I’ve noticed a lot of examples of what appear to me to be bad messaging in Young Jedi Adventures, and wonder what others think.
In “Mystery of the Opal Cave,” the Jedi want to take the owner of a mine and explore a closed section of the mine. The owner balks because it is dangerous. The Jedi tell her that they have been taught that you should never let fear hold you back, so off into danger they go. It’s a major theme in the episode, with one character after another speaking of how they have learned that you should never let fear hold you back, and then rushing into danger.
Is “Better to do something dangerous than to be deterred by fear” a good message for young children?
In “An Adventure With Yoda,” the heroes are chasing pirates who flee into an asteroid field. Nash is afraid to pursue, because she’s not sure she can do it. If she tries and fails, everybody could get hurt or killed. But Yoda tells her to believe in herself, so into the asteroid field she flies, and of course succeeds.
“Believe in yourself” is indeed a good message for children, properly understood. But according to the YJA writers, it means, “Disregard the potential consequences of failure, just go for it and assume everything will work out.”
If your kid is ever around other kids doing a stupid dangerous stunt, do you want him thinking of the lessons he learned from YJA? “Never let fear hold you back! Believe in yourself! You can do it! Go for it!” The show suggests that if you believe in yourself you can’t fail, but in the real world that isn’t true.
In “Attack of the Training Droids,” Kai tries to program some training droids to clean up the training area and loses control of them, leading to all kinds of problems.
To me, the moral of the story is obvious: “Don’t mess around with heavy machinery when you have neither the requisite expertise nor qualified supervision.”
The YJA writers, however, have a very different interpretation of the moral. Kai was trying to save time when he did this, so according to them the moral of the story is “Don’t try to save time.” Presumably, if he’d done it because he was trying to teach himself programming, the moral would have been “Don’t try to learn and challenge yourself.” If he’d done it to help a friend, the moral would have been “Don’t help your friends.” Right? Just crap logic that should not be presented to developing minds as an example of good logic.
Multiple episodes, starting with the first, make the point that wild animals, especially juveniles, are friendly. If you have a good heart like Lys, you can approach them, make friends, and cuddle.
So what do you think? Is it just me, or is this stuff problematic?
In “Mystery of the Opal Cave,” the Jedi want to take the owner of a mine and explore a closed section of the mine. The owner balks because it is dangerous. The Jedi tell her that they have been taught that you should never let fear hold you back, so off into danger they go. It’s a major theme in the episode, with one character after another speaking of how they have learned that you should never let fear hold you back, and then rushing into danger.
Is “Better to do something dangerous than to be deterred by fear” a good message for young children?
In “An Adventure With Yoda,” the heroes are chasing pirates who flee into an asteroid field. Nash is afraid to pursue, because she’s not sure she can do it. If she tries and fails, everybody could get hurt or killed. But Yoda tells her to believe in herself, so into the asteroid field she flies, and of course succeeds.
“Believe in yourself” is indeed a good message for children, properly understood. But according to the YJA writers, it means, “Disregard the potential consequences of failure, just go for it and assume everything will work out.”
If your kid is ever around other kids doing a stupid dangerous stunt, do you want him thinking of the lessons he learned from YJA? “Never let fear hold you back! Believe in yourself! You can do it! Go for it!” The show suggests that if you believe in yourself you can’t fail, but in the real world that isn’t true.
In “Attack of the Training Droids,” Kai tries to program some training droids to clean up the training area and loses control of them, leading to all kinds of problems.
To me, the moral of the story is obvious: “Don’t mess around with heavy machinery when you have neither the requisite expertise nor qualified supervision.”
The YJA writers, however, have a very different interpretation of the moral. Kai was trying to save time when he did this, so according to them the moral of the story is “Don’t try to save time.” Presumably, if he’d done it because he was trying to teach himself programming, the moral would have been “Don’t try to learn and challenge yourself.” If he’d done it to help a friend, the moral would have been “Don’t help your friends.” Right? Just crap logic that should not be presented to developing minds as an example of good logic.
Multiple episodes, starting with the first, make the point that wild animals, especially juveniles, are friendly. If you have a good heart like Lys, you can approach them, make friends, and cuddle.
So what do you think? Is it just me, or is this stuff problematic?
