Reviews Of Blah: Star Wars Rebels S03E16 "Legacy of Mandalore"

Synopsys

Hoping to enlist her family to help the rebels, Sabine returns to her home world with Kanan and Ezra, but soon finds herself embroiled in her family’s power struggle for Mandalore.

What I thought

As with the last episode, I’ve been hearing good vibes about the Mandalorian storyline across social media. Once again though, it’s not really doing much for me. I’ve mentioned my issues with Mandalorian history before so I’ll not go into that again. Let’s just look at it from a half hour of entertainment perspective.

This was quite decent in terms of how the plot was set up, although the biggest issue away from Mandalorian things, was that you could see everything coming from a mile off. Sabine and co came with a plan. They knew how things would go down, so had Fenn Rau hide out in the ship after they were brought down by Sabine’s family clan. We then got to witness Fenn creeping about, watching Sabine’s mum betray the Jedi to Gar Saxon (who I believe is ruling Mandalore for the Empire). Once again, Chopper is a droid who is discarded by everyone. The Madalorians don’t even bother to clamp him etc. Droids really are like third world people in this universe most of the time. He’s seriously underestimated on almost every occasion by the opposition. Whilst the gang are doing their thing, Chopper’s fixed the shuttle and flies in at the end, giving his superman like pose. High Five Chopper!

This episode was all about introducing Sabine’s family. News Alert: She has a big brother it appears. Literally big. He looks massive compared to her, but has quite a young face. Her mum appears quite stern one moment, and then quite motherly the next. She quite willingly gives up the Jedi to Gar Saxon, and then changes her mind the next minute. Then, when Sabine is fighting Saxon, she obeys Mandalorian culture and doesn’t interfere, but the next, shoots Saxon. Sure, he was playing unfair by refusing to yield, but … oh well. It was actually a surprise to see a clear wound shot in this show and someone die on screen. Usually that’s all kept swept up under the carpet of being a cartoon but this time round it was graphically shown to all.

Overall, it was better than I expected, given it felt like we’d already seen this episode after the long wait and several clips online. It was also very predictable, with only the last minute throwing up a plot move I didn’t see coming, when Sabine chose to stay behind with her family to help Mandalore. I’d had it all figured in my mind that she’d wield the darksabre and be ruler by now. Alas, no. Although I got the distinct feeling at the end that she was hinting at Ezra or Kanan being the future ruler of Mandalore as she said that sentence whilst looking at the shuttle taking off. Unless she meant Chopper? LOL. One other thing that I constantly thought this week; the local glass-fitter on Mandalore has a job for life after all the window smashing that happened in the Sabine family’s house 😊

So, a solid episode, though rather predictable this week. Roll on next week when things should really start accelerating towards a finale. Rating 6/10.

What I liked: Glass smashing fun, scenic Mandalore, perhaps finally Sabine’s character is becoming more interesting and important. Hint of future Mandalore ruler.

What I didn’t like: It’s Mandalorian stuff, which doesn’t do much for me. Predictable storyline. Chopper being under-estimated by opposition for umpteenth time.