In The Mandalorian Season 3 finale, Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) got his rematch with Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), and even squared off against Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) under the surface of a purge-ruined Mandalore. Outfitted in Beskar armor, Moff Gideon hopes to wipe out Din’s covert as well as the once-scattered Mandalorians who have pledged fealty to Bo-Katan. In true Star Wars fashion, it’s an epic setup.
In an attempt to save her people from the Empire, Bo-Katan had offered Moff Gideon the Darksaber, but that didn’t stop him from orchestrating the Night of a Thousand Tears — the Imperial genocide of the Mandalorian people, and part of the Great Purge of Mandalore. Powerless, Bo-Katan Kryze watched Mandalore crumble, and, despite some starts and stops, committed herself to reuniting her fellow Mandalorians by reclaiming the Darksaber. And she succeeded — at least for a time, as The Mandalorian Season 3 finale shows.
What's So Special About The Darksaber?
Created by Mandalorian Jedi Tarre Vizsla, the Darksaber became a symbol for all Mandalorians. It was believed that whoever wielded the Darksaber was the rightful ruler of Mandalore. But as viewers learn in The Book of Boba Fett, the Darksaber must be claimed in combat — only then will its allegiance shift. Before the Great Purge, Bo-Katan received the Darksaber as a gift from a fellow Mandalorian (and rebel), Sabine Wren. The Armorer, the de facto leader of Din’s fanatic covert, explains that the Darksaber carries a curse; if not won outright, the one who holds it could oversee Mandalore’s destruction.
Whether what the Armorer says is true or not, Bo-Katan Kryze believes she failed in part because she didn’t earn the Darksaber legitimately. Once Din Djarin bests Moff Gideon and claims the Darksaber, she’s reluctant to accept it as a gift a second time. Instead, she resigns from finding her scattered people, let alone leading them. While on his quest to find the Living Waters of Mandalore and regain his covert’s acceptance, Din Djarin is taken captive in the mines beneath Mandalore. Grogu finds Bo-Katan, who comes to Din’s aid, freeing him with Darksaber.
Although it doesn’t figure into the story until later in Season 3, these events mean Bo-Katan Kryze is the rightful owner of the Darksaber. By defeating the one who defeated Din Djarin, the Darksaber’s previous owner, Bo-Katan can wield the weapon and unite her people. Both the Children of the Watch — Din and the Armorer’s zealous covert of helmet-wearing Mandalorians — and the less fanatic Mandalorians follow Bo-Katan to Mandalore, ready to reclaim their homeworld.
How Was The Darksaber Destroyed?
Bo-Katan Kryze and her reconnaissance squad descend on Mandalore in the penultimate episode of Season 3. Shortly after making landfall, they encounter a small battalion of Mandalorians who have survived on the ruined surface of the planet since the Great Purge. While waiting for Bo-Katan’s return, they cultivated indigenous plant life, offering hope that Mandalore can be revived.
But this isn’t the only surprise. Once Bo-Katan, Din, and the others descend into the ruins of Mandalore’s once-great city, they’re attacked by Imperial stormtroopers. It seems Moff Gideon has long had a secret underground base on Mandalore. Adding insult to injury, the stormtroopers that assault the Mandalorian detail are wearing armor made of Beskar. And when Moff Gideon appears, he reveals that his Dark Trooper armor is also hewn from the Mandalorians’ most precious resource.
The stormtroopers lead the Mandalorians into a trap, causing Din and Grogu to splinter off. Thanks to Paz Vizsla’s noble sacrifice, Axe Woves is able to warn the rest of the Mandalorians, who are still in orbit above the planet, and Bo-Katan’s detail escapes the Imperial onslaught. Din Djarin takes it upon himself to hunt down Moff Gideon. On the way, he and Grogu stumble upon Gideon’s array of still-growing clones and destroy them, before running into Moff Gideon.
Just when it looks like Moff Gideon will end Din, Bo-Katan reappears, Darksaber drawn. She exchanges blows with Moff Gideon, who taunts her about their last face-to-face meeting. With his enhanced Dark Trooper armor, Moff Gideon seems unstoppable. At one point, he takes the Darksaber from Bo-Katan, and crushes its hilt. It’s clear from the following shot of the broken weapon that the Darksaber has been ruined.
