Full Series Did the "grand" inquisitor die too soon?

That was a vision conjured by Yoda.

 

Was the GI just a vision though? I assumed it was some kind of appearance from the afterlife!

 

From my impressions watching Season 1, there was just the right dosage of the Grand Inquisitor, not underused, not overused. I didn't care about the exacts of his history. He had enough of an cryptic aura to keep me intrigued. But mostly, he's good stage presence with Jason Issac's voice acting. Simple villain, but he kept you interested. And it helps that in "Rise of the Old Masters," his own mockings to Kanan (such as pointing out that Kanan never even explained the Dark Side to Ezra) felt thematically relevant to Kanan's own arc as a teacher with shortcomings. So it felt appropriate his defeat would accentuate Kanan's own growth more into the Light Side.

When the Inquisitor does get a posthumous character development in the Temple, it's particularly compelling because of the mystery intensified without needing to elaborate. In this review, I had this to say about the unmasking.

The Grand Inquisitor story, even if you know the few confirmations from Filoni that in TCW, he was the one who apprehended Barriss Offee and was stirred by her speech, is best kept a secret.

So the arrival of two Inquisitors shouldn't be a bad setup for Season Two. The problem is that they're not as worked in the plot or the character development as well. I think people ended up enjoying Seventh Sister a bit more since she try to operate as a psychological threat as oppose to physical, but even then, she and Fifth Brother ended up to be tedious threats, pretty hit-miss and miss in this case.

What was remotely interesting to me about the new Inquisitors was the clear competition between the two even in their working relationship which says miles about the Inquisitor culture and mentality. So in all fairness by the events of Malachor, it was thematically appropriate they died by their own competitive hubris.

I should note in the same episode where Grand Inquisitor gets his posthumous development, I note in the review that it's the most glaring missed opportunity we never got to see Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister's vision in the Jedi Temple as the image of their old superior, dressed in the Light Side robes, came toward them. That could've given their development there.

 

You know i actually agree with this sentiment, i think the problem was that Vader needed to be the one who was integrated into the plot more and not necessarily the two inquisitors. Considering i don't think they were mostly good Villains from the start. Personally i think the Grand Inquisitors usage might be a good template for how they use Thrawn, perhaps a bit more so in my taste and with a few more victories in his belt considering the type of Villain he is and how famous he is in terms of Star Wars lore.

 

I have enjoyed the whole of the Inquisitorius in Rebels so far. In fact, I'm hoping they still have some sort of presence in the series going forward. I particularly enjoy the design of the Fifth Brother. Grand Inquisitor and the Fifth Brother were some of my favorite new Dark siders in the Saga.

 

I think the Grand Inquisitor served his purpose well as the main antagonist for Season 1 and Kanan's adversary. Between him and Ezra, Kanan's character developed immensely over the course of the season. It also allowed for a personal victory in the season finale which would have been frustrating if he had survived to return later. Kanan needed to defeat him to progress and get over his issues that have haunted him since Order 66.

 

I honestly HATED their inclusion in the mythos. Once again, something else added to the backstory that muddles exactly what Vader did to "hunt down and destroy the Jedi knights." First Order 66 wiped off most of the jedi and now a whole slew of Inquisitors exist to purge the remaining jedi from the galaxy. Why add this unnecessary story fodder we know does NOT exist during the OT?

 

I can't exactly answer your question since I don't work for Lucasfilm, but I can say that the inclusion of the Inquisitorius doesn't really bother me.

Star Wars is always ever about Jedi and Dark Jedi fighting each other against a backdrop of awesome space opera action, and so I think there is a great demand and even a lot of expectation about there being red blades and blue/green blades clashing from a great, great many of the fans who watch the show--myself included. And I think Filoni and crew have created some interesting new villains in the form of the Inquisitors who can fulfill that desire without breaking the overall meta-narrative.

I have always wanted to see a concept like the Inquisitors brought to the screen because I think that dark side users who aren't Sith are a cool idea. I got to have the Nightsisters in TCW and now I get to enjoy the Inquisitors in Rebels. I'm not ready for them to disappear just yet and I am definitely interested enough to want to learn more of the lore that they bring to the SW Universe.

 

If I may briefly play devil's advocate here, I think this is an opinion being held by many who don't care for the Expanded Universe material (Canon or Legends). Many things other fans on this forum hold as a major cornerstone of the franchise for them (myself included), others that just watch the movies will care little for. Knights of the Old Republic, Tales of the Jedi, Thrawn Trilogy, Shatterpoint, Republic, etc. All pointless to them. Not a bad thing. Just a preference.

