REVIEW: Star Wars Rebels "Heroes of Mandalore"
Well, the final season of Rebels is underway. The first two episodes of the season were combined in the one-hour episode Heroes of Mandalore. The episode takes place entirely on Mandalore, which is nice. However, does that translate into good episodes?
The short answer is yes. They are good episodes. I don't think they're great, as I do have issues with them, but overall, I'd say they are entertaining episodes that move the Mandalore sub-plot along well in the end.
The episode kicks off on Mandalore. I'll say this, the entire first part of Heroes of Mandalore takes place entirely on the plains of Mandalore, which is entirely barren and desolate due to thousands of years of warfare. I thought that was a nice touch as we never truly focused on the actual planet of Mandalore in canon, just a few cities and places. Anyway, Kanan, Sabine, Sabine and other Mandalorians are on the planet trying to find Sabine's father, Alrich Wren.
Right off the bat, I'll say this, overall, the action in this episode, and there is a lot of it, is well done and animated. It's creative and full of energy. Every character has their moment to shine. However, if there is one thing that drived me up a wall, is that the characters, on both sides, can never hit each other. Seriously, there are times when characters are right next to each other and they can't hit anything. Highly trained, decorated warriors my ass.
The group is nearly defeated by the Empire when help is arrived in the form of Bo-Katan. Like I said before, I never had too much stalk in the character. I thought it was cool for continuity reasons they decided to bring her back, but I wasn't one of those people that were clamoring for her to come back.
That being said, she was still an interesting character in the episode and her revelations of what happened to her after the Clone Wars gives new insight into her character.
It is eventually revealed that Alrich is set to be taken back to the capitol of Sundari to be publicly executed. This leads to an fun, extended sequence with everyone trying to stop the prisoner escort and rescue Alrich. Again, the terrible aiming was irritated me a little bit, but Kanan was a badass and I got a kick out of Ezra struggling with his backpack, even though he used a backpack effectively in Zero Hour, but details, details.
They eventually do rescue Alrich and it's revealed he's not a warrior at all...he's an artist. Yes, he protested the Empire through art. Well, we know where Sabine gets her artistic side. All seems well when the Empire, under the command of Gar Saxon's brother Tiber Saxon, deploys a weapon called the Duchess that vaporizes anything that wears Mandalorian armor.
All the fans were right in their predictions as it's also revealed that this is the weapon that Sabine created for the Empire. This leads to a rather dark moment were members of Clan Wren are vaporized. You later see it somewhat in a hologram. It appears Sabine's mother and brother are dead too. That's where part one of the episode ends.
Of course, as soon as part two begins, it's revealed they somehow are alive because the range of the weapon is too short. Call me deranged, but I thought it would have been more effective to the story if they would have killed them off. Nope, instead we get the classic fake-out where the main people are fine, but the stupid extras, you dead.
The next part of the episode is every Mandalorian rightfully getting pissed off at Sabine. I mean, kudos to her, she accepts what she did and is willing to risk everything to try and correct her mistake and destroy the weapon. Meanwhile, we get a weird scene with Thrawn, yes, he's in this episode as a hologram, where he basically talks smack to Tiber about the flaws in his weapon and that by destroying their armor, you're destroying their culture. That's the thing about Thrawn, he would have no problem killing hundreds of Rebels in one fell swoop, but destroying art, that's crossing the line.
From there, the majority of the episode becomes one prolonged, yet entertaining action set piece on a Star Destroyer where everyone is trying to destroy the weapon. Like I said, it is entertaining. Eventually, Tiber subdues Sabine and Bo-Katan with the weapon and forces Sabine to improve the weapon's range. Of course, Sabine tricks Tiber and reverses the weapon to where it hurts Imperial armor. In a pretty serious scene, Bo-Katan stops Sabine from torturing Tiber to death with the weapon saying it's not the Mandalorian way. Um, Bo, you do realize, granted, this was Death Watch, but you do remember in the Clone Wars where you helped burn down an entire village and kill dozens of villagers for no good reason. Eventually, the weapon and the Star Destroyer are destroyed, Tiber is killed, and everyone is able to escape to fight another day. Granted, I feel like that is not the only prototype the Empire has. I feel like they made more than one.
The episode ends with all the clans rallying, including Sabine and Clan Wren, and pledging their loyalty to Bo-Katan, in which she finally accepts the darksaber from Sabine with Sabine saying the darksaber chose her to pass on to her. I can imagine some fans being upset with this, instead wanting Sabine to be the leader and this now undermining her development from season 3. I think though the darksaber was a tool to allow her to overcome her self-doubt and regrets from her past, as well as fully reconnect with her family and Mandalorian heritage. Plus, it does speak volumes that Sabine is able to realize she is not the most capable person to rule. I doubt this will be the final time we see Mandalore this season, though Sabine is listed in the descriptions of future episodes dealing with the Alliance, so I guess that whole, stay with Mandalore thing was just until you rescue daddy huh?
Overall, like I said, it was good, not great, but still entertaining premiere. I liked a lot of things about it, but also would question some things about it. Not the best, but certainly not the worst either.
