Star Wars Rebels - Legacy of Mandalore - Review: "Clan Wren"

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Star Wars Rebels Season 3 Episode Guide:
3.01 Steps Into Shadow Part 1 - Review
3.02 Steps Into Shadow Part 2 - Review
3.03 The Holocrons of Fate - Review
3.04 The Antilles Extraction - Review
3.05 Hera's Heroes - Review
3.06 The Last Battle - Review
3.07 Imperial Supercommandos - Review
3.08 Iron Squadron - Review
3.09 The Wynkahthu Job - Review
3.10 An Inside Man - Review
3.11 Visions and Voices - Review
3.12 Ghosts of Geonosis - Part 1 - Review
3.13 Ghosts of Geonosis - Part 2 - Review
3.14 Warhead - Review
3.15 Trials of the Darksaber - Review
3.16 Legacy of Mandalore - Review
3.17 Through Imperial Eyes - Airs February 25
3.18 Secret Cargo - Airs March 4
3.19 Double Agent Droid - Airs March 11
3.20 Twin Suns - Airs March 18
3.21 Zero Hour Part 1 - Airs March 25
3.22 Zero Hour Part 2 - Airs March 25

Star Wars Rebels 3.16 - Review:
Directed by Mel Zwyer & Written by Christopher Yost

Over the course of this season Star Wars Rebels may not have entirely been a perfect watch but it is still a pretty great season and I definitely feel like in the second half things are increasing in terms of quality now. This episode here essentially acts as a follow up to the previous one that was focused around Sabine's training and usage of the Darksaber whereas here the team are putting it to the test as they head to Mandalore, Sabine's home planet, to attempt to convince her people to join the Rebellion as they would be a valuable ally. There's just one problem, Sabine was thrown out of her family after siding with the Rebels and the Mandalorians are now on the side of the Empire, viewing Sabine as a traitor, with their ship being shot down upon entry.

Thankfully though Sabine has the Darksaber so she was able to earn an audience with her mother, Countess Ursa. But Ursa knows full well what the Empire is capable of and especially with Sabine's father at risk, who is basically a hostage. Given that Ezra and Kanan have accompanied Sabine along with Fenn Rau she realises that this is the perfect opportunity to redeem Sabine in the eyes of the Empire by offering to hand over the Jedi in exchange for her daughter's safety and protection. But Gar Saxon, the Imperial Viceroy and Governor decides to take this as an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and and take out both the Jedi and Sabine's family, trapping them. Making things harder for them the Jedi don't have access to their weapons, and as a result it looks like their days are numbered with even Sabine's bother Tristan apparently turning on her family.

Then things took a bit predictable, if welcome turn as Sabine's family decided to aid the Jedi and fight against Gar Saxon and his forces. It was something that was all but inevitable the second Gar Saxon turned on them but it allowed for a series of cool action sequences that followed as we got to basically see a group of Boba Fett-esque Mandalorians coming to blows with the Jedi and the House of Wren. It also led to one of the more memorable battle sequences of the season as Sabine found herself fighting against Gar Saxon with a lightsaber in her possession, using all the tactics that she'd learnt whilst wielding the Darksaber in the previous episode. It was a great fight and also is one of the rare occasions where both users of the two respective sabers can't use the force. It was also refreshing to see a lightsaber fight that didn't involve either Ezra or Kanan as well, with this episode really being the payoff for all of Sabine's character growth that she's experienced since the start of the series.

It was only after the battle concluded where things took an unexpected turn as Sabine opted to remain with her family on Mandalore to help them against the Empire. I was expecting her to head off with the Ghost crew again but it doesn't look that way and as much as I've come to like Sabine as a character, the more time she spends away from the crew of the Ghost would be welcomed, leading to a greater impact on her return. And now without Sabine on the team it's going to be interesting to see who steps up to fill the void in her absence, especially as Rau has also decided to remain with Sabine on Mandalore.

This episode then was a pretty good one for the most part even if it couldn't quite match the quality of the previous Trials of the Darksaber, which for me stands in the Top 5 episodes of the show so far. There's a lot of potential for this exciting new change to the status quo that the writers could explore should we see more of Sabine in the future, and the rescuing of her father sounds too exciting to simply be left to an off-screen event. Maybe it could even get its own spinoff mini-series? Either way, Legacy of Mandalore continued the mostly winning streak of the latter half of Season 3 and given that we're now not that far away from the end of the season, hopefully things are only going to get better from here on in.

What did you think of Legacy of Mandalore? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to look out for the next episode of Star Wars Rebels this Saturday on Disney XD at 8:30pm!

About the Author - Milo MJ

Milo is an Arsenal FC supporter and loves TV shows like Battlestar Galactica, Justified, The 100, The Americans and Person of Interest. He reviews Black Sails, The Magicians, Narcos, Preacher, Star Trek Discovery, Star Wars Rebels, The Shannara Chronicles, Silicon Valley and Veep for Spoiler TV. He also occasionaly writes book reviews at his own site, The Fictional Hangout and ontributes to comic reviews on a weekly basis for All-Comic. He also regularly watches and reviews films on Letterboxd, and you can find his ever-changing list of 250 favourite movies here.

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