What's the story behind the unique-looking lightsaber everyone's after in season two
of The Mandalorian? It's a key piece of Mandalore's history and has the power to both unite and
destroy the Mandalorian people. Here's everything you need to know about the Darksaber.
As The Mandalorian implies, the Jedi and the Mandalorians didn't always get along. Well
over a thousand years before the Rebel Alliance and the Empire engaged in the Galactic Civil
War, the warrior culture of the Mandalorians fought against the Force users in a conflict
that ultimately ruined Mandalore's environment, forcing its people to live inside sealed domes.
However, the two warring factions forged a temporary truce when Tarre Vizsla, a Force-sensitive
Mandalorian, was inducted into the Jedi Order. As per Jedi tradition, Vizsla forged his own
lightsaber, which had a black blade with a white rim that crackled with energy. This
weapon became known as the Darksaber, and when Vizsla returned to Mandalore, he used
it to unite the warring clans and become leader of the entire planet.
The peace didn't last. After Vizsla died, the Jedi honored him by placing the Darksaber
in one of their temples. Later, hostilities broke out again. As the Old Republic fell,
Mandalorians invaded the Jedi temple and stole back the Darksaber, taking it to Mandalore,
where it became a potent symbol of Mandalorian power.
In The Clone Wars series, viewers were introduced to an important wielder of the Darksaber:
Pre Vizsla.
Pre Vizsla was one of Tarre Vizsla's descendants and the leader of both House Vizsla and Death
Watch, a group of rebel Mandalorians that fought against the pacifist New Mandalorian
government. Using the Darksaber to solidify his position as the head of both groups, Pre
Vizsla teamed up with Darth Maul and conquered Mandalore in an attempt to return the one-time
warrior society to its former glory.
Here's the thing about the Darksaber. Not only does holding it ensure that its wielder
will lead House Vizsla, but there's only one way to claim it. You have to beat its former
owner in combat.
Unfortunately, that's exactly what Darth Maul did. After the former Sith lord helped Pre
Vizsla conquer Mandalore, the alliance between the two fell apart. Maul challenged Vizsla
for control of the Darksaber and won. Vizsla died, and with the Darksaber in hand, Maul
became the new leader of House Vizsla and, accordingly, the planet.
That was simply too much for many Mandalorians, who refused to bow to a non-Mandalorian overlord.
Some of Vizsla's former supporters, including Bo-Katan Kryze, switched sides, fighting against
Maul's forces and helping the Jedi and the Republic drive Maul from the planet. Maul
didn't give up the weapon after his defeat, though. He stashed it away on his home planet,
Dathomir, where it sat for the next 30 years.
Over time, the Republic became the Empire and Mandalore once again fell under fascist
rule. However, the Darksaber saved it. In Star Wars Rebels, a Mandalorian exile named
Sabine Wren found the Darksaber on Dathomir. Sabine learned how to use the blade, then
took the Darksaber to Mandalore to free her people.
While some Mandalorians initially questioned Sabine's claim to the Darksaber since she
didn't defeat Darth Maul to claim it, many, including Sabine's family, rallied behind
Sabine and the saber and rebelled against their Imperial overlords. With the Darksaber
in hand, Sabine rescued her father from Imperial clutches, destroyed an Imperial superweapon,
and raised a small army.
When the fighting was done, Sabine gave the saber to Bo-Katan Kryze, who used the Darksaber's
traditional powers to reunite the Mandalorians and lead the planet to a new, if brief, period
of peace.
Obviously, the Darksaber doesn't look like a normal lightsaber. Its blade is shaped differently
than its regular counterparts, and its black-and-white color scheme is unique in Star Wars lore.
However, as the Star Wars Rebels episode "Trials of the Darksaber" reveals, the weapon also
has some unique abilities that set it apart from the more colorful lightsabers.
All Jedi have a personal relationship with their lightsabers, but the Darksaber takes
it even further. While a kyber crystal focuses the Darksaber's energy, the blade is also
controlled by its wielder's thoughts and emotions, which "guide" its power. As a result, the
Darksaber seems to change size and weight depending on who's holding it, and it crackles
with electricity when its wielder is excited, agitated, or angry.
Pre Vizsla wasn't always going to wield the Darksaber. Before the Mandalore arc of The
Clone Wars started production, Vizsla was going to wield a vibroblade — a heated,
electrified metal sword.
Except George Lucas didn't like that. As The Clone Wars, Rebels, and Mandalorian executive
producer Dave Filoni tells IGN, Lucas wasn't pleased that a non-lightsaber weapon, especially
one made out of metal, was blocking the Jedi's iconic weapon. And so he changed it.
Rumors suggest that Lucas went through a few different iterations, including a Rise of
Skywalker-like yellow lightsaber, before settling on the Darksaber's final design. That's completely
unsubstantiated, though, so we'll never know for sure if it's true. However, thanks to
Filoni, we do know that the Darksaber is 100% a Lucas creation.
The Darksaber's appearance in The Mandalorian is the weapon's live-action debut, but the
blade almost appeared in a Star Wars movie a year and a half earlier. When Maul makes
his surprise cameo at the end of Solo: A Star Wars Story, revealing that the former Sith
apprentice is the power behind the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate, he wields a double-bladed
lightsaber. Actor Sam Witwer, however, had a different idea: what if Maul had carried
the Darksaber instead?
While Witwer wasn't involved in The Phantom Menace, where Maul first appeared, he played
the character in The Clone Wars and Rebels, and provided his voice in Solo. So when Witwer
heard that Maul would have a lightsaber in Solo, he made sure to ask which one. When
he was told that Maul was going to be holding his Phantom Menace blade, Witwer pointed out
that Maul didn't have that weapon anymore. He either needed to use his Inquisitor blade
or the Darksaber.
Ultimately, Solo's producers chose to use the lightsaber Maul had in Rebels, not the
Darksaber, since Maul's best known for his double blades.
Unsurprisingly, the Darksaber is a fairly major part of The Mandalorian season 2. In
the season's third episode, "The Heiress," viewers meet Bo-Katan, who saves Mando from
a watery grave and helps him rescue Grogu from being eaten. Although she and the members
of her Death Watch are philosophically at odds with Mando, they team up long enough
to raid an old Imperial ship. Once on board, Bo-Katan desperately grills the captain for
information about Moff Gideon's whereabouts, insisting he has something that belongs to
her. That something? The Darksaber.
After Moff Gideon steals Grogu, the Mandalorian assembles a crew to get him back. And despite
some fairly hairy moments, he does everything he sets out to do, starting with defeating
Moff Gideon in combat and taking the Darksaber from him.
As it turns out, this could be more trouble than it was worth for Mando. When he tries
giving the weapon back to Bo-Katan, a laughing Gideon points out that she can't take it — the
only way a Mandalorian can wield the Darksaber is if they best its previous owner in combat.
Bo-Katan reluctantly admits he's right, which seemingly answers the question of how Gideon
ended up with it in the first place — by beating her in a fight.
How did Bo-Katan escape her initial battle with Moff Gideon alive? And how will she and
Mando resolve ownership of the Darksaber now that he's its rightful owner? These are just
some of the many questions waiting to be answered in The Mandalorian season 3.
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