Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures: Season 3: Story 8: Bell and the Band
What is it ? : Kai is accompanying Padawan Bell Zettifar on a mission to deliver a case, but as they reach their destination, Bogachi, he asks what is in the case, and Bell reveals it's a musical instrument, a vioddle. He plays it for fun, but has broken it, so they have come here to get it repaired.
They enter a building, and inside a Nautolan, Jasa Plynn runs a music shop, he offers to repair it, and Kai becomes interested by his pet, Flim, a two tailed feline. However the cats eyes turn blue and it leave the shop, and Plynn asks them to find out what is wrong. They find that the cat is heading out of town, and they are summoned by Beepers who is reporting that Bells Charhound, Ember, is also acting oddly.
They follow the animals, and many more along with Plynn who emerges with Bells repaired vioddle, to where an alien is playing a kloo horn, which is compelling the animals to obey him. The alien, Newf Grayson, calls the animals his audience, and is using an amplified called a sound wave motivator to compel the creatures.
Kai gets Bell to play his vioddle to distract Newf while he deactivate the sound wave motivator, but as the two battle instruments, Newf noticed Kai, and gets the animals to confront him and stop him getting to the motivator.
Kai uses the force to turn up the motivator to maximum after hearing Newf worry about overloading it, and when Newf plays the next note it explodes and launches him into a bush, freeing the animals. Newf turns out to have enjoyed the battle of the instruments, and he and Bell agree to jam together again. Plynn offers to turn Newf's Kloo Horn back at the shop, and they all begin walking back to town. Bell asks Kai if he wants to learn an instrument, but Kai doesn't, so Bell offers to teach him how to fish instead. . . .
High Points : Even though it's pretty silly, I really enjoyed this one, it's a bit Pied Piper of Hamlyn, with a musician charming animals through music, but the musical battle I thought was a load of fun. And Kai using the force to reach past the animals is something I get annoyed at the characters not doing all the time, so I appreciated it being used when sensible.
I also liked the way it played with Ember's loyalty to Bell, a couple of times, Bell calls on Ember to remember they're friends, but the sonic motivator always wins out, playing against the trope of breaking compulsion through friendship.
Low Points : The Sound Wave Motivator sounds like it would make an incredible weapon, but never is shown again, the ability to tame all animals within listening distance and get them to attack anyone the operator designates is very powerful. It's limitation seems to be that you need to be able to play a musical instrument to operate it, so it would not make a particularly useful military weapon (although weaponizing an army's marching band does seem fun).
So what do you really think ? : A solid episode, with a new villain, who just seems to be lonely and rejected not evil, and while the music isn't the best, it was easy to listen to as part of the plot.
Final Words : And the moral of this episode is, You can't force people to be your friends? Music can be fun? Never turn the amplifier up to 11?
Score : 8.5/10
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