As for the Inquisitors, after season 1, they were just useless. In season 2, they were overshadowed by Vader and in season 3, they will be overshadowed by Thrawn. Honestly, attempting to find a compelling original villain from Filoni and Co. is kind of a lost cause at this point. Bringing back Thrawn essentially proved it. When they start mining Legends material for their villains instead of taking chances on new concepts for a formidable foe that the protagonists must face, it makes much of the show seem like wasted potential.

 

I disagree that bringing back known villains indicates wasted potential on the show. I believe Filoni when he says there is more value in using existing characters, because they already mean something to the fans, so whenever they try something for the plot they check if it has already been done before. That shows a) that they still respect the Legends material, b) that it helps tie the whole galaxy together better by making it more coherent, c) that they can actually get more support and respect from viewers by doing this and d) that it can save them time and resources that can be spent on other areas (remember that Rebels has a finite budget unlike TCW, so sacrifices in production have to be made - they can't always afford to put together original one-time villains. They need to get value for money out of everything).

You may be pissed off about them bringing back people like Thrawn but I can tell you that the people on this forum do not necessarily represent the majority of fans. I attended the Celebration panel and I can tell you the roof came off when Thrawn was revealed, so I think this strategy is working just fine for them.

 

Despite the incompetence displayed by the Inquisitors of Rebels, I still really like them and love that they exist. It makes total sense that Vader and Sidious would employ lesser dark side users to hunt any surviving Jedi and their potential recruits, they can't possibly govern a galaxy, watch each other for betrayal (that alone would be exhausting) and keep a close eye on possible Force rivals.

I don't think we'll see much more of the Inquisitors in Rebels (based on some vaguely remembered comment from Filoni at Celebration - I'll try to track in down), but I hope they'll be explore more in future.

 

Dark Jedi serving the Empire(Inquisitors) has been around since atleast the 1980's with the West End game. In the ROTS novel Dooku was under the deception that both he and Sidous would turn & control Anakin and make him lead as a general a new order of Force using warriors. This was basically confirmed on TCW with the "Children of the Force" and again on Rebels. Vader also was under the same illusion that both he and Sidious would together turn Luke into an asset(presumably he would've acted in a Ventress or Vos role).

All of season Two they were worried about more Inquisitors , and also worried about killing them as they only seem to increase their problem as they come back in doubles or triples or in any case greater numbers. Filoni would not give an exact number in the interview or in the actual finale, so not to box himself in. So they can be of any number, perhaps few, or perhaps more than a few. Its possible the some of them replaced a previous deceased warrior of the same number, we don't know. We do know Maul killed atleast one Inquisitor prior to the finale while he was stranded on Malachor. Maul knows about Inquisitors, plural, and he knows about Vader and much more.

I don't think they can phase them completely out in just two seasons. They had like 15 or more years of recruiting since the destruction of the Jedi Temple and Order 66. Vader always had Clone troopers backing him and aiding in killing the Jedi,it was never that he was completely alone except when he faced Kenobi .

 

I must say, I really liked your review, and that last point is in fact quite good: I also wanted to know really what it meant for the Inquisitors to see the vision of their former leader there. The writers just refused to develop their character at every chance they got, but the potential was great. Besides, I can´t help but take notice that the Inquisitors are seen by some as useless based on other elements, and not what we actually see in the series. For instance, everytime they faced Kanan or Ezra they dominated or at the very least kept the advantage. Everytime they faced a non-force user (the Fifth Brother vs Zeb) they beat them in a matter of seconds. They found and conquered the Jedi Temple on Lothal. They found the Rebel base on Garel. They fought evenly with Ahsoka on Malachor, showing that they learned from their mistakes and improved... they lost to Maul, yeah, but except the top force users in the galaxy, mostly everyone would. For me the big problem is Zeb´s reaction in Shroud of Darkness when Ezra tells him they were attacked by Inquisitors. It was somewhere along the lines of "So? what else is new?". It was meant to make Zeb look cool, but it allows the audience to think it´s ok not to take them seriously. For me, since they presented them as the antagonists in season 2, that´s just a mistake. There doesn´t seem to be the same perception of Dooku or Grievous in TCW, and what did they do? get captured by pirates, get beaten by a gungan, lose every possible battle and had every plan they had foiled. It´s not about actions, but about the way the characters are presented in-universe and to the audience...

 

I'm not really pissed off. I hope Thrawn can push this show beyond meh for me so far. I just think it's kind of ridiculous that they had so much potential to work with regarding the Inquisitors only for them to become entirely irrelevant.

