Ahsoka Confirms The Fate Of A Fan-Favorite Mandalorian Clan
Spoilers for "Ahsoka" follow.
What compelled Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), a Mandalorian, to remove and store her neon beskar armor in "Ahsoka"? Episode 4, "A Fallen Jedi," insinuates a depressing answer to this, as well as her fervor to find her long-lost battle brother Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) in the far reaches of Wild Space. It's only when Sabine regains hope in Ezra's survival that she dons her beskar and Mandalorian weaponry again.
Sabine lands in a tight spot when she seemingly loses her Jedi master, Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson). Cornered by Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson), a former Jedi and Imperial-allied mercenary, Sabine holds the Wild Space map hostage. Through Force mind-reads and deduction, Baylan realizes that Sabine lost her Mandalorian birth family, which fuels her desperation to find Ezra. He tempts her to surrender the map in return for her survival, which gives the Thrawn loyalists the coordinates to Wild Space. It's a tough call on Sabine's part, especially given Ahsoka's warnings that Grand Admiral Thrawn's return will start another galactic war. But it's understandable in the situation, especially when you get to know Sabine's clan in "Rebels."
Sabine's history
Through childhood, Sabine (voiced by Tiya Sircar in "Rebels") survived the nightmare of the Imperial Academy of Mandalore. She was forced to design Imperial weapons used against her loved ones and fellow Mandalorians. But her most fatal creation was spurred by an Academy challenge: "The Duchess" (the mocking namesake of the pacifist Duchess Satine) that could target Mandalorian beskar and disintegrate the wearer. Taking a stand, Sabine destroyed the prototype and fled the Academy. Much to her despair, her family shunned her and pledged loyalty to the Empire. Sabine ultimately became adopted by a rebel cell, the Ghost crew led by Jedi Kanan Jarrus (voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr.) and Hera Syndulla (voiced by Vanessa Marshall). There, she befriended a new Ghost recruit, Ezra (voiced by Taylor Gray).
After her own catharsis in season 3 episode "Trials of the Darksaber," Sabine finally decided to make a homecoming to the snowy planet of Krownest, the seat of Clan Wren, where she knew she would get a chilly reception. Her mother, Countess Ursa Wren (Sharmila Devar), ordered her to be thrown into a cell for trial. That is, until Sabine revealed that she recovered the missing Darksaber, the coveted Mandalorian lightsaber that could denote the ruler of Mandalore, giving Sabine some sway over her family. We learn that Clan Wren was forced to be glorified servants of the Imperialized Mandalore, run by Governor Gar Saxon (voiced by Stevenson) of the Super Commandos. Although the Clan shunned Sabine, it was out of self-preservation. The Empire was holding her father, Alrich (voiced Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), hostage, while her younger brother Tristan (voiced Ritesh Rajan) was forced to serve Saxon in order to retain some favor.
Family obligations
Eventually, Ursa killed Saxon when the latter tried to violate his duel with Sabine for the Darksaber. She welcomed Sabine back into Clan Wren, prompting Sabine to stay with her family to help fight for Mandalore. Sabine and Tristen also got their brother-sister quality time together in a "Forces of Destiny" animated short where they saved a statue of Tarre Vizsla, the Jedi-Mandalorian ruler who wielded the Darksaber, from the Empire's clutches. Tellingly, the Wrens' dull white beskar gradually gained more color during Sabine's time there.
Despite regaining her clan's support, Sabine had to keep fighting her past when she teamed up with renowned Mandalorian warrior Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff). In "Rebels" season 4, she discovered that the Imperials somehow re-cobbled the Duchess, which killed some of her clan and Bo-Katan's soldiers. It narrowly missed her mother and brother.
After liberating her father and destroying The Duchess for good, Sabine decided Bo-Katan would make a worthy Mandalore leader and gave her the Darksaber. It was an optimistic choice then (that would branch off into Bo-Katan's character arc in "The Mandalorian"). Sabine subsequently returned to her Ghost family and the Rebellion. "Right now, my family here needs me more," she tells Hera Syndulla, her surrogate mother. She probably underestimated the emotional turmoil of not being there for one family.
Clan Wren
The draw of Sabine's family was their dramatic dynamic in contrast to the warmth of the Ghost family. A loyal Nite Owl soldier alongside Bo-Katan during "The Clone Wars," Countess Ursa Wren is a badass mom. That doesn't make her an ideal mom, although she was working with catch-22 circumstances and reasoned that Sabine running away saved her daughter from a worse fate under the Empire.
As a couple, Ursa and Alrich had a subversive gender dynamic themselves. In a "Rebels Recon #3.16" featurette, "Rebels" and "Ahsoka" creator Dave Filoni said that Alrich adopted Ursa's surname upon marriage. Whereas the beskar-armored Ursa endorses tough love, Alrich (who probably owns beskar armor but is never seen wearing it) is depicted as a gentle nurturer who embraced his daughter upon their reunion. He also gave Sabine her artistic sensibilities and doted over her aesthetic progress. In Sabine's words, her dad "fights with his art," which is linked to Sabine's specialty in pro-Rebellion graffiti.
The influential Wrens also have an untapped history that could inspire Wren-centric material. In the same "Rebels Recon," Filoni explained, "The Wrens fall into a [Mandalorian] group that would have been conquered by Mandalore." There's a bit to unpack with the implication that the ancient Krownest Wren family may have been conquered and then assimilated into Mandalorian culture. Filoni added, "And they've been loyal to [House Vizsla] so they are thought of very highly." Not that every Mandalorian likes Clan Wren, or the Death Watch extremist faction they once served. Like Bo-Katan and her former Death Watch Nite Owls in "The Clone Wars," Ursa has an unexplored checkered past.
The Wren legacy
Sabine's devastation in "Ahsoka" implies that Clan Wren died out when fighting for Mandalore in the Great Purge. If the resulting schism among Mandalorian factions were already consequential in "The Mandalorian," it also inflamed Sabine's discord with her Jedi master, Ahsoka, who may have prevented Sabine from joining the Wren's Mandalorian campaign. It also contextualizes why Sabine would rather motor off into her makeshift Lothal home rather than socialize with Lothalians who laud her as their savior. It's tough to carry a hero title when her fallen Mandalorians haunt her. During this depressive period, she didn't feel worthy of her beskar and hid it.
It's upsetting to kill off Clan Wren offscreen, especially because it's hard not to think of the live-action actors that could portray them in beskared glory. But for "Ahsoka" to drop that bomb suddenly on "Rebels" viewer is an effective maneuver that amplifies Sabine's guilt. While Sabine may be calculating a more complex plan in Baylan's custody, of course she would make a deal with the devil to find Ezra in Wild Space. Saving one surviving family member would make for an emotional release. Among layers of unspoken guilt, Sabine may have nursed second thoughts about entrusting the Darksaber to Bo-Katan. She also might have inherited the Countess title from her late mother, making her a surviving Wren with no family to protect or lead. If Baylan might be wrong in his read of Sabine's history, it's possible some of Sabine's clan may be more MIA than dead. But a complete fake-out would cheapen her personal stakes.
Composer Kevin Kiner has been slipping in Sabine's "Rebels" leitmotif throughout "Ahsoka" to evoke her turmoil. It emerged in "Trials of the Darksaber" when Sabine confesses her family history in her cathartic lightsaber duel. With a vengeance, the theme now inhabits the "Ahsoka" end credits, just to underscore how Sabine is still torn over lost family.