I know Tarre Viszla was an actual Jedi who happened to be born on Mandalore, but if there IS a true successor to him, it isn’t Grogu. It’s not Din. It’s not Bo-Katan.
The Mandalorian who learns how to act like a Jedi.
The Mandalorian who loves her people, but takes what she’s learned from Kanan and Hera and connects it to her heritage to help her people progress.
The Mandalorian who picks up that Dark Saber and doesn’t just wield it physically, she EARNS it.
Because Jedi get lightsabers only AFTER they’ve earned their kyber crystals. They don’t just get handed a lightsaber because they beat someone else in combat. Kyber crystals put you through tests in order to earn them, they’re semi-sentient. And the same should hold true for the Dark Saber. It’s just a normal kyber crystal, it’s going to act similarly.
And while there obviously IS a physical aspect to it that appears to have sort-of been imbued in it over the generations it’s been with the Mandalorians, it still has the spiritual and emotional aspect from it being a JEDI’S lightsaber first. And Tarre Viszla would’ve had to go through the same spiritual and emotional trial before earning his kyber crystal as any other Jedi.
Pretty much every other person we see wielding it only passes on of those tests, the physical. They beat someone in combat and get to wield the Dark Saber. But to truly make it YOURS, you have to pass BOTH.
Sabine actually passes the spiritual one first. Because she doesn’t win the saber in combat, she just picks it up from Maul’s lair and takes it. But as she trains with it, she has to listen to Kanan and she has to go through a trial that feels VERY familiar. The last time we saw something similar happen, it was when Ezra was learning to connect to animals and he couldn’t do it until he admitted to his fears. Sabine can’t truly wield the Dark Saber until she admits to her own, to her fears and insecurities regarding her past with the Empire and her family. And once she does, she’s earned the kyber crystal. She can wield the blade by the Jedi half of the test.
But it’s not until she gets to Mandalore and actually faces her family and fights Gar Saxon for it that she passes the Mandalorian half of the test, the physical. And even then, once she does, she chooses mercy and refuses to kill Gar Saxon when given the chance.
She chooses mercy because Kanan taught her to be merciful, because she’s incorporating Jedi values into Mandalorian traditions.
Tarre Viszla was born Mandalorian and raised as a Jedi. Sabine Wren was born a Mandalorian and raised by a Jedi. She may not be Force sensitive, but her connection and relationship with Kanan means she is the ONLY PERSON that we have seen since Tarre Viszla to have actually earned the Dark Saber’s kyber crystal the Jedi way and wielded it the Jedi way, with mercy and in the interest of the greater good rather than personal gain.
No matter who Sabine chooses to hand that blade off to, no matter who ends up ruling Mandalore through it, Sabine Wren is its truest owner and the true successor to Tarre Viszla.
