She’s alone…and has been for a while.
All this leads up to the key moment in the story. After walking away (again) from the challenge, Sabine returns, ready to face it all. Kanan, patiently waiting, hands her the Darksaber and, for the first time, Sabine accepts it. Not just the weapon itself, but everything it represents on the surface—the legacy and purpose—and everything it represents to her: facing off with her family and her past.
And so begins an intense training session where the teacher, learning to instruct like he never thought he could, spars with the student fighting herself. With each strike of his blade, Kanan digs deeper and deeper into Sabine’s soul. She’s fighting back, but it’s defensive, restrained. The walls are up. Kanan presses harder and harder until she breaks. For the first time, Sabine is honest and her emotional breakdown launches this show well beyond the “for kids” realm. It’s raw and real.
Sabine Wren made a colossal mistake, accidentally creating weapons of mass destruction for the Empire that led to the defeat and enslavement of her Mandalorian people, and she left for them. To protect them. The cost was her own family as her father, mother, and brother, and entire clan did not stand with her. In a sense, she ran away, but the truth is she was abandoned, and she doesn’t want to face them again. This is why Sabine could not even comprehend taking the Darksaber and leading her people. It wasn’t just about responsibility. And, in truth, she doesn’t know if she even wants to lead them. Kanan assures her that this family—her rebel family—will stand by her no matter what she decides to do (something that is important later on when Sabine passes the Darksaber over to Bo-Katan Kryze).
Through the story of a treasured piece of Star Wars lore comes one of the deepest looks at the inner workings of family, confronting your biggest mistakes, and facing down the very core of your fears. All of which leads to true healing. Star Wars Rebels may have started out as a fun romp through the early days of the Rebellion through the eyes of a plucky orphan and his new friends, but it matured into so much more. It turned that corner when Sabine Wren went through the trials of the Darksaber.
90
Cassian Andor: Separatist Blood
It takes all kinds to rebel
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story novelization
Author: Alexander Freed
For most of your Star Wars fandom, you roam around the landscape, thinking that the beings that make up the Rebels are the clear-cut good guys. And, well, don’t worry, they are. This is a war of good versus evil, after all. A New Hope makes that pretty clear. However, as the years—and franchise—have rolled on, a new, more realistic picture of the people behind the Rebellion versus the Empire has emerged. And it’s wonderfully not as clean as first thought.
When we first meet Rebel spy Cassian Andor, he’s sneaking around an Imperial-occupied city on the Rings of Kafrene. Cool. Yeah. That’s what you’d expect of a Rebel spy named Cassian Andor. Then. Boom. (Or rather Pew Pew Pew.) He does something you would never expect: He sends a laser blast into the back of his informant Tivik and kills him. A Rebel just shot someone in the back! That’s not something you would have seen in A New Hope. The waters of this Rebel river are now murky. The Rebellion against the Empire wasn’t just like-minded politicians, good-hearted smugglers, and daydreaming moisture farmers. It was built with species from all parts of the galaxy and they brought with them different beliefs, strategies, and histories. A much more interesting and dynamic makeup of the Rebellion, which was why it was pretty damn cool (and definitely) surprising to learn that Cassian Andor, Rebel spy, was from a family of Separatists.
As it plays out on screen in Rogue One, Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor is conflicted and haunted by everything in his past. There is no doubt he believes in the cause. Andor is a rebel to the core. Nonetheless, his actions have weighed heavily on his soul and he wonders if it is all worth it. Additionally, he is also very standoffish with his new allies Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus. Their belief in and history with the Force, particularly Chirrut’s, seem to rub this Rebel spy the wrong way; which is weird because don’t the Rebels believe in the Force? Rebel leader General Jan Dodonna was the first onscreen character to say, “May the Force be with you.” Not Obi-Wan Kenobi. Not Luke Skywalker. It was a Rebel. They’re the good team. The Force likes them. They like the Force, right? Yet, here was Cassian Andor, standing out from under the protective umbrella of the Force.
The answer came in the Rogue One novelization by Alexander Freed when we the reader had the benefit of getting inside the mind of Cassian Andor. It’s stated plainly on page eighty-eight: Cassian Andor was raised by a family loyal to the Separatists. These were the people and planets that made up the Confederacy of Independent Systems and they stood against the Republic. In other words, the “bad guys” from the Star Wars prequels. Cassian Andor grew up fighting the Jedi and their clone armies.
It was a revelation worthy of putting down the book and ruminating on. It adds these delectable layers to the Rebels and it makes you look even closer at the events, major players, and points of view of the Clone Wars era. The Republic became the Empire. Perhaps Padmé was right when she asked Anakin whether he ever considered that they were fighting on the wrong side. You have to wonder about the true intentions of Count Dooku breaking away from the Jedi Order and leading the Separatists movement. Was it just about becoming a Sith Lord? Deep questions that make going back to watch and read these lil’ Star Wars stories that much more fun.
Cassian Andor being raised a Separatist fuels the fires of what makes him a rebel. He was a child when he became part of an Outer Rim insurrection cell, a soldier at six years old. His father died resisting. He watched as the Republic stamped out the Separatists and tightened its grip on the galaxy under a new name. He joined a new cause and had to learn to fight alongside people that fought against his family. Just as they had to learn to fight with him. Everyone—from Saw Gerrera to Mon Mothma to General Draven to Princess Leia—had a different idea of how to rebel against the Empire. Yet they all had to learn to work together in pursuit of the same goal. Cassian Andor is the face of this new Rebellion: Different paths leading to a shared goal: freedom for the galaxy.
Now you can pick up the book and finish reading about those plucky Rebels.
89
The death of Captain Canady
Star Wars: Episode VIII—The Last Jedi
Writer: Rian Johnson
Director: Rian Johnson
In the waning days of the Galactic Empire’s reign, survivors and leaders hand-selected by Palpatine himself headed out into the shadows of the Unknown Regions to reform, regroup, and rethink how best to rule the galaxy again. As Grand Admiral Rae Sloane said in the final moments of Chuck Wendig’s novel Aftermath: Empire’s End, “It’s time to start over. That is our first order. To begin again. And to get it right, this time.” The Empire was no more, but the First Order was born that day.
A lot happened between then and the events that led up to The Force Awakens. The First Order grew for sure. It made itself into a looming threat to the New Republic and then struck out in full force, scarring the galaxy forever. However, the First Order is a combustible mix of the old and the new. Leaders like the frenetic fascist General Armitage Hux and emotionally unchained Kylo Ren are new to the party; leaders like Captain Moden Canady have been around since the glory days.
When the First Order dreadnought the Fulminatrix arrives in all its splendor to finish off the pitiful Resistance
