In the distant future, the Sith have purged the Jedi once more. Kara, the daughter of a lightsaber-smith, makes a delivery of lightsabers to a group of surviving Jedi.
Tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: The Jedi Hunter that Kara tricks into being stranded on a frozen lake has this reaction, seeming more impressed than perturbed.
- An Aesop: Looks may be deceiving.
- And the Adventure Continues: The short ends with the true Jedi defeating the Sith impostors, Kara agreeing to join the group to restore the Jedi Order and bring peace to the Galaxy, and the group going off into space to rescue her father.
- Bait-and-Switch: Margrave Juro is initially painted as incredibly suspicious. He called seven Jedi to a remote part of the galaxy with the promise of providing lightsabers, but he's nowhere to be found and said Jedi suspect the entire thing is a Sith plot. The Sabersmith he hired also gets kidnapped shortly after completing his work. Except it turns out the Margrave is the Big Good, and most of the Jedi he summoned are actually undercover Sith who came to kill him.
- Bloodless Carnage: Zigzagged. When Juro kills Hanbei by bisecting him horizontally, his body divides and collapses in a stylistic way so that we don't see the cauterization wounds or him actually falling into two pieces. Meanwhile, Niizo is shown to have a huge red gash over her chest after Juro strikes her, Hen Jin and Toguro are only shown to drop dead, and Roden is vaporized by the intense heat of the kyber reactor.
- Bullet Catch: Lah Zhima uses tutaminis to deflect one of the Jedi hunters' blaster bolt and save his daughter.
- …But He Sounds Handsome: Inverted. The large droid speaking with the waiting Jedi insults Margrave by calling him an old fool who's gotten tired of being cooped up in his castle but it's later revealed that the droid was actually a Mini-Mecha being piloted by Margrave himself.
- Call-Back: In canon, kyber crystals are colorless before being attuned with their user.
- Chekhov's Gun: Kara's father explains that the way he's tempered the Nine Jedi's lightsabers, their lightsabers will change color and length depending on their holder. For example, Kara's lightsaber starts as colorless, then eventually becomes the standard light-core green. And in the climax, what lightsaber colors do six of the Jedi get? Red.
- Color Motifs: Used to great effect. Lah Zhima has tempered the kybers to show the wielder's connection to the force, changing length and color as appropriate.
- Kara's lightsaber starts out as a translucent grey-green and remains that way for most of the episode, but fully turns the classic lightsaber green when she stands up to the Sith.
- The acolytes disguised as Jedi reveal their true colors when they ignite their lightsabers and they turn out to be red.
- Any doubts that the Margrave's morality are dispelled when he grabs a lightsaber from Hanbei and it turns green as soon as he holds it.
- Finally, Homen, who was actually a Jedi but was corrupted by the darkness of the Sith, has his lightsaber start off red like the other Sith, but it turns purple as he comes to his senses. Purple happens to be a mix of blue and red (and Legends lore established that purple was used by Jedi who flirted with the dark side).
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The classic Star Wars use of Color Motif for Sith and Jedi is used to reveal the true allegiance of the supposed "Jedi" when they ignite their lightsabers (which were tempered to show the user's connection to the force), only to show that they're red.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Roden is Force-pushed into the temple's reactor (which seems to be made of kyber) and is burnt alive by the extreme heat before dissipating.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Margrave Juro looks like a Darth Vader expy, with his intimidating dark mask and a color scheme consisting mostly of black with gold highlights, but is the Big Good of the short.
- The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: One of the "Jedi" who was a Sith in disguise turns out to have been a double agent for Margrave, sent to spy on the Sith, but because he was surrounded by so much Dark Side, he fell and became one of them. Only after being defeated did he remember his origins, turning his lightsaber from red to purple.
- Distant Sequel: The story takes place generations after the end of the Skywalker Saga with The Rise of Skywalker, to the point that some Jedi philosophy and how to build lightsabers has been lost to time. For reference, Ethan says that the art of building lightsabers had been forgotten before he was born, and he assumes the other Jedi (some of whom look old or middle-aged) are masterless.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The six Sith have a genuine camaraderie, and several times during the fight show worry for each other and fury when one is killed.
