10 Reasons Star Wars Visions Is The Future Of The Franchise
3. It's Returning Star Wars To Its Samurai Roots
George Lucas famously drew inspiration from the films of Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa when creating Star Wars, most notably his film The Hidden Fortress. Star Wars Visions brings the franchise full circle, returning it to its Eastern roots.
Several of the episodes pay direct homage to Kurosawa. The episode The Duel is reminiscent of Kurosawa classic Yojimbo, where an aloof Samurai must make a decision between which two warring factions he will fight for, and the final episode, Akakiri, recalls the characters and plot of the Hidden Fortress, the Kurosawa film that inspired the franchise.
Besides these geeky reference points, Visions also returns the Jedi and Sith to their Samurai roots, depicting warriors that fight for honor, bound by chivalric codes. Visions' depiction of the Sith and Jedi restore the primal nature of the conflict between good and evil that made the original trilogy resonate with generations of moviegoers. Having a good guy to cheer for and a villain to hiss at is part of what made the series such a resounding success in the first place.
The moral ambiguity that crept into the franchise over the course of the Disney era diluted the power of this conflict, but Visions goes a long way into restoring the moral codes that let audiences know who to root for.