The Darksaber is an incredibly ancient and unique black bladed lightsaber that was created
by the first and only Mandalorian to ever be inducted into the Jedi Order, Tarre Vizsla.
After it was forged by Tarre Vizsla and used by him until his death, it was stored deep
inside of a secure vault at the Jedi temple on Coruscant for many years.
Unfortunately for the Jedi Order, members of Tarre Vizsla’s Mandalorian House, House
Vizsla, reclaimed the sacred weapon from the grip of the Jedi order during the fall of
the Old Republic, bringing it back into the hands of House Vizsla for the first time in
a long time.
So, I’m going to break down every single owner of the Darksaber and why it is so important
to Mando’s future after Grogu was taken by Luke Skywalker.
Before we get into it, make sure to smash the subscribe button for more awesome Star
Wars Lore content.
The Darksaber is an incredibly unique, black bladed lightsaber, and there is only one of
them in existence.
The blade of this unique weapon is shorter than most other lightsabers, and is shaped
like a regular sword, with a distinctly Mandalorian shaped hilt.
The sound that the Darksaber emits is also a much higher pitched screech than regular
lightsabers, in part because of it’s unique darkened Kyber crystal inside, which powers
the blade and serves as a conduit for the force to flow through the weapon.
Awesomely, the blade of the darksaber has a unique electrical effect which becomes heavily
intensified when the user of the weapon becomes enraged or angry.
Finally, the blade also becomes much lighter once it’s user gains more and more experience
with it and attracts other lightsaber blades towards its core with an almost magnetic pull.
The Darksaber is respected by all Mandalorians as a symbol for the leadership of House Vizsla
and also on most occasions, for all of Mandalore.
So, who was the first to hold the Darksaber after Tarre Vizsla?
After the darksaber was stolen back from the Jedi Order by House Vizsla, descendents of
this ruthless Mandalorian house used the weightless blade to slaughter countless Jedi and rule
the whole of Mandalore for many years, without challenge.
During the Clone Wars, the Darksaber came into the hands of the Governor of Concordia,
which is the Moon of the ravaged planet Mandalore.
Concordia’s Governor, Pre Vizsla was also the secret leader of an extreme Mandalorian
Group known as the Deathwatch, who sought to overthrow the peaceful rule of Duchess
Satine Kryze, who had come into power on Mandalore, through a pacifist form of Government, in
stark contrast to Mandalore’s warrior past.
Second in command to Deathwatch, also happened to be the sister of Duchess Satine Kryze,
Bo Katan Kryze - so If you haven’t seen the Clone Wars, you will now know her from
the Mandalorian Season 2.
Eventually, Pre Vizsla’s affiliation with the ruthless Deathwatch group was discovered,
causing a fierce confrontation between Vizsla and Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, where Kenobi
came out on top after an intense battle in the Deathwatch hideout on Concordia.
And for those of you who are watching this because you haven’t seen the Clone Wars,
this Deathwatch group is the same on that rescued Din Djarin during the Clone Wars,
before evolving into a different group called “The Children of the Watch”, sometime
after the Mandalorian great purge.
Not long after the Deathwatch name becoming public knowledge to the citizens of Mandalore,
Pre Vizsla and Bo Katan, went into exile and formed a new base of operations on the icy
world of Carlac, before eventually discovering the two Zabrak brothers, Savage Opress and
Darth Maul, who of course was no longer a Sith Lord.
Maul, Savage and Deathwatch then formed a strong alliance together, with Maul also creating
a group of the galaxy’s most disgraceful and dodgy criminals, called the Shadow collective.
This shadow collective included the Pyke Syndicate, the Hutt Clan and also the Black Sun Crime
Syndicate.
It also later went on to include the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate, which you will remember
from Solo: A Star Wars story.
The goal of this group was once again to overthrow the duchess of Mandalore, Satine, and place
it under the control of Pre Vizsla and the death watch.
To do this, the shadow collective would fake an invasion of Mandalore, and then have the
Death watch come to the rescue of the citizens in order to show that Duchess Satine was extremely
weak, and that the Death watch were the only ones strong enough to rule Mandalore and save
the citizens from the crime lords.
This plan actually worked, but Pre Vizsla betrayed Maul and Savage Opress, tossing them
into a prison cell on Mandalore.
Not long after however, Maul and his brother viciously broke their way out of the prison
cell, and Maul, a non-Mandalorian, challenged Pre Vizsla to a traditional Mandalorian duel.
Under Mandalorian tradition, a request to duel in this way could not be refused and
even further, if the person who was being fought held the darksaber, the winner of the
fight would become the new holder of the darksaber and the ruler of Mandalore.
The two went head to head in a ferocious battle, locking their red and black blades together
time and time again until eventually, the Maul took the upper hand and disarmed Pre
Vizsla.
As Pre Vizsla knew he was defeated, he bowed his head towards the floor, and allowed Maul
to cleanly slice his head off with honor.
This monumental event split the group of deathwatch into two.
Those who would accept an outsider as the ruler of Mandalore, called the Supercommandos
and those who would never accept an outsider, called the Nite Owls, led by Bo Katan.
The holder of the Darksaber is now Maul.
Only a short while after taking hold of the darksaber, Maul was viciously attacked by
his former Master Darth Sidious, where he was cruelly defeated and his brother was brutally
executed.
This technically Makes Palpatine a temporary holder of the darksaber since he defeated
Maul in single combat, but Palpatine had no interest in Mandalorian Tradition, causing
him to throw the ancient blade to the floor, to be later collected by Prime Minister Almec,
who will be very important later, as Maul’s pupper Prime Minister of Mandalore.
