YMMV / Star Wars: Visions

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• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Did Ocho renounce Lop as her sister due to her corruption as an Imperial agent? Was it a meaningless statement made from sheer jealousy over losing the family heirloom to her? Or did Ocho never truly see Lop as her sister at all, thinking of her as merely a novelty alien pet? Another possibility is that Ochō was saying that specifically to hurt Lop, as a last desperate gambit to break her sister's spirit and regain the upper hand.
  • In “The Spy Dancer”, did Loi'e have a plan for escape after her attempt to kill the Imperial officer? Or was she expecting to die in a last ditch gambit to assassinate the man who stole her family?
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: One might be forgiven for assuming that the title held by the character Juro from "The Ninth Jedi" — "Margrave" — is a made-up Star Wars word not unlike "Moff". It's actually a real, though fairly obscure military rank from the medieval Holy Roman Empire, awarded to the commanders in charge of defending the Empire's borders, and later morphed into a hereditary noble title.
• Awesome Art: The animation of each episode is downright gorgeous, running the gambit from semirealistic, to stylized realism, to chibi, to classic anime.
  • "The Duel" features a painted, Deliberately Monochrome style of CGI meant to emulate the works of Akira Kurosawa, and it works brilliantly. The only color used is the bright lights of blaster bolts and lightsabers, causing the titular duel to become particularly outstanding.
  • "The Twins" features the heavily stylized and colorful exaggerated art familiar to fans of Studio TRIGGER, which enables some awesome action and the sort of over-the-top climax one would expect from the director of Kill la Kill and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
  • "The Village Bride" makes use of a soft, pastel colour palette, combined with soft shapes and an overall lack of sharp edges, giving the entire short exactly the kind of peaceful, calm atmosphere the planet is supposed to have.
  • "Lop and Ocho" looks closer to what you might expect from an anime film, with beautiful art, lighting and effects held together by seamless compositing and some great animation.
• Awesome Music:
  • The soundtrack of "The Village Bride" has been praised for its gentle softness, going with the peaceful atmosphere of the setting, while rising during the climax into an epic choir.
  • Jay's song in "Tatooine Rhapsody", or at least the instrumental accompaniment, has its fans.
• Broken Base: Whether the English or Japanese dub of the song played in the climactic scene of "Tatooine Rhapsody" is better is light-heartedly debated.
• Common Knowledge: It's popularly believed that Karre and Am were created by the Sith Eternal, and though there may be evidence for it (mainly, they were test-tube babies created by mysterious red-hooded acolytes, their Star Destroyer resembles the classic Imperial-class, but has a hyper cannon powered by a kyber crystal, similar to the Sith Eternal's Star Destroyers, and the short was set to be set after the fall of the First Order), this has never been confirmed.
• Complete Monster:
  • "The Village Bride": Izuma is a crime lord who discovers an army of battle droids on the planet, Keelia, and reprograms them to serve him, using them to subjugate the Meevai, deplete their planet of its resources, and kill any who oppose him. When the village chief and his granddaughter, Haru, offer themselves to be Izuma's hostages, Izuma entertains their offer only to force them and the villagers to watch him attempting to execute Saku, while implying that he was never going to spare the villagers anyway. When the Jedi F rescues Saku, Izuma orders his men and droids to kill everyone in the village while he uses Haru as a Human Shield against F.
  • "In the Stars": The Imperial Officer in charge of the factory on Koten and Tachina's planet is personally responsible for the near extinction of their people. She came to the planet and set up the factory which polluted the planet and stole its clean water. When Koten and Tachina's mother led their people in the rebellion against the Empire, the Officer unleashed the AT-ST to kill the rebels before destroying their village to make sure they were all gone. When the Officer learns the sisters survived and are breaking into her factory, she orders them captured and tries to throw young Tachina to her death, before unleashing the AT-ST on the sisters.
  • "The Pit": The stormtrooper commander is the one responsible for all the horrors that the miners endure. Introduced forcing them to mine for materials for the city, the commander is shown shocking one of the miners for going slower than the rest, in a process that is implied to have gone on for months if not years. When all the material is collected, the commander proceeds to leave them to rot in the pit, and when Crux eventually escapes to ask for help from the residents of said city, he is thrown back into the pit to his death, likely under the commander's orders. When the residents come to investigate the pit, the commander makes a final attempt to intimidate them to turn back.
• Death of the Author:
  • It's commonly speculated that "The Ninth Jedi" takes place in the distant past despite press releases confirming that it is set long after the Skywalker Saga. Generally, it's argued that there's not enough technological advancement shown that cements the story being set in the future and that color-changing lightsabers could be ancient lost technique. This appears to be fueled mainly by dislike of the Sequel Trilogy and what it sets up for the Star Wars universe post-Skywalker Saga, as well as favoring the Old Republic and earlier time periods.
