Most Powerful Wielders Of The Darksaber, Ranked
The Darksaber is, without a doubt, one of the coolest lightsaber designs of all time. Its fully sword like aesthetic, meshed with its black and white glow along with a unique sound design, makes for a wholly badass lightsaber. Along with it simply looking cool, the Darksaber actually holds a lot of power. Those who wield the ancient blade are entitled to rule over the planet Mandalore.
The blade at first was passed down with each generation of House Vizsla until they lost their right to the saber after losing it in a duel. Since then, as to who wields the Darksaber is decided in combat, with a few exceptions. The Darksaber is an incredibly important piece of Star Wars lore and mythology, which can unite every Mandalorian across all houses, creeds, clans, and tribes. As a heavy symbol of leadership, many awesome characters throughout the Star Wars canon have come to wield the Darksaber. So without further ado, here is our ranking of every character in Star Wars to have ever wielded the Darksaber.
9. Kanan Jarrus
Kanan Jarrus never wielded the Darksaber or came under any possession of the ancient blade. Instead, Kanan only momentarily held the Darksaber and kept it hidden for safekeeping until she learned the history and truth behind the blade, leading the Jedi Master to convince his Mandalorian companion, Sabine Wren to wield the Darksaber to reunite her people.
8. Ezra Bridger
Much like his master, Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger never truly gained possession of the Darksaber. However, Ezra did briefly use the Darksaber in battle. The previous owner of the Darksaber, and former Sith Lord, Darth Maul (who we will get to later) took Ezra to his home planet of Dathomir for an ancient ritual in order to ride Maul’s nemesis Obi-Wan Kenobi. There, the Darksaber lay dormant within Maul’s hideout. At least until the Jedi and former Sith Lord were attacked by spirits of the Night Sisters, forcing Ezra to ignite the Darksaber and destroy the altar from where the spirits were arising.
7. Tarre Vizsla
Tarre Vizsla was the original creator of the Darksaber and the first Mandalorian to be conducted into the Jedi Order, which deserves a lot of recognition. Putting Mace Windu to shame, Tarre Vizsla opted into making a completely unique design that looked more like a Katanna than a traditional saber.
Other than fighting during the Old Republic era of Star Wars, not much is really known about the ancient Mandalorian Jedi. However, what we do know about the Darksaber, is that after Tarre’s death, the Jedi took possession of the blade and kept it in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, where it later came into the possession of House Vizsla.
6. Moff Gideon
Moff Gideon is a compelling and tenacious character, but top that off with the Darksaber, which made its live-action debut in the hands of the Imperial Officer, making Moff Gideon an unforgettable character. It’s unsure how the Darksaber fell into the hands of the Imperial Officer, Moff Gideon, but we can safely assume it was during The Empire’s purge on Mandalore. Gideon more than proves himself as an efficient sword fight in The Mandalorian season 2’s finale as he went toe to toe with Din Djarin. Sure, he may have lost the blade at the hands of Din Djarin, but he still put up a great fight for it.
5. Pre Vizsla
Eventually, after many years of lying dormant, and after countless conflicts between the Jedi and the Mandalorians, the Darksaber was reclaimed to its rightful owners of House Vizsla. The Darksaber would then fall from one leader to the next until, during the Clone Wars era, it eventually fell into the hands of Pre Vizsla, the leader of the Mandalorian Death Watch. The Death Watch sort to restore Mandalore to its glory days, striking a deal with the confederacy in order to achieve this goal.
As the leader of this radical group of Mandalorians, Pre Vizsla was ruthless, making for a truly intimidating wielder of the iconic blade. Vizsla battled with the Darksaber against some of the best Jedi during The Clone Wars run. He bested both Ahsoka Tano and Obi-Wan Kenobi. But his overconfidence led to Vizsla’s downfall at the hands of Darth Maul after the former sith lord challenged the Mandalorian to combat the leadership of the Death Watch and for possession of the Darksaber.
