Why do we make our decisions?

The seventh episode of Visions is the second episode from Trigger.

As we’ve come to expect from this series, the animation and art style is superb but, perhaps for the first time, we see something a little unexpected in this story.

It follows a Jedi and his padawan as they arrive on a planet where the Jedi has felt a disturbance in the Force. Speculating on whether it might be Sith they land and investigate, all the while trying to keep the excitable padawan from looking too hard for danger and adventure.

At first you might think this would follow a straightforward arc of finding and overcoming the danger but instead, when the padawan is defeated by a Dark Side practitioner the show pivots into something else.

Instead of simply staying at the surface the characters explore the idea that time and luck are responsible for so many outcomes, far more than we like to credit. They talk about how age might lead us to make different decisions, achieve different goals and even limit us in ways we might not have considered when younger. It’s thoughtful and refreshing to hear this kind of thinking on the screen. It’s not maudlin but it is sombre and this end to the episode elevated it in a way I hadn’t anticipated because until that point it was very much like most of the other episodes.

A final point – the Jedi and the Dark Side user talk about sides and whether there are just two sides and both reflect on the truth that there are very rarely just two sides in conflict. They talk about agendas and motivations that may be personal as much as ideological and set a stage where it’s not simply Jedi vs. Sith but people doing their thing and coming into conflict as a result.

At the very end the Jedi reminds his padawan that, to help others in any meaningful way, one must remember to be kind first, not last.

Rating? 7 reflections out of 10.

Stewart Hotston