Star Wars: Sabine Wren Has Always Been Great

Hi! It’s Annie!

Sabine Wren has been my all time favorite Star Wars character since I was a young teenager. I personally get into media more because of characters than anything else, including plot. If a show, movie, book, or anything else doesn’t have a specific character that I feel attached to, it is much more difficult for me to get into that thing. And while I really loved the world of Star Wars and some of the characters; when I first binge watched the prequels and the original trilogy, I didn’t really feel super connected to any of the characters. Around this time ‘Star Wars: Rebels’ first started airing and suddenly I was absolutely into Star Wars because I loved the character of Sabine Wren. I fell in love with her immediately. And throughout the years many Star Wars fans have told me and other fans of ‘Rebels’ that we weren’t true fans of Star Wars because we liked the show or had favorite characters that came from the show. So imagine my absolute excitement when they announced Sabine Wren as a main character in ‘Ahsoka’, which is basically a semi-sequel of ‘Rebels’, and because of that the series began to be more widely accepted in the fandom. But Sabine isn’t just good now because she’ll be getting an increased amount of substantial characterization in a live action format. Sabine Wren was always great! Some people just didn’t see it. Here are some reasons why people in the Star Wars fandom have put Sabine down for years and why they’ve always been wrong.

“Mandalorians can’t wear pink!”:

Why not? Seriously, why not? One of the main arguments here, was that the only reason why they made her armor pink was to appeal to little girls. And whether or not that was part of their decision in deciding the coloring of her armor is neither here nor there. What do you have against the color pink? A lot of criticism has been thrown at particularly women over the years for trying to bring the color pink into fandom spaces where it “doesn’t belong”. But while a natural color that exists in nature that is simply a mixing of red and white somehow “doesn’t belong”, they are perfectly fine with literally any other color as long as it doesn’t feel too feminine for them. This fandom really has no excuse since Sam Jackson pulled purple into it. And it’s also a franchise in a fictional world! Introducing one color does not suddenly make that world less fun or less valuable. On top of that, we’ve known for a little while that Mandalorians forge their own armor. This wasn’t quite expanded on until ‘The Mandalorian’ was released, but it was part of the lore. In fact, Boba Fett’s armor is a bit more creatively painted than most other Mandalorian’s armor. Sabine Wren is an artist who no longer lives on Mandalor. Her armor being crazy colors is not only interesting to look at but entirely realistic. I personally think Mandalorian armor wouldn’t be as fun to look at if it all was silver like Din’s. There’s no reason to be offended by the color pink. None. And women should not be shamed for making OCs who wear pink or for liking characters who wear pink.

“Mandalorians don’t act like that!”:

I assume this was because Mandalorians have been largely portrayed to be pretty stoic. But ‘Clone Wars’ proved that Mandalorians weren’t all like this long before Sabine Wren came into the picture. I’m honestly not quite sure why Sabine was looked down on for having a more sassy and spunky personality type. Not every Mandalorian should act the same way and Boba Fett and Bo Katan definitely showed Mandalorians acting in a way that was more than just disciplined. I feel like once Din Djarin became a character, people used him to point fingers at other Mandalorians; saying that this is what they should have always been like. I think to say that content that has come before is completely wrong because you want an entire group of people within a franchise to act exactly the same way is a bit ridiculous. Let the writers be creative with what they want to do! Not only that, but people seem to forget that we’re talking about Dave Filoni here. A man who is widely accepted to be one of the best writers in Star Wars. I love that Sabine has a smart mouth and a creative side to her. It gives her more depth and character! There was so much done creatively to make Sabine Wren stand out from the moment she stepped on screen. You knew who she was just by looking at her, but they still had plenty of surprises in store. I love her characterization!

“Mandalorians don’t wield lightsabers!”

The idea that the Mandalorians have a darksaber was controversial from the moment it was introduced. And it’s still a question within the fandom of whether or not this should be a thing. But it is undeniably cool, whether or not you believe that force wielders should be the only ones who get to have lightsaber type weapons. Sabine, however, has wielded Ezra’s lightsaber on multiple occasions and I’ve seen people have issues with that too. However, Sabine went through a rigorous training process to learn how to wield a lightsaber. We see her train with both Kanan and Ezra, and struggle to learn how to adapt it to her own fight style. This is just another piece of her story that was very in depth and added to her characterization. I am so excited to see her wield Ezra’s lightsaber even more in the new series!

“She was made for kids!”:

I’m sure this is an accusation that has followed Star Wars content for years. Many fans have been accused of liking something for kids. So why then fling these accusations at other Star Wars fans? Star Wars has always been for whoever wants it! In fact, most content is like that. Being an adult is already a scam, so why tell people what they can and can’t watch and what they should and shouldn’t grow out of? Dave Filoni didn’t write ‘Rebels’ for kids, he wrote it for any Star Wars fan. There’s actually a series of videos that they came out with before the release of ‘Rebels’ that feature Filoni animatedly talking about what he was excited for and what he felt fans would be excited for. Just like ‘Clone Wars’; this isn’t a show just for children. ‘Ahsoka’ adapting it only proves that this has always been a completely valid and truly exceptional addition to the Star Wars universe. Seeing Ezra and Sabine grow up over the course of the series just made you feel like you were close with those characters. Sabine starts the series at sixteen and ends it at twenty-one. I am so excited to see her story continue even beyond that.

I love Sabine. She’s such a strong female character that they never stripped femininity away from. She kicked ass and wore pink and that is all that I ever aspire to do. I am one of those people who loves pastels, particularly pink, and I always have and will continue to wear it. She also showed a young me that you don’t just have to have one personality type to love pink. And on top of all of that badassery, she also had tons of character depth and was created to be relatable. I grew alongside her. And to now as a twenty-something see her come to life in this new way is so magical to me. But I should have never had to defend myself for Sabine being my favorite character. She shouldn’t be a character who is just accepted now that she’s getting the live action treatment. We need to stop judging people for what kind of Star Wars content they connect with the most. Sabine has always been great and I’m so excited to see her again and grow with her some more!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie