Lit The Fate of the Inquisitors

Very interesting topic! I´ve said this before, but this is actually what got me into Rebels, since I´m a big fan of the Jedi Knight series and Jerec is indeed a favorite character of mine. Personally, I´m still trying to work out the fact that the writers are assuming the Inquisitorius is over by the time of ANH. It´s hard to make sense from it because the ending of the Jedi Order doesn´t automatically means there will be no new Force users in the whole galaxy, and that no surviving Jedi will have any interest of working against the Empire. On the contrary, the Inquisitors are great assets, like the Sixth Brother proved on the Ahsoka novel when he single handedly ended a problematic rebel cell.

The thing is, canon Inquisitors are now very combat oriented hunters. Every single one of them is extremely arrogant and sure of themselves, to the point they even overestimate their chances in some very difficult situations (Malachor), and preferred death to face the punishment for failure. To me, that indicates that they have very high success ratio; we just haven´t seen this on Rebels. The Inquisitors of old, on the other hand, were mostly interrogators than could have talent with the Force, and even lightsaber skills (Jerec was prominent in both, and in a lesser degree so were Torbin, Tremayne, Malorum, etc) but it was a concept developed over time, and at first there were even some non Force users filling the role.

Personally, I see no reason at all for the Inquisitors to be gone by the time of the OT. Nothing indicates they would dare crossing their masters and face the whole Empire for it, and nothing indicates that the Sith would willingly dispose of a very powerful tool just when the Rebellion is growing stronger than ever. They should keep them around to act as a counterpart to any Jedi (or even darksider) willing to plot against them, whether within the Rebellion or by themselves, like Maul.

For me the most logical solution is that Vader doesn´t train Inquisitors anymore, so the ones that fall are not replaced. We really don´t know their numbers, but both the 7th sister and the 8th brother talked about a not so small number of Inquisitors left... so, while I´m not sure if this would be an option for the writers at this point, to me it would make sense that when the Sith are gone, the remaining Inquisitors slowly end up becoming or having some kind of influence in the founding of the Knights of Ren...

About Jerec, I can´t agree more with you, I would love to see him in canon, even if I get the feeling that he is very different from what they are showing us now. Jerec was even a governor, with great political power and with many personal goals that didn´t really held the Sith´s best interest at heart, while current Inquisitors are so loyal that they even renounce their identity and are designated by a rank instead of a name. Still, I think there is a number of ways to have him as an Inquisitor in canon!

 

I think it'd be a waste to have the Inquisition defeated by the OT since we can have Luke have lightsaber fights before TESB and it not being embarrassingly stupid to see him win.

 

Same. It's just a waste of good story potential.

 

"I foresee an army of Force-talented spies in my service..."

 

Bingo.

 

I´ve always felt that Sidious´ line was referring to the future creation of the Inquisitorius itself...

 

I think all the Inquisitors BUT the Grand Inquisitor were raised by the Empire.

 

And that the Grand Inquisitor based them, to some degree, on the Jedi Temple Guard.

 

A sympathetic but unlikely story is the Grand Inquisitor is like the Tales Jedi who offered his service to Palpatine and Vader in exchange for his charges being spared.

Perhaps after seeing what Vader did to the other younglings.

 

Man that was a good story.

My angle was more that standardized weaponry, standard-ish attire, and a penchant for masks and full-face helmets may come directly from the Guards.

 

About the difference between Sith and Inquisitor - I can see it being seen as arbitrary, but then again many important differences are arbitary.

Take for example, in medieval Europe one might see two warriors kitted out in similar armor, with similar weapons, training and tactics...and yet it could be that one is a knight and the other is not, and that alone makes a huge difference in how they are seen.

Sith isn't just a generic term for darksider after all - it is a specific organization. You are in, or you are out. There is no in between. (...well, ok arguably Maul.....)

 

I think it's one of idealogy.

Sith are a very specific religion of selfishness and nihilism which encourage one to serve oneself until one eventually overthrows ones master.

