SPOILER Rebels Season 3 EP 14: "Trials of the Darksaber"

Well, now no more Satine is related to Kenobi.

 

This was my favorite episode of Rebels, but I have a feeling I'll be saying the same thing next week.

The Mandalorian episodes were easily my favorite of The Clone Wars, and I'm glad we're finally getting to see what ended up happening there.

 

I have watched this episode 3 times already, and that NEVER happened with any Rebels episode, last time this happened was during the season 5 Ahsoka finale.
I have felt so many feels during this episode.
*EDIT*
Turn 3 times into 5 now!

 

By far and away my favourite episode of the season thus far (which pains me to say considering Thrawn's return, but alas), and easily in my top ten episodes of the entire series. A few more viewings may be needed to solidify that, but man: this felt like Star Wars. By saying that, I mean no disrespect to other episodes of the show, but rather, this did incredibly well at building on existing lore (darksaber, House of Vizsla, etc.), and the lighting at the end was so heavily reminiscent of Luke vs Vader on Bespin.

In canon, the only real standouts of Mandalore are the Fetts, or rather, their armour. The Story Group knows what they have on their hands with Mandalore - heck, can you imagine an Old Republic era show about the Clans of Mandalore?! - and are being smart by not pushing it immediately into the front lines of the movies, as this has always been something the hardier fans have delved into.

I've been saying for a while now that it is no coincidence that we have the Knights of Ren when we have a character such as Sabine Wren on our hands. Whilst it's been hinted that the Knights are the Acolytes of the Beyond, I think they underwent a step between Aftermath and TFA that made them appear so...Mando-like. The helmets - the armour - the weapons.

I think Sabine unites the House of Vizsla and brings about a new era of Mandalore, making her name a prime candidate for some further treatment: the founding of the Knights of Ren.

 

Woah. Incredible episode, maybe my favourite so far.
I really like that they are doing more with Sabine.

Am I the only one who heard a few notes from "Rey`s Theme" during the scene with the Bendu?
May be nothing or just a coincidence, but I enjoy speculating on hidden things like that.

 

This was a perfect episode. The writing, acting, music. It really had depth.

So Kanan apologized to Sabine and while she said she can say the the same, she didn't. Apologies are not the Mando way.

 

At last another good arc episode! About time they started using Sabine more and it was nice to see them going through the lightsaber forms, it wasn't much but any description or fleshing out of lightsaber lore is great to see. Was that bird on Sabine's pauldron the Ahsoka related one or just some sort of regular bird creature? The only bad news is we now have to wait a month for the next episode.

Is this the start of Bendu + Sabine = Rey?!

 

I was hyped for the episode, but after having watched it I cannot but feel like the whole 'Sabine will lead us' narrative is kind of forced. I don't see Sabine as a leader figure at all, especially the leader of the whole Mandalore. And that kneeling moment wasn't my favorite either. But we'll see how it turns out at the end of the season.

 

Well I have to say that this was arguably my favorite episode of the season so far. I am a definitely a fan of expanding the lore of Star Wars and this episode certainly delivered on that with Tar Visla and the Darksaber. I enjoyed having Fenn Rau in this episode as he was very active in driving Sabine forward. I also really liked the music in the episode as it added nicely to each scene. This episode is primarily about Sabine but it is also about Kanan as well as he cares for her like a father would a daughter in a way. His fear of hurting Sabine comes from the fact that he and Hera are basically the only thing she has in the way of parental figures. Finally, I really liked the development of Sabine in this episode. She had to come to grips with the fact that her family betrayed her and that she needs to overcome that in order to save them. The parallel between the Darksaber and Excalibur is also pretty interesting.

 

That's funny that you would say that Leia was pretty much leading the rebellion in A New Hope, and we already saw how much she was involved earlier in the Rebels timeline.

 

No, she wasn't leading the rebellion in ANH. Have you seen Rogue One? Also, what's the logic in comparing Sabine and Leia?

 

So why do you think Sabine is not capable of leadership? You don't see any Leia parallels?

 

Now that was a great episode. The history of the Dark Saber was fantastic. Sabine's reluctance early in the episode initially seemed a little forced to me but the payoff in the end to get the backstory of her family and her was great. I really am liking Fenn Rau. His transformation from enemy to being 100% behind Sabine is great. I have a feeling that his support will be crucial in Sabine's success in having her family and clan follow her. We definitely need more Sabine. Her character arc is fascinating. @Kekstarter while she may not be a leader type currently, that is part of her character transformation. She will learn to become a leader. We have to remember she is only 17. There is lot of potential growth left with her character. It sucks we have to wait so long for the next episode. This one has left me wanting more.

 

Was I the only one getting Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows vibes with the story of the Darksaber?

 

What has she done to show any leadership skills? She is fiercely individualistic.

I loved this episode

The good:

The music- has bits of medieval and samurai tones to me

The emotions- This is the first time I've really liked Sabine. Hera got to shine too. I got the family vibes with Sabine and Ezra being the kids and Kanan and Hera being the parents. I know that is the central premise of the show, but I really felt it this time

The 2-d animation backstory- that Jedi mando bit was nicely stylized. It also saved them from creating a bunch of new assets.

The bad: nothing I hated in this one

The weird: Bendu's cameo was strange.

 

This episode hopefully will continue into a 3 episode story arc. Sabine and the darksaber and the story of Tar Vizla just makes it more enticing to see if Sabine becomes force sensitive. Similar to Rey where she knows what will happen if she takes control of what is needed. With this episode she is just like her family, so aggressive and conceited that she is finding ways to become something else that was is really needed. I think she unlocks her force sensitve side when she is alone and figuring it all out on her own, like she was meditating and when she kicks "bendu" he is there. hmmm. I would like to see her unlock the force in her. so she has the similarities to Tar Visla and that is what unites her and all mandalorians to help in season 3. but in all it was good. I like how Ezra and her connect/disconnect at times in the episode. You can tell that she has been well invested within the rebel crew to have such an importance in this season alone. I wanna see how her and Ezra will play out. I think we are gonna get alot of Positive Rebel crew episodes before the big crushing blow to them towards the end.

May the force be with you always...

--- Double Post Merged, Jan 22, 2017, Original Post Date: Jan 22, 2017 ---

I would like to feed off your comments and give you something that you can think off as well. the episode hands down was great. it showed us why Sabine was so important regarding her family heritage and what the darksaber means. it connects her with Kanan in a sort cause Kanan wants her to unlock the force that is possible inside her. I had a Rey vibe when she didnt want it and was getting frustrated when did want to listen. We each get a one on one connection with Sabine through Hera, Kanan, and Ezra. we see what importance they each see in her.

and you said "the weird". When she ran off and was sitting down and thinking about it all i wanted her to have a moment with Bendu. I just had a feeling that when she sat down it was Bendu and when she "kicked" Bendu he was there. To me I took it as that he can sense force presence around and he always shows up when something is wrong. So I hope its Sabine tapping into the force that Kanan thinks she can possibliy do. thats how I took it. I hope that kinda makes you think of it that way as well...

 

Pretty good episode with some great character moments. I don't think Sabine will end up leading Mandalore, she'll probably unite the clans fight off those who challenge her (her mother and Gar Saxon) and once she defeats them and all is united she'll break the Darksaber and say something about not following some weapon since that is what lead to Maul taking over Mandalore she'll then say that she is not a leader and nominate Fenn Rau to lead everyone cheers and Sabine stays on the Ghost crew.

One thing I liked about this episode was that it showed how difficult it can be for non-force sensitives to learn how to wield a lightsaber which hopefully lends more to the theory of my namesake.