Star Wars: Visions volume II

I recently found out that disney released the second season for their Star Wars: Visions anthology series about 8 months ago ( On the may of 2023 ). Im not sure how this one slipped under my radar, considering how much i enjoyed the first season, but it did until a couple days ago when i noticed it while searching for something to watch while eating. I sat down and binged it over the weekend, and it was pretty good! Maybe not as good as the first season overall, but the high points were better than the first season's high points ( ...from what i can remember of the first season. I watched it only once, and that too about 2 years ago, so my memory may be a little fuzzy ). The individual episodes ended up falling pretty neatly into three categories,"Episodes I loved", "Episodes that were okay" and "Episodes that were pretty meh". I rated the shorts based on my enjoyment of them as a standalone short, as well as how well they fit in as "Star Wars" media.

Episodes I loved

Screecher's Reach [ 10/10 ]

10/10 art style, felt like a folk tales story book, but was also reminiscent of the artstyle used in roald dahl's books, a pretty interesting choice for a star wars show, but it worked well! Wasn't super plot-heavy, but had some really tense action packed scenes, along with a pretty interesting ending. Would love an extended series on this one!

Aau's son [ 10/10 ]

Again, 10/10 art style, had a super cool GhiblixTunic mashup vibe going, which was awesome. Sound design was also awesome, very reminiscent of Tunic, with all the melodic synths. Story was alright, not too bad not too great but light and wholesome. Pretty great as a one-off short.

Journey to the Dark Heads [ 9/10 ]

Also a 10/10 on the art style, felt very anime-like, reminded me a lot of The legend of Korra. The story was pretty bland and the pacing felt way too rushed, but it was a nice watch, with really well animated action scenes and a pretty cool villain. Pretty great overall, would also love to have a longer series for this one. It would have gotten 10 points, but I docked a point for the pacing, it was felt too rushed for my tastes :/.

Episodes that were okay

The Spy Dancer [ 8/10 ]

Very cool art style! Had a nice french-noir kinda vibe ( Which makes sense, considering it was made by a french studio ) and had a very nice general vibe! The plot was kinda basic and predictable, nothing to write home about, but it also wasn't bad. I really enjoyed the action scenes, and the animation was really fluid and well done. Overall a nice watch.

In the Stars [ 7/10 ]

Had a very pretty claymation-like artstyle, but that's kind of all it had going for it. The story was kind of wholesome, but it was soured a bit by the ridiculously annoying little kid protagonist. It had some cool visuals and ideas, like the glowy star-powered mushrooms, but the overall story wasn't all that interesting :/ Pretty okay overall, pretty rough around the edges but could be better.

The Sith [ 7/10 ]

This is the first episode of the season, but i actually watched it last due to it's artstyle putting me off at first. It isn't a bad style by any means, but the first few scenes were very bright and overwhelming imo. The overall style was beautiful though, and was utilized very well in the later scenes. The plot was pretty vague and i honestly did not care much for it, but it made up for it via it's action scenes, which were great! Pretty nice watch overall, kinda tied with In the Stars for me.

Episodes that were pretty meh

I Am Your Mother [ 3/10 ]

This one had a really nice claymation style artstyle, but that was really the only thing it had going for it, period. The story was very bland and predictable, and the characters were super bland and sterotypical. It promised very little, and delivered even less.

The Bandits of Golak [ 1/10 ]

This one was actually pretty terrible. It seemed like the studio spent all of their budget trying to design a southasian style star wars setting, and forgot to actually put in the work on the rest of the short. The artstyle felt like a poor-man's version of the clone wars (2008) art style, with all the textures looking smudged and muddy, and the animation felt about as polished as the animation you'd see in a mobile game ad. Overall pretty terrible,

The Pit [ 1/10 ]

This one was also really bad, with the only reason for it's being listed after The Bandits of Golak is because i can't have two last place entries, So i sorted them by alphabetical order. The entire thing lacked polish, the artstyle was weak, the story was bland and rushed, and the payoff was undeserved. It might have gotten an extra point, but i docked that one due to the story also being very unrealistic ( A stormtrooper actually managed to shoot their target 🤢 ).

All in all, as i said above, this seasons lows were overall lower than what i can remember of season one, but the highs were definitely higher than those of season one! This season also seemed to focus a lot on the non-jedi aspects of Star Wars, with episodes like The Pit and I am Your Mother not even having anything much to do with the force, whereas the previous season was basically almost entirely about jedis and the force. Still, despite all the bad episodes this season, it was pretty enjoyable to watch, and i can't wait for the next one :D