Inquisitors are servants of the Empire.

 

Huh. That is a very plausible and nonstandard scenario. Especially considering he 1) saw more of the young Jedi on a day-to-day basis than most Jedi would and so knew them well, and 2) was in the position to learn what happened to the younglings. I like it.

 

Nothing we've seen suggests they had any training in using the Force for remote viewing or predicting the future. Second, Sidious has demonstrated a strong interest in finding Force sensitive kids, which none of the inquisitors appear to have been. Third, the inquisitors don't appear to receive much training, suggesting they're viewed as expendable.

Finally, there's this from Lost Stars:

Which comes several years after the Inquisitors have been disbanded.

 

Or if not there needs to be a very good explanation/story about how an entire group of force trained acolytes went from Imperial Agents of choice to being ignored in favour of scumbag Bounty Hunters. The whole Inquisition gives me an impression that someone somewhere came up with them as (an admittedly very cool) concept but no-one really quite worked out how they would fit into the overall storyline. They've got to be created, rise to eminence and be broken back down again all within about twenty years which given the scope of the main storyline isn't all that long really.

 

Some may have gone to the Unknown Regions after Jakku been the foundation of The Knights of Ren, others may have fallen in with criminal organizations, others may have sought out Sith knowledge to increase their power.

 

This reminds me of how a Darth of the One Sith became head of a pirate guild after Krayt fell in Legacy. I would quite like to see more dethroned dark-siders resorting to criminal lifestyles.

 

Maul had a storyline like that on TCW - albeit it was never completed on screen.

 

Oh, yeah. I forgot.

 

Mmm, you kinda missed me there. The original quote is about Sidious foreseeing the creation of such agents, not that the agents themselves were to have the ability to foresee the future, right? I mean, the way I understood it, the agents were to be able to sense things through the Force... just like the second season Inquisitors were able to keep following around Kanan and Ezra and, by doing so, to render them unable to find a base for the Rebellion.

The Inquisitors go around pretty much under the radar, to the point that most imperial personnel doesn´t even know of their existence, and they work to hunt down any force user determined to undermine Sidious´ Empire, either by choice or potential. The quote works for the Inquisitorius, and say you say it could very well work for some other organization that we haven´t seen as well, but I doubt Sidious saw anyone as anything more than an expendable asset, so the fact that he saw the Inquisitors that way really doesn´t say much...

 

Well we're almost to Rogue One and the Inquisitors are still around. Therefore, they last until A New Hope at least.

Also, there's no sign the Empire doesn't know they exist.

 

Inquisitors were quite public in the EU, and they seem just as well-known in Rebels.

Spoiler

 

Mmm, you kinda missed me there. The original quote is about Sidious foreseeing the creation of such agents, not that the agents themselves were to have the ability to foresee the future, right? I mean, the way I understood it, the agents were to be able to sense things through the Force... just like the second season Inquisitors were able to keep following around Kanan and Ezra and, by doing so, to render them unable to find a base for the Rebellion.

The Inquisitors go around pretty much under the radar, to the point that most imperial personnel doesn´t even know of their existence, and they work to hunt down any force user determined to undermine Sidious´ Empire, either by choice or potential. The quote works for the Inquisitorius, and say you say it could very well work for some other organization that we haven´t seen as well, but I doubt Sidious saw anyone as anything more than an expendable asset, so the fact that he saw the Inquisitors that way really doesn´t say much...[/quote]


The full quote is:

My point about the Inquisitorius being expendable is they're not particularly well trained for what is ostensibly their primary objective - tracking down and killing surviving Jedi. Second, as far as we can tell, they don't seem to be getting replaced. To me, this suggests they're mostly for finding Force sensitives that can be turned and locating Jedi. If they actually kill one, great, otherwise Darth Vader can take care of it and there's one less Force user with uncertain loyalty to worry about.

The inquisitors are only useful as long as there isn't a better alternative.

 

Isn't the whole search for Ezra because he's to be inducted into the Inquisition?