With the Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 3 Releasing not long ago,
we finally know that Bo-Katan is still alive, and fighting to reclaim the incredibly important
Darksaber from Moff Gideon. But if she is still alive, how did she lose the Darksaber?
So, I’m going to break down exactly how Bo-Katan Kryze obtained the darksaber,
and some awesome theories on how she may have lost it.
Before we get into it, make sure to smash the subscribe button for more awesome Mandalorian
Season 2 content. At the moment, only a small percentage of you are subscribed to the channel,
so make sure to hit the big red button down below if you enjoy the video!
During the height of the Clone Wars, the ancient and powerful Darksaber was held
by the leader of House Vizsla and the Death Watch, Pre Vizsla. With the help of former
Sith Lord Darth Maul and his brother, Savage Opress, Pre Vizsla was able to take control of
Mandalore from Bo-Katan’s sister, Satine Kryze who was the pacifist duchess of the planet.
Following this however, Maul’s lust for power was simply too great, causing him to challenge
Pre Vizsla to a traditional Mandalorian fight to the death. Under this tradition, the winner of
the ferocious battle would become the new holder of the Darksaber as a result, and also become the
Ruler of Mandalore. Once Maul challenged Pre Vizsla to this traditional battle in front of
the rest of the Death Watch, there was no way he could refuse it with honor, and there was almost
no chance that he was going to defeat a former Sith Lord, trained by Darth Sidious himself.
Because of this, Maul was successful in his fight, brutally beheading Pre
Vizsla and taking the leadership of Mandalore and becoming the new holder of the Darksaber.
Because of how monumental this event was for the Mandalorian people, it caused an event
known as the great split, where the members of the Death Watch split up into two different groups.
The first group was the Nite Owls, who would never accept an outsider as the Ruler of Mandalore,
and were led by Bo-Katan Kryze. These are of
course the Same Mandalorians we saw in Chapter 11 - The Heiress.
The other group that formed were called the “Mandalorian Super Commandos”,
and were fiercely loyal to Maul as the ruler of Mandalore,
because they recognized his victory in a traditional Mandalorian battle.
Following this, Bo-Katan’s Nite Owls and the Republic, led by Ahsoka Tano and Rex of the 501st
stormed Mandalore in a battle known as the Siege of Mandalore,
in hopes of taking back control of their planet from the former Sith lord.
Following this event Maul was captured by Ahsoka and imprisoned,
but unfortunately the day this happened
also happened to be the dark day of Order 66, which allowed Maul to escape through the Chaos.
At this point, the darksaber eventually ended up in Maul’s lair on Dathomir,
where it was eventually discovered and placed into the hands of Sabine Wren of the Rebel alliance.
After this, Sabine used the blade for a short while, but did not deem herself worthy to hold
such an ancient and prized weapon, causing her to finally hand the weapon over to Bo-Katan Kryze
after the Mandalorian Civil war, who was able to unite the Clans of Mandalore under her rule.
So this is finally where the dark times happen. Shortly after uniting Mandalore under her rule,
a horrific event known as the Great Purge took place on Mandalore, killing almost every
Mandalorian citizen and forcing them deep into hiding on the Galaxy’s most backwater planets.
If you want to find out everything we know about the Great Mandalorian Purge so far,
make sure to check out the link in the pinned comment down below or the card on screen now,
where I have a video explaining the story so far.
This is where the first theory begins. It is almost certain that Bo-Katan Kryze lost the
darksaber during the Great Purge, who we already know Moff Gideon participated in.
Since Bo-Katan took control of the darksaber after the Mandalorian Civil war
and the Great Purge took place only a very short while after,
it’s almost certain that she did lose the ancient blade during this event.
Because that is almost certain,
there are two main possibilities for how Moff Gideon obtained the Darksaber.
The first is that Moff Gideon used his tools and resources as a member of the
highly respected Imperial Security Bureau in order to track down and steal the darksaber.
With the vast amount of resources at the disposal of the Imperial Security Bureau,
they would likely have absolutely no trouble tracking down and locating the Darksaber,
especially since Moff Gideon himself was stationed on Mandalore, as it’s local ISB agent.
