Star Wars Visions is finally streaming on Disney+, and the newest episode featured a better constructed yellow lightsaber story than the one we saw in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

These animated shorts are coming from a variety of well-known anime studios that are partnering up with Lucasfilm and Disney. These individual stories that are told every episode are non-canonical.

This gives these studios a lot of free reign over what stories they want to present. Not to mention that it allows them to experiment with the style and narrative choices as well.

So let us talk about why a yellow lightsaber moment in Star Wars Visions was more impactful than the one in The Rise of Skywalker.

The Story Of The Village Bride

The fourth episode of the series titled “The Village Bride” from Kinema Citrus features a masked and unnamed Jedi (Asami Seto/Karen Fukuhara) in hiding. She is scared after the death of her master (quite possibly by the hands of the Sith) and is on her own now that Order 66 is given out.

But once she sees that an oppressed village where she has found refuge with a friend of her master is struggling, then this fallen Jedi becomes determined to not hide any longer. When raiders finally show up to take the village chief’s recently wedded granddaughter as collateral, she intervenes on behalf of the village.

She cut off her Padawan braid and took off her mask. After that, she ignited her yellow-bladed lightsaber that resembled a katana. This marked her choice to become a true Jedi once more in front of everyone. As such, this made for a stronger lightsaber debut than Rey’s in the final episode of the Skywalker saga.

Why Does Rey’s Yellow Lightsaber Reveal Doesn’t Work?

Viewers of The Rise of Skywalker saw Rey’s yellow lightsaber at the very end of the movie’s final scene. But the scene itself earned mixed responses from critics and fans alike.

Not to mention that not many were thrilled by her ultimate character resolution since its debut. In contrast to this, Visions told a story in its newest episode where a fallen Padawan rose up after the events of Order 66 and found the strength to walk on the Jedi path again.

As such, when she ignited her yellow lightsaber, the moment is much more pivotal and marks an important moment. The reason why Rey’s yellow lightsaber reveal doesn’t work is because it’s the definition of too little too late.

After all, it gets put in the last scene of The Rise of Skywalker, and then Rey reveals that she built the lightsaber with its yellow blade. It was made from the staff that she used in Jakku when she was a scavenger. This was obviously meant to be a significant moment.

But this happened when she was alone on Tatooine, and the sole witness of this pivotal moment was an elderly woman. This woman doesn’t have any context of what this means and neither does she have much of a connection to Rey and the Jedi path she has chosen either.

Why Is Star Wars Visions Able To Tell A Compelling Yellow Lightsaber Story?

Many have said that Rey’s yellow lightsaber would have been significant had she made it earlier on in the movie, and if we could have seen her actually using it. In contrast to this, the Jedi of “The Village Bride” has a much stronger arc in connection to her own yellow lightsaber.

Those who saw her activating get lightsaber knew about its significance. After all, it identified just who she was as a Jedi. Also, the friend of her master’s understood what this action meant on a personal level.

It was her rebirth as someone who had embraced the light side of the Force. Overall, it’s impressive that “The Village Bride” was able to tell a more compelling and stronger yellow lightsaber story in a time span of 17 minutes compared to the entirety of The Rise of Skywalker.

Star Wars Visions is now streaming on Disney+.

You might also like: Star Wars: Visions Will Explore Rise of Skywalker’s Aftermath