Star Wars Rebels S3: "Trials of the Darksaber"

THIS is the kind of content I wish was explored on Rebels. I'm not talking about just Mandalorian or Sabine arcs, but content that acutally fleshes out characters and the Star Wars universe as a whole. I hate that we're constantly given one-off, goofy episodes that don't really have a big impact on the universe as a whole. "Trials of the Dark Saber" thankfully did the opposite of that. I loved how it touched on the lore of the first Mandalorian Jedi, the Jedi-Mandalorian War, Sabine's relationship to her Mandalorian family, and Sabine's relationship with those who will follow her in the future. This episode even transcended the cliches of other shows and movies whereby the female protagonist is looked down upon during their training because they're female. We learn that Kanan's reservation over Sabine's training isn't because she happens to be female, but it is truly due to Sabine's unwillingness to want to lead the people who betrayed her in the first place. I found this to be refreshing because the show could have gone down that path, but it was above that sexist junk. It was because of Sabine's reluctantness that it truly added to who she was as a character. With Sabine, we're always given this persona of a courageous and confident Mandalorian who is willing to jump into battle whenever she can, but this episode really broke her down to a human character. We were shown her faults, and by the end of the episode, we stood up with her ready to see her fight to regain her Mandalorian family.

As for the rest of our characters in this episode, Kanan's stubbornness and impatience as a teacher showed itself once again as we see how he basically has a difficult time training students in general. I find this to be natural and needed as it creates an interesting dynamic when having him grow into that role of being a mentor. This is especially true now that he has force-sensitive and non-force-sensitive students. Even if training Sabine was just for this episode, I think it allows him to grow more as he continues to mentor Ezra. For Ezra, I think that it was important to have him take a backseat for once. He's constantly being shown taking the lead on missions or he's in the main brunt of things, but we haven't really had him be the supporting character with other characters this season. I enjoyed having him practice with Sabine and not think that she couldn't handle the responsibility that came with the Dark Saber. We're given a sense as to how much he's learned under Kanan, yet we see that he hasn't mastered everything, which is important to have in a show where he's basically the main character we're going to follow until the end.

The one character I was disappointed in was Fenn Rau. I was hoping that he would have more insight into Sabine's training given that he is a more experienced Mandalorian. I would have liked to see Sabine use some of Fenn Rau's teachings and combine it with the training she got with Kanan, but I understand that they used the Mandalorian armbands for that specific reason, especially when you consider that they only have 20 minutes for each episode. On a side note, I wasn't disappointed with him as much as I was confused by his appearance, but what was the point of having the Bendu appear of Sabine kicked him? She never mentions having talked to him, so I'm just confused as to what we were supposed to interpret from that scene.

Overall, this episode was incredibly done. From the writing to the animation, this episode will go down as one of the best Rebels epsisodes we have ever had. My only wish is that the rest of the season does not disappoint and gives us more filler like how almost all of Season 3 has felt. For those who've loved this episode as much as I have, but haven't seen any of the Clone Wars animated series, I would recommend watching all the Mandalorian episodes as you get a taste as to who House Vizlsa was and what they stood for. Even if you have seen The Clone Wars, I still think it would serve as a nice refresher for the rest of the season along with the Son of Dathomir Darth Maul comic.

Star Wars Rebels S3: "Warhead"

       First off, I feel that it is important to express my opinions on whether this episode is filler or not. To me, this episode was a bit of both whereby we have Zeb, Chopper, and AP-5 making a mess of things as they try to take out the Imperial Probe droid, while in the last few minutes of the episode we learn that it was actually an important episode in the grand scheme of Season 3. This episode was able to give us those little teasers of how Thrawn works when trying to complete his ultimate goal of finding a major Rebel base, while also subtly telling the viewer that we're basically done with Zeb.

       Overall, I thought that it was an OK episode. Really, you could have just skipped this episode and it wouldn't really affect your knowledge of "Rebels". Honestly, you could just read the summary of the episode and you're good going forward. However, what I feel this episode was really intended for was to highlight Zeb in more of a leading role. Given my previous statement, I think that it's finally safe to assume that Zeb doesn't really have much time left on the show given how the creators had to basically make a whole episode just to include him. Everyone mostly cares about Kanan, Sabine, and Ezra more than they do for the poor leftover Lassat. That's why I think that Zeb's time is done now that the story seems to be focused more on Sabine, Ezra, and even Maul when also given the fact that the Lassats have been found to not be extinct thanks to Zeb. Even though this appears to be true, I am saddened about it because he's been a fun character to explore and learn about as he's basically, in my opinion, a grumpier version of Chewbacca. I loved how the episode explored this as his tactical skills weren't up to par to handle a menace like the Imperial Droid, which only made him grumpier and funnier. Even his interaction with AP-5 was hilarious as we really haven't seen AP-5 interact with the rest of the Rebels besides Chopper.

       Speaking of AP-5, he stole the show for me. I love how he's basically a Star Wars version of Marvin from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. His attitude towards how the Rebels operate and organize was fun to watch as his background to completely different methods was on display as he would constantly complain about the Rebels and their own methods of doing things. I especially loved his interaction with Zeb as he would constantly question his intelligence even though he is capable of destroying AP-5 if he wanted to. Either way, this episode really stood out to me with how much of a presence AP-5 has when on screen, and that only makes me hope that he continues to be a part of the show.