  • In an inversion of "The Ninth Jedi" example above, it's speculated that "The Duel" and Ronin take place in the distant future despite officially taking place in an alternate history, with the idea that Rey's efforts eventually result in a Jedi Order serving the Empire as a replacement of the New Republic and that the Sith eventually somehow return, Sith Eternal or not. Alternatively, some fans of the Legends continuity (such as Joseph Bongiorno) believe that "The Duel" actually takes place just before the events of Star Wars: Legacy, since both stories have a Sith Order fighting against a Jedi aligned with a morally grey Empire.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Badass Normal, Trickster Mentor, and Cold Sniper Valco's popularity equal or surpasses the love his sort-of pupil F gets from many fans.
  • Margrave Juro, due to his Cool Sword, Mini-Mecha armor, planning ability, and powerful Good All Along reveal.
  • The Elder, due to being an absolutely terrifying figure, but one with some impressive skills and an intriguing disdain for normal self-destructive Sith tendencies, combined with respect for his opponents.
  • Kouru's unique Parasol of Pain-styled lightsaber makes her a powerful antagonist who is popular enough that she turns out to be Not Quite Dead in the sequel novel to "The Duel".
  • Geezer's emo hairstyle, musical skills, and refusal to partake in regular Hutt criminal activities make him a highlight of "Tatooine Rhapsody."
• Gateway Series: Visions is slated to be a gateway into anime for Star Wars fans as well as a gateway into Star Wars for anime fans. Though, to be fair, there's already considerable overlap between those two fandoms.
• Genius Bonus:
  • The title of "Margrave" mentioned throughout "The Ninth Jedi" is an actual, obscure military rank from the medieval Holy Roman Empire, given to the commanders responsible for protecting the Empire's borders.
  • One's opinion on "T0-B1" may hinge on how familiar they are with the work of Osamu Tezuka.
  • Planet Tao in the episode "Lop and Ocho" is a reference to "Tao" in East Asian Philosophy, a concept about living in harmony with the natural order of the universe, which heavily inspired the concept of the Force in Star Wars. Morever, the aethestics and atmosphere of planet Tao bring to mind the Meiji Restoration era Japan.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • "The Elder": The titular Elder was once a Sith lord who rejected the ways of his kind when he realized the Sith were destroying themselves with in-fighting. Going into hiding from the Jedi for hundreds of years, the Elder realizes his time is short and so seeks out a final challenge before he dies. He lures a Jedi and his Padawan to an isolated planet, where he wounds the latter to lure his master to him. The Elder then duels the Jedi Tajin, eagerly praising Tajin's power and nearly striking him down. Though he is beaten, the Elder still one-ups Tajin by setting his ship to self-destruct, ensuring the Jedi can find no secrets hidden onboard.
  • "Akakiri": Masago is a Sith Lord who killed her brother, the king to claim his kingdom for herself, while also banishing his daughter Misa. When Misa returns with allies, including a Jedi Knight named Tsubaki, Masago effortlessly defeats them while corrupting Tsubaki, driving him to accidentally kill Misa. Masago later offers to bring Misa Back from the Dead on the condition that Tsubaki becomes her apprentice, which Masago upholds after Tsubaki accepts her deal.
  • "Journey to the Dark Head": Bichan is a powerful Sith who is introduced effortlessly wiping out an entire squad of Jedi, using his natural skill and his hidden whip to kill even the strongest opponent. Sparing young Toul because he senses the potential for the Dark Side in the boy, Bichan tracks Toul down years later to usher him towards the Sith. Bichan attacks Toul and his ally Ara, outdoing Ara in aerial combat and reacting to his ship being damaged by simply leaping out of it and catching a ride on Ara's. Revealing that Toul and Ara's mission to destroy the dark head monument is a futile quest, Bichan nearly succeeds in corrupting or killing Toul.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Given that Star Wars and anime are both highly memetic in their own right, this show was bound for meme success.
  • "The Promare sequel looks great!", "They Lio Fotia'd Luke Skywalker!", etc.^Explanation "The Twins" short is created by Studio TRIGGER, known for their bombastic and highly exaggerated fight scenes, as well as Promare, their most recent film at the time of Visions's release. The titular twins resemble Lio Fotia, one of the movie's leads, with Carre's armor resembling Lio's and Am's physical features also resembling Lio while also looking like an anime version of Luke Skywalker.
  • Lightsaber umbrella.^Explanation The Bandit Leader's weapon is an umbrella with spinning lightsaber spokes (which is a Shout-Out to the umbrella with blade spokes in Shadow (2018)), taken to the extreme from the Inquisitor lightsabers, for better or worse.
  • Shaun the Sheep for Galaxy's Edge!^Explanation With Aardman Animations creating a segment for season 2 of the show, and including a few Wallace & Gromit easter eggs in it, fans have joked that Wallace And Gromit now exists in the Star Wars universe, meaning that it is now possible for Shaun The Sheep to be in Galaxy's Edge without upsetting canon.
• Moe:
  • T0-B1/Tobi is so goddamn adorable.
