Despite being a primarily Mandalorian weapon, the fabled Darksaber has had many wielders in Star Wars canon. The Star Wars universe is full of amazing weapons, and chief among those is the iconic Jedi lightsaber. In a unique twist, Star Wars: The Clone Wars introduced a variation on the traditional with the Darksaber. The Darksaber was created by the first Mandalorian inductee into the Jedi Order - Tarre Vizsla - both as a symbol of leadership and as a formidable blade in battle. Due to the Darksaber's symbolic importance, ownership of the item has proved a contentious issue throughout Star Wars history.
From The Clone Wars to Star Wars: Rebels and more recently The Mandalorian, ownership of the Darksaber has been a central plot point of Star Wars at various points throughout the franchise's expansive timeline. The reason for this stems from the Darksaber’s significance to Mandalorian leadership. Since the era of Tarre Vizsla, the blade has symbolized the true leader of Mandalore up until the Darksaber was destroyed in The Mandalorian season 3. This means that the different possessors of the weapon across the Skywalker Saga have provided many switches in the status quo of one of Star Wars’ most interesting peoples, the Mandalorians.
Tarre Vizsla
The very first owner of the Darksaber was the man who created it, Tarre Vizsla. Very little is canonically known about Tarre Vizsla, other than the fact he lived during the Old Republic era and was, at that time, the only Mandalorian to have ever been accepted as a Jedi. As is customary, Tarre was required to build his own lightsaber as part of his Jedi training. However, instead of opting for the standard blue or green varieties, Tarre went even more outlandish than Mace Windu and build the distinct, unique Darksaber. The now-iconic weapon was pitch black and shaped more like a katana than the standard saber.
Although Star Wars hasn't revealed much about Tarre Vizsla's life, the character possessed and wielded the Darksaber while he was the leader of Mandalore. This led to a statue being erected of him after his death. It can be assumed that the Jedi Order took ownership of the Darksaber after Tarre's death since the relic spent centuries holed up in the temple on Coruscant. At some point after Tarre's death though, the Darksaber found its way back into the hands of the Mandalorians, and Tarre Vizsla's descendants...
Pre Vizsla
During the various conflicts between the Jedi and the Mandalorians, House Vizsla managed to steal back their ancestor's Darksaber, reclaiming what was thought to be their birthright stolen by the typically self-absorbed Jedi. Following the weapon's retrieval, House Vizsla possessed the Darksaber for many years, with the item passed down through generations of Clan Vizsla’s leaders. This part of the Darksaber’s past is majoritively unexplored in Star Wars canon, right up until the era of the Clone Wars, in which a character by the name of Pre Vizsla was shown to be wielding it.
As seen in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Pre Vizsla led the Mandalorian group named Death Watch. The splinter group sought to reclaim Mandalore and revert the planet to its supposed glory days, with Death Watch seeing this goal as a liberation of Mandalore from their current leader Satine Kryze’s pacifistic ways. In order to achieve their goals, the group struck a deal with the Separatists, once again pitting the arch-enemies of the Jedi and Mandalorians against each other under the guise of the Republic vs. the Separatists.
Pre Vizsla used the Darksaber throughout the Clone Wars, battling against Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka Tano. Despite his skill with the weapon - and supposed birthright to claim it - an ill-judged alliance brought about Vizsla's downfall and the Darksaber changing hands. After encountering the still-alive Maul in deep space, the two formed a tentative alliance to reclaim Mandalore. This was successful, but the mistrust between the two led to the Darksaber finding a new owner during the Clone Wars.
Darth Maul
After voicing their distrust of one another, Pre Vizsla and Maul partook in a duel for the Darksaber. Maul won the fight, earning him control of the Death Watch and power among the Mandalorians after the former Sith beheaded Pre Vizsla. Through The Clone Wars, Maul uses the Darksaber against a selection of big-name villains in the Star Wars franchise, including General Grievous and Palpatine himself, the latter of whom temporarily stripped his former apprentice of the weapon. Eventually, Maul comes to possess it once again as seen in the “Son of Dathomir” comic book series, in which he fought Jedi, droid, and Sith with the ancient Mandalorian weapon.
Ezra Bridger/Kanan Jarrus
Neither Ezra nor Kanan truly possessed the Darksaber, but both held it during a transitional period in the weapon's history. Maul was never challenged or defeated by a would-be Darksaber owner. Instead, the blade lay secret and dormant on Dathomir within Maul's hideout. Eventually, the sword found new owners after the Maul himself took Ezra Bridger back to his mysterious dwelling to partake in an ancient ritual that would ultimately reveal the location of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Following the ritual, the duo was attacked by the spirits of Nightsisters, and Bridger briefly used the Darksaber to destroy the altar from which the spirits were arising. As Maul left to pursue Obi-Wan, Sabine Wren seized the Darksaber but, unsure whether or not she was worthy enough for such a storied weapon, she passed it onto her friend Kanan Jarrus for safekeeping. After discovering the full significance and lineage of the Darksaber, Jarrus became determined to make Sabine face her destiny.
