That latest episode of Star Wars Rebels, Trials of the Darksaber, gives us a major look at
the history of the darksaber and Mandalore, as well as a look into Sabine’s character.
I see this as kind of a spiritual successor to the earlier episode this season, Hera’s
Heroes.
It continues to explore what it means to be a family, but takes it a step further and
asks what happens not only when your flesh and blood abandons you, but also what it means
to return to them.
Fenn Rau teaches Kanan the history of the darksaber.
That it was created by the first Mandalorian Jedi.
Saying Tar Vizsla was the first implies there have been more in the thousand years since
his time, but even in Legends Mandalorian Jedi were a rare sight.
After Tar’s death the darksaber was kept in the Jedi Temple until it was stolen back
by Clan Vizsla, who then used it as a symbol of power to rule Mandalore.
That’s all relevant today because of course the Rebel Alliance could use some Mandalorians
on their side.
Hera specifically says they would be helpful in the attack on Lothal.
So the Atollon Rebels are planning to take out the TIE Defender base, which isn’t new
exactly, but its mention here definitely leads me to believe it’s a trap.
But I’ll get to speculation a little later.
The thought is that if Sabine can learn to fight with the darksaber, she could unite
her people, or at least her family, and bring more Mandalorians to join their cause.
She doesn’t seem too keen on the idea of facing her family again, and Hera sympathises
with her, but also pushes her to do it anyway.
She expresses knowing how Sabine feels in regards to having a complicated family, and
I like the way that this show takes time to have these emotional throughlines between
episodes.
Last week we saw Wedge and Hobbie, and it’s great that we see visual consistencies like
that, but I think it’s even cooler that a cartoon has consistent emotional development
for its characters as well.
Sabine spends days training with Kanan, and before we even get to a breakthrough on Sabine’s
family, we learn a good deal about the Force and the Jedi.
Kanan confirms that the Force is in all living things whether they want it or not.
That anyone with the willingness to accept the Force can learn to wield it at least to
some degree.
That’s how I’m understanding what he’s saying anyway.
I certainly think that people can be born with more inherent connection to the Force,
but I like the idea that technically anyone could be a Jedi.
The Jedi from the prequels had some issues, even by Yoda’s admission.
I think one of them is that they became less spiritual about the Force and more clinical.
They relied on blood tests to find individuals that already had that connection, and maybe
they ignored the potential of beings that had the desire but not the inherent talent.
Speaking of the old Jedi Order, maybe Kanan is meant to be stepping stone into a new generation
of Jedi.
I would say he’s broken a lot of the rules the Order had, yet he was still knighted by
Yoda in season two.
This season has been about him finding balance in the Force.
His journey has been very spiritual, and in my eyes it’s like we are seeing him take
the Jedi a step back in the right direction.
When we met Yoda in the Empire Strikes Back, he never warned Luke against emotional attachments.
Yet when we see them in the prequels, love is forbidden?
I think we are seeing a change in the Jedi Order, and Kanan is that change.
A Padawan largely trained under the old rules that now has to make his own.
I think Yoda continues that philosophy with Luke, and Luke will likely continue it in
his own Jedi Order.
But I’m getting off topic.
Sabine’s training continues to give us new details on the history of Mandalore and the
darksaber.
Kanan mentions that the Jedi won the war with Mandalore, so it’s sounding like the Mandalorian
Wars, or at least something like it, are back in the canon.
If you’re unfamiliar with that, in Star Wars Legends, the Mandalorian Wars took place
about four thousand years before the films, introduced the character Darth Revan, and
also involved the devastation of Malachor.
Like we saw with Malachor having a new history, I’m sure the Mandalorian Wars will be adjusted
as well, but it’s cool that at least something similar happened.
As for the darksaber, we learn at least a little about it technologically.
Kanan says it has a crystal, which is something I’ve always wondered, only because the blade
behaves so differently than that of a normal lightsaber.
The new animations for it were really cool, showing it crackle with energy.
I guess the differences can be accounted for the way Tar Vizsla constructed it, rather
than a different energy source.
We still don’t know yet.
When Sabine finally opens up about her anxieties surrounding her family, she tells us that
she didn’t abandon them, but rather it was the other way around.
She built weapons for the Empire that they then used on Mandalore, and when she tried
to speak out against it, her family sided with the Empire instead of her.
She left the Empire to stop making weapons, kind of like Galen Erso, but also because
she herself had been betrayed by her family.
So it’s understandable that she wouldn’t be too excited to head back home and unite
them.
We do know she’ll go back, where we will probably meet not only her mother, but her
father and brother as well.
At one point Sabine says the Empire wanted to destroy planets.
This could just be a cool thematic line, but it does make me wonder what kind of weapons
she was working on.
By the way, the Bendu makes a cameo appearance, and gains some insight into Sabine.
I wonder if that will come back, and I also wonder if Sabine could have even seen the
Bendu if he had moved.
I’m still not sure how he works, exactly.
If he’s more a spirit than an actual creature only seen when he wishes it, or what.
As for what I think will happen, she will be successful and at least some Mandalorians
will join her to help fight the Empire.
In fact, the Mandalorians could take the place of two groups from Star Wars Legends that
were involved in Thrawn’s story.
First, the Noghri were a group of aliens whose world was poisoned by the Empire so they would
rely on them for assistance.
The threat of attack on Mandalore is different, but I think they could be considered a subjugated
race.
Group number two is a small army of smugglers.
In the final battle of the Thrawn Trilogy their surprise appearance starts to turn the
tide of the fight in the Rebels direction.
So I do think we will see Mandalore join with the Rebels, but it might be a dramatic and
important decision made at the last second when they can swoop in and help save some
lives.
The next episode is a ways off, but it sounds like it will continue this thread of Mandalore
and the darksaber.
But that’s it for today!
If you want to see my other Rebels reviews, you can see watch them in this playlist.
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As always, thanks for watching and may the Force be with you!