4. Darth Maul
Darth Maul is, without a doubt, one of the best characters in Star Wars, and Maul coming into possession of the Darksaber only made his character so much cooler. Although winning the Darksaber fairly, many Mandalorians were not so happy with the new ruler of Mandalore, causing great controversy among the Mandalorians. However, this didn’t stop Darth Maul from leading his Death Watch army into battle numerous times.
During his time with the saber Darth Maul went toe to toe with some of Star Wars’ most formidable baddies. From the likes of General Grievous and even his former master Darth Sidious, who eventually stripped him of the saber in an epic lightsaber battle.
Later, Maul would reclaim possession of the Darksaber in the Son of Dathomir comic book series, where he went on to fight more Sith Lords, alongside droids and Jedi with the ancient blade. Before returning to his home planet Dathomir and hiding the ancient blade in his hideout.
3. Sabine Wren
At first, Sabine Wren denied possession of the Darksaber, but Kanan Jarrus eventually talked Sabine into wielding the Darksaber and finally put the blade in the hands of a Mandalorian once more. Sabine quickly began her training under the tutelage of the great Kanaan Jarus and Ezra Bridger. During this time, Sabine would go on to learn the history and the power of the ancient blade, which is what led to Sabine finally accepting its legacy. Controversially, Sabine isn’t necessarily the rightful owner of the blade, as she never defeated the previous owner, Darth Maul, to obtain it.
Alas, Sabine later lost the blade to her mother and Viceroy Saxon, who she eventually defeated in battle, legitimizing her claim over the blade and Mandalore. Sabine would go on to do many great things with the saber, including rescuing her father during the Mandalorian civil war, but she never felt like it was hers to wield. Instead, she would hand over the powerful weapon Bo-Katan Kryze.
2. Din Djarin
As everyone’s favorite daddy… we mean Mandalorian, Din Djarin is a deeply layered and badass character, who, along with the help of his adorable surrogate child Grogu, is quite easily among the best new characters to come out of Star Wars in the past decade. Throughout his travels across the galaxy, Din Djarin has come across many artifacts and items that improve his move set and armor in a very video-gamey way. Things such as the Beskar Armor, the Beskar Staff, and his jet pack have all excelled the bounty hunter’s combat capabilities and granted him entirely new move sets. But none have been more impressive or as deadly as the Darksaber.
After winning it from Moff Gideon, Din Djarin is now the rightful ruler of Mandalore, whether he wants to be or not. The only issue is that Din Djarin is still yet to master the blade. After some brief training with The Armorer, he did, however, hold his own in a duel for the blade against Pre Vizsla’s descendant, Paz Vizsla, with Din coming out victorious and keeping possession of the blade. Although he still has a lot of training with the blade, we are excited to see him learn and eventually master the blade.
Bo-Katan Kryze
The badass Mandalorian, Bo-Katan Kryze, was the fifth wielder of the Darksaber who was given the ancient blade by Sabine Wren after a lot of convincing. Sabine has had a pretty complicated history as a Mandalorian, which mostly stems back to her sister, Satine Kryze, who once ruled over Mandalore as the duchess, as the two had vastly different ideologies that caused them both much conflict with one another. Throughout her constantly changing life as a Mandalorian, Bo-Katan once served as a lieutenant for the terrorist group, The Death Watch, the commander of its Nite Owls, the leader of the Mandalorian resistance, and most importantly, the Manda’lor who laid claim over Mandalore.
Bo-Katan would wield the Darksaber in the hopes to reunite the clans and take back their home of Mandalore, during the Mandalorian civil war. But not many rallied behind her due to Bo-Katan simply being handed the Darksaber as a gift, instead of winning the blade in battle. Her time with the saber was short-lived, however, as it wasn’t long before the Empire destroyed Mandalore in The Great Purge, and the Darksaber came into the possession of Moff Gideon.
While her time with the Darksaber was fairly short-lived and we don’t know much of her experience with the ancient blade, her willingness to retrieve the blade back, and her efficiency when using the blade in the latest episode of The Mandalorian, shows she has more than mastered the incredibly powerful Darksaber.