Because he was stationed on Mandalore, this gives us a pretty big hint that he
has a deeper connection to the planet and its people than we may think.
As we saw throughout the Clone Wars and later Star Wars Rebels, the Empire had a very difficult time
controlling Mandalore by itself, and was forced to use loyal and weak-minded Mandalorians themselves
as puppets, in order to command the respect of other clans. This is of course why Gar
Saxon was appointed the Imperial Viceroy of Mandalore after the Clone Wars ended,
instead of placing someone who had been in service of the Republic military for
the entire Clone Wars and remained loyal to the Empire after it’s transition. //
This leads us on to the next big theory. Moff Gideon could actually be a Mandalorian himself,
and believed that he was the rightful holder of the Darksaber. As we already
know that Moff Gideon was a well known figure by the Mandalorians,
with Din Djarin even having vague childhood memories of him, it is very possible that
he was actually a Mandalorian himself, before defecting and joining the Ranks of the Empire.
There has also been some massive speculation which says that Moff Gideon could actually be
the blood relative of Tarre Vizsla himself, the man who created the Darksaber. For those
of you who don’t know, Tarre Vizsla was the first Mandalorian to ever be inducted into
the Jedi Order during the time of the Old Republic. After his death however,
it was stored inside of the highly secure Jedi temple vault, where it was eventually stolen
back by the members of House Vizsla after the fall of the old Republic.
So if Moff Gideon truly is a descendant of Tarre Vizsla himself and was a member of Clan Vizsla,
it’s very likely that he would feel that the ancient dark blade of his ancestors
is actually his birthright and that nobody else should hold it, other than descendants
of Tarre Vizsla. This is also further backed up by Moff Gideon’s actor, Giancarlo Esposito
stating multiple times that the history of the Darksaber will be further expanded on,
further than what we were told in the Clone Wars and Rebels.
Giancarlo Esposito has also made multiple hints and references to him potentially being
force sensitive, which would of course make a lot of sense if he is actually a descendant
of the first and only Mandalorian to ever be inducted into the Jedi Order.
If Tarre Vizsla is actually his ancestor, it could explain why
he seemingly knows so much about their history and the ways of the Jedi Order.
His relation to Tarre Vizsla and the Vizsla line could also further explain why Moff Gideon wants
Baby Yoda or the Child back in his possession so badly. Maybe he does have the force sensitivity
of Tarre Vizsla, but knows that he will never match the power of his ancestor,
so wants to extract the midi-chlorians from him and transfer them to himself.
Personally, I don’t think this is or should be possible, but in universe
there’s no reason for Moff Gideon to not believe that this could work.
Even more crazily, maybe Moff Gideon wants a young apprentice to train
and practice his own force skills with. As we learned from Obi-Wan and Anakin,
many Jedi Masters learned just as much from their Padawans as the Padawan learned from them,
so it’s possible that Moff Gideon wants another force user to help him advance.
So Moff Gideon potentially being a Mandalorian or force sensitive leads us onto the final theory.
Maybe it’s possible that Gideon actually defeated Bo-Katan in single combat, and therefore became
the rightful holder of the Darksaber. This theory would mean Moff Gideon is more powerful than we
can even imagine, because defeating Bo-Katan in single combat is definitely no easy task.
If this is the case, it would very likely be a very similar situation to what happened between
Pre Vizsla and Maul. Maul did properly defeat Pre Vizsla through a traditional Mandalorian Standoff,
and was the legitimate and rightful ruler of Mandalore, but Bo-Katan still refused to recognize
his reign because he was an outsider and not a Mandalorian prior to the fight. Bo-Katan has also
never been the type of person to desire power or to remove power from someone else, except for the
time that an outsider, Maul, took the Darksaber… and because he killed her sister. This would
explain why she was seeking the darksaber’s location so aggressively with the imperial.
So those are some cool little theories on how Bo-Katan lost the darksaber to Moff Gidieon
during the Great Mandalorian Purge. Thanks so much for watching, really hope you enjoyed the video.
Make sure you’re subscribed to the channel to be notified as soon as I release my
Mandalorian Chapter 12 Breakdown + recap video as soon as it releases on Disney+.
Cheers guys, hope to see you in the next one.