After Din Djarin presents the ancient Mandalorian weapon known as the Darksaber to his leader, the armorer, his claim to the saber is immediately challenged. A man named Paz Vizsla of the Mandaloran House Vizsla tries to claim the saber based on his ancestry and lineage, putting up a fierce struggle against Mando. But why did the Darksaber get heavier for Mando as the fight continued? Well lets find out and why it also got Lighter when Sabine Wren used the blade.

During his fight with fellow Children of the Watch Member Paz Vizsla, and even against the Bulldog mob members on Glavis, Mando came across a very interesting phenomenon which is unique to the Darksaber. The weapon actually felt heavier in his hands, even to a point where he couldn’t even hold up the weapon. The ancient weapon began dragging on the ground and took considerable force to even hold up. Considering this even happened to Paz Vizsla who can hold much, much heavier weapons, this effect is obviously very strong.

Now this exact same thing happens to Sabine Wren in Star Wars Rebels after she obtains the blade and begins her training with Kanan Jarrus. In that series, Sabine wren and Ezra Bridger a fellow member of her Rebel cell and Jedi padawan, traveled to the dark world of Dathomir. This is the homeworld of Darth Maul, who was the current holder of the darksaber at the time. After exploring the planet and encountering the Nightsister witches they stumbled into his lair. Inside Maul’s lair was an assortment of disturbing pictures and relics, along with the famed Darksaber just sitting there for the taking. By this point in the timeline, the Jedi had fallen and the Empire had risen. So with Maul’s defeat at the Siege of Mandalore, he had completely lost interesting in ruling the Mandalorian people andy longer, allowing Sabine and Ezra to take the blade from him without a fight. It was at this point that Sabine Wren became the holder of the Darksaber and the true ruler of Mandalore… at least according to the tradition at the time. Despite not having won the Dark blade in single combat with the current holder, Sabine was the de facto ruler. This whole situation actually came as a stunning shock to the Mandalorian people as nobody could believe that Maul had really been defeated and lost the Darksaber.

But either way, this is where the connections to Din Djarin’s Darksaber training begin. Knowing that Sabine would now become a massive target for prospective challengers to the Darksaber, Kanan Jarrus, a Jedi knight who survived Order 66, began to train her. And it was during this training that she experienced the exact same, strange phenomenon as Mando. The Darksaber was heavy and refused to cooperate with her movement.

This problem was only solved once Sabine began to connect with the blade and allow it to become an extension of herself, rather than a simple tool. Sabine needed to fight with it and not against it. She was knocked to the ground by Kanan many times before this got through to her, but eventually she accepted the blade and its power, reducing its weight significantly. Sabine was very pleased with her progress and the fact that the blade was getting much lighter, but this wasn’t the full answer. There was something more that Sabine needed to do in order to completely connect with the Darksaber.