Will The Darksaber Be Fixed?
Thanks to Grogu’s well-timed Force shield, Din and Bo-Katan survive Moff Gideon’s onslaught. The Darksaber, on the other hand, might not have been so fortunate. Thanks to Moff Gideon’s strength-enhancing armor, the weapon’s hilt was heavily damaged. While it’s not clear if the damage is irreparable, the saber’s current status is unknown.
One can assume that Bo-Katan took the remnants of the Darksaber when the trio left the underground base in the wake of Moff Gideon’s defeat. After all, the relic holds just as much symbolic power as it does physical prowess. Now, fans are eager to know if the Darksaber can be fixed.
While the Darksaber has special qualities, such as the Beskar hilt, it is very much a lightsaber. At its core is a Kyber crystal, though this particular fragment seems to imbue the Darksaber with more sentience than the average lightsaber. While a Jedi’s Kyber crystal helps them feel centered and find balance in the Force, it seems the core of the Darksaber has the best interests of Mandalore at heart. When Moff Gideon crushed the Darksaber’s hilt, one can assume that the Darksaber’s crystal was damaged in the process. That’s a more difficult fix than swapping out a blade emitter or focusing ring.
In Star Wars Canon, the most prominent example of a damaged Kyber crystal is Kylo Ren’s. While attempting to “bleed” a Kyber crystal — infuse a light-side-aligned crystal with his anger and hate — Kylo Ren cracked the crystal in question. Its unstable nature led him to build his unconventional hilt with a crossguard, which helps vent the crystal’s excess energy. Clearly, a damaged Kyber crystal can power a lightsaber — but whether the same principle applies to the Darksaber is unknown.
At the end of Season 3, Din Djarin formally adopts Grogu, making the foundling an even more legitimate member of the Mandalorian people. But given Grogu’s use of the Force, both during the Moff Gideon fight and at the very end of the episode, it’s clear that he isn’t shying away from his abilities. While not a Jedi in the sense that Luke Skywalker hoped, Grogu is both Force-sensitive and a Mandalorian — much like Tarre Vizsla, the Darksaber’s creator. It’s possible that Grogu’s ultimate fate may tie into that of the Darksaber, whether that means he has a hand in repairing it, or he forges a new saber in the same spirit of Tarre Vizsla and the Darksaber.
Does Bo-Katan Need The Darksaber To Unite Mandalore?
When Bo-Katan Kryze tries to reclaim command of the Mandalorian detail she assembled, their new leader, Axe Woves, duels Bo-Katan for leadership. Although Bo-Katan defeats him, Axe Woves suggests that she’ll never be the true leader without the Darksaber. After Din Djarin explains that the Darksaber does rightfully belong to Bo-Katan, Axe Woves and the other Mandalorians accept her as their leader.
Even the most orthodox members of the zealous Children of the Watch, including Paz Vizsla and The Armorer, accept Bo-Katan’s leadership, in large part because of her ownership of the Darksaber. With the weapon in hand, Bo-Katan is able to unite the warring factions, and leads her people to reclaim Mandalore. But will the Mandalorians continue to follow Bo-Katan Kryze if she doesn’t wield the Darksaber?
For now, only Din Djarin and Grogu know of its destruction. Unless Bo-Katan is asked to show the weapon, the other Mandalorians may not know of the Darksaber’s fate. Of course, keeping the saber’s status a secret might also lead the Mandalorians to doubt her leadership when the truth eventually comes out. Wielding the Darksaber isn’t necessarily a requirement — other leaders from Mandalore’s past haven’t held it, though their reigns have been divisive. However, it’s clear that the symbol has helped Bo-Katan gain her people’s trust and fealty.
Perhaps the Darksaber has served its purpose. A relic of a bygone era in the Star Wars universe, the Darksaber is undoubtedly cool, but is it really needed at this point? So much of The Mandalorian centers on the push-and-pull that happens when tradition comes up against necessary change. The destruction of the Darksaber could usher in a new age for Mandalore — an age built on trusting a leader's actions and values, rather than on their lineage or ability to wield a fabled weapon.