Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures: Season 1: Story 30: The Talon Takeover
What is it ? : Taborr Val Dorn and his sidekicks, EB-3 and Porg are raiding a farm, and the 2 sidekicks trip while carrying some of their loot. Taborr rebukes them, and the two complain that he never says anything nice, but then they are caught in an energy net by the Gangul's gang.
The Gang takes over Taborr's ship, The Iron Talon, flying off with it. He is still aboard however, and he tries to resist the take over, but the Ganguls use their Magnet Gun to grab his electrostaff from his hands, he gets captured and thrown in the brig.
Meanwhile in Kublop Springs, the Young Jedi are collecting ship parts for Nash when they spot EB-3 and Porg approaching people for help in rescuing Taborr.
They keep getting rejected as people have a negative feeling towards Taborr as he has stolen from most of them in the past, but the Young Jedi agree to help.
Aboard the Firehawk, Nash tells the Young Jedi that the most obvious target next for the Gangul's is an abandoned outpost on Dedoon, and makes jokes about a pirate being taken captive by other pirates.
As they travel EB-3 suggests a tactic, that the Young Jedi distract the Ganguls, and the two pirates use their knowledge of the Iron Talon to rescue Taborr. The Jedi agree, somewhat to the surprise of the pirates who comment that Taborr never listens to them, only berates them when they make mistakes.
Arriving at Dedoon, the Young Jedi distract the Gangul's, who recognise them, and the two pirates sneak aboard the Iron Talon. They locate Taborr and tell him what's going on, but he only complains that they brought the Jedi, so EB-3 tells him that the Jedi actually listen and help one another.
Their voices attract one of the Ganguls, Orryak, who is still aboard. EB-3 and Porg hide among the cargo crates in the hold, and use a mouse droid to distract the Gangul, before closing the hatch which is loaded with crates which cover Orryak. Taborr is impressed when the two free him, but Orryak breaks free of the crates and threatens them with Taborr's electorstaff, so EB-3 and Taborr distract Orryak while Porg leaps on her back, grabbing the electostaff and passing it to Taborr who forces Orryak out of the ship.
Outside the other Gangul's are being chased by the Young Jedi, so the group realises it's outnumbered and flees. Kai tells Taborr he is lucky to have such good friends, and Taborr seems to soften somewhat, but tells the Jedi that he doesn't owe them anything, before telling EB-3 and Porg they have some important business. Lys and Kai comment that they are glad Taborr seems to be treating his friends better. . .
High Points : A nice little action packed episode, and while heavy on the messaging, it's interesting to see Taborr's continuing journey into being a good guy continue.
The magnet gun the Ganguls have and use continues to be very powerful, it's ability to pluck any weapon out of anyone's hands makes it incredibly useful in capturing characters. If the weapon was really this good, I'm surprised we've never seen similar weapons used elsewhere.
And while the messaging the episode is trying to put over comes through strongly, I kind of liked the subtext that everyone relies on other people, and even the boss needs his underlings sometimes.
Low Points : The next location the Ganguls will raid is discovered a little easily, Nash just happens to know a place with valuable Droid parts, somewhere the Ganguls also know about, but no one else has raided in the meantime. It's just a little convenient.
It would have made more sense if EB-3 or Porg had overheard the Ganguls talking about where they planned on going next, or the Iron Talon had needed a particular part, or was locked onto a place, and the two just needed help and transport.
So what do you really think ? : I enjoyed this one a lot more than the last couple of episodes, it really feels like a junior Star Wars episode, lots of action, fighting (without being too violent for the kids), I could definitely see this kind of story being used in an RPG session for kids. Great stuff.
Final Words : The message of this episode seems to be two fold, "value your friends", and "everyone has something to contribute". The first is the lesson they're teaching to Taborr, and the second seems to be what the Jedi are teaching to EB-3 and Porg.
Score : 8.5/10
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