Who Is Sabine Wren?

Star Wars

Sep 16

She created a weapon that could wipe out her people, she wielded the Darksaber but never ruled over Mandalore, she had, according to Huyang the lowest aptitude for the Force he had ever met, and still, she was trained by Ahsoka Tano. And she owned a Loth-cat.

This is Sabine Wren.

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Lady Wren

Sabine Wren was born on the planet Mandalore in 21 before the Battle of Yavin. Her father, Alrich Wren was an artist, and her mother Ursa was a member of Death Watch during the Clone Wars. She also had a younger brother, Tristan.

Led by Countess Ursa, the family was the backbone of Clan Wren, which itself was part of House Vizla, one of the most important factions of Mandalore.

Sabine was raised both on Mandalore and on the families' ancestral home Knownest, an icy planet in the Mandalore sector. As was the tradition of House Viszla, she was trained as a Mandalorian fighter from an early age. This included both physical close combat fighting, as well as all kinds of weapon mastery.

When the Clone Wars ended and the Empire established an Imperial Academy on Mandalore, Sabine joined as a cadet, at first fully in tune with the strict order of the new regime.

Runaway girl

Still a teenager, she created the Arc Pulse Generator and nicknamed it The Duchess, after the former ruler of Mandalore, Satine Kryze. The APG could superheat Bescar, the material the Mandalorian armor was made of, painfully killing the person wearing it.

Initially thinking that the Empire would use her creation for peaceful matters, she sabotaged and later destroyed the weapon and defected from the Imperial academy when she realized that the Empire planned to use the APG against her own people. Seeing her as a traitor, her mother cast Sabine out, while the girl had to live with the guilt over what she had done.

Sabine fled Madalore with the help of her friend Ketsu Onyo, and the two girls became bounty hunters, dreaming of joining the criminal organization Black Sun. When Ketsu betrayed Sabine, the two parted on bad terms until years later, they met again, saved each others' lives, and reestablished their friendship.

Spectre 5

When Sabine was sixteen, she met a Twi'lek pilot named Hera Syndulla and a former Jedi named Kanan Jarrus, who recruited her into their small rebel cell called the Spectres, making Sabine Spectre 5. The crew also included the Lassat Garazeb Orrelios and the astromech droid C1-10P (Chopper). Soon after, Ezra Bridger, a pickpocket from Lothal, who was two years younger than Sabine, joined the crew. In the beginning, Ezra tried to flirt with Sabine, but as she didn't react favorably to his intentions, he gave up, and the two stayed just friends.

At first, the Spectres only dealt small blows against the Empire, like stealing food and distributing it to the poor or helping refugees, but later their missions got bolder, and they also infiltrated Imperial bases and ships to get intel or sabotaged and destroyed Imperial weapons, spaceships, and infrastructure.

During their missions, they briefly teamed up with R2-D2 and C-3PO, Lando Calrissian, and Princess Leia.

Also, in the years up to the Battle of Yavin Sabine earned her nickname The Artist. As a free thinker, she was fond of expressing her emotions through art and frequently sprayed the symbol of the Firebird, which later became the emblem of the Rebel Alliance onto places where the Specres attacked. She once completely repainted a stolen TIE fighter, and when she blew something up, her motivation was not only to cause as much damage and destruction as possible but also to have the explosions go off aesthetically. Finally, she frequently changed the color of her hair and also added several paint jobs to her Mandalorian armor.

Although the crew of the ghost treated her as family, she had trust issues, often spending time alone, and when Hera made contact with an informant called Fulcrum (who later turned out to be Ahsoka Tano), she doubted not only the integrity of this new ally but also that of Hera herself.

The Darksaber

During one of their missions, Sabine was able to acquire the Darksaber, the ancient weapon constructed by a Mandalorian Jedi. Still haunted by her past, she refused to wield it and take the role of ruler of Mandalore, but then reluctantly started training with it under the tutelage of Kanan and Ezra.

Much like Din Djarin, she initially struggled to properly use the ancient weapon as she mainly fought against it, and not with it.

Family reunion

Hoping to find new allies in their fight against the Empire, the Spectres traveled to Knownest to persuade Clan Wren to join their cause. At first, Ursa was unwilling to regard her daughter as anything but a disgrace to the Mandalorians and a traitor and even tried to sell out the rebels to Gar Saxon, the Empire's puppet ruler over Mandalore and only changed her mind when Saxon also tried to kill Sabine.

In the ensuing battle, Sabine fought and bested Saxon using the Darksaber and afterward decided to stay on Knownest to help her family reunite Mandalore.

Correcting the sins of the past

Eager to fight off Clan Saxon, who was still loyal to the Empire, Sabine, Ursa, and the rest of Clan Wren freed Alrich Wren from Imperial captivity with the help of the former ruler of Mandalore, Bo-Katan Kryze.

The Empire, in return, activated the Duchess, the devastating weapon that Sabine had created. Although she had destroyed her invention when leaving the academy, the Empire had been able to build a new one from her plans and concepts. Thinking that the APG had killed both her mother and brother, Sabine was devastated until she learned that her family was able to reach a safe distance when the Empire attacked.

In a common assault with Bo-Katan, Sabine managed to reprogram the Duchess, so that it would target stormtrooper armor instead of Beskar, while Chopper deleted all existing plans of the weapon so that the Empire could not rebuild it again.

Reckoning Bo-Katan as the true ruler of Mandalore, Sabine handed over the Darksaber to Bo-Katan, who reluctantly accepted it.

Commander Wren

Sabine was present at the Siege of Lothal when the newly founded Rebel Alliance advanced against and defeated Grand Admiral Thrawn and his troops. When Etza Bridger and Thrawn disappeared into the unknown together with the Purgills, she stayed behind on Lothal, even moving into Ezra's old communication tower, waiting for the revenge of the Empire that never came.

One with the Force?

Rebels never made any mention of Sabine being Force-sensitive. When training her, neither Kanan nor Ezra ever mentioned that they had sensed this ability in her.

Still, the show included several subtle hints that this might be the case. Throughout Rebels, things always seemed to come very easily to Sabine. She could jump higher and over greater distances than any "normal" human, had incredible instincts and reflexes, and was both an expert pilot and a formidable fighter for her young age. Back then, this could have been attributed to her Mandalorian training or the simple fact that Rebels was a cartoon show and not life-action.

Still, on many occasions, Sabine showed "superhuman" powers that are normally only present in Force-users.

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