Review: Star Wars Rebels “Heroes Of Mandalore”

Sabine proves her loyalty to her family and to Mandalore.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Sabine’s father is being held prisoner by Imperial forces on Mandalore, and the final season of Rebels begins with the story of his escape. Sabine fearlessly leads Kanan, Ezra, and members of  Clan Wren on the rescue mission, which involves a thrilling chase sequence through the once green plains of Mandalore. We are only allowed a brief moment of happiness once Alrich Wren is liberated: the first episode ends on a somber note with Sabine’s mother, brother, and clan members assumed to have been destroyed by the weapon she once created. Arguably the darkest moment ever seen on Rebels, Sabine and company arrive to find a battlefield littered with nothing but the charred remains of Mandalorian armor.

Part one serves as a good reintroduction to the cast (though Hera’s appearance is relegated to a brief expository hologram). Despite having some of the show’s most stellar fight choreography yet, the show manages to find brief moments of humor in the Stormtrooper banter and Ezra’s failure to master his jetpack. I think it’s safe to say the show has finally learned the correct amount of Ezra’s comedy relief to mix in.

Part two opens on a hopeful note, with the reveal that Ursa and Tristan both managed to survive the blast by being on the outskirts of it’s range. Returning to Clan Wren’s base, Sabine is met with blaster barrels aimed by angry and confused Mandalorians who blame her for their comrade’s destruction. (The intense reactions caused by weapon are justified – it works by targeting Mandalorian armor and evaporating everything beneath it into dust.) Bo-Katan explains that while Sabine is the one who created the weapon, this also means she knows how to destroy it. Planning to demolish it before it’s full potential can be achieved, the gang puts their plan into action. Sabine and Bo-Katan make it to the weapon, but surprise, surprise, it was a trap by Tiber Saxon to capture the weapon’s creator. After a few seconds of modifications, Sabine unleashes the weapon’s full power, but not against Mandalore. She has somehow recalibrated it to target Imperial armor (poor Ezra).

Choosing to honor the time-worn traditions of Mandalore, Sabine destroys her weapon after a pep talk from Bo-Katan and the two-parter ends with the former leader of Mandalore restored to power as the leader of the resistance to take back their homeworld.

Our Take:

Sabine’s struggle with assuming the burden of leadership comes to an end in Heroes of Mandalore. When Bo-Katan turns down the darksaber in part one, Sabine’s face betrays her raw disappointment. To her, the darksaber is a constant reminder of how she led her people to their dooms by working to create a weapon for the Empire. By the end of the premiere, she has successfully convinced Bo-Katan to wield the symbolic saber, but I’m still not convinced it wasn’t meant for Sabine. What we know for sure is that Sabine is finally free from the guilt that plagued her over the first three seasons. She has redeemed herself in the eyes of her family and her fellow Mandalorians. Even if she isn’t destined to be the future ruler of her planet, her trials with the darksaber have forced her to confront her ghosts and grow as a person.

Visually, Rebels continues to improve on the animation front, though the war-torn wasteland of Mandalore didn’t make for the most colorful premiere. (Though I still prefer the look of The Clone Wars, personally, the simplified aesthetic of Rebels is charming in its own right.) Action sequences, especially when they’re this frequent, can get boring fast, so it’s a testament to the Rebels crew that the battles throughout held my attention.

The premiere of the fourth and final season of Rebels delivers plenty of good things, like the return of Bo-Katan, the rebirth of Sabine, and Ezra’s neverending jetpack troubles. After everything that happened in Heroes of Mandalore, I’m nervous (in a good way) to learn what Rebels has in store for us as we near the end.

SCORE

Random Observations:

Without Ezra, the show would be a lot less fun: "I'm not a Mandalorian... I don't wanna be a Mandalorian!" 

The official Star Wars Youtube channel recently published a video that recaps the first three seasons of Rebels if you need a refresher heading into the final season.

Dave Filoni just posted a lovely drawing of Ezra gazing up at the sky. One last moment of solitude before things get crazy?

Even if Sabine had lost part of her birth family, she'll always have her Ghost-crew family by her side. (I'm bet on it here: a show airing on DisneyXD won't kill off any of it's main cast members. Any takers?)

8/10