  • Aau from "Aau's Song" due to having an equally cute and innocent design as T0-B1/Tobi, and because of her beautiful singing voice making her one of the cutest characters in the Star Wars Universe.
• Narm:
  • The performances of the English cast have been generally well-received. One notable outlier appearing to be Joseph Gordon-Levitt's singing at the end of "Tatooine Rhapsody," which is... Well, there's a reason most dubs choose to retain the original Japanese track for songs.
  • Several of the female characters fighting in high heels, a footwear seldom seen in the franchise before, is a bit too ridiculous for some fans to take seriously.
  • One thing that "The Twins" didn't do well that a lot of people agree on is the dialogue. Most of it was unnatural-sounding or consisted of a lot of exposition. People who like the climax still found themselves having to suffer through the cringe-worthy writing.
• Narm Charm: As expected from Studio TRIGGER, the entire climax of "The Twins" is complete, over-the-top, balls-to-the-walls madness, taking the most ridiculous action scenes from Star Wars and injecting it with steroids and anime logic before throwing it down a reactor shaft and harnessing the ensuing explosion. It starts with two siblings standing on the hull of a star destroyer in deep space with no visible breathing gear, and then just escalates from there. And it is so much fun and so well animated that very few people have a problem with it.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Star Wars being inspired by Japanese culture and media dates all the way back to when George Lucas first conceptualized Star Wars. This is very well-known among those who have stuck with the franchise, but a noticeable portion of the audience expressed disappointment in merging Star Wars with Japanese-styled aesthetics and storytelling, leading to jokes that these people didn't do their homework with the series.
  • In Ronin, in ancient times, the Jedi served a feudal empire, presumably because the Republic didn't exist yet. Funnily enough, this has been done before in Star Wars Legends:
    • In backstory of the Star Wars: Legacy comics, Leia and Han's daughter Jaina founded the Imperial Knights, a light-sided splinter sect of the Jedi Order that served as a Praetorian Guard to her husband, Emperor Jagged Fel (a reformer who reunited the Imperial Remnants and made peace with the New Republic). Additionally, at the beginning of the comic, the current incarnation of the Sith, the One Sith, were hidden fugitives, just as the Sith were outlawed and in hiding during Ronin.
    • In the Star Wars Jedi Vs Sith comic and later touched on in the Darth Bane books, towards the end of the New Sith Wars/Jedi-Sith War, the Jedi began to liberate systems from the Sith and created their own feudal "lands" due to the Republic having become weaker due to the war.
  • "The Twins" depicts a light-sided twin duelling their dark-sided counterpart. In Legends, twins Jaina and Jacen Solo fought each other when the latter fell to the dark side in the climax of Legacy of the Force.
  • Rabbit-humanoid aliens have existed in Star Wars Legends since 1977 with the introduction of the character Jaxxon and his species, the Lepi. He was brought into the current continuity in 2018 in the Star Wars Adventures comic series as well, a decent bit of time before Visions was announced. Lop’s design is even stated to be somewhat based on Jaxxon.
  • The spinning "lightsaber umbrella" seen in "The Duel" is fairly similar to the customized spinning lightsaber weapons used in the duel between Phineas and Darth Ferb on board the Death Star in the Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars Affectionate Parody.
  • In "The Elder", Tajin defeats the titular darksider by briefly turning off his lightsaber to bypass their defense, then turning it on again to deal the killing blow. This is detailed in the Legends handbook "The Jedi Path" as a distinct lightsaberstyle called trakata.
• Popular with Furries:
  • From "Lop and Ocho" is the titular Lop, a bunny girl that has gained quite a bit of recognition due to her cute looks.
  • Homen from "The Ninth Jedi" has some popularity for being a beastly alien man. Being the only Sith to pull a Heel–Face Turn and live to join the heroes in the end doesn't hurt, either.
• Shocking Moments:
  • The Ronin synopsis. In the distant past, in the early years of the Jedi Order and when it had its first schisms, they were split between various factions and clans, with one becoming... you guessed it, the Sith. But what makes it surprising is the reversal of the roles — the Jedi serve an empire while the Sith are fugitives, a huge departure from both canon and Legends. Too bad it's an "alternate history"… for now?
  • For "The Ninth Jedi", just about everyone loves the presentation of the story’s big twist, where all but one of the people who answered the call for Jedi are actually Sith.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • To The Animatrix and Halo Legends, as this is another instance of anime shorts based on a popular Western sci-fi franchise.
  • Within the Expanded Universe, it could be seen as one to the Star Wars Tales comics. Like Tales, it plays fast and loose with canon, explores alternate ideas about the Jedi and Sith, and mixes dark stories with silly ones.
• Tainted by the Preview: While Visions has been welcomed by the Star Wars fanbase, the title being confirmed as ambiguously canon has risen worries about if anything from the show would ever be brought up again in canon, especially after The Mandalorian, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Star Wars: The Bad Batch had recently made retcons to connecting material.

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