Star Wars: Visions Presents - The Ninth Jedi
From the getko my impression of this was "wow, what a boring choice to expand into" and the actual series hasn't changed my mind. And just as much as with the Visions episodes, I can't wrap my head around the overwhelming praise this is getting. From the onset, I never thought there was any particularly engaging hook with The Ninth Jedi. It's functionally playing extremely safe with the narrative and structural expectations of a Star Wars film but making it anime.
The striking thing about this is how hard it avoids any sort of politics even though it's a story about rebellion. I don't mean liberal vs conservative brain rot but moreso there isn't any coherent factions or underlying political strife that's dabbled with. They don't even give a name to the villainous faction. The main villain is Nawaam and his goals are made clear, but what's the goals of the faction behind him, exactly? Who's the leader and what is his ideals? What are the factions of this universe and their relation to one another? What exactly was the conflict in this galaxy that stirred Nawaam into such an insane path? It's wild to me the plot expects us to sympathize with Nawaam and view his reasoning as at least altruistic when we're not even told why the galaxy was even in such disarray for him to come to these conclusions to begin with.
Literally all the film trilogies made these things clear. Even other Visions episodes made this clear. Vader had his own interests but there is a clear foundation of him being corrupted by the grander empire and what exactly that Empire was. The prequels had a coherent reason why there was a conflict between the Federation and CIS which eventually leads to the former being corrupted. Even the sequels, as poorly as they functioned, AT LEAST gave us a foundation for what the Third Order aimed to accomplish and what they were revering. The most we get here is a faction that apparently wants to conquer the galaxy and most view as an oppressive threat that's too risky to fight against but there's barely a sense of presence by them like what we see in the older films. Even in the first Star Wars we got a sense of how the Stormtroopers were influencing the town of Tatoonie and why people dislike them. The most they can muster here is holographic threats and that is so sterile by comparison. Personally, I would be okay with this if there's other things it does well or there's an interesting idea its playing with, but I don't think it has that either.
The conceit it runs with on its morality is so confusing. Star Wars morality is often black & white but there's many stories that have at least challenged it by showing the flaws of Jedi ideology and making the "dark side" have some level of complexity by tying that to emotional impulses. Here it feels like they don't know whether to deconstruct that or play the black & white morality straight. We're constantly told that the Jedi are archaic and that Kara's morality stems from herself rather than their ideology, but yet it seems very interested in the idea of her wanting to restore that order? That being a jedi is some sort of grand honor she bestows upon anyone who is aligned with her? I guess she wants the jedi to represent her virtues but there's nothing amongst the jedi that contradicts this. They never really confront what the jedi morality is and instead reinforce the idea that Kara's idealism of it is... good and right I guess? Honestly doesn't help that no one in the supporting cast ever contradicts Kara or argues with her on any principle so I dunno if we're to think it's Kara who's right and the Jedi order agrees with everything she says or they're wrong but Kara set them on the right path. Most likely the former, but it feels so awkward for the narrative to pose questions on the jedi's idealism but never wanting to address it. The story is very much about Kara being the ideal jedi but it doesn't have any proper context as to whether or not she really fits that within the context of the story. I mean yeah we got decades of history to get a grip of what jedi morality is but knowing about that I can also tell you that jedi morality was never static. I assume they're commenting on the stoic idealism of the Republic era but it seems to embrace the empathy ideal of original trilogy mimicking Luke's ideal of empathy, but there doesn't seem to be a proper rejection of the moral relativist world view that justified the common perception of them so like...? I dunno, feels like it just wants to be idealistic without confronting how the idealism is perceived or functions. I wouldn't take issue with this if the narrative didn't constantly insinuate that the jedi are archaic or their downfall is part of their hubris.
