Full Series Rebels 3.15 - Trials of the Darksaber - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

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Actually Sabine should be about nineteen right now since were only two years away from Rogue One. Also I believe Pablo or Filoni confirmed her age? So not that young.

Edit: Ninja'd by Darth_Voider

 

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Pablo confirmed her to be 18 at this point.

 

This is why I love this show so much and I am willing to sit through not so awesome episodes.

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for me everything worked perfectly here. Kanan a completely different teacher, concerned Hera who knew how to be a disappointment to her parents (damn you Cham!), and Sabine so hurt, so hiding everything inside. Even Ezra was great and the thing he said about parents... he's still hurt too.
Great job Tyia and Freddie, great job everyone involved!

 

There was something in Kanan's voice that I haven't really heard before in this episode.

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Fear. When Sabine first wraps him in the energy cord or whatever it is, and he berates her you get a real sense of the level of danger involved.

This is perhaps the single most, well rounded character development episode we've had. Every character seemed to have gotten some screen time and developed. This revealed the long standing question we've been asking about Sabine since season 1.

 

Seriously! More episodes like this! I really enjoyed the episode, it felt a bit like the Knights of the Old Republic games.

 

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A very emotional episode.

 

This is probably the best and most consistently good episode they've done. The most interesting and fleshed out characters of the show, Kanan, Ezra and Hera, are all given great character moments and further depth, but more significantly Sabine, a flimsy and almost one-note character, is elevated to top tier status. So pleased also that Fenn Rau is back again and part of the cell.

 

What an awesome episode, everyone got to shine. Sabine really needed this episode, I'm glad they did her justice, I'm interested to see where they take it from here. Kanan as a teacher was wonderful, he's really come into his own after being blinded.

 

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Definitely, you could tell when he mentioned the war between the Jedi and the Mandalorians that it is personal to him too. Great voice acting to really convey that.

 

Agree, powerful episode this week.

 

Saw this on Tumblr and it is so true.

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http://pep-no.tumblr.com/post/156172995817/kanans-training-method[/spoiler]

 

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Finally, an episode about Sabine that gives her character development! And it was basically all character development! This episode finally did what I hoped the show would eventually-make Sabine something more interesting than the flawless artist warrior they've shown her to be (flawless=boring). They even manage to dig up some good characterization from it, showing how her Lisa Simpson-esque desire for perfection is perhaps an overcompensation for what she perceives as failures in her past and prevents her from trying to do things that might have failure as a possible outcome. She's a perfectionist because failure destroyed her relationship with her Mando family. What's also really cool is how they built off character building they've done for the rest of the crew. We know why Hera can understand someone alienated from their family. She's been there. We know why Ezra sympathizes with Sabine's training difficulties with Kanan. He's been there. While I feel her final soliloquy was a little too much tell rather than show (i.e. I'd prefer they explore the stuff she said organically when they actually meet the Mandos in the next episode rather than have her awkwardly blurt out her entire history), ultimately I think this is one of Rebel's best episodes.

Questions-
Did they imply Sabine spoke with Bendu off screen?

In the end there she was very emotional when she defeated Kanan. By Jedi logic, in being so was she tapping into the dark side?

 

Not too long ago I made a post in the discussion thread about how I was giving up on the show for being far too inconsistent, 70% of the show being mediocre, aside from season premiers, midseason/season finales, and the occasional good episode in between. Twitter then heavily praised this episode much more than usual, saying it's their favorite episode of the entire series, and despite everything I've said, there has been a few good ones, so I decided to give it a watch.

This one episode has given me immense hope that the show, three seasons in, will pick up in quality. What a great 20-some minutes that was, haven't been that sucked in, in a rebels episode in..ever. Great performances, great writing (aside from ezra's delivery on some lines early in the episode, and I've never hated on ezra). I'll be keeping a close eye on the show now.

 

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Yoda first acts like a fool to bring out Luke's inner impatience. Kanan acts hostile to bring out Sabine's inner antagonism. Seems analogous to a theory I once read about that some psychiatrists have when dealing with patients with borderline personality disorders. They don't think you make progress with the patient unless you manifest the patient's 'latent negative transference.' You confront them, make them hate you at the outset and then directly confront that anger. (I'm no psychiatrist so I have no idea if its a good theory. In fact I read about it in a book review about a book that seemed hostile to it, but I find the parallel interesting nonetheless).

 

That was emotional. And very well delivered. One of the best episodes.

 

While it advances the story the best thing this episode does is Sabine's character development. The emotional moments between her and Ezra and her duel with Kanan are done incredibly well, fleshing out her back story and making her all the more interesting not to mention fleshing out the history of the Dark Saber.

Loved this episode, can't wait for the follow up to see Sabine's family.

 

This may just be the best episode this season. If only for how Sabine's issues were handled and how Kanan drew it out of her.

Also I love how Rau's exposition invoked what was was almost certainly Darth Malgus' raid on the Jedi temple, and Shae Vizla's participation in that.

 

It's what you do in fencing, to keep less of your body a target. Probably a good move for a blind man teaching a newbie.

 

Probably my favorite episode of the season so far. A really well done bottle episode that didn't even need the background of a mission going on.

During the saber duel, I was curious that Kanan didn't put his lightsaber on training mode. I can presume the darksaber didn't have a training mode since Mandalorians probably aren't the type for training wheels. Perhaps since Sabine is Mandalorian herself, Kanan sought to bring out her strengths by appealing to her style and put her under pressure.

As disappointing as it is to go on a one-month hiatus already (it's only the third week into the second half, for crying out loud!), I'm glad to see that the next episode is an immediate follow-up. Please just don't do another hiatus right after.

 

I have to agree with Pablo Hidalgo on this, may be the best episode of the series! Actually I would say best of the series since the pilot episode of the series that was turned into a movie that I own on DVD !!! lots of emotion and Sabin character development which has been lacking in this series for her character. I always loved this show and would rank it as my second favorite television show behind Bobs Burgers! Totally different shows I know but they are my two favorite none the less!

 

Very very good episode
What we learned
Sabine has a brother
Info on the Dark Saber
Sabine's time as an imperial and how she developed weapons
How her family choose the empire over her
The Bendu just appears for some reason.

Other things.
The effect of the darksaber having electrical current between blades was sweet
The darksaber is powered by a crystal

Just a great character driven episode

Why the hell they are going on a break is beyond me.

 

Well good thing the warmongering Mando's lost a long time ago to the Jedi/Republic.

You would think the Mando's failures of the past and the horrors their culture has inflicted on the planet would have been a wake up call for Death Watch, but sadly it isn't. I hope eventually after the Empire is defeated we can see more of the Mando world support peace.

But I do think this time period is not the place for the Mando's to rise from ashes. The empire often looses their battles in this show, so eventually I want them to crush the mandolorian resistance, which would explain why we see a lack of their support during Rogue One.

 

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This was a very good episode. It started and ended very well.

Loved the cool animation at the beginning showing the history of the Darksaber. The episode wasn't rushed like Visions and Voices. It was slow, yet engaging thanks to the character development we got from everyone involved. I can't think of a single con. That's unusual for me.

 

It's like Kanan is not even blind with all the stuff he does. He practically even looks at people when he's talking to them. I wonder if his ear-holes got burnt up, after a while the Force would just allow him to still hear everyone speak.