Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures: Season 1: Story 28: Creature Comforts
What is it ? : Lys is travelling with SF-R3 and CAM to document new creatures on a forest world, she encounters a small cute lizard which comes under attack by a large bird, she defends it, naming the creature Diggles as it likes digging.
While SF-R3 wants to document the creature and get it back home, Lys thinks it will be safer with them and she wants to take it back to the Jedi Academy on Tenoo. They then come under attack by a massive lizard, and flee back to their ship, taking cover inside it.
Lys notices that Diggles is snuggling up against the ships canopy, and she realises that the massive creature is it's mother, so she returns it to her family, as a number of other small lizards emerge. She is sad she can't take it home, but SF-R3 tells her that he is proud of her, and when she shows images of the creatures that SF-R3 has named Mardorsh to Kai and Nubs, she tells them that not only did she help Diggles get back to her family, but he helped her.
High Points : It's a Lys episode, and it's nice to see each character get some focus on them. But sadly this doesn't help out Lys particularly well, as her basic character is one of being wise and competent, but in this episode it shows off that she is overly sentimental even to the possible detriment of the creatures she wants to care for. This might be just for story reasons, or it may be a conscious effort to make her more relatable to the kids who are watching by adding some flaws to her character.
Low Points : The fact the larger lizard is Diggles mother is so obvious, and is so similar to "Creature Safari" with the large creature actually having benevolent intentions in that one as well. I know the show is for kids, but I feel the trope of person has young creature/egg, and gets hunted by the mother is so common that even a 5 year old will have encountered it on numerous occasions.
So what do you really think ? : While it's nice to have Lys getting a solo story, this one really is so similar to the prior episode "Creature Safari", with the same side characters and a similar plot, that it doesn't feel like she's getting any new story to herself. While Lys as the animal lover leads to stories about her interacting with animals, and the format of the show means that she must misunderstand the situation, I really feel it would serve her character more to put her in a story where she doesn't fit so well, so must learn to adapt.
Final Words : The message of this episode, isn't something I can easily put into a phrase, but is along the lines of wild animals are better off left in their natural environment.
Score : 7.5/10
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