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Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures: Season 2: Story 3:The Rustler Roundup

What is it ? : Kai goes on a mission with Bell Zettifar and his Charhound Ember, they are to travel to a town in their shuttle and help the people there. Arriving they find that the people are about to hunt down a gang which have stolen their herd of Nerfs.
Bell and Kai offer to retrieve the Nerfs, so the townspeople give them a day to do it, or they're going on the hunt, also the shuttle won't be useful in retrieving the Nerfs, so they are given a couple of Dunnel steeds to ride.
They head out into the Canyons and soon locate the rustlers, and are told that they feel they have a right to the animals as their ancestors were forced out of the settlement and weren't given their rightful share of the Nerfs.
Although they feel empathy for the rustlers, they decide stealing is wrong, so they sneak into the camp overnight and herd the Nerfs back towards the town. But before they get there the rustlers catch up with them, and the townspeople decide their time limit is up, so there is a confrontation between the two groups.
This causes the Nerfs to stampede, which only by working together can they calm the Nerfs down. The Jedi explain the situation to the townspeople who feel regret for what their ancestors did, and gift the herd to the rustlers.
The Jedi are happy they've resolved the situation and everyone recognises stealing is wrong, no matter how long ago it was done, and Kai wants to Nerf of his own, until one licks his face changing his mind. . . .

High Points : Because these episodes are for kids, you've really got to change your standards, and this is a fun little story. It's got the whole cowboy theme going on, with the two Jedi riding steeds into the canyons to herd up rustled cattle, Star Wars meets the wild west. It doesn't completely suit, but it's fun, and like all of these episodes, if you don't like it, it's over in less than 15 minutes, so not demanding of your time.
And the twist of the Rustlers themselves actually being the rightful owners of the cattle is nicely done, as they still need to convince the townspeople that they're not bad people.

Low Points : This episode feels a little odd in having Bell Zettifar being the main adult character in it, with them introducing Wes Vinik in the first episode the season as being Master Zanna's Padawan, who'll be helping teach the Young Jedi, he's been missing ever since. I know that Bell appeared a couple of times last season, so it's nice to see him, especially since we've seen some of his future in the High Republic comics. But it feels really that they should be using the new character they introduced for this reason.

So what do you really think ? : An absolutely fine episode, where it's just some fun. I'm keen for there to be some progress in the overarching plot, to see Taborr Val Dorn and how his double life as a prince is working out, to see the main characters together some more. But there's 50 stories this season, so plenty of time to get to all that. So a nice normal fun episode for the kiddie audience is just fine.

Final Words : So this is the second Kai centric episode in a row, which doesn't feel right. I think having the 3 main characters, and reinforcing their connection as friends in this season would have been better, as well as a chance to really bring Wes Vinik into a main role within the series. But as I said above, it's early days, and there's loads of stories to go, but to be keeping the Young Jedi apart this early just doesn't feel right.

Score : 8/10

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