The following article contains spoilers for Star Wars: Visions, Season 2, Episode 1 "Sith," streaming now on Disney+.
In Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda tells Luke that "If once you start down the dark path, forever will it guide your destiny." This statement could be interpreted to mean that there is no hope for redemption if a person turns to the dark side. However, what Yoda really means is that the choice to turn to darkness will always be a formative experience of someone once they turn. Even if they are redeemed, their past choices will still be a part of them and influence their decisions.
In the first episode of Star Wars: Visions' second season, El Guiri's "Sith" illustrates this nuance through Lola, a former Sith apprentice who has turned her back on the dark side. Instead, Lola has become an artist, and she uses her connection with the Force to create rather than destroy. Lola's art and the episode's animation style reveal El Guiri's main theme: people can be redeemed by acknowledging the mistakes of their past and allowing the wisdom gained from those mistakes to guide their future.
In Star Wars: Visions, Lola's Art Shows Her Conflict with the Force
At the beginning of "Sith," Lola has chosen to no longer be a Sith, and she has isolated herself on a barren planet with only her droid E2 for company. The mostly blank canvas of her environment reflects her desire for a new start, free from her past. However, the white of her surroundings feels empty until Lola adds her art, and the blankness also represents her isolation from other people due to her regrets over her past choices.
Lola connects to the Force through her art, and the brilliant colors Lola chooses to create with represent the world of possibilities that are open to her. However, as Yoda's advice explains, Lola cannot fully escape her past. When the audience first sees Lola, she is having a nightmare, and black lines radiate from her bunk. When Lola paints, she cannot keep the darkness out of her art. Lola wants to create a new future for herself and leave the darkness of her time as a Sith apprentice behind her. But by trying to bury her past, Lola is denying central experiences that formed her.
El Guiri's "Sith" Uses Art As Metaphor to Convey Lola's Redemption
Lola's mostly peaceful existence comes to an end when her former Sith master finds her. Like Lola, her former master also has the power to transform landscapes, and with his arrival, he changes the mostly white landscape to shades of orange, red and black. Throughout their interactions, Lola insists that she is a Sith no more, but her former master tries to deny her the right to choose her own destiny. Their duel represents the fight between Lola's possible fates by having both her and her former master change their surroundings, from light to darkness and back again.
When confronting her old Sith master, Lola realizes that the light and the dark have always been and will always be a part of her. She states, "Light and darkness are part of the painting. Part of me." With this new insight, Lola realizes that she can transform the darkness of her past into brilliant color by letting the wisdom she has gained from her past mistakes guide her, in the process transforming that wisdom into new beginnings.
When Lola uses this knowledge to defeat her former master, he still tries to claim ownership over her future by stating that she is now a Sith master. Buoyed by her newfound insight, Lola still has the courage to choose the light and move forward into the destiny of her own creation. She represents this new beginning through her art with a mural depicting her holding up her dual bladed lightsaber, with one blade in red representing her time as a Sith apprentice and one blade in yellow depicting her new future on the light side.
Thus, Lola's story conveys the nuance to Yoda's teaching, both figuratively and literally through Lola's art. Her dark past will continue to guide her destiny. Because she now acknowledges how that past shaped her, she can truly move forward. As she rockets away from the planet, Lola tells E2 that she is looking for somewhere "more hospitable," which means that she has finally healed enough to possibly begin to share her art and her hard-earned wisdom with the rest of the galaxy.
All episodes of Star Wars: Visions Season 2 are streaming now on Disney+.