Friday, December 27, 2019

About That "Mandalorian" Scene




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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