- Evil All Along: Six (or rather, five) of the nine Jedi turn out to be Sith, having received the Margrave's call and pretended to be Jedi in order to find and kill Jedi survivors.
- Flyaway Shot: Used in the ending as the camera zooms out from the space station most of the episode took place in, before flipping upside down and reveals that the station's shape - along with the blue beam of light emerging from it - makes it resemble an ignited blue lightsaber.
- Foreshadowing:
- The Jedi seem rather impatient about where the Margrave may be, which is not very Jedi-like behavior.
- When Kara tells them her plight, Ethan is the only one who pays attention to her while the others are admiring their lightsabers.
- Good All Along: The Margrave is suspected of being a Sith luring Jedi survivors into a trap… then Kara reveals she trusts him because he's known her since she was a baby. Cue the "Jedi" getting frustrated and revealing themselves to be Sith.
- Hand Wave: Any differences in lightsaber lore from canon and Legends is explained away as lightsaber construction having become lost knowledge over time.
- Happy Ending Override: As a Distant Sequel to the Skywalker Saga and the franchise's use of Vicious Cycle, whatever efforts the Jedi have made to rebuild their order after the films has eventually been undone by the return of the Sith, who have nearly wiped out the Jedi once again and forced them into hiding. Not only that, but some Jedi knowledge — particularly, how to build lightsabers — has been lost to time, and the current government has outlawed the Jedi, including lightsaber construction and kyber crystal mining. Additionally, the Galaxy is in a war-torn state again because of the Jedi-Sith conflict.
- I Thought Everyone Could Do That: Kara has trained under two Jedi (her father and the Margrave) for her entire life, and is skilled in both the Force and the lightsaber. She is still surprised when the Margrave calls her the Ninth Jedi, having apparently assumed these things were just normal.
- Instant Expert: Subverted. Kara believes she isn't strong enough in the Force and lacks training, yet she's able to hold her own against the Sith acolytes and the Jedi hunters. That her father is also Force-sensitive and that they're old friends of a Jedi Master suggests she does have training (she even uses actual Jedi stances, like Soresu), but never knew the significance of it before the short.
- Kill and Replace: The Margrave sent his message to surviving Jedi, but the Sith intercepted them and sent their own in their places.
- Light Is Not Good: In contrast to Juro, the pilgrims wear mostly bright white robes, but it's all part of their deception, and they are actually assassins.
- Meaningful Name: Hy Izlan; "Izlan" means "melody" in Tamazight. In canon, a kyber crystal was said to emit a melodic sound to their prospective holder.
- Mythology Gag:
- Kara's theme sounds very similar to Rey's theme.
- Kara and Zhima live on an isolated ringed world in hiding because Zhima is wanted for his knowledge on weaponizing kyber crystals, and when the villains eventually find them, Zhima sends Kara away to join Andrew Kishino's character and his group of rebels, just like Jyn and Galen at the beginning of Rogue One.
- Both Juro and Kara are references to Leia at the beginning of A New Hope; a royal sends out a call to lost Jedi for help, and a daughter makes a delivery of an important weapon to be used against the enemy on behalf of her father, but is pursued by hunters sent by the Sith.
- Zhima constructs the Nine Jedi's lightsabers to change colors depending on the holder's strength and connection to the Force.
- This dates all the way back to an early draft of Return of the Jedi, where Darth Vader igniting Luke's lightsaber after the latter turns himself in would've revealed that the color of a lightsaber changes depending on the holder, with Luke's lightsaber turning red in Vader's control while normally being green in Luke's. This was retained in the 1983 comic adaptation due to being an
Early Draft Tie-In. - In Knights of the Old Republic, the game had the player take a personality test at the beginning, which would determine the player's fighting style and thus lightsaber color between blue, green, and yellownote , though the player could ignore this and choose their own style and color.
- This dates all the way back to an early draft of Return of the Jedi, where Darth Vader igniting Luke's lightsaber after the latter turns himself in would've revealed that the color of a lightsaber changes depending on the holder, with Luke's lightsaber turning red in Vader's control while normally being green in Luke's. This was retained in the 1983 comic adaptation due to being an
- When Zhima first ignites a lightsaber on-screen, a theme eerily similar to the iconic "Binary Sunset" theme plays.
