Review: Star Wars Rebels “Legacy of Mandalore”

It took a while, but we’ve got new Star Wars Rebels to talk about!

Spoilers Below

Sabine, Ezra, Kanan, Rau, and Chopper travel to Krownest to try to get the Wren clan to join the Rebellion. Since she hasn’t returned to the planet since she left the Imperial Academy, Sabine knows that this visit won’t be easy. Of course, she is right. As soon as they announce their arrival, their ship is attacked, resulting in a crash landing in a snowy forest. Sabine, Kanan, and Ezra leave the ship to meet their attackers, leaving Rau and Chopper behind on the ship. The group defends themselves from the attacking Mandalorians, who don’t stop until they find out that Sabine is there. It turns out that Sabine’s brother is leading the attack group. He agrees to bring the Rebels to their mother, Ursa Wren.

At the Wren stronghold, the trio gets a rather icy reception. No one is happy to see Sabine. However, after a private talk with her mother, Sabine finds out that they don’t hate her like she expected. Instead, Ursa knew that Sabine was safer away from the family. Now that she has returned to Krownest, the Empire will find her and kill her. That is when Ursa gets a call from Gar Saxon, the Emperor’s Hand. Ursa tells him that Sabine and the Jedi are at the stronghold. However, Rau watched the conversation via a scanner inside his helmet. Now is his time to move in. He sneaks into the stronghold to retrieve the Jedi’s lightsabers, which were taken before they entered the stronghold themselves.

In the throne room, Ursa has returned to speak with the Jedi. Kanan and Ezra tells her that Sabine fought with Saxon. They also talked about how Saxon was proud that he killed all of the Protectors. As a result, Ursa regrets what will happen next.

While sparring with her brother, Tristan, Sabine finds out that Ursa has traded the Jedi for their safety. Sabine rushes off to the throne room just in time to find Saxon and his men arrive. A guard hands the Darksaber over to Saxon. When Ursa asks Saxon to let Sabine go, Saxon declares them all traitors. He orders Tristan to choose between working for him or dying with his family. Tristan chooses his family and a huge fight ensues. Rau shows up to return the Jedi’s lightsabers and Sabine makes sure that Ezra knows which Mandalorians to attack.

Once the Wren clan and the Jedi wipe out all of Saxon’s men, Ezra throws his lightsaber to Sabine so she can protect her mother from Saxon’s Darksaber attack. Sabine and Saxon get thrown out a window and continue their duel outside in the snow. Of course, Sabine wins the duel but she does not take Saxon’s life. Instead, Ursa ends up shooting him when he tries to shoot Sabine in the back.

When the fighting is over, Chopper arrives with the ship. Kanan warns Ursa that the Empire will come after them as soon as they find out what happened. He offers the Rebellion’s assistance but Ursa notes that they came there for her help. She also notes that they will be ready for the Empire when they come. The Mandalorians must rise up on their own. Sabine agrees with her mother, deciding to stay to help her clan instead of returning with Kanan and Ezra. As the Rebel ship takes off, Rau tells Sabine that she will be a good leader. Sabine disagrees but promises to find the right person to lead her people.

This episode proved that you don’t need a ton of action in order to have a great story. Sabine expected her family to treat her like a traitor to their people. Instead, her mother knew that Sabine left in order to protect her people and that she would be safer far away from Mandalore. It hasn’t been easy on any of them but it was necessary. Sabine never understood why her clan allied with the Empire instead of standing up for themselves. Now she knows that her father is basically a captive on Mandalore. I don’t know that the story will stay with Sabine and the Mandalorians since Rebels tends to be Ezra’s story. However, this season seems to be more about Sabine’s story than his. I hope that we will get to see how she deals with the conflict on her home planet and how she goes about winning the trust of the other clans. It will be upsetting if all of that happens off-screen.

SCORE
8.5/10