Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures: Season 1: Story 14: The Missing Kibbin
What is it ? : The Young Jedi are grabbing some new snacks at Haps Snack Shack, when Kai notices some drama in the marketplace. They head out and find a Dowutin man tipping out boxes and looking everywhere for something, so they approach him. He reveals that he is a bounty hunter, whose name is Ansen Strung, and he has been tasked by Raena Zess to find her lost pet, a Kibbin called Figgles.
Although he tells them he works alone, he is having so many problems that he is willing to work with the Young Jedi as he is at a dead end in his search.
Lys looks up Kibbin and find out their favourite food is Channelfish so they approach some Mon Calamari fishermen to see whether they have seen Figgles. But Strung demands the information scaring the fishermen with his massive physical presence, so the Young Jedi show him that asking politely works better, and the Mon Calamari indicate where they think Figgles went and Strung uses his infra red goggles to track it's footprints, showing the Young Jedi all the equipment he uses, from the goggles to jetboots to an energy cage which accidentally captures Nubs inside it before Strung deactivates it.
The tracks lead to Nash's home and she lets them search, again with the Young Jedi showing that politeness works better than demanding. And they have to work together to search, with Strung using his jet boots to get Nubs up to high places where he cannot climb.
They discover a sandwich with a Kibbin sized bite out of it, and Nash remarks she was saving it till later, and they follow a trail of breadcrumbs to Marlaa Jinara's scrap yard. They show her the image of a Kibbin and she asks if they mean that one, indicating where Figgles is eating scraps of fish from empty cans piled up in the yard. Lys tells Strung that they should work together to stop the Kibbin escaping as they are very fast but he reacts and shoots his energy cage towards it, and it rushes off out of the yard.
They track it back to the market, and convince Strung to work as a team member, and he agrees thinking that he's become a failure as a bounty hunter when he cannot even capture a cute little animal. But they block the Kibbin's routes of escape and Strung captures it in his energy cage.
Raena arrives and pays Strung for finding her pet, and the Young Jedi and Strung enjoy some of Hap's new snacks, and Strung admits that working in a team wasn't so bad, and he pays for the next round of snacks out of his reward. . . .
High Points : While the episode is as fast moving and fun as most of The Young Jedi Adventures, this one does come across as very heavy handed in its message. I did like that they reused many characters from previous episodes, so have been worldbuilding in a very positive way. So Raena who was Nash's rival in the boat race returns in a more positive role, and Marlaa who runs the scrapyard helps out as well.
Low Points : The messaging is heavy enough normally when they're only trying to get one message across, but this time we're doubling down. So not only is it teaching that Team Work works, but also that you should be polite. So we're hit with a learning experience far too often.
That said, I do like the idea that a gruff and threatening Bounty Hunter learns off a bunch of kids that being nice to people is a useful tactic when getting information, not just being mean and scaring people into submission.
So what do you really think ? : I actually really liked the character of Ansen Strung, so found his personality (and his range of gadgets) kept my interest and amusement for the run time of the episode. This combined with recognisable characters from previous episodes helped make it feel part of a world, rather than characters showing up once to never be seen again.
Final Words : While far from the best episode, it entertains especially for a younger audience.
Score : 7.5/10
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