Not long after this, Maul is rescued by his loyal Mandalorian Supercommandos, from a highly
secure and horrid prison in the cold world of Stygeon Prime, which you might remember
from Star Wars Rebels, where the body of Master Luminara was held.
At the end of the Clone wars however, Maul was captured by Ahsoka Tano and her Clone
Troopers of the 332nd company, at the siege of Mandalore, before later escaping into the
Galaxy, losing interest in Mandalore.
Because of this, he left the Darksaber to rot in his lair on his homeworld Dathomir,
where it was picked up and taken hold of by the Rebel Mandalorian, named Sabine Wren.
Now because she didn’t defeat Maul in single combat to obtain the blade, she wasn’t technically
the holder, but she was considered the holder by the Rebels for this time.
And with the Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 8 coming out, this is now very controversial,
I’ll get deeper into this in just a bit.
After returning from Dathomir to the Rebel Base on Attalon, Sabine Wren handed the Darksaber
to Kanan Jarrus, a survivor of the Great Jedi Purge, and Master of Ezra Bridger, because
she did not believe that she was ready to Rule Mandalore and unite all of Mandalore’s
houses under one leader.
At this point, Sabine was in exile from her own Clan Wren because she left the imperial
academy to join the Rebels at a young age, after having designed a weapon that could
melt Mandalorians in their Beskar armor, making her believe that she was a traitor to her
own people.
Sabine eventually travelled to a remote location on the planet Attalon to train in her combat
skills with the dark blade, hoping to be able to defend herself with it, knowing that it
would put a massive target on her back.
After training and becoming proficient with the blade, Sabine travelled back to her homeworld,
the Mandalorian world of Krownest, where she hoped to repair the strained relationship
with her family in Clan Wren.
Once there however, her mother, Ursa Wren was extremely disappointed that she had not
obtained the blade in single combat from Maul and because of this, tried to trade the Darksaber
to the Imperial Governor of Mandalore, Gar Saxon, who was in charge of keeping the clans
of Mandalore under the iron fist of the Empire.
She did this so that Clan Wren would be shielded from Sabine’s treacherous actions against
the empire, and grant them safety, but unfortunately Gar Saxon did not keep his word and tried
to assassinate Ursa Wren with the darksaber, while signalling for his men to massacre and
slaughter the rest of Clan Wren.
Eventually Sabine and Saxon began a ferocious battle, with Sabine eventually knocking Saxon
to the ground and holding the darksaber and Ezra Bridger’s Green lightsaber to his threat
ready to execute him.
If she had done this, she would have been viewed as the rightful holder of the darksaber
and the rightful ruler of Mandalore, but instead, she chose to spare him.
Fortunately however, Ursa Wren chose to kill Gar Saxon anyway with a single blaster bolt.
After this, Sabine Wren stayed on Krownest with her family, while the Rebels continued
their quest to defeat the empire, in hopes of searching for the true holder of the Darksaber
and the worthy leader of Mandalore.
Not long after, Sabine led a mission to the planet Mandalore to rescue her father, who
had been taken as a political prisoner by the Empire.
While there, she encountered Bo Katan, the former member of Deathwatch, and offered her
the blade, but she refused to take it.
Eventually however, after Sabine was able to destroy the superweapon which she created
for the Empire to decimate all Mandalorians, she convinced Bo-Katan to take hold of the
darksaber, handing it to her without a fight.
In doing this, Bo-Katan accepted the Rulership of Mandalore and united all it’s clans together
in honor of her fallen sister, Satine.
Unfortunately however, by the year 9ABY, a cataclysmic event known as the Great Purge
took place on Mandalore, where Empire had slaughtered many Mandalorians using orbital
bombardment, causing them to hide out in the sewers of backwater planets and try not to
reveal their locations.
Unfortunately, sometime During this event, Imperial Moff Gideon somehow acquired the
weapon from Bo-Katan, making him the next holder of the Darksaber.
It’s not really clear just how he got the ancient black blade, but I don’t think he
defeated Bo-Katan in a traditional Mandalorian battle, and took the blade while she was down.
Instead, I think he tricked her, and stole it while she was distracted.
Maybe she even traded the Darksaber to Gideon, in return for him to stop the orbital bombardment
of Mandalore, but then once he got the blade, he continued anyway.
Really, Gideon probably couldn’t beat Bo-katan in a one on one battle, just based on how
we’ve seen him fight so far.
And now we move straight onto the current holder of the darksaber, Din Djarin.
Din Djarin boarded Moff Gideon’s arquitens class light cruiser in hopes of rescuing Grogu,
and when he eventually arrived in the prison holding cell of the ship, he saw Grogu cuffed,
and being held at Darksaber point by Gideon.
Gideon initially pretended to be ok with Mando taking Grogu, as long as he could keep the
darksaber, but as you know… he’s not the most honorable man, and turned the dark blade
on Mando, striking him directly on his beskar armor.
Gideon battled against Mando’s beskar spear Given to him by Ahsoka, from Morgan Elsbeth,
fighting ferociously.
Soon after, Mando was able to disarm Gideon surprisingly quickly, and claim the saber
for himself.
Following this, Din Djarin had absolutely no interest in ruling mandalore, and offered
the Darksaber back to Bo-Katan, who of course ruled before Gideon, but unlike the time with
Sabine, this time, she refused to take it.
We’ll find out a lot more about why she didn’t take it in season 3, but for now,
check out my video on the potential reasons in the card on screen now and the pinned comment.
So that is every holder of the Darksaber.
Thanks so much for watching, hope you enjoyed the video.
Cheers guys, hope to see you in the next one!