One of the most exciting aspects of theObi-Wan Kenobitrailer was the appearanceof Inquisitors. These dark, Force-sensitive beings have terrorized Jedi inStar Warsanimated shows and video games, but the upcoming Disney+ series will mark their first live-action appearance. They will likely act as the primary threat to Obi-Wan’s (Ewan McGregor) mission of safeguarding young Luke Skywalker (Grant Feely).
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Obi-Wan faces a daunting challenge dealing with the arrival of these Jedi hunters on Tatooine. The Inquisitorius is persistent and powerful, and any move he makes against them threatens to reveal the secret in his care.
The Inquisitorius is an order of Force-sensitive agents formed by Darth Sidious (Ian Abercrombie) in the early days of the Empire. The Inquisitors were known by some as the Red Blades due to their red lightsabers. Most of them carried a unique variation of the weapon, consisting of a double-bladed saber that could rotate on a ringed hilt.
Sidious created them for the sole purpose of eliminating any trace of the Jedi. He knew that some Jedi would survive Order 66 and that their history might inspire future Force-sensitives to revive the Jedi Order. To erase the Jedi from history, they hunted Jedi survivors and destroyed Jedi artifacts; To prevent a future Jedi revival, they invited young Force-sensitives into the Empire and killed the unwilling, as well as abducting Force-sensitive infants.
Sidious Attempted To Launch This Program Earlier
The Inquisitorius began around the time of the Republic’s fall, but Sidious attempted to form it earlier. His original and much darker plan involved abducting children to mold them into Inquisitors as they grew up. He had foreseen his own personal “army of Force-talented spies.”
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He utilized the services of Cad Bane (Corey Burton) to obtain a holocron containing data on every Force-sensitive child the Jedi knew about. The Sith lord managed to kidnap a few children with the intention of using nanny droids to condition them into his slaves. Fortunately, Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) and Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) managed to thwart this plan by recovering the children as well as the holocron before the Sith had a chance to copy its data.
Inquisitors Are Corrupted Jedi
After he failed to obtain Force-sensitive children, Sidious began watching for Jedi whom he could manipulate like he had Anakin. He capitalized on conflicts to isolate targets. He twisted some with promises, like access to records the Jedi Order had denied them.
Others, he bent with torture, such as a Padawan whose Master had escaped Order 66 but had failed to rescue her. He fanned sparks of passion and hatred into the flames of the dark side. The final product was a squad of highly-trained Jedi warriors who had given themselves over to their hatred and passions.
Inquisitors Reported Directly To Vader
Darth Sidious conferred a high rank on the Inquisitors, and they answered only to himself and Darth Vader. This enabled them to take command of any Imperial forces or vessels if they needed support to eliminate a Jedi. Sidious knew the Jedi posed the only real threat to his reign, so their destruction was given top priority.
The Inquisitors workeddirectly for Vader, frequently fought alongside him. He trained them directly in the ways of the dark side, doing everything in his power to extinguish any remnant of Jedi light within them. In order to drive in the lesson of loss and to teach them to abandon a defensive Jedi posture, he cut a part off of nearly every Inquisitor during their training. The end result was a force of dark warriors every bit as hateful and cruel as the Sith.
Sidious Stripped Inquisitors Of Their Identities
Once inducted into the Inquisitorius, the former Jedi gave up their names and identities for a numerical designation like “Seventh Sister” or “Fifth Brother.” The leader of the order was known only asthe Grand Inquisitor. The total number of Inquisitors was kept secret, making it difficult to know the significance of defeating an individual Inquisitor.
Sidious and Vader took a utilitarian approach to the squad. It was a nameless group whose only purpose was the elimination of the Jedi. The Inquisitors’ loss of individuality persisted even in death. Once as a punishment for failing, Vader bound a fallen Inquisitor’s spirit to a Jedi outpost as a guard, denying his freedom and forcing his service even in death.
Inquisitors Lacked The Strength To Become Sith
The Sith Rule of Two dictated that there should only be two Sith at any given time, one to embody power and another to crave it. According to the reference book,Star Wars: The Dark Side, Sidious did not attempt to turn the Inquisitors into Sith because he believed they lacked the power to truly challenge him.
Their inability to compete with Sidious would limit his growth as well as their own. So, he used them for their abilities and discarded them when he no longer needed them.
The Inquisitors Were Not Completely Loyal
In spite of Sidious’s opinion of their strength, they did crave power. Predictably, the Inquisitorius was plagued by the same selfishness so prevalent among the Sith. They competed fiercely for position and frequently maligned each other, even hurting one another if it created a benefit.
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One of the most interesting instances of disloyalty occurred inDarth Vadercomicissue 20. Two Inquisitors fell in love and prioritized that relationship above Vader’s commands. This reflected Vader’s own story of romantic attachment interfering with obligations to the order. So, he killed the two lovers.
When Their Mission Was Complete, They Vanished
InSecrets of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker wrote, “During the early years of the Empire, the red blades of the Inquisitorius cut a swath through the galaxy as they wiped any remaining traces of the Jedi Order from existence. Once the Jedi were finally considered extinct by the Empire, the Inquisitorius vanished into the darkness as well.”
The Inquisitorius may have wiped out the remnants of the Galaxy’s most powerful order, but they vanished as quickly as they appeared. Some fell in combat with the Jedi and several were killed by Vader for various failures. The fate of others remains unknown, but given their treatment as tools to be used and cast aside, it’s likely Vader or Sidious killed them when their purpose was fulfilled.
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