Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures – Season 1 Episode 22 Recap & Review

Episode 22 Recap

The Tale of Short Spire

In episode 22 of Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures, Nash takes Lys, Kai, and Nubs flying on Batuu. They’re visiting the Jedi temple on the planet, guided by Master Drow and his apprentice, Celesta. It’s a science-focused temple. The young Jedi and the padawan go to Black Spire Outpost to get tools for Master Drow.

A developer named Ozon Nimbee wants to tear down the spires to construct more buildings. As it turns out, Ozon has already started chopping them down. He thinks they’re ugly, but the people agree the spires make the outpost unique. The young Jedi defeat most of Ozon’s droids before the spires are cut down. Master Drow comes to the rescue, but one droid is able to cut the top from the tallest spire. All the Jedi use the force to catch the massive boulder and move it to safety. Ozon leaves, defeated, and the Jedi are welcomed to the community.

The Team Up

OG-LC returns to Tanoo from a previous episode in which he regained the confidence to keep exploring after a crash. While still flying, OG is attacked by the recurring young villain, Taborr, and his allies. OG has to crash land again, and then Taborr and his two pals steal OG’s precious artifacts for the Jedi. Kai, Lys, and Nubs arrive at the crash site to help.

Taborr brags to all the pirates in Yarrum Tower about stealing the artifacts meant for the Jedi. His role models, the comet runners, mock him and steal his stolen goods. Enraged at being treated like little kids, they attack, but the comet runners quickly defeat them. The young Jedi set them free, and they team up to get the artifacts back. They all get along except Taborr.

The comet runners quickly trap them all, which makes Taborr feel hopeless about being just a kid. Lys and Kai tell him kids can still do great things. Using the lack of expectations, they trick a droid into letting Nubs out to go potty and escape. They fight the comet runners and win. Tabor earns the respect of the comet runners and allows the Jedi to keep their artifacts. Kai, Lys, and Nubs wonder what makes Taborr so determined to be a pirate.

The Episode Review

The Tale of Short Spire starts with intrigue and the introduction of two interesting new characters. Master Drow has a great look, and his love for science is a relatively fresh idea. Unfortunately, he’s hardly in the episode. While the story absolutely had the potential to remain interesting, it stayed largely upon the surface, for the kiddies. It’s not a new idea that the best entertainment for kids can also be enjoyed by adults. With Young Jedi Adventures, it just often isn’t quite enough.

Overall, It’s a good thing to teach kids that there’s a lot of ways to destroy nature, and it’s most often done by greedy businessmen. The townspeople felt strangely apathetic towards Ozon’s intentions. It’s Celesta that acts in favor of the spires, let alone speaks for them. Perhaps that’s part of the lesson. People are largely blind to people damaging and profiting from the world around them. It’s up to ‘the good guys’ to speak up and act.

The Team Up was an interesting display of the good that comes from duplicating character types. Revisiting Taborr pays off in a larger way after all these episodes. Tabor becomes another example of feeling dismissed for being a kid manifesting in frustration and violence. That’s a rather profound idea to be subtly weaved into the themes being sprinkled throughout the show. Kai pondering Taborr’s motivations suggests more to come on that front.

As more episodes pass, there’s a chance that the main characters are young savants, more talented than the average younglings. It’s never really stated specifically, and the loose, episodic structure makes it hard to envision anything much bigger going on. This was another example of the lack of balance within Young Jedi Adventures, but its potential is also shining through.