Sabine Wren
After a brief period of indecisiveness, Sabine eventually chose to accept the Darksaber. As a result, Sabine Wren underwent training from both Ezra and Kanan. It was during this period that Sabine realized the power behind the Darksaber and that the blade could solely unite her people, which settled any lasting reservations behind her ownership of the weapon once and for all. Sabine finally accepted the legacy of the Darksaber and claimed the weapon from Kanan Jarrus, putting the ancient sword back into Mandalorian hands for the first time since the days of Pre Vizsla.
Sabine would wield the Darksaber on her mission to liberate the people of Mandalore, but her claim was disputed by virtue of not defeating Maul to obtain it. Although Sabine briefly lost the Darksaber to both her mother and Viceroy Saxon, winning in a one-on-one duel against the latter finally legitimized Sabine as a worthy inheritor. Having succeeded in her goals, Sabine Wren would use the Darksaber to rescue her father, but ultimately still felt that she was not the rightful owner, and instead offered the relic to who would become its next rightful owner.
Bo-Katan Kryze
While defeating Viceroy Saxon and unifying the Mandalorians proved Sabine Wren's worth, she came to believe her role was merely to pass the Darksaber onto Bo-Katan Kryze. Back when Maul was in possession of the Darksaber, he executed the then-leader of Mandalore, Satine Kryze, and assumed power for himself. Satine was the sister of Bo-Katan, which led to her future opposition to the former Sith Lord at the tail end of the Clone Wars. For a time, the Darksaber lay dormant within Maul’s hide-out, until Sabine’s actions saw it fall into the hands of Bo-Katan.
Just like Sabine before her, however, Bo-Katan initially turned down the Darksaber due to concerns over her worthiness. After Sabine and House Wren reiterated their support, Bo-Katan Kryze accepted the Darksaber to uphold the legacy of her sister, Clan Kryze, and Mandalore itself. That being said, Bo-Katan did not hold the weapon for long due to the actions of the nefarious Galactic Empire.
Moff Gideon
At some point between the conclusion of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the fall of the Empire, the Darksaber transferred from Bo-Katan Kryze to Moff Gideon, leader of the Imperial remnant forces in The Mandalorian. As revealed in The Mandalorian season 3, Moff Gideon came into possession of the Darksaber during the Great Purge of Mandalore. Due to their fear of being unable to control the people of Mandalore, the Empire carpet-bombed the entire planet.
Amidst the chaos, Bo-Katan met with Gideon as a means of negotiating a surrender in order to save the lives of her people. Gideon agreed, before stripping Bo of the Darksaber. The Imperial leader then betrayed Bo, kept the saber for himself, and continued to wipe out the majority of Mandalorians on the planet. Since then, Gideon has wielded the Darksaber, that is until The Mandalorian season 2’s finale in which the blade switched hands once more.
Din Djarin
In the season 2 finale of The Mandalorian, Din Djarin and his team of allies stormed Moff Gideon's ship to rescue the captured Grogu. Part of his team was Bo-Katan, who was determined to reclaim the Darksaber and bring Gideon to justice for his crimes against Mandalore. However, the Darksaber fell into the hands of the most unlikely hero: Din Djarin himself. After defeating Gideon in single combat, Din claimed the weapon for himself despite the political and legendary implications of the weapon meaning little to him.
Upon returning to Bo-Katan, Din attempted to return the weapon to her. Bo stated that it must be won in battle and refused, committed to not repeating the mistakes of the past in which she retrieved the blade from Sabine without combat which all but cursed her people. Throughout The Mandalorian season 3, Din held the Darksaber. However, the weapon eventually found its way back into the hands of Bo through technicality. In The Mandalorian season 3, episode 2, Din loses the Darksaber to a mechanical creature beneath Mandalore's surface. Bo then rescues Din, using the weapon to defeat the creature that bested him in the first place.
In The Mandalorian season 3, episode 6, as Din and Bo are attempting to recruit Axe Woves' small army of Mandalorians, Din cites this as the reasoning behind why Bo-Katan is once again the rightful owner of the Darksaber. The Mandalorians agree, and Bo-Katan is seen as the leader of her people for the first time since the Great Purge. Bo's wielding of the Darksaber was instrumental in retaking Mandalore, despite the legendary weapon being destroyed by Moff Gideon during the fight. Regardless, it will be interesting to see if the Darksaber will be repaired in the future, after playing such an integral role in Star Wars’ Mandalorian history.