 

The problem's the timing. I could see the Inquisitorious being a very relevant organization in the decade prior, when there were a significant number of Jedi still scattered about. Really, where they could have shone was the Kanan comic, or another work set between Ep III and Rebels. I thought that perhaps we would follow up on their organization after Season 1, when Kanan referred to Mustafar as where Jedi go to die. But, that seems now to be a dropped thread, and the crew haven't met other Jedi survivors that could be captured by, or converted into, Inquisitors.

 

Oh man, now you're just making me sad. I rather enjoyed Kanan. OH, THE MISSED OPPORTUNITIES! The Inquisitors would have been great for that series.

 

I don't mind Dark Siders besides Sith in the canon but what bothers me is they're used for literally the ONLY purpose Vader was supposed to have had during the era which was eradicate the Jedi Knights. Literally, that line in ANH when Obi says Vader "hunted down and killed the Jedi Knights" literally makes no sense since we now know Order 66 actually eradicated the majority of Jedi and now in canon there was not only one but an entire group of Inquisitors whose sole purpose was the track down and kill the remaining Jedi after the purge.... So what exactly was Vader doing??? We have yet to see Vader actually murder/hunt down or kill ANY jedi on screen post ROTS. Maybe Obi should have said Vader attacked the jedi temple and murdered young-lings because that is literally all we have seen to show Vader being the agent of the Emperor who tracks down and kills Jedi.

 

So your problem is that the one really vague line in ANH didn't pan out the way you thought it would?

I mean, Vader most likely DID hunt Jedi himself right after Episode III. Just because we don't see it happen doesn't mean it hasn't happened. I personally have no interest in watching or reading anything about Vader hunting down Jedi because I think that would bore me. I have been well aware of Vader's role in the Jedi Purge since I watched the first movie. I think it's far more fascinating to see the Universe expand by seeing what other Imperial Dark Side organizations or Rebel cells there were running around that we didn't know about.

 

It is a MAJOR retcon of established canon though. I mean Vader's entire modus operanda when we first meet him was originally HE was responsible for the jedi purge. It's what made him so feared and despised. Now we know Order 66 actually slaughtered most of the jedi masters and an entire squad of Inquisitors exist who are tasked with doing EXACTLY what Vader was supposed to do "hunt down and destroy the Jedi knights." It takes away from Vader's importance in the saga and make his presence less impactful imo. And I disagree we NEVER have seen Vader actually involved in the jedi purge on screen and it would be nice to expand on this. Like I said I don't mind seeing more minor dark siders added to the canon but not at the expense of downplaying other characters.

 

Those are great points. And the more and more I think about it, I realized that the Grand Inquisitor's integration in Season 1 worked because there was a substantial amount of instinctive outwitting in Kanan and Ezra's arc. The game of outwitting the
Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister wasn't as developed.

Part of me wishes that posthumous development for Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister is still on the horizons, but for now, that's up to the fanfic writers.

 

I love the Fifth Brother and the Seventh Sister. They've given our heroes a lot more trouble than the Grand Inquisitor ever did in Season 1. Grand Inquisitor didn't seem to rely on The Force as much as his three underlings did, and so his meeting of Kanan and Extra in the first season was made possible by trying to use his brain and manpower to out-wit our heroes.

The Fifth Brother and the Seventh Sister are shown relying more on The Force, something Grand Inquisitor didn't have to do since he had the Rebels on lockdown on Lothal. Because of this they are able to follow Kanan and Ezra's residual Force trail, so everywhere they go, the Inquisitors are soon to be. They are like Ring wraiths in how relentless they seem. That's what I like about the Fifth Brother and the Seventh Sister was how different they were in what they brought to the villainy of the second season.

 

I will say this, I wanted more of their interaction to bring out their contrast. I kinda enjoy they're in some professional working relationship but have an inner bitter competition between them. Which is why I thought the way they went out, allowing Eighth Brother to impulsively and unwittingly do some of the dirty work for them. Part of me speculates that the reason why the writers kept Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister from witnessing each others death was I felt they might be attached enough to actually grudgingly mourn each other.

I think one of the most fascinating guessworks, though not something that substantially proven or canonical, was the speculation that Fifth Brother himself is blind, and apparent old concept art had him as the "Blind Inquisitor." Had this actually came to play, that would have been thematically relevant to Kanan's own blindness.

 

He definitely died too soon. he should have been the big bad and been teased a lot before eventually appearing to get his hands dirty. The trouble was after his death the other Inquisitors felt like no big deal.

 

Yeah, the Inquisitors concept is a wasted potential that most likely won't be revisited anytime soon from what I can tell. We know very little of them in the end which could have been explored and expanded further. It just seem that they gave up with the concept halfway through and prefer to just bring something like Thrawn over.

 

The Grand was fine my issue was more you cant go from the top inquistor to two lesser ones. The threats are suppose to increase as the party levels up not decrease.