The "silver" lightsaber bit is poorly justified. The idea is that it represents a sense of pure stoic emotionlessness, but why would anyone want to achieve this? It doesn't seem to actually increase anyone's power nor does it provide clout. Nawaan wants to achieve this out of admiration to Zhima, but why does he think this is what he needs to do to unify the galaxy? Where did he come to these conclusions? Because it certainly wasn't from Zhima. He also seems weirdly okay with fighting Zhima in spite of how much he goes on about his admiration for him. From the perspective of character writing it's also inconsistent. The silver would imply an extreme emotionless pragmatism but how does Kara achieve this while enthusiastically shouting about justice? Nothing about her character really reaches that state aside from maybe the bounty hunter fight. Thematically I take it that it exists to criticize the extremes of jedi stoicism but they don't have a clear vision of what the jedi is to contrast that to. I guess the other angle is to show a rejection of this sort of mindset to embrace Kara's ideal of empathy, but it still runs into the direction of why would anyone want the silver lightsaber to begin with? There's logic to people becoming sith lords because they give in to their emotional impulses. It feels like it's trying to subvert our expectations for Star Wars villains without really subverting it. Nawaan's goals are really no different from a typical sith lord so he isn't really challenging the dichotomy Star Wars is popular for, he's just pulling the generic anime villain shit of pretending his means will lead to his ideal ends despite that being obvious bullshit. So what's being challenged here, exactly? What's the subversion? It implies he's noble because his lightsaber is blue, but nothing about him reads as anything but Sith aside from lacking the emotional outbursts. And god, don't get me started on impossible it is to take his cheeseball acting seriously.
The supporting cast is painfully boring. None of them have individual arcs or contribute to anything within Kara's narrative outside exposition and info dumps. Even if we're just looking at the very first film, that utilizes its supporting cast way better by providing big contrasts between its main heroes. Han could have had his "is he loyal or is he not?" Arc left out entirely and he'd still be compelling as a contrast to Luke. Chewbacca had practically nothing to work with in the original films but his concept is so alien that it gives personality to the cast. Who in this cast is a contrast to Kara? None of them ever have a conflict of personality with her or even have any sort of arc whatsoever. None of them even have a personal arc. Legitimately, what was the point of Homen's character, whom I actually had to look up to even remember his name? They give everyone a surface level backstory but it never plays much into how they serve the plot beyond being plot devices.
So with all that said, I think the most important thing to consider is Kara's arc. The idea is Kara is powerful but has difficulty controlling her emotions. Her angst is the best part of the story and when she loses herself in anger I think provides a good hook. But I think it loses me because unlike Anakin or Luke there's no that really pushes her to either side. She gets the red lightsaber once and concludes immediately that this is a bad thing, there's no real struggle with this because she resolves herself almost immediately after the initial shock. All of her conflict is internal and nothing external really influences this beyond the physical conflict. But if we're comparing her to Anakin, you could argue his moral code was good too but he was made more compelling by how external factors pushed him into extremes. I get in Anakin's case his rationale was unbelievably stupid but I do think that his turn to the dark side being provoked by many anxieties is at least a compelling aspect of his character. Social conditions in Star Wars is often the basis for how characters lean in terms of moral extremes, and it really takes a lot out of it when the protagonist here resolves the emotional baggage far too easily. I feel there's just no pushback to Kara's ideals that make her compelling, pretty much all of the good in the universe agrees with her. Even the cantankerous bounty hunter is won over by her purity in a way that's rather comical. And it also makes her interactions with everyone super boring when no one even so much as quips on her.
The fight scenes are pretty bland. Mostly one-sided stomps and a lot of rote choreography I've seen dozens of times. Animation wise nothing about it is particularly impressive. There's nothing egregiously bad that stands out but the use of lighting is boring, the composition is overly basic, and body expression is boring. Coloring is kinda neat in that it's high contrast with deep shadows but there's no real variety in this and they always choose the blandest possible setpieces as well.
On some level I'm glad this is successful. I want to see more Visions content and this would entice Disney to keep pushing them. I guess they needed to see if the safe option would do well before going into the more risky/experimental stuff. But I'm also struggling to see what people like in this. It has none of the spice that made the more simple Star Wars stuff exciting and also seems very confused on how it wants to convey its view on the settings themes. Worst of all, I was just kinda bored. It felt like I was going through the motions with this shit than actually being thrilled or challenged. Yet I can think of so much Star Wars stuff that achieved both with me!