- Homen's lightsaber turns from red to purple, as he was Good All Along but had been corrupted by the others' connection to the Dark Side. In Legends, Mace Windu and Darth Revan were known for having purple lightsabers because they used the Dark Side but for good.
- Kara's droid has a repulsorlift on its bottom that allows it to hover off of the ground, similar to Hype Fazon's droid from Star Wars Resistance. Hype's droid model was said to be state-of-the-art and implied to be expensive, so this may suggest an aversion of Space Age Stasis as those kinds of droid models could've become more easier and cheaper to produce over time. Additionally, Hype's droid in of itself was taken straight from Joe Johnston's concept for a floating droid model in the Original Trilogy; it was scrapped because it would've been difficult for the SFX team to pull off at the time.
- The idea of organizing a meeting for Jedi survivors only for a deception to be involved to have the Sith appear so that they could be defeated has appeared twice in Legends (the first oneshot of Star Wars: Purge, and in the backstory for Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords), though they failed miserably both times. Third time's a charm, apparently.
- The concept of the Sith returning in greater numbers and scattering the Jedi long after Luke Skywalker’s time is reminiscent of Star Wars: Legacy, though in that case it wasn’t to the point that lightsabers became lost technology and the Jedi were only gone for a few years, not generations.
- Margrave Juro effectively represents a Heroic take on Count Dooku, being a noble and leader of a planet while also being an experienced Jedi Master.
- Rather than a special ability that only some people are born with, the Force here is treated more like innate to all living beings, and force-sensitivity can be developed through training and mediation (Kara, notably, does not think of herself as force-sensitive, but is not surprised when she's offered the position as the ninth jed). This harkens back to George Lucas' original view of the force.
- Noodle Implements: Zhima somehow tempered the kyber crystals to instantaneously change color and length depending on their holder — this includes the color red, when in canon, turning a lightsaber red required a rite to corrupt, or "bleed", the kyber crystal.
- Rewatch Bonus:
- The conversation between the Jedi survivors at the beginning takes on a new light after learning the climatic plot twist; they're all trying to convince Ethan that they're actually "Jedi" by voicing their concerns that the Margrave may be luring them into a trap.
- Niizo remarks that if a Jedi risked their life coming to the meeting, then it must be because they're so bold to believe they could overcome a possible trap or just because they wanted a lightsaber.
- When the droid first reveals the margrave's old lightsaber, Roden picks it up, but passes it to Ethan before he can ignite it, despite showing clear excitement at the prospect of a real lightsaber. This makes more sense when you learn that Roden is a Sith, and igniting the blade would immediately show his true colors.
- Rule of Symbolism: The temple the Margrave organized the meeting in has a beam of light coming out of it at the end. The camera then spins around to reveal that it looks like a lightsaber.
- Say My Name: Roden screams the Margrave's name as he's burned alive.
- Secret Art: The knowledge of how to make lightsabers has been lost to time. As such, the Jedi look to Kara's father, a lightsaber-smith, to build their lightsabers.
- Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Ethan, the seemingly trusting and excited neophyte, was the only one out of the seven "Jedi" who was actually a Jedi and not an undercover Sith.
- Shout-Out: To Spirited Away; Kara's robes resemble the robes Chihiro was forced to wear in the Spirit World.
- Space Age Stasis: Played with.
- The hologram message that the Margrave sent seems to suggest little technological advancements.
- Kara's droid has a repulsorlift. In canon, the closest droid we have to do this is R4-G77 from the Sequel Trilogy era, and even then, R4 was implied to be expensive and high-tech for his time.
- The Jedi hunters might be droids, and if they are, they act very similar to human beings. One of the Jedi also seems to be a droid as well.
- It would seem that the Nine Jedi's lightsabers are an advancement rather than the short's Artistic License on Star Wars lore. Zhima is a Force-sensitive lightsaber maker who has had time to perfect and study the process, and even confirms that the lightsabers we see can change color and length depending on the holder because he tempered their kyber crystals. Additionally, Kara is surprised to see that they work differently from normal lightsabers, which is what prompts Zhima to explain what he did to them.
- Stealth Pun: The Sith are revealed when their lightsabers turn red. They are showing their true colors.
- Wham Shot: The seven Jedi are given their lightsabers from Kara and ignite them... and with the exception of Ethan, all of their blades ignite red.
