Star Wars: Visions Volume 3

Episode 9

Black is a different beast entirely from the rest of this season of Star Wars: Visions. The other episodes have been either plot-driven (where the story is the central focus, like in The Duel: Payback) or character-driven (where character development and self-discovery take the lead, like in The Bird of Paradise). Black, on the other hand, is something more akin to “emotionally-driven” or “visually-driven.” Or to put it another way, the whole episode feels like a fever dream, which is exactly what it turns out to be in the end.

Black is the story of the last moments of a stormtrooper dying on an ice world. What we see are the visions brought into his mind by his final, misfiring neurons. Many of these are violent memories of the battles he has lived through. There are the frantic moments of fighting and killing—the horror of war. However, in the middle of it all is a peaceful memory—one where he spends a day on a grassy hillside next to the beautiful woman he loves. She sings to him, and he whistles along. All this goes to show he is just a normal man underneath the armor. He's traumatized by all he has been a part of and clings to the good moments like a raft in a storm.

However, not all we see are memories. Much of what we see is hallucinations—most notably the ongoing battle between the red and green stormtroopers. Both are him (as are nearly all the other stormtroopers in the episode), though different aspects of him. One is the normal man, while the other is the part of him that kills with maniacal laughter on his lips—the part of him driven insane by the war.

Their fight is a struggle over his soul in his last moments of life. Yet, the two are evenly matched. And as his brain starts to shut down, the two end their fight—not in a flurry of punches but in reaching out to comfort one another. In the end, the stormtrooper accepts himself, both the good and the bad, as he dies on a frozen battlefield.

Of course, all this feels like its main purpose is to be a vehicle for the visuals. To describe them in a single word, “psychedelic” is the best you're likely to get. There are recognizable things like X-Wings, speeder bikes, and Death Stars, but proportions stretch, and lines are sketchy, while colors change on a whim and locations blur into one another. It's all about visually conveying the shifting emotions of the dying stormtrooper—to make the viewer feel the chaos permeating his very being.

All in all, Black is a fantastic ending to this season of Star Wars: Visions. It once again reaffirms the point of the series as a whole—to use the framework of Star Wars to build a myriad of different types of stories. They can be action/adventure, deep looks into a person's soul, or anything in between.

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