SPOILERS AHEAD!
One of The Mandalorian’s
biggest successes in its first season was recapturing the feeling of Star Wars
as a western, something first glimpsed in the film “A New Hope”. Showrunner Jon
Favreau delivers a version of Star Wars that still feels like it was conceived in
the 70s full of puppets, aliens, and locations from the original trilogy. But
Favreau is not afraid to take things from the Disney-verse either. The
Darksaber is a prime example.
For those of you not familiar with this blade, The Darksaber was first
introduced in Season 2 of the cartoon series “The Clone Wars”. It was used by
the Mandalorian Pre Vizsla, and was created by his ancestor Tarre Vizsla (the
first Mandalorian Jedi). Eventually Pre Vizsla is killed by Darth Maul who
claims the weapon for his own. Then the weapon falls into the hands to another
Mandalorian, Sabine Wren, a rebel from the cartoon series “Rebels”. Sabine
returned the saber to Mandalore about 10 years before the events of “The
Mandalorian” TV series.
Dave Filoni who was the
showrunner for “The Clone Wars” and “Rebels” first envisioned the Darksaber as
being just a normal sword (a vibroblade), but George Lucas was unhappy with the
way that normal sword could block the blows of a lightsaber. Filoni then
modified the sword into the current Darksaber design.
The Darksaber was almost
shown on screen in the film "Solo" where it would have been in the possession of
Darth Maul, but Maul's second double-bladed saber (from Rebels) was shown instead. Therefore the eighth episode of “The Mandalorian” became the first live action appearance of the Darksaber.
We do not yet know how Moff
Gideon acquired the blade, but we do know that his character was part of The Great
Purge in which The Empire committed genocide against the Mandalorians.
So that’s basically
everything you need to know about The Darksaber. If you have Disney Plus and
are interested in the blade’s history feel free to check out these episodes:
The Clone Wars – Season 2 Episode 12 "The Mandalore Plot"
The Clone Wars – Season 4
Episode 14 "A Friend in Need"
The Clone Wars – Season 5
Episode 14 "Eminence"
The Clone Wars – Season 5
Episode 15 "Shades of Reason"
The Clone Wars – Season 5
Episode 16 "The Lawless"
Rebels – Season 3 Episode 11 "Visions
and Voices"
Rebels – Season 3 Episode 15 "Trials
of the Darksaber"
Rebels – Season 3 Episode 16 "Legacy
of Mandalore"
Forces of Destiny – Season 2
Episode 11 "Art History"
The Mandalorian – Season 1
Episode 8 "Redemption”
As a sidenote, The Darksaber blade has nothing to do with the 'Legends' super weapon created by Durga the Hutt or the 1995 novel about said super weapon.
I’ll be back this weekend to
further break down The Mandalorian now that the first Season is complete.
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