Lyles Movie Files
star wars the ninth jedi - voices from the past review - zhima
Television

Star Wars Visions: The Ninth Jedi – Voices From the Past review S1 E3

Jeffrey Lyles , , , , , , , , , , ,

Voices From the Past was a key episode that made some significant advancements and one major revelation for The Ninth Jedi saga. Was it the equivalent of the big Darth Vader reveal? No, but there seems to be a one huge bombshell left in the chamber that could qualify. Voices From the Past does provide some serious insight on Zhima’s dubious past resulting in a very satisfying payoff. That’s rare for a season just in its third episode.

Last episode, Gen. Nawaan unleashed a pulse beam from the kyber cannon in the direction of Bibin. Zhima seemed to subtly veer it off course, so the beam struck a nearby moon instead of the planet itself. The cannon can’t handle another shot and starts glitching out again so Bibin is safe…for now.

While it “didn’t go in,” the pulse beam’s impact did send several pieces of the moon crashing onto Bibin. Unsure if this was a warning shot or a failed first strike, Kwana has the Asteroid Diggers prepare to evacuate the Bibin citizens. Their leader, Lady Tafflah, knows of another ship that could be used as transport since there’s not enough ships to handle a full-scale planetwide evacuation.

Juro gets an update from Ethan, who continues to avoid being detected at Nawaan’s base. It feels like his luck can’t last that much longer, but Ethan is savvy enough to stay ahead of Nawaan’s droid army.

star wars the ninth jedi - voices from the past review - kara saves tafflah

The Bibin hanger gets rocked by more debris putting Tafflah in a precarious situation as she’s literally hanging on for her life. Fortunately, Juro, Kwana and Kara arrive in time. While Juro uses the Force to hold the debris back, Kara springs into action to catch Tafflah before she falls.

MORE:

Unfortunately, another tremor rocks and Kara’s rope line snaps. Juro is able to halt the momentum of their fall, but he can’t keep the bay door from closing leaving Kara and Tafflah trapped.

This gives Kara the opportunity to ask Tafflah more about her father. Tafflah was actually around in the good old days and can provide a legit look back at the Zhima’s history in Voices From the Past. She recalls Zhima being one of Jedi Master Reno’s standout Padawans.

Eventually, Zhima and Juro taught other Padawans while Reno veered more on the political side and started navigating peace treaties. He proved so adept and helping to negotiate that the trade routes flourished.

star wars the ninth jedi - voices from the past review - zhima with unique blade

After Juro left Bibin for Hy Izlan, Zhima would hone his combat by dealing with Sith agents hired by star systems to gain trade advantage. While we scoffed at it during The Phantom Menace era, taxation and tariffs certainly play a big part in modern society and Voices From the Past smartly includes that in this Star Wars Vision saga as well.

Tafflah recalls how one day, Zhima attacked Reno to the shock of everyone. Naturally assuming Zhima turned traitor on the Jedi, Tafflah has her guards fire away at him with no success. Reno and Zhima’s duel gets so intense that Zhima’s blade starts shifting color initially turning red before turning to an off purple. That shocks Reno, but not as much as Zhima’s focused strike, which kills him. Understanding the situation, Zhima doesn’t bother trying to explain his actions and just evades the blaster fire.

Kara finally learns the truth just in time for Juro and Kwana to hack the bay doors. Juro is stunned to see Reno’s ship again, which definitely has plenty of space for more evacuees. Kara looks around and finds a secret room where Reno stored leaders who got in the way of the trade circuit. Zhima figured out before anyone else that Reno turned to the Dark Side and was replacing leaders with more amenable successors allowing the trade game to surge.

star wars the ninth jedi - voices from the past review - homen, kwana, juro and kara

With this secret revealed, Kara feels vindicated in believing her father. Tafflah and the Bibian citizens head to a new home while Kwana and the Asteroid Diggers are joining Juro, Homen and Kara in taking the fight to Nawaan at his base in Yaago.

Voices From the Past keeps The Ninth Jedi rolling as the season has been fantastic in maintaining the momentum without any lulls or boring subplots.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Photo Credit: Disney

After checking out Voices From the Past, check out Star Wars: Visions: The Manga Anthology paperback on Amazon. 

As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

lylesmoviefiles