Was reorganizing some notes on Mandalorian lore for some fanfic (and pondering the implications that ye old EU wise Tarre Vizsla would come after Mandalore the Uniter timeline wise and been taken on by the Jedi around the time he was just getting started on well uniting and stuff) and had a thought.
Given Tarre specifically had his saber stored at the Jedi temple presumably to try and circumvent the "whoever has this magic sword is now Mand'alor etc" and the implications the Darksaber was stored in a Simmilar kind of reliquary set up a la Qui-gons..
And well EU wise Mandaloriam wise have grave-robber as an insult but Disney canon wise the Empire made a big point of building a base to cover up that giant statue of him
Wouldn't Vizsla descendants and later Death Watch actually loose a lot of their legitimacy for essentially robbing his grave? I mean Pre flat out tells obi-wan they stole it (even if in Rebels Fenn uses the more ambiguous liberated.). That's not really beating the "your just organized crime in Beskar'gam" hiding behind the let's go back to the Neo Crusader glory days, allegations.
I just can't but help but think of one of Pre's grandkids coming back from bagging a bounty and basically "You broke into the Jedi temple and did what!"
Having an insult like chakaar (meaning a corpse robber among other things) does not necessarily mean (Legends) Mandalorians must have themselves any moral objection against desecrating the corpses or graves, if they are the one doing it. Some Mandalorians carried trophies taken from killed opponents, like Boba Fett’s wookiee scalp or other stuff:
Gilamar just smiled. Like Skirata, he’d never been one for trophies. Come to think of it, neither had Vau. The three of them always looked pretty harmless for Mandalorians, with no scalps, hides, strings of teeth, or unidentifiable remains of their kills dangling from their shoulder plates. Maybe they needed to roughen up their image a bit and sport a few shriveled body parts that weren’t their own [...] - Imperial Commando: 501st
In “The Old Republic: Revan” no mandalorian character thought twice about the Sith Lord’s tomb, where their enemy - Revan - hid Mandalore’s Mask. All they cared about was to retrieve their sacred item.
Frankly, from their perspective Revan could be considered the chaakar, as he, outsider and enemy, took Mandalore’s Mask from their dead leader and because of that, robbed Mandalorians of the chance to rebuild under new ruler after the Mandalorian Wars. And a great chunk of Mandalorians hated Revan for that, even if by combat rules, he had the right to take the Mask.
Considering that we know so little about Tarre Vizla’s life - how old he was when taken into Jedi Order, how he felt about and/or how he connected to his mandalorian heritage, how he died or whether if he expressed a specific wish as to where and how he should be buried - Mandalorians seeing taking Darksaber away from Jedi as liberation or retrieving a sacred item makes sense.
Sabine Wren said Tarre Vizsla was an ancient Mandalorian ruler, which allows us to assume that if Tarre took an active political role between his folks, the Jedi duties were to some degree put aside.
(He could took the Mandalore’s title specifically to keep Mandalorians from waging another war against Jedi & Republic, in similar fashion how Canderous Ordo became Mandalore the Preserver, promising Revan to reunite the Mandalorian clans and stand against the Sith should they return. But even aligned goals can still cause friction.)
For all we know, the Tarre could wish to pass the Darksaber to his Mandalorian folks, as a memento of his Jedi heritage and symbol of truce between Mandalorians and Jedi but for whatever reason, the weapon was kept in Jedi Temple. If members of Vizsla clan managed to bring this artifact back to home, then I don’t think any Pre Vizsla’s descendent would have a reason to complain about it as unhonorable act.
So I assume what Mandalorians thought about taking Tarre’s Darksaber from Jedi Temple will depend a lot on if they considered that weapon rightfully belonged to Mandalorians or not.
However, since Disney’s lore about Darksaber is a mess, and we went from “stolen item” to “necessary item to legitimizing someone's right to lead Mandalorians”, I think the swift in perception of Darksaber could be also explained by political situation of Mandalorians. As in, the more dire situation (Empire occupation, planetary bombarding), the more mythologized and politicized became the darksaber.