The striking thing about this is how hard it avoids any sort of politics even though it's a story about rebellion. I don't mean liberal vs conservative brain rot but moreso there isn't any coherent factions or underlying political strife that's dabbled with. They don't even give a name to the villainous faction. The main villain is Nawaam and his goals are made clear, but what's the goals of the faction behind him, exactly? Who's the leader and what is his ideals? What are the factions of this universe and their relation to one another? What exactly was the conflict in this galaxy that stirred Nawaam into such an insane path? It's wild to me the plot expects us to sympathize with Nawaam and view his reasoning as at least altruistic when we're not even told why the galaxy was even in such disarray for him to come to these conclusions to begin with.
Literally all the film trilogies made these things clear. Even other Visions episodes made this clear. Vader had his own interests but there is a clear foundation of him being corrupted by the grander empire and what exactly that Empire was. The prequels had a coherent reason why there was a conflict between the Federation and CIS which eventually leads to the former being corrupted. Even the sequels, as poorly as they functioned, AT LEAST gave us a foundation for what the Third Order aimed to accomplish and what they were revering. The most we get here is a faction that apparently wants to conquer the galaxy and most view as an oppressive threat that's too risky to fight against but there's barely a sense of presence by them like what we see in the older films. Even in the first Star Wars we got a sense of how the Stormtroopers were influencing the town of Tatoonie and why people dislike them. The most they can muster here is holographic threats and that is so sterile by comparison. Personally, I would be okay with this if there's other things it does well or there's an interesting idea its playing with, but I don't think it has that either.
The conceit it runs with on its morality is so confusing. Star Wars morality is often black & white but there's many stories that have at least challenged it by showing the flaws of Jedi ideology and making the "dark side" have some level of complexity by tying that to emotional impulses. Here it feels like they don't know whether to deconstruct that or play the black & white morality straight. We're constantly told that the Jedi are archaic and that Kara's morality stems from herself rather than their ideology, but yet it seems very interested in the idea of her wanting to restore that order? That being a jedi is some sort of grand honor she bestows upon anyone who is aligned with her? I guess she wants the jedi to represent her virtues but there's nothing amongst the jedi that contradicts this. They never really confront what the jedi morality is and instead reinforce the idea that Kara's idealism of it is... good and right I guess? Honestly doesn't help that no one in the supporting cast ever contradicts Kara or argues with her on any principle so I dunno if we're to think it's Kara who's right and the Jedi order agrees with everything she says or they're wrong but Kara set them on the right path. Most likely the former, but it feels so awkward for the narrative to pose questions on the jedi's idealism but never wanting to address it. The story is very much about Kara being the ideal jedi but it doesn't have any proper context as to whether or not she really fits that within the context of the story. I mean yeah we got decades of history to get a grip of what jedi morality is but knowing about that I can also tell you that jedi morality was never static. I assume they're commenting on the stoic idealism of the Republic era but it seems to embrace the empathy ideal of original trilogy mimicking Luke's ideal of empathy, but there doesn't seem to be a proper rejection of the moral relativist world view that justified the common perception of them so like...? I dunno, feels like it just wants to be idealistic without confronting how the idealism is perceived or functions. I wouldn't take issue with this if the narrative didn't constantly insinuate that the jedi are archaic or their downfall is part of their hubris.
