When it comes to cool Star Wars stuff, you won't find anything much better than Star Wars Rebels. Not only is it a good show in its own right, but the animated TV series continually adds new dimensions to the Star Wars canon, from bringing back fan favorite characters like Darth Maul to adding new mythology to the Force. Rebels has a wealth of material to draw from, and now it has once again dipped into the massive pool that is the Legends universe. In the latest episode of Rebels, Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus casually name dropped a huge story event from the fan-favorite video game series Knights of the Old Republic.
In the latest episode of Star Wars Rebels, Kanan begins to train Sabine in how to properly wield the Darksaber, a one of a kind lightsaber passed down among the Mandalorians (the badass warrior race Boba Fett comes from). The episode revealed a lot of new history to canon, such as Tar Vizsla, the first Mandalorian Jedi and the original wielder of the Darksaber. This would make you think that Sabine, herself a Mandalorian and a descendant of Vizsla, would end up being Force-sensitive, but that doesn't seem to be the case just yet. No, the big revelation comes from a casual line of dialogue from Kanan when he reprimands Sabine for using anti-Jedi weapons during training.
History lesson: The Jedi won the war against Mandalore.
Not only did this reveal that there even was a war between the Jedi and the Mandalorians, but it could be a reference to the Mandalorian Wars, a big set piece from the Knights of the Old Republic video games. The games, which take place thousands of years before the trilogies, tell the story of the ancient battle between the Jedi and the Sith, in which the Jedi and the Republic were almost wiped out by a Sith Lord named Darth Malak and his ARMY of Sith warriors. The Mandalorian Wars serve as a prequel to this event, in which Jedi Knight Revan and his then apprentice Malak disobey the Jedi Council to take part in the war. It's a big epic story with a series of comics and novels dedicated to it and technically none of it happened.
When Disney bought Lucasfilm and all of Star Wars, anything that was not officially a part of the filmed trilogies was categorized as the non-canon Legends universe -- including the Mandalorian Wars. Star Wars Rebels' reference to that conflict -- or at least some version of it -- is a sign that the events of Knights of the Old Republic games are canon again, which will no doubt excite the people who love those stories. This doesn't mean that those events still happened in canon beat for beat, but it's a start. Now, where is Mara Jade?!
Star Wars Rebels has had a busy season re-introducing Admiral Thrawn and tying into Rogue One, with an appearance from Obi-Wan Kenobi on the way. The show airs new episodes on Saturday nights at 8:30 p.m. EST on Disney XD.
