Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures: Season 1: Story 15: The Girl and Her Gargantua
What is it ? : The Young Jedi are helping Aree, the droid animal documentarian, move a bunch of animals to a wildlife refuge. Nubs and Kai are frightened by a giant creature called a Gargantua, but Lys is not as she and Aree discuss how they are peaceful creatures which are actually easily frightened despite their massive size.
Aree tells them that the large amount of cargo has depleted his fuel so he sets down at Kundu to refuel, however while he and the Jedi are away from the ship, two Besalisks sneak onto the ship investigating the animal noises they hear. They spot the Gargantua and scream frightening it, which in turn frightens them more and they accidentally stumble against the control panel setting the creature free.
It's massive size and screaming causes chaos in the settlement and it rushes away. The Two Besalisks offer to help save the settlement and head off on their malfunctioning old speeder, and the Young Jedi try to work out where the creature will have gone, determining that it will be looking for somewhere quiet, so follow it to some nearby caves.
The locate the Gargantua and try to calm it, but the backfiring of the Besalisks Speeder as they arrive frightens it away once more back to the settlement. Chasing it there they find it leaping from roof to roof and scrambling up a taller structure, with the Besalisks chasing it.
On top they attack the creature with electrostaffs, but it knockss them off the roof, only to leap down and catch them, saving them from the fall. They wonder why the creature would save them, and Lys gets it to lift her onto it's shoulder explaining that it really is a peaceful creature. They load it back onto the ship and the Besalisks explain they accidentally released it, but ask if they can visit the creature at the wildlife reserve, which Aree confirms that they would be allowed.
Later at the reserve, we see the various creatures wandering free as the Jedi watch on. . . .
High Points : A decent little tale, and quite a fun chase after the Gargantua. The finale was obviously inspired by King Kong, with the Gargantua climbing a tower, but in this version instead of falling to it's death it saves the Besalisks who have caused the whole situation, proving itself to be friendly.
And once more the worldbuilding done in previous episodes is paying off, with Aree returning although he now seems to have changed from a documentarian and presenter, into an animal handler?
Low Points : The two Besalisks which are the main antagonists of this story I found to be really annoying, as they are a pair of rednecks, down to them having a backfiring and beat up old speeder. While they're supposed to be kind of annoying, they irritated me from the way they spoke, to the way they appear to be scrawny and underfed compared to the Besalisks we've seen in the past. It just makes me wonder why Redneck's exist in the Star Wars universe?
So what do you really think ? : It was and okay episode, and while it moved through the story and had plenty of action for this series, it seemed overly contrived and preachy. As this time it's selling, don't lie, don't touch other peoples stuff, and don't judge people (or Gargantua) by their looks.
And possibly because I wasn't enjoying the guest characters, this episode really felt like it dragged for me.
Final Words : Definitely not terrible, and there's still quite a lot to appreciate in this episode, but in part it was harmed because I also watched in the same session the second half of the Star Trek: Prodigy season, which although aimed at a similar age group was far superior and didn't talk down to it's audience while having some honestly great ideas.
Score : 7.5/10
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