diff --git a/doc/source/conf.py b/doc/source/conf.py
index 9b7d4d94f685..c691fcbd63ce 100644
--- a/doc/source/conf.py
+++ b/doc/source/conf.py
@@ -33,7 +33,6 @@ extensions = ['sphinx.ext.autodoc',
               'sphinx.ext.graphviz',
               'oslosphinx',
               "ext.support_matrix",
-              'sphinxcontrib.seqdiag',
               'oslo_config.sphinxconfiggen',
               ]
 
diff --git a/doc/source/vmstates.rst b/doc/source/vmstates.rst
index faa3f8a79838..bcb237a3d44c 100644
--- a/doc/source/vmstates.rst
+++ b/doc/source/vmstates.rst
@@ -137,33 +137,41 @@ The following diagram shows the sequence of VM states, task states, and
 power states when a new VM instance is created.
 
 
-.. seqdiag::
+.. this is commented out because in order to turn this into a picture,
+   we need a rather large chain of python dependencies which includes
+   natively compiling against libjpeg. That's a huge cost for 1
+   diagram that's not clearly useful in that way.
 
-    seqdiag {
-      edge_length = 250;
-      span_height = 40;
-      node_width=200;
-      default_note_color = lightblue;
+   I suggest we redo this as SVG or something to get the information
+   without the dependency change.
 
-      // Use note (put note on rightside)
-      api [label="Compute.api"];
-      manager [label="Compute.manager"];
-      api -> manager [label = "create_db_entry_for_new_instance",
-                      note = "VM: Building
-                             Task: Scheduling
-                             Power: No State"];
-      manager -> manager [label="_start_building",
-                          note ="VM: Building
+   .. seqdiag::
+
+       seqdiag {
+         edge_length = 250;
+         span_height = 40;
+         node_width=200;
+         default_note_color = lightblue;
+
+         // Use note (put note on rightside)
+         api [label="Compute.api"];
+         manager [label="Compute.manager"];
+         api -> manager [label = "create_db_entry_for_new_instance",
+                         note = "VM: Building
+                                Task: Scheduling
+                                Power: No State"];
+         manager -> manager [label="_start_building",
+                             note ="VM: Building
+                                   Task: None"];
+         manager -> manager [label="_allocate_network",
+                             note ="VM: Building
+                                   Task: Networking"];
+         manager -> manager [label="_prep_block_device",
+                             note ="VM: Building
+                                   Task: Block_Device_Mapping"];
+         manager -> manager [label="_spawn",
+                             note ="VM: Building
+                                   Task: Spawning"];
+         api <-- manager [note ="VM: Active
                                 Task: None"];
-      manager -> manager [label="_allocate_network",
-                          note ="VM: Building
-                                Task: Networking"];
-      manager -> manager [label="_prep_block_device",
-                          note ="VM: Building
-                                Task: Block_Device_Mapping"];
-      manager -> manager [label="_spawn",
-                          note ="VM: Building
-                                Task: Spawning"];
-      api <-- manager [note ="VM: Active
-                             Task: None"];
-    }
+       }
diff --git a/test-requirements.txt b/test-requirements.txt
index a1a6b02f0141..26074006b1c5 100644
--- a/test-requirements.txt
+++ b/test-requirements.txt
@@ -14,10 +14,6 @@ python-ironicclient>=0.8.0
 python-subunit>=0.0.18
 requests-mock>=0.6.0 # Apache-2.0
 sphinx!=1.2.0,!=1.3b1,<1.3,>=1.1.2
-# NOTE(tonyb): Pillow isn't used directly by nova but it's needed for
-# sphinxcontrib-seqdiag.  Make sure we honnor g-r caps
-Pillow<3.0.0,>=2.4.0 # MIT
-sphinxcontrib-seqdiag
 oslosphinx>=2.5.0 # Apache-2.0
 oslotest>=1.10.0 # Apache-2.0
 os-testr>=0.4.1