Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Star Wars Jedi: SurvivorIt’s been a big couple of weeks for theStar Warsfranchise, with the hugely anticipated video game sequelStar Wars Jedi: Survivorgarnering plenty of acclaim and the equally anticipated second volume of the animated anthology seriesStar Wars: Visionsalready getting “breathtaking” praise. Although Lucasfilm has repeatedly made clear that Star Wars: Visions is not canonical, giving a greater sense of creative freedom to various legendary animation studios,Star Wars Jedi: Survivormay have made an element from the Emmy-nominated series canon.
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‘Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’ Reveals the Secrets of the High Republic
For those who aren’t as well-versed in the video game side of theStar Warsuniverse,Star Wars Jedi: Survivoris the anxiously-awaited sequel to Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts' smash hit action-adventure game,Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. The game continues the many adventures of Cal Kestis (Cameron Monaghan) - a Jedi Knight who survived Order 66. After preventing the Empire and the Inquistorious from obtaining a Holocron with the names and locations of dozens of Force-sensitive children, Cal has spent the last five years taking the fight to the Galactic Empire and defending those affected by their widespread oppression.
After a mission on Coruscant goes horribly wrong, Cal and his faithful droid companion BD-1 crash land on the planet Koboh. There, Cal reunites with his long-time friend and former pilot, Greez Dritus (Daniel Roebuck), but also comes across an entirely new threat to the galaxy. This nefarious new faction is the Bedlam Raiders, who have reprogrammed a legion of Clone Wars-era battle droids and are led by a particularly vicious Gen’Dai warlord called Rayvis (D.C. Douglas). What initially appears to be a gang of troublesome bandits quickly evolves into something much more severe, as their true master is an ancient enemy of the Jedi Order.
Eventually, Cal stumbles upon a derelict medical facility from the High Republic era. The Jedi outcast is shocked to discover that there is a one-armed humanoid preserved in a bacta tank. When Cal touches the tank, he sees a vision of this person’s past life from over a hundred years ago. He learns that the mystery man’s name is Dagan Gera (Cody Fern) — a once noble night of the High Republic who discovered a mysterious planet beyond the Koboh system. Cal hopes the man he saved will help stop the Bedlam Raiders and find a safe haven from the Empire.
Unfortunately for Cal, he didn’t get the full story of the kind of man Dagan is through that vision, as this wasn’t actually a medical facility. It was a prison. Cal learns this when he gives Dagan his lightsaber and when Dagan starts tinkering with his blade’s kyber crystal, the power source goes from a noble yellow into a sinister red. Anyone who knowsStar Warsknows that the franchise’s villains almost exclusively use a red lightsaber, so this clearly indicates that Dagan has fallen to the Dark Side. Cal and Dagan get into a fierce duel, and Dagan holds his own against Cal literally with one arm before Rayvis comes in to save his master.
“The Ninth Jedi” in ‘Star Wars: Visions’ Also Features Color-Changing Kyber Crystals
One of the best episodes inStar Wars: VisionsVolume 1 is undoubtedly “The Ninth Jedi”, which comes from animation studio Production I.G. and is directed byKenji Kamiyama. The storyline, as mentioned earlier, is not canon, and it’s not made explicitly clear where the short is supposed to take place in theStar Warstimeline, if at all. That said, the story takes place in a time when the Jedi Order is no more, and its former members are either long-dead or scattered across the galaxy.
That’s until a mysterious individual, named Margrave Juro (Andrew Kishino),claims to be mining kyber crystalsand rebuilding the coveted lightsabers. This rumor attracts a small group of Jedi, who arrive at Margrave Juro’s base to see if he really can get them their lightsabers back. He can, but the way kyber crystals work in this short is a bit different than they do in the mainlineStar Warsuniverse. In “The Ninth Jedi”, kyber crystals effectively function as mood stones, changing color to coincide with their wielder’s alignment. It gives a more practical reason for why the colors in the franchise are the way they are, with the simple base colors of blue and green representing good while red represents evil. We also see that if a person’s alignment is undecided, the saber’s blade is transparent.
When the group of so-called Jedi get their new lightsabers in their hands, we get what is perhaps the best twist inStar WarssinceThe Empire Strikes Back. Almost all of their blades glow a bright blood-red, revealing they have all secretly been Sith Lords this entire time. The band of villains hoped that Margrave Juro’s message would attract the few remaining Jedi left in the galaxy, so they could dispatch with them once and for all. Unbeknownst to them, Margrave Juro also reveals himself as a Jedi, and deals with the troublesome Dark Side users.
Could Other Storylines from ‘Star Wars: Visions’ Be Incorporated Into Canon?
Some shorts inStar Wars: Visionswould just be impossible to adapt. That’s very much the case for the episode “The Twins” which doesn’t even attempt to stick to canon, depicting an epic anime battle that usesStar Warsas more of a backdrop than anything else. This isn’t a bad thing at all,as it lets creators really do whatever they want with the material. That said, there are other storylines that seem like they would fit into the larger canon almost seamlessly, particularly the darker, samurai-inspired stories like “The Duel” and “The Elder.”
Ultimately we don’t know for sure if Respawn Entertainment was inspired by “The Ninth Jedi” or just happened to have a similar concept in mind forStar Wars Jedi: Survivor. However, if they were, this is already making a case forStar Wars: Visionsas a new point of inspiration for theStar Warsfranchise in the future.
Star Wars: VisionsVolume 2 is now available to stream on Disney+.
