Disney Plus’s original series, Star Wars Visions, Season 2 Episode 3, “In the Stars,” explores the story of two sisters, Koten and Tichina. Koten is the older sister, while Tichina is the younger sister. The episode begins with Tichina attempting to use the Force to bring down a tie-fighter until Koten stops her. It should be noted that both sisters are Force-Users. At the beginning of the episode, the two sisters have different beliefs. Koten wants to protect Tichina and ensure survival by hiding from the Galactic Empire. Tichina disagrees and wants to fight the Galactic Empire. When Tichina used the Force to paint Kotan and her deceased mother’s stone, Tichina used the Force to create moving art imageries to present the story of how their family lived happy lives in their world until the off-world Galactic Empire invaded, colonized, and polluted their world. The mass pollution happened when the Galactic Empire built a large factory in the sisters’ world. The moving imageries present the sisters’ mother and their entire village fighting to destroy the Imperial factory and wielding the Force to do so; but, were killed by an AT-ST Walker. Following the failed assault on the Imperial factory, the Galactic Empire unleashed their Tie-bombers and destroyed every villager and village in the world. The mass genocide left the sisters as their world’s last surviving original inhabitants. The other inhabitants are Imperial off-world colonists: Imperial off-world factory workers and the Galactic Empire’s off-world Imperial military. It is said that when one dies, they become a star. Every single original inhabitant of the sisters’ world became a star because of their deaths at the hands of the Galactic Empire.
Soon, Kotan decided to infiltrate the Imperial factory by herself to steal more water. Tichina stubbornly followed Kotan and was caught by the Imperials. This led to Kotan saving Tichina, and both worked together to escape the Imperial factory, only to fight every Imperial in the process. They managed to both fight the Imperials efficiently because of their strong affinity with the Force as Force Users. Nevertheless, the sisters were cornered by the Imperial military. To escape, the sisters used the Force to destroy the water supply tanks and flood and destroy the entire Imperial factory. Despite the Imperial factory destruction, the two sisters perished during the flood, and this is evident when Kotan said, “We will never be alone anymore,” leading to two new stars appearing in the sky, signaling the sisters’ deaths.
Star Wars Celebration LIVE! 2023 – Day 4
Director Gabriel Osorio and those involved with the episode “In the Stars” in PunkRobot Studio did an excellent job creating a Star Wars story that explains the cruelty and evil of colonialism. During the Star Wars Celebration LIVE! 2023 – Day 4 event, Director Osorio explained how he and his team were inspired to create a story by past colonial events in Patagonia, Tierra El Fuego. Tierre El Fuego was called “Land of the Fire,” and the story was that “many of the original inhabitants were killed by colonists,” and the events “happened less than 100 years ago,” making the event a recent historical event. The surprising part was when Director Osorio explained how the events were now well-known in the history of Chileans and Latin America, making it all the more tragic. So many people and cultures were destroyed because of colonialism and the greed to mine land resources with no regard for what happens to the land’s original inhabitants. Director Osorio and his team wanted to reflect the “resistance and the resilience and all the injustice that the original nations of Patagonia had to endure” in their Stars Visions episode, “In the Stars.”
PunkRobot wants to be seen as “a non-traditional animation studio.” To create the animation, Director Osorio and his team used digital 3D, mixed stop-motion techniques, and real-scale models hand-painted to animate the story. All three were later 3D scanned to be later put into 3D software to complete the animation work. These techniques were also used to “reflect the mood and the unique texture of Patagonia’s landscape” to create a story similar to the events that happened in the past, the colonial invasion of Patagonia. Overall, Director Osorio and his PunkRobot team put a lot of effort into reflecting Patagonia’s story of colonial invasion and its effect on Patagonia’s original inhabitants into their Star Wars Visions story “In the Stars.”
The Galactic Empire
The story likely took place during the rise of the Galactic Empire. This was when the Galactic Empire started to spread its influence across the Galaxy via invasion, colonialism, imperialism, oppression, etc. The cruelty of the Galactic Empire had no bounds even though many joined the Empire for selfless reasons, though the selfless reasons bring the selfless down a dark path. The Galactic Empire is ruled by the Sith Order and the Sith Lords: Darth Sidious and Darth Vader. It wasn’t until the Alliance to Restore the Republic, the Rebel Alliance, rose to resist and defeat the Galactic Empire that the Empire started to crumble and fall, starting with the deaths of Darth Sidious and Darth Vader and the Empire’s final defeat in the Battle of Jakku. Imperial leaders were charged and punished for the atrocities they committed on many worlds in the Galaxy, knowingly or unknowingly, on behalf of their Sith masters. However, many other Imperial leaders, like Grand Admiral Sloane, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Captain Pellaeon, and Moff Gideon, resisted capture and worked to restore the Galactic Empire from the shadows in many hidden regions of the Galaxy, such as the Unknown Regions.
Rating: 9/10