Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures: Season 2: Story 9: The Prince of Masks
What is it ? : Prince Cyrus Vuundir (the alter ego of Taborr Val Dorn) is in his palace looking for his sparring staff, he ensures that his Taborr disguise is hidden away, before his droid CK-38 enter holding the staff, and he berates it for touching his stuff, but thanks it anyway.
Outside the Young Jedi are visiting, and they are practicing sparring with him, he disarms Kai with a special move, and Cyrus tells him he learned it off a pirate, which he rapidly changes to pilot.
Afterwards he takes them down to the village to let them see how it is rebuilding, and the villagers are especially thankful to the Prince as he has been ensuring they are supported in their rebuilding efforts. One of their Fathiers even licks the Prince in a familiar fashion.
But while he is visiting, the village is raided by the Comet Runners gang, who distract the Jedi by fighting them with their vibroblades, while loading the villages Fathiers into a cargo skiff and then racing off.
They board the Princes speeder and give chase, with the Jedi leaping aboard, however the gang vents some black smoke at the Prince's speeder causing him to lose control and his speeder to break down. The Jedi end up getting defeated and disarmed, with the gang handcuffing them and taking them prisoner.
Cyrus in anger kicks his broken speeder, opening a hatch revealing a new set of Armor he's made for his Taborr alter ego, and he uses the comlink built into the helmet to contact EB-3 and Pord to come get him.
Taborr confronts the Comet Runners, and while they are distracted talking to him, Pord and EB-3 free the Young Jedi. The Comet Runners mock Taborr for helping people rather than raiding them, but he claims that he doesn't raid people who are already hurting, and that he's merely recovering the Fathiers as they are stolen from his territory, which the Comet Runners have no claim to.
The Comet Runners notice the Jedi have escaped, and fighting breaks out, with the Fathiers getting freed in the battle, and as the other Comet Runners are defeated, Taborr disarms their leader using the same special move that he'd used as Cyrus against Kai earlier, who notices and wonders about, especially as when the Comet Runners flee, one of the Fathiers approaches Taborr and licks him in a familiar fashion.
The Young Jedi express distress at Taborr stealing the Fathiers now, but he says he has no interest in them, and just mocks the Young Jedi for needing to be rescued.
They return the Fathiers to the village, and wonder where the Prince is, but he arrives in his speeder, spinning a story about it having broken down and apologising for not being more help. The Young Jedi tell him about Taborr and his gang helping, to which Cyrus expresses disbelief, but the villagers offer to show him how to ride a Fathier, and he wanders off followed by the Young Jedi . . . .
High Points : A nice exploration of Taborr/Cyrus's double identity, while he's still operating as a pirate, his experiences with the Young Jedi have changed his Prince Cyrus identity from a lazy noble, into a real leader for his people. And his people are responding positively to that, and that likewise is reinforcing the changes, meaning that he will probably become a far better leader than his father has ever been, improving the lives of his people, and that likewise will probably lead to an increase in his power and influence.
And this change is obviously carrying on through to his Taborr identity. However, it's also allowing him to hear what the Young Jedi say about Taborr behind his back, and this might very well lead to his more competitive side coming back out as the comments they make are not friendly or complimentary.
Low Points : While it seems that it could lead to some interesting stories in the future, I found the snide comments by the Young Jedi make about Taborr, while he himself was making more friendly comments about them, referring to them as friends, to be a little strange. While Kai has always had a competitive relationship with Taborr, the others have always been overly friendly in the way that kids cartoon characters usually are.
So what do you really think ? : I enjoyed this one, as it's mainly from Taborr/Cyrus' point of view, and we can see how he's changed and his two persona's are influencing each other, from his beginnings just as a pampered noble, to becoming a somewhat effective leader, and as Taborr going from a pirate just interested in being the best, to being tempered by a code of conduct. He's undergoing a significant piece of character growth, which the main characters are not.
Final Words : Something I always wonder about is how the characters are effected as the Nihil, whether Cyrus would be an effective leader if his world falls behind the Stormwall, would his respect for and from his people allow him to protect the world from the excesses of the Nihil, or if not, would he lead his world into being a strong supporter of the Republic. With the Jedi in hiding, would he become a protector of the people? But anyway, I somehow doubt that there will be any crossover between events elsewhere in the High Republic Era and the Young Jedi Adventures.
Score : 8.5/10
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