Star Wars: All Inquisitors In Canon Explained (well most of them)

Star Wars Inquisitors were Darth Vader's elite death squad of Jedi-killing dark side users. Who were these Imperial agents and what were their fates?

Canon has introduced several Imperial Inquisitors, evil fallen Jedi who, under the command of Darth Vader, searched to root out and destroy survivors of Order 66. Due to make their live-action debut in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series, Inquisitors were first introduced in Star Wars and went on to play pivotal roles in Jedi:Fallen Order and the Star Wars: Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith comic series. Definitely not Jedi, but not quite Sith either, the Inquisitorius are a mysterious and deadly group of dark side users. Though they no longer existed by the time of the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars, they were historically a critical tool of the Empire and the Sith in their quest to eliminate the Jedi and enforce galactic domination. But who are the Inquisitors, what was their place in the Empire, and will the Obi-Wan Kenobi series reveal their ultimate fate?

The Inquisitors are a special division of force sensitives, all former Jedi who surrendered to the Empire during the Jedi Purge and fell to the dark side of the Force. Trained by Darth Vader himself, the Inquisitors are Sith in all but name (as there can only be two Dark Lords at a time). Similar to the current canon’s version of Darth Vader, Inquisitors are not technically part of the Imperial military hierarchy, though they can take command of nearly any forces at their disposal. By the time the Death Star plans where stolen however, the Inquisitors as an organization were long since dissolved.

According to the reference book Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know, Updated and Expanded, the total amount of Inquisitors may have been twelve, and eleven have been seen so far in the current Star Wars canon. Although the Empire eventually outgrew its need for these nefarious Inquisitors, they proved to be a valuable asset to the Sith, and instrumental in the Jedi Purge after Order 66. Here's every Inquisitor in Star Wars canon explained

The Grand Inquisitor

Due to make his live-action debut in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, the very first Inquisitor seen in Star Wars canon is their leader; The Grand Inquisitor. His true name is unknown, and he's referred to only by his title, although Obi-Wan Kenobi may flesh out his backstory. Introduced early on in the first season of Star Wars Rebels, he is a striking, menacing, Pau'an (voiced by Jason Isaacs), who pursues former-Padawan Kanan Jarrus and prospective Jedi Ezra Bridger throughout the season. The Grand Inquisitor’s power in the dark side might be second only to Vader and Sidious within the Empire, but ultimately, he relies on inspiring fear more than anything overt displays of potency. This ties perfectly into Kanan’s character arc in season 1, as it was his ability to replace his fears with faith in the Force that allowed him to ultimately defeat the Grand Inquisitor.

Though the Grand Inquisitor dies in the Star Wars Rebels season 1 finale, his origins are explored further in later material. Rebels season 2 reveals that during his time as a Jedi, he was one of the Jedi Temple Guards, and according to the reference book Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition, he was one of the same guards who seized the traitorous former-Jedi Barriss Offee (retroactively making his first appearance the Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 5 finale). The book goes on to reveal that it was the Jedi’s handling of the temple bombing and their mistreatment of both Ahsoka Tano and Barriss Offee that left him disillusioned in the order, and thus susceptible to the allure of the dark side like Kylo Ren, Darth Vader, and countless other fallen Jedi before him.

Reva The Third Sister

Played by Moses Ingram in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series, little has been revealed about Reva the Third