Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures: Why You Should Watch This Show.

So I love most things Star Wars. I’ve seen all the movies, watched most of the shows, read most of the canon books and a fair amount of the legends books, and I’ve read some of the comics. There is a Star Wars story out there for everyone. Today, I wanted to briefly talk about one of the shows, Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures. This is kind of a rambly, quickly written piece on why I love this show so much.

This show is made for younger kids, so if you’re looking for something to watch after Andor, this is going to hit a little differently and might not be the right watch. This is the kind of show that I would be excited to show my own future kids or nieces and nephews when it’s time to introduce them to Star Wars. It’s less about the cool fights and action and more about teaching kids how to be a decent human being. It’s really simple on its face, and yet it does a fantastic job of exemplifying what a Jedi is and how a Jedi should interact with the world around them.

There’s a lot of conversation in the fandom of what a Jedi is. Is a Jedi a soldier or a guardian of peace? Should a Jedi have attachments? Is a Jedi an unfeeling and emotionless warrior monk? Is a Jedi a superhero with magic powers that they can use to beat their enemies? Here, we get a look at how Jedi train their younglings and what lessons they try to impart. This isn’t Luke being trained for the express purpose of defeating Darth Vader and the evil Empire, or Anakin being trained as the chosen one to defeat the Sith. This is Jedi at a time of relative peace training to be the best Jedi they can be. What that means is very different from what the Jedi of the prequel era seem to be.

The show follows three younglings: Kai Brightstar, a human with aspirations to become a great Jedi Knight, Lys Solay, a pantoran with a love for creatures big and small, and Nubs, a noobian (blue teddy bear) with a big heart and a surprising amount of strength. The three of them leave the Jedi Temple on Coruscant to go to a Jedi Outpost Temple on a planet called Tenoo. At this point in the timeline about 200 years before Episode 1: A Phantom Menace, the Jedi aren’t cloistered on Coruscant, but have a bunch of outposts throughout the galaxy, especially in the outer rim where the Republic is beginning to expand to. The three younglings do their best to train to be Jedi and follow in the footsteps of Jedi like Master Yoda and Loden Greatstorm.

The fact that they’re on a different planet already goes to show you just how different the Jedi of this era are. Kai, Lys, and Nubs regularly venture into the town where the outpost is located and help the villagers as they encounter challenges in their everyday lives. The Jedi aren’t there to fight wars and defeat Sith — they’re there to help people. They fix buildings after there are natural disasters, they help out when a land developer (appropriately named Nimbee) tries to cut down the rock spires on a nearby planet, and they help a flock of baby firehawks find their way back to their nesting site. These Jedi still meditate and practice their lightsaber forms, but there’s more to them than that. It’s like having friendly neighbors who will drop what they’re doing and help with anything.

And because these Jedi settle down on different planets for a while, they also form connections with the locals that might make someone who has only ever seen the Prequels scratch their heads. Kai, Lys, and Nubs befriend a pilot who is about their age, Nash Durango. They regularly introduce each other as being best friends, and together they keep the village and the planet safe from pirates and forces that would try to upend their way of life. Yoda might tell Anakin to let go of all his attachments, but I believe attachments aren’t necessarily evil, and this show does a lot to demonstrate when they are good and healthy. In a recent episode, the Jedi Younglings go to a nearby planet where they meet a Jedi Padawan who recently arrived there. She hasn’t made any connections in the town yet, and when she needs to stand up and get the people to trust her, there are some issues. It’s only because she helped one townsperson who vouches for her that she’s able to get the people to trust her. Wielding the Force is impressive, but being an active member of your community and spending some time developing those relationships with your neighbors is a magic that they don’t seem to teach at the Jedi temple during the movies.

Beyond that, the show does an excellent job of showing the Jedi younglings learning and growing as people. Kai has to learn to work as a team with other people and that a Jedi doesn’t have to be perfect. Lys learns to not get distracted and to open herself up to the world around her. And Nubs joins them for the adventures and is adorable the whole time. Whoever decided that there needed to be an ewok-esque Jedi but blue is a genius. There are lessons on empathy, kindness, teamwork, believing in oneself, overcoming frustration and anger, being the best you you can be instead of fixating on perfection, and so much more. The show is really lovely, and if you have a young Jedi in your life, it might be worthwhile introducing them to this show. Even as an adult, I found a lot to enjoy about it. Maybe you’re just a fan of the High Republic era and want to see Bell Zettifar or Loden Greatstorm make the leap from books to tv. In that case, you should also watch this show. It is a great era for the Jedi, and it’s a great show to learn from.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed. Consider checking out my podcast, “Determination, Deliberation, and Dragons.” My friends and I workshop original stories, analyze books and films, and interview authors and other creative people.