And so we have the original Pre Vizsla’s remark that his ancestor stole the item from Jedi, that may not be about to whom the weapon belonged in the first place at all and more be a symbol of Mandalorian might. As in, they were once a threat, to the point of attacking Jedi on their own turf and Vizsla clan keep the Darksaber as a memento of that great deed.
Tor Vizsla, the alleged author of Death Watch Manifesto mentioned that darksaber was chosen as “symbol of authority” for the secret Mandalore, not necessary “royal attribute” guaranteeing the right to the throne/power, as every Mandalorian had right to challenge the leader of Death Watch.
Similarly, Pre Vizsla never relied on Darksaber as his legit claim to the Mandalore throne. He, and Satine Kryze for that matter, acknowledged that who will rule Mandalorians will depend solely on what their people will choose - pacifism or warrior culture. Which was many times mentioned:
Vizsla: Unacceptable! You promised us we would reclaim Mandalore from these weak-willed cowards. I will order my men to attack.
Dooku: And if you do, you'll hold the planet for perhaps a day. Without the backing of my forces or your people, your revolution will be over before it begins.
Pre Vizsla: However, as I've said before, if we try to take Mandalore by force, our people will turn against us.
Darth Maul: I will use my army of crime lords to attack different targets across Sundari and sow chaos to undermine the Duchess' rule. Our gangsters will make her look too weak to maintain control. Then you and your Death Watch will capture and arrest us, bringing order where Satine's weak government could not.
Pre Vizsla: We'll be saviors.
Darth Maul: Exactly.
Bo-Katan: It's a risk to trust those monsters. How do we know they'll keep their end of the bargain?
Pre Vizsla: We need those Sith and their thugs to cause some pain and show the Mandalorian people how weak Satine really is. After this is done, no one will doubt why we're in power. Most will welcome us.
Mandalorian folks did not think much about Vizsla wielding a Darksaber - they finally supported him not because of some ancient item, but because they believed that Death Watch will secure their safety, something that Satine’s government didn’t.
Chronologically, the next time Darksaber is brought back into the political scene, Mandalorian people lived two decades under imperial occupation. Distress times like that use mythologization as a form of opposing oppression. Darksaber already had legendary status (as Fenn Rau said), but it was still just a symbol that Bo-Katan did not need in her crusade against the Empire. It was bestowed to her with mandalorian clans approval.
The “Darksaber as necessary item one must possess to rule Mandalorians” is the most vital when Mandalorian people are defeated by the Empire, their home planet devastated and survivors scattered through the galaxy; some still fighting against the enemy, some forced to live in hiding.
Armorer: It is said, one warrior will defeat 20, and the multitudes will fall before it. If, however, it is not won in combat and falls into the hands of the undeserving, it will be a curse unto the nation. Mandalore will be laid to waste and its people scattered to the four winds."
"But according to our ways the ruler of Mandalore must possess the Darksaber."
"Then she shall have it. This belongs to you."
"It's not a gift to be given, no matter how well intended."
"It's not a gift. While exploring Mandalore, I was captured. And this blade was taken from me. Bo-Katan rescued me and slayed my captor. She defeated the enemy that defeated me. Would this blade then not belong to her?"
So, like I said, Disney’s lore about Darksaber is a mess, as with each new source material, the item’s status and value has changed. And changed in a way I’ll be forever bitter about. But if I was tasked with synthesis all of the above, I would try to reason it like this:
Darksaber’s status reflects the needs and political situation of mandalorian people. The more dire times and greater challenges Mandalorians faced, the more Darksaber was mythologized and politicized.
At the same time, I doubt any Mandalorian warrior would be ever upset by the fact that someone in the past managed to steal a Darksaber from Jedi Temple, as regardless of item’s status, that still sounds like a pretty epic deed.
