Star Wars: Visions Presents - The Ninth Jedi : 2 : A Hidden Weapon
What is it ? : Margrave's ship arrives in around a gas giant with an asteroid belt around it, aboard Margrave trains Lah Kara with droid remotes, and she asks about her father and whether he thinks he could be working for Nawaam, and Margrave assures her that the man he know couldn't do that.
Meanwhile Nawaam is witnessing his men testing a weapon based on a giant Kyber Crystal, but it fails due to the crystal being unstable. Gennoh arrives to report he failed his mission to get Margrave expecting punishment, but Nawaam tells him that he couldn't harm the last of the Sith.
Margraves ship lands at a base built into one of the asteroids, and they are confronted in a large hall, the leader of the opposing group hurts Margrave a metal sword and the two fight, before erupting in laughter and comradery. The leader of the group, Kwana, asks to see Margrave's lightsaber, which Margrave ignites and displays.
Ethan watches as Nawaam has Lah Kara's father, Lah Zhima, brought to him and he calls him master, but Zhima refuses the title, but complies with Nawaam's wish to examine the flawed Kyber Crystal, laying his hands on it, and the crystal realigns internally and the scientists report that it is perfect for their weapon now.
Kwana asks why Margrave is here and is told that they seek people to help fight Nawaam, and that Kara is Zhima's daughter. Kwana expresses surprise, mentioning how they trained as Jedi together, but Zhima killed their master, something that alarms Kara.
Kwana gives a speech to his people, but they express that they can remain here and the war will pass them by, they are safe not getting involved, but Kara gives a speech and the workers begin to come forward to offer their support. Margrave offers Kwana a lightsaber, but Kwana refuses taking offence because he was never as powerful in the force as the others. But Margrave tells him that he doesn't want just people who are powerful in the force, he wants people who are willing to fight to protect others in his new Jedi Order, and Kwana takes the lightsaber, displaying considerable skill with it.
But a massive hologram of Nawaam appears, both here and across the galaxy as we see Dunbai watching it as well. Nawaam tells people that he wants them to join him to bring order to the galaxy or be destroyed, and he will start with the people hiding the Jedi. He orders his weapon fired, and like Starkiller base it emits a massive blast that jumps across the galaxy to the system where the miners are located. But the blast appears to miss, leaving the station untouched. . . .
High Points : I mentioned the quality of the art last time, something iI forgot to mention is how the backgrounds, including starships, seem to be computer animated, almost like high quality video game graphics, but the characters are drawn over the top. It's a very pleasant blending of styles.
I'm also enjoying that Margrave isn't just finding new Jedi, but finding old friends and drawing them into his new Jedi Order, and that it won't just be force users, but anyone who wants to protect others and keep the standards of the order, and interesting concept.
And finally the mystery of Nawaam is drawing me in, he dresses like a Sith, but carries a blue lightsaber in a galaxy where Lightsabers change colour according to your alignment with the Light or Dark Side of the Force (although that said there is mention of Gennoh's lightsaber predating Zhima, so some might not work that way, only Zhima's), he calls Zhima master, but Zhima killed his own master? So we really don't know where he stands, is he a Jedi but one who believes that only by taking the teaching of the Sith can the order survive? I'll be interested to see where it goes.
Low Points : It's still very early days, but is this the format of the show, the heroes turn up somewhere to recruit for Margraves new Jedi Order, the bad guys attack? It seems a little limited, I'd like to have seen something different, especially with them borrowing so heavily from The Force Awakens with the cross galaxy superlaser looking very like Starkiller base's weapon.
And while I like the idea of the new Jedi Order being based around anyone who wants to help protect others, an order built on ideology rather than just force capability, it does seem that much of what the Jedi did relied on them having powers, and that an ordinary person turning up waving a lightsaber is just asking to be killed, especially considering we know that lightsabers are incredibly valuable pieces of equipment that people could scavenge from a dead body.
So what do you really think ? : This episode seemed to slip back quicker than the first, while there's still loads of exposition and set up going for the storyline, it didn't have quite so much set up work to do, so got on with telling it's story which was more interesting to watch than just so much set up and world building.
Final Words : It really does seem to be using so much from the movies, we've had an opening like A New Hope, battle droids from The Phantom Menace, and now a Starkiller base type weapon from The Force Awakens. When do we get the planetary attack with massive war machines, when the hidden army, and other ideas from the movies, it does seem somewhat like they're checking off a list of Star Wars things to do.
Score : 8/10
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