The "silver" lightsaber bit is poorly justified. The idea is that it represents a sense of pure stoic emotionlessness, but why would anyone want to achieve this? It doesn't seem to actually increase anyone's power nor does it provide clout. Nawaan wants to achieve this out of admiration to Zhima, but why does he think this is what he needs to do to unify the galaxy? Where did he come to these conclusions? Because it certainly wasn't from Zhima. He also seems weirdly okay with fighting Zhima in spite of how much he goes on about his admiration for him. From the perspective of character writing it's also inconsistent. The silver would imply an extreme emotionless pragmatism but how does Kara achieve this while enthusiastically shouting about justice? Nothing about her character really reaches that state aside from maybe the bounty hunter fight. Thematically I take it that it exists to criticize the extremes of jedi stoicism but they don't have a clear vision of what the jedi is to contrast that to. I guess the other angle is to show a rejection of this sort of mindset to embrace Kara's ideal of empathy, but it still runs into the direction of why would anyone want the silver lightsaber to begin with? There's logic to people becoming sith lords because they give in to their emotional impulses. It feels like it's trying to subvert our expectations for Star Wars villains without really subverting it. Nawaan's goals are really no different from a typical sith lord so he isn't really challenging the dichotomy Star Wars is popular for, he's just pulling the generic anime villain shit of pretending his means will lead to his ideal ends despite that being obvious bullshit. So what's being challenged here, exactly? What's the subversion? It implies he's noble because his lightsaber is blue, but nothing about him reads as anything but Sith aside from lacking the emotional outbursts. And god, don't get me started on impossible it is to take his cheeseball acting seriously.
The supporting cast is painfully boring. None of them have individual arcs or contribute to anything within Kara's narrative outside exposition and info dumps. Even if we're just looking at the very first film, that utilizes its supporting cast way better by providing big contrasts between its main heroes. Han could have had his "is he loyal or is he not?" Arc left out entirely and he'd still be compelling as a contrast to Luke. Chewbacca had practically nothing to work with in the original films but his concept is so alien that it gives personality to the cast. Who in this cast is a contrast to Kara? None of them ever have a conflict of personality with her or even have any sort of arc whatsoever. None of them even have a personal arc. Legitimately, what was the point of Homen's character, whom I actually had to look up to even remember his name? They give everyone a surface level backstory but it never plays much into how they serve the plot beyond being plot devices.
So with all that said, I think the most important thing to consider is Kara's arc. The idea is Kara is powerful but has difficulty controlling her emotions. Her angst is the best part of the story and when she loses herself in anger I think provides a good hook. But I think it loses me because unlike Anakin or Luke there's no that really pushes her to either side. She gets the red lightsaber once and concludes immediately that this is a bad thing, there's no real struggle with this because she resolves herself almost immediately after the initial shock. All of her conflict is internal and nothing external really influences this beyond the physical conflict. But if we're comparing her to Anakin, you could argue his moral code was good too but he was made more compelling by how external factors pushed him into extremes. I get in Anakin's case his rationale was unbelievably stupid but I do think that his turn to the dark side being provoked by many anxieties is at least a compelling aspect of his character. Social conditions in Star Wars is often the basis for how characters lean in terms of moral extremes, and it really takes a lot out of it when the protagonist here resolves the emotional baggage far too easily. I feel there's just no pushback to Kara's ideals that make her compelling, pretty much all of the good in the universe agrees with her. Even the cantankerous bounty hunter is won over by her purity in a way that's rather comical. And it also makes her interactions with everyone super boring when no one even so much as quips on her.
The fight scenes are pretty bland. Mostly one-sided stomps and a lot of rote choreography I've seen dozens of times. Animation wise nothing about it is particularly impressive. There's nothing egregiously bad that stands out but the use of lighting is boring, the composition is overly basic, and body expression is boring. Coloring is kinda neat in that it's high contrast with deep shadows but there's no real variety in this and they always choose the blandest possible setpieces as well.
On some level I'm glad this is successful. I want to see more Visions content and this would entice Disney to keep pushing them. I guess they needed to see if the safe option would do well before going into the more risky/experimental stuff. But I'm also struggling to see what people like in this. It has none of the spice that made the more simple Star Wars stuff exciting and also seems very confused on how it wants to convey its view on the settings themes. Worst of all, I was just kinda bored. It felt like I was going through the motions with this shit than actually being thrilled or challenged. Yet I can think of so much Star Wars stuff that achieved both with me!
Mini Review: From the getko my impression of this was "wow, what a boring choice to expand into" and the actual series hasn't changed my mind. And just as much as with the Visions episodes, I can't wrap my head around the overwhelming praise this is getting. From the onset, I never thought there was any particularly engaging hook with The Ninth Jedi. It's functionally playing extremely safe with the narrative and structural expectations of a Star Wars film...