Tarre Vizsla is known for one thing: forging the weapon known as the Darksaber. This weapon became the most important relic for the Mandalorians. Whoever owned it would have the right to claim the title of Mand’alor, and lead all the clans.
But Tarre Vizsla’s story was more complicated, as was the entire relationship between the Mandalorians and the Jedi.
The Warriors vs The Sorcerers
Perhaps you remember what the Armorer told Din Djarin: “The songs of eons past tell of battles between Mandalore the Great and an order of sorcerers called Jedi…” At the time when she said it, the Jedi had indeed become only a legend to most. But to the Mandalorians, the Jedi had probably always been mostly a mysterious order of sorcerers, and enemies. With the notable exception of Tarre Vizsla’s time.
No details are known about Tarre Vizsla’s life and the era in which he lived (but we can likely expect something about it coming up sooner or later). We only know that he lived about a thousand years before the events of the original trilogy. He was both a Jedi and a Mandalorian and it was during his training that he had forged the Darksaber – his own take on the traditional Jedi weapon.
Tarre Vizsla’s statue on Mandalore (source: Star Wars: Forces of Destiny – “Art History”)
That is pretty much all there is to his story. Thus far, everything we know about him comes from the tale told by Fenn Rau to Sabine Wren (in Trials of the Darksaber, fifteenth episode of the third season of Star Wars Rebels, plus a small mention in the “Art History” episode of The Forces of Destiny – a lighthearted story aimed at children, but surprisingly lore-rich). As for the details of his life, we can only speculate. The animosity between the “warriors” and the “sorcerers” must have been at its historic low during his lifetime. We are told that Tarre was the first Mandalorian to be raised by the Jedi since childhood, which implies that the Mandalorians gave their Force-sensitive child to “the sorcerers”, likely willingly.
The Child’s Role Model?
It may have occurred to some of you at this point that it sounds a bit like somebody else we know: The Child. To be sure, the “baby Yoda” is, at this point, neither a Jedi nor a Mandalorian. But there is some solid potential for him to become both. From the narrative point of view, it would make a very interesting parallel with Tarre’s story, especially if the Darksaber is involved.
I shall leave it to everyone’s imagination to think about how the story could go. One completely arbitrary idea for starters: the Child could train with the Jedi at least for a while, and later, once he has grown up (which might still take quite some time), remember his roots and his “dad’s” (Din Djarin’s) culture and reclaim it. At that point, being already proficient in Jedi arts and in lightsaber combat, he could easily claim the Darksaber and become the new Mand’alor who is also a Jedi – the first after Tarre Vizsla.
Tarre Vizsla’s own story ended as a legend. The Mandalorians built a monument to him, a giant statue, on Mandalore itself (that statue appears in the Forces of Destiny). Meanwhile, the Darksaber had been kept by the Jedi for some time until years later, some members of clan Vizsla stole it from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. That was how it became the “crown jewel” of the Mandalorians.
