The Darksaber will likely show up again in The Mandalorian. Here’s all the background information we have on the origins and significance of the weapon in Star Wars.
Lightsabers have been a central staple in Star Wars lore since the very beginning. Darth Vader’s menacing blade ushered us into a completely new universe way back in 1977. In the same movie, we watch Luke Skywalker learn to wield his own saber with the help of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The longer Star Wars has gone on, the more creative storytellers have gotten with the types of weapons used in various forms of combat throughout the galaxy far, far away.
Though not the first unique weapon to be introduced in the past 40+ decades, the Darksaber might be the most renowned due to its appearances in both The Clone Wars and The Mandalorian.
It’s the only “dark” lightsaber that exists. And it has quite a wild — though, at this point, frustratingly incomplete — history.
Origins of the Darksaber
"“I didn’t know Mandalorians developed a type of lightsaber.“ “We didn’t, this was one of a kind. Legend tells that it was created over a thousand years ago by Tarre Vizsla, the first Mandalorian ever inducted into the Jedi Order.” — ―Kanan Jarrus and Fenn Rau, “Trials of the Darksaber,” Star Wars Rebels"
The Darksaber was a one-of-a-kind weapon that was already thousands of years old by the start of the Clone Wars. The black-bladed lightsaber was crafted by the first Mandalorian to join the Jedi Order, Tarre Vizsla.
Even though the Jedi kept the weapon in their temple after he passed, it didn’t stay there forever. During Old Republic conflict between the Jedi and the Mandalorians, House Vizsla liberated and reclaimed the saber.
Generations of Vizsla warriors kept the Darksaber in their possession. Even after Mandalore abandoned its warrior traditions in favor of pacifism, Pre Vizsla held onto the weapon. That was only the beginning of all the terrible things that would happen while the saber exchanged hands over the decades that followed.
The Darksaber first appeared in “The Mandalore Plot” in the second season of The Clone Wars. Once Pre Vizsla was revealed as the leader of Death Watch, he used the weapon to take down his New Mandalorian opponents. He even engaged in a duel with famed Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi using the ancient blade.
The Darksaber helped Vizsla lead a coup on Mandalore, and he quickly seized control of the planet from Duchess Satine and became its unofficial leader. That is, until Maul came along.
Maul became the leader of Death Watch when he defeated Vizsla and rightfully claimed the Darksaber. He would go on to use the weapon to murder Duchess Satine Kryze in an attempt at revenge toward Kenobi before using the saber to spread even more violence across the galaxy.
Star Wars: Maul’s journey to Dathomir
If you watch The Clone Wars chronologically, you might notice that between Maul’s battle with Sidious in Season 5 and Ahsoka running into him on Mandalore in Season 7, we don’t hear anything about what happened to him — or the Darksaber he once possessed.
Thankfully, film and TV aren’t the only mediums through which Star Wars stories are told.
There have been several stories written for The Clone Wars that were instead adapted into canon Expanded Universe material following the show’s cancellation. Darth Maul, therefore, got his own comic series chronicling the events between seasons 5 and 7 of the TV series.
Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir follows Maul as he creates the Shadow Collective, forming an army of Mandalorians and partnering with several crime syndicates in order to take down Darth Sidious, General Grievous, and Count Dooku.
Throughout the comic mini-series, Maul repeatedly uses the Darksaber to stand against his enemies. Though he lost the weapon when defeated by Sidious in Season 5 of The Clone Wars, he was eventually freed and ended up using the weapon to threaten Count Dooku’s life.
Instead, he went saber to saber against many Jedi, including Obi-Wan Kenobi, before returning to the planet of Dathomir once again to bring Mother Talzin back into the physical realm.
He managed to fend off Grevious and his forces on Dathomir with the help of a Mother Talzin-possessed Count Dooku, and then left the Darksaber there before regrouping with his forces as the Clone Wars neared their uncertain end.
The weapon remained in Maul’s lair on Dathomir, all but forgotten.
That is, until two strangers and a native to the devastated world arrived.
Star Wars: The trial of Sabine Wren
After briefly becoming possessed by one of the spirits of the Nightsisters, Sabine Wren brought the Darksaber back to base instead of allowing it to remain unattended on Dothomir. Knowing what it meant to hold it, however, she immediately gave it to Kanan Jarrus to keep it safe.
