birthed in India. The food, sights, fullness of the frames, the styles and apparel, everything feels as if it emerged entirely from a totally non-Western tradition, and still expresses Star Wars with perfection.
The story is a chase, brother trying to get his Force-sensitive sister to safety. I will confess, I’ve never loved the trope of the very person being protected constantly trying to get themselves caught: I find it stressful. Seriously, your brother wants to keep you from dying, do you have to levitate everything near you and run after lollipops, kid?
I will forgive that, though, because of the elder Jedi woman who reveals herself to bring the whirlwind and save the day. Wise Women Jedi will get my vote every time. We need more them, please.
The Pit
This is an intriguing one because it was made, at least in part, by Lucasfilm itself. (Anyone know the story behind this? UPDATE: There’s an inspiring story behind this!)
The Pit centers black characters, which in Star Wars is ultra-welcome, and I did appreciate that the language of The Pit is that of parable. People are brought to an empty space to dig, as they do, the resources they find are used to build a distant city. When they complete that work, they are left in the dark, with only the stars for hope. They plead with the people of the city to help them, but are denied, and in the end, they must raise their collective voices to be saved.
It’s a metaphor, in case you missed that. That’s why it didn’t completely land for me, its world feels a little opaque, and its message isn’t opaque at all. Time moves fluidly and the rules of the world aren’t all that clear. You can’t miss the message (“Follow The Light!") but the rest is dream-logic.
Still, it was inspiring to see Star Wars embodied in a way that’s far too rare.
Aau’s Song
Finally? THIS TEDDY BEAR NEEDS TO SING!
Look, what am I, a monster? I want an Aau doll.
Silent Aau seems to disturb the red and corrupted kyber crystals that her community mines for when she opens her mouth. But when she’s finally allowed to just use her voice, it turns out she can magically purify the crystals, turning them from red to blue.
This is the one that most felt like a children’s book, and honestly, if they sold it as one, everyone would buy it for their kids. It’s just plain sweet, a father and a daughter story, and it’s love of expression and vibrant presentation is a comforting way to close out Volume Two.
I hope that Visions becomes an annual tradition, it’s such a rewarding way to spend time in the Star Wars universe. In a story that is often said to have universal themes, it’s valuable to tease out what that means. Where do we share a connection and where are we experiencing differences? What is the alchemy that blends our differences and similarities into vivid and rich stories? After all, the Force is meant to bind the galaxy together.
I’m already eagerly anticipating Volume Three!