decease Stars . Starkiller Base . The Final Order . The Lightsabers ofJedi and Sith legaciesalike . Star Wars is full of incomprehensibly powerful weapons , be they the tools of heroic and villainous individuals or the combined military might of imperium . But none have become more important or interesting to the galaxy far , far forth right now than the mythical Darksaber .
First introduced in the Clone Wars revive series nearly a decennary ago to the day in January 2010 ’s “ The Mandalore Plot , ” the Darksaber has become more than just the visually telling weapon of a ominous Star Wars villain . It has , almost as much as the iconic armor and T - Visored helmet , become emblematic of one of Star Wars ’ mostbeloved and fascinatingcultures , the Mandalorians themselves .
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Tarre Vizsla, the first Mandalorian Jedi, wields his lightsaber—with little knowledge that it would one day become one of his people’s most enduring symbols.Image: Lucasfilm
And now that such a stark piece of imagination has made its wayinto surprising handsand into the realm of springy - action Star Warswith The Mandalorian , the Darksaber has become one of the most challenging trinkets in the Galaxy . If its arrival into the lifetime of Din Djarin and his small green charge has you intrigue , here ’s everything you need to be intimate about the journeying of one of the most interesting weapons in Star Wars history — and how it came to be a blade that defined Mandalore more than any masque ever could .
The Mandalorian Wars
The Darksaber , as the name inculpate , is indeed a kind of lightsaber : like all lightsabers , it is powered by a kyber crystallization , a rare black one found by an ancient Jedi from the days of the Old Republic , yard of eld before the consequence of the Skywalker Saga . That Jedi was Tarre Vizsla , the first Mandalorian ever inducted into the Jedi Order and finally “ Mand’alor”—the title of respect given to the leader of the coordinated Mandalorian people . Little is known about Vizsla other than his legacy as the first of his culture to bring together the Jedi , and that his ancient arm has survived eon of battle — but Vizsla ’s peaceful Centennial State - operation with the Jedi would not last after his last .
The Order interred the Darksaber in its Temple on Coruscant , only for members of Vizsla ’s clan to secret their means in and retrieve it , wielding the Darksaber in conflict to once again unify the different tribal factions of Mandalore as one . Although the Mandalorians mesh in many conflicts in this period , the most salient of all was against the Jedi themselves , with the Darksaber , once a arm of the parliamentary law , now being wielded against it .
In Star Wars ’ current canon , small is known about these warfare other than the fact that they occurred during the fall of the Old Republic , and thatthe planet Malachorwas home to one of its climactic battles — as was Mandalore itself , in the end scarred by a cataclysmal event that left much of its open in ruin and the Jedi triumphant . But these nuggets of information are actually reference todefining pieces of backstoryfrom the beloved Bioware and Obsidian computer RPGs , Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel , The Sith Lords . small of those game beyond address such as these are still canyon in the Disney - own geological era of Star Wars , but in the KOTOR game , the Mandalorian Neo - Crusaders engage in an expansionist conflict with the Republic , who were assist by a renegade faction of Jedi , the Revanchist — lead by wayward Jedi Revan .
A mural in the Mandalorian capital, Sundari, depicting the Mandalorians in battle with Jedi and Republic forces.Image: Lucasfilm
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Lasting sixteen yr , the Mandalorian Wars ended over the planet Malachor V , when , sacrificing untold turn of the Revanchist personnel in the operation , General Meetra Surik ( who would eventually become the protagonist of Knights of the Old Republic II , the Jedi Exile ) actuate a superweapon that created a solemnity vortex , decimating the Mandalorian and Jedi violence on Malachor ’s aerofoil . We know a like tragedy occur on Malachor in the revised Star Wars canon — Ahsoka , Ezra , and Kanan witness the planet ’s horrifically damage , and ashen - corpse - covered surface during the climax of Rebels ’ 2d season . But beyond that , all we have it off of the Mandalorian Wars ’ true event is that not even the Darksaber and a united Mandalore could discontinue the Jedi .
Death Watch Rises
M of yr later , the Mandalorian people had undergo a radical structural transmutation in their society . Expansionist warmongering and an accent on their warrior - driven culture had give way to isolationistic neutrality , and by the time of the Clone Wars , a new political motility had emerged on the major planet that privilege peace over conflict . The rubric of Mand’alor no longer held sway , and or else of House Vizsla ( Tarre ’s descendants ) leading the manner , another of Mandalore ’s inherited firm , Kryze — specifically Duchess Satine Kryze — sat at the chief of the Mandalorian governing .
The Darksaber , although still a potent symbol , had become a arm of notoriety on this Mandalore alternatively of a wonderful unifier . Although the blade still remained in the possession of House Vizsla , its wielder , Pre , sat at the head of the Death Watch . A sliver group of Mandalorians exiled to the moon of Concord Dawn after a civic war which lead to House Kryze ’s ascendence , Death Watch ’s theatrical role in Mandalorian lodge at this point was a complex one . In Clone Wars , they are painted as unambiguous terrorists , with Pre Vizsla exert the Darksaber as a statement of his right to lead Mandalore back to its warrior culture elbow room . In The Mandalorian , things are a lilliputian hazier , Death Watch are responsible for saving the young Din Djarin from sure destruction in a Separatist attack , taking him in as a abandoned infant and oppose back the droid armies that slaughtered his fellow villagers .
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Thousands of years after his ancestors did much the same, Pre Vizsla takes the Darksaber into combat against a Jedi.Image: Lucasfilm
disregardless of Death Watch ’s role in the Clone Wars specifically in Djarin ’s eyes — although it remain to be attend , render what footling we be intimate of the Mandalorian ’s backstory , it ’s likely he was adopted into Mandalorian culture because Death Watch , already diminished and deport , demand more bodies for Vizsla ’s suit — we know its last fortune is tied with the Darksaber . Collaborating with the resurrected Darth Maul , Pre Vizsla stag a coup against Duchess Satine ’s government , wielding the Darksaber in battle as Death Watch overwhelmed and detained Satine ’s own loyalists . recover the title of Mand’alor for himself , a Vizsla linguistic rule of Mandalore had get once more …
Although not for farseeing . shop by Maul , Vizsla himself fell in a trial run by combat for Mandalore ’s throne , and the Darksaber itself passed into the former Sith ’s possession — light out of Mandalorian hands for what is presumably the first time since it was liberated from the Jedi Temple .
Empire’s End
Maul ’s rule of Mandalore would not last . beleaguer by Republic forcesand under tone-beginning from his former captain , Darth Sidious , Maul fled the world with the Darksaber , wait out the final days of the Clone Wars and the upgrade of his old master ’s Empire on his homeworld of Dathomir . As liberating Republic armies on Mandalore became occupying Imperial force , and with both House Kryze and House Vizsla rudderless , the Mandalorians ’ long - search independency derive to an conclusion . Although a Mandalorian sit down at the head of the planet ’s leadership — Viceroy Gar Saxon , leader of the Imperial Super Commandos — he was subservient to the Galactic Empire .
In the years leave up to the Battle of Yavin , however , the Darksaber receive its way back to its ancestral home . After attempting to woo vernal force - sensitive Ezra Bridger to his side , the Darksaber was recovered from Maul ’s lair on Dathomir by one of Ezra ’s friend in the Rebel Alliance , Mandalorian Sabine Wren — a wayward girl of one of House Vizsla ’s liege kin group . Working under the behest of the Protectors of Concord Dawn — a former junto of Mandalorians bristling under the dyad of majestic occupation — Wren develop in wielding the Darksaber so that she could reelect to her homeworld and once again employ it as a symbolisation of Mandalorian independence . Despite being tainted by Pre Vizsla ’s use of goods and services of the blade in the Clone Wars , the Darksaber ’s bequest as the arm that united Mandalore against its foes in the mean solar day of the Old Republic was still potent .
Sabine would exert the Darksaber in rebellion against Saxon ’s rule , eventually using it to defeat the Viceroy in single combat — temporarily leave her friends in the Rebellion to begin uniting the disparate Houses of Mandalore once more in a battle to wrench the planet from Imperial control . Sabine was finally successful , but chose to hand over the Darksaber to a new Mand’alor rather than take it for her own . This time , it was n’t a Vizsla that would unify Mandalore , but a Kryze once more : Bo - Katan , the baby of Satine and a former ally - turn - foeman of Pre Vizsla in the Death Watch .
Bo-Katan Kryze inherits the Darksaber, using it unite the forces of House Vizsla against Imperial rule.Image: Lucasfilm
Once again , however , Mandalore ’s independence was not to last . Sometime during the Galactic Civil War , the Empire enacted a capital purge against the Mandalorians , shattering its people into tribal factions and scattering survivors across the Outer Rim . The Darksaber flow into regal manus and , as The Mandalorian ’s finale revealed , remained there even after theEmpire ’s own shattering , with the Darksaber now in the hands of the Imperial Remnant ’s Moff Gideon . How it got there and the truthful extent of Mandalore ’s purge stay to be seen , but if one thing is certain : now that it ’s shown up in majestic possession on The Mandalorian , there stands a good chance we ’ll see the show research its potential tax return to Mandalorian handswhen the second season begin .
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The Darksaber has left Mandalorian hands once more, now in the possession of their former subjugators.Image: Lucasfilm