A teacher and father figure through and through, Kanan wouldn’t let her avoid her newfound responsibility for long.
“Trials of the Darksaber” — one of the most impactful Rebels episodes for Sabine’s story and character development — shows Kanan and Ezra not only teaching a closed-off and resistant Sabine how to use the Darksaber, but also guiding her though painful reflections and revelations about her troubled past.
Once she was able to accept that her voluntary departure from her family was an act of loyalty and protection instead of a betrayal, Sabine officially claimed the Darksaber as her own. Or, at least, she thought she had.
Her next move was to confront her family — especially her mother — on Krownest, where Clan Wren called home at the time. There, her mother Ursa Wren informed her that the Darksaber didn’t technically belong to her because she hadn’t won it from him in combat.
It didn’t take Sabine long to earn the right to own it again, however. In a duel with Gar Saxon, she disarmed him, though she refused to end his life as was the custom in single combat and expected if she wanted to claim the weapon. Her mother did it for her, and the Darksaber became hers.
It would transfer ownership one more time before the “incomplete” part of our history arrives.
Star Wars: Meeting Bo-Katan Kryze
While attempting to free her father from Imperial forces, Sabine crossed paths with Bo-Katan Kryze and offered her the weapon, believing it was rightfully hers. But Bo-Katan refused to take it at first.
After the Galactic Republic assisted the Mandalorians in a siege against Maul in one of the final battles of the Clone Wars, Bo-Katan stepped up to lead her people through the end of the war. But when the Empire took over soon after, she lost her place as ruler and spent many years believing she had failed. When offered the saber that caused the death of her sister, she felt unworthy of it, but continued to fight alongside Sabine anyway.
Together, the two led their combined forces in a raid against Tiber Saxon and his superweapon. Following the Star Destroyer’s destruction (thanks, once again, to the Darksaber), all the Mandalorian forces present stood at the ready, waiting for direction from their new leader.
Sabine realized in that moment that the Darksaber had fallen into her hands so that she could pass it on to someone who needed it. Bo-Katan accepted the blade once it became clear that the clans of Mandalore would follow her lead … and that by claiming it, she could simultaneously honor the legacy of her fallen sister, Satine Kryze, late Duchess of Mandalore.
At this point, Bo-Katan became the last known rightful wielder of the Darksaber, which she would have used to unite the people of Mandalore and continue to stand as a force against the Galactic Empire after Rebels ended.
Until last year, we all assumed the Darksaber remained safely in the hands of Bo-Katan and the Mandalorians without further conflict. Then The Mandalorian reached its final episode … and there it was. In the hands of an Imperial.
Who must have, somehow, won the sacred saber from someone. Unless he simply took it.
Star Wars: In the hands of Moff Gideon
The first live-action Star Wars TV series has already successfully bridged the gap between its animated counterparts, thanks to Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni’s efforts to bring a significant Mandalorian weapon into the fray.
The Mandalorian kept many secrets under wraps before and during the airing of its first season. No one knew about Baby Yoda. And absolutely no one knew that the final few moments of the season would show Moff Gideon wielding the Darksaber.
Stream The Mandalorian on Disney+.
When he used it to escape from his crashed TIE fighter — try and convince me you didn’t immediately recognize its distinctive sound — several questions ran through the minds of fans. Many less familiar with the expanded universe simply wanted to know what the Darksaber meant. Plenty immediately questioned the well-being of our precious Lady Bo-Katan.
This was the Darksaber’s first — and won’t be its last — live-action appearance. It’s now in the hands of someone it does not belong to. And one can only assume that a Mandalorian is going to have to challenge him for the chance to earn it back.
Who that Mandalorian will be, however, is still a mystery. Could it be Bo-Katan herself? Sabine? Our new favorite dad Din Djarin? All of the above? Katie Sackhoff’s return to Star Wars is still only a rumor, but hey. We can dream.
At this time, we don’t know how or when Moff Gideon acquired the Darksaber. But that’s a story we will likely hear in the months and years to come.
An incomplete history, after all, is better than none.
Who do you think will challenge Moff Gideon and claim the Darksaber next?