Star Wars: Visions Volume 3

Episode 7

I'm a big fan of a good old “hidden lightsaber reveal” scene—from R2 launching Luke's new lightsaber to him in Return of the Jedi to Kanan walking towards a squad of firing stormtroopers as he builds a lightsaber from the “random junk” hanging from his belt in Rebels. That said, the reveal from The Smuggler is my new favorite. The idea of an old woman hiding a lightsaber inside her robotic arm that pops right out into her hand is exactly the kind of shenanigans I expect out of Star Wars—and Studio Trigger.

In general, however, The Smuggler falls into the category of “fun but predictable.” It's obvious by the time the prologue narration wraps up what this story is about: the missing prince escaping Imperial forces. And once we meet our smuggler main character, everything falls into place. While it may be a different world and a different specific situation, the episode is an echo of A New Hope. We have two passengers trying to get off-world and avoid imperial attention using a smuggler found in a seedy bar. Heck, Chita, the aforementioned smuggler, is also in debt like a certain Han Solo and takes the job to pay it off.

That said, rather than a lazy copy, this episode feels more like a deliberate choice showing that all Luke went through in his early days is hardly unique—that similar events were happening all across the galaxy. And while the broad strokes are more than familiar, the details are different in nearly every example.

The bounty hunter's repeated attempt to capture Chita, Arluu, and Gleenu makes for some great action scenes—both on the ground and in the skies. Moreover, both Arluu and Gleenu are genuinely interesting characters—from Arluu's refusal to hide who he is no matter the circumstances to Gleenu's abandonment of the Jedi Order in the face of betrayal on one hand and a pure friendship on the other.

Unfortunately, the weak point of the episode is its titular character. Chita has no real complexity to her. Her family was killed by the empire, but we get nothing more on her backstory. Moreover, she feels like a bratty kid more than a hardened smuggler, and it seems odd that she even has a ship in the first place, given what we know of her origins as an orphan.

However, in the end, The Smuggler is an enjoyable, little Star Wars adventure. Even with its predictability and less-than-standout main character, there's more than enough here to keep you engaged—even if an old woman stashing a lightsaber in her robotic arm doesn't seem as awesome to you as it does to me.

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Star Wars: Visions Volume 3 is currently streaming on Disney+.