Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Star Wars: Visions Volume 3.

One of the best Lucasfilm projects since the Disney acquisition, Star Wars: Visions is finally back for Season 3 on Disney+. This time, the anthology series has returned to its original premise of telling original stories with animation studios from Japan, and some of the key stories in Season 1 are getting sequel episodes, including one featuring the single best addition to Star Wars lore in recent years.

Who Is the Ronin in ‘Star Wars: Visions’?

Produced by Japanese animation studio Kamikaze Douga, “Payback” is a sequel to “The Duel,” where a character named the Ronin first makes his appearance in an Akira Kurosawa-inspired alternate universe inside Star Wars. The original was already an exhilarating piece of animation, and the sequel expands on the Ronin’s character and perspective on the Jedi, the Sith, and the Force as a whole.

In the traditional sense, a ronin is a samurai who failed to protect their lord and now wanders the country in disgrace, looking for employment. In Visions, however, the Ronin’s character is a little more complex. He is a former Sith who became a Sith hunter, a premise that is extremely enticing in itself and makes him one of the most complex characters in Star Wars, even if he doesn’t speak much. He travels the galaxy searching for remnants of the order, who have scattered after being defeated by the Jedi in a galaxy-wide conflict, and, once he eliminates his targets, he collects their kyber crystals to ensure they won’t be used for evil again.

After his debut in “The Duel,” which sees him defeat the rogue Sith bandit Kouru on the planet Genbara, the Ronin is now pitted against a Jedi who is looking to bring him to justice in “Payback,” all while he is himself hunting for his next target, the Sith warrior Aneé-san. This forces him to reconsider some of his methods and make some rather unstable alliances, and sets him up for a confrontation that reveals a lot about how he views the Force. While that entails its own philosophical debate within Star Wars, it’s also the perfect background for one of the most creative fights in the franchise.

The Ronin’s mission may give the impression that he is a good guy, but he is plainly aware that it’s still based on acts of violence and darkness. One of the most revealing aspects of his character is his weapon, a broken red-bladed lightsaber that can’t be turned off and requires a scabbard. It encapsulates exactly who the Ronin is: someone who might seem like a noble warrior at first, but inevitably reveals his darkness since it’s an inherent part of his being. His lightsaber is a constant reminder that his current actions may atone for some of his past crimes, but he is still a Dark Side creature.

The Ronin’s Universe Draws From Star Wars’ Key Influences

When Star Wars: Visions was first announced back in late 2020, “The Duel” was widely used as one of the key promotional pieces for the series. At that time, the Ronin already felt like an intriguing character based solely on his visuals, but as new information became available and the first season was eventually released, it became clear it was an inevitable hit. With free rein over creative choices, the studio that produces “The Duel” and “Payback,” Kamikaze Douga draws directly from the samurai stories that influenced George Lucas and the original Star Wars back in the 1970s — and then dials it all up to eleven.

Since the stories told in Star Wars: Visions aren’t considered part of the main canon, studios are allowed to use and adapt as many of the franchise’s core concepts as they want within reasonable boundaries, and the Ronin’s universe applies this idea with the most consistency. It’s set in another timeline completely, one where the Empire is ruled by feudal lords, the Jedi are their private samurai, and the Sith rise up in rebellion. It’s a clear analogy for how things work in canon, but adjusted to a reality that feels straight out of a Kurosawa samurai movie. Establishing a direct parallel to the movies is impossible, however, as the episodes mix designs from all eras of Star Wars to purposely reaffirm themselves as something unique.

The Ronin is fittingly named in the sense that he has turned on his order, and, from his design to his methods, his quest is closer to an actual dishonored samurai than to any Force user in the main timeline. Although there may be some of that in the main saga, like Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) as a failed samurai in exile in Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope, that’s not the focus of the movie, making the Ronin something unique. His is the only universe in Star Wars: Visions that has not only a sequel episode in Season 3, but also a sequel novel and tie-in comics, and he’d be perfect for more stories.

‘Star Wars: Visions’ Allows the Ronin To Exist Outside the Boundaries of Canon

The fact that a character like the Ronin even exists in Star Wars feels like a miracle, given the string of controversial creative calls that have been made recently by studio executives for the franchise. In a universe that often feels confined by its own mythology, Star Wars: Visions is liberated by the premise that none of its stories are canon. Influences can be explored individually and to a depth that could never fit the movies, like the samurai stories that make the Ronin’s universe such a fascinating one. He embodies the kind of storytelling that thrives in that freedom: a figure who feels ancient, haunted, and yet very familiar, and that’s only possible because he is untethered from the Skywalker Saga.

Star Wars has always been hard to confine within a specific genre. It mixes mythical archetypes with cultural influences in ways that had never been done before its original release, and that many have tried and failed to replicate, including other Star Wars projects. The Ronin’s stories are proof that this is possible, as long as the cauldron of influences that is Star Wars doesn’t become a weight on creative shoulders and remains simply a source to draw from. Hopefully, the Ronin gets to return for other stories beyond Star Wars: Visions and his novels and comics, and becomes a lesson for other creatives not to become too attached to lore, but to have fun dabbling with its original influences.

All three seasons of Star Wars: Visions are streaming on Disney+.