Animated Shorts Visions: The Duel - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

This one would make a very, very good double feature with The Mandalorian Chapter 13: "The Jedi."

Love the take on the galaxy as presented here, and I can absolutely see why they felt this one's world is one they felt would be worthy of expansion in novel form.

I've mustered up the interest to read a grand total of three Star Wars novels (barring the young reader stuff I read as a kid): the Revenge of the Sith novelization, The Last Jedi novelization, and Dark Disciple. Given the quality and potential on display here in this short, Ronin is going to be my fourth.

 

Who wouldn't watch a show like this every week religiously? 10

 

Ronin could be SW’s Samurai Jack.

 

I see I was not the only one blown away by this. And there's a novel of this coming out next month. I wonder how a book will capture what this did visually.

 

Ok I freaking love it! The style, the story, the characters. Such a great opening of the series. Cannot wait for the book to explore his character further!

p.s. I highly recommend checking the Extra tab for Visions are there are short making of videos for each episode!

 

Agreed. Based on the description of the tie-in novel, this makes the most sense. In fact I’d view this as a legendary retelling of the time period between the initial Sith rebellion and the stabilizing of the Order via Bane. Legendary as in being heard and imagined by someone who lived through the ST and is thus inserting their own imagery into the story.

 

Yeah I can see that. He definitely seems to be aligned with the light side, just doesn’t follow strict Jedi teachings.

 

Except Ronin has already been confirmed to be a former Sith. I’ll link the info in my edit.

 

My favorite part of this one was the animation stylized with the mostly black and white film grain which may be a Kurosawa mode, like a homage. It's one of those things that feels full circle. The animation also reminds me of the Blade of the Immortal manga. Cool but I'm not sure this animation style would hold up in an 11 or 12 episode anime series.

Another neat interpretation of what force users could be like that steps away from the typical portrayal of a Jedi or even fallen one with the protagonist. It's difficult to say what Ronin is or what his motives are. Maybe he's the Star Wars equiv of Kenshin, lol. This story seems like it could be interpreted as a timeless legend told in the village that takes on modern aspects like First Order Storm Trooper armor as time goes on. 9/10

 

Kenshin! Great comparison. Major Samurai X OVA fan.

There is an episode of Animatrix that looks very much like The Duel in style (see pics), called “A Detective’s Story”:

 

Wow, this one was awesome!

It appears that Ronin is a former Sith, trying to do some good in his life now.

Also, I'm guessing all those red Kyber crystals he has at the end, are the former crystals of Sith that he's slain?

Really enjoyed this one!

 

I'd say he is too scarred to believe he can be redeemed. Whether or not he recognizes it, he may be there already. We haven't seen enough to make that judgment call yet.

 

I liked this. Uncharacteristically I watched the English version, and I thought the voice cast was really good, Lucy Liu as the Sith in particular was fun.

 

Definitely a divisive episode, it looks like.
It's obviously ridiculous and illogical and corny and it comes down to how you process that.

 

No.

No I am not.





Bugger.

 

This is clearly the most popular of all the shorts and I'm still kind of rapping my head around it. By no means did I think it was bad, I very much enjoyed it and on a technical level it was superbly made, but it was no where close to my favorite and the main reason for that is it isn't very Star Wars. It's basically a Samurai movie with Star Wars elements integrated into them very well, unlike Akakiri which kind of just slaps them on. I'm just a much bigger fan of Space Opera than Samurais so this didn't quite click with me as much as some of the other shorts like The Ninth Jedi and The Elder which felt more of the reverse. Star Wars with Japanese elements added in. Even The Twins felt more Star Wars than The Duel and I'd say The Duel was better made than The Twins.

Something I've observed quite a few people saying is that they liked The Duel, but not the rest of the shorts. Just my theory, but I think because it is CGI and seems more gritty(partly do to being black and white) it has less of that anime feel and people who aren't anime fans aren't instantly drawn to the other shorts. Which is funny because this is more unrealistic and uses more anime tropes than say The Elder which was much more grounded and realistic in its approach.

Looking at some people's reactions one thing that kind of concerns me is that people are more interested in who the main character is than what happens next. This is the same thing people did after The Force Awakens. They were asking a million questions and expecting some big answer and when The Last Jedi didn't deliver a lot of people weren't happy. The big questions of the day were who is Rey, what is the First Order, who is Snoke, why did Kylo Ren fall to the dark side, why is Luke in hiding, instead of what happens next. Everyone was looking backwards instead of forward. Now granted The Duel has non of the problems TFA had, nor face any of the challenges that comes with being part of the Sequel Trilogy. Unlike TFA it is a self contained story with no apparent plans for a Sequel. Honestly I hope they never ever answer peoples questions. People would rather imagine the back story than actually see it and since it is it's own thing it can get away with it.

 

For insight watch the behind the scenes short for the Duel. I find it helps to understand the inspiration and creative spark of the creator instead of trying to guess.

 

The chorus reminds me of the album Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares by the Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir. Particularly, the song Pilentze Pee, which was sampled by VAST for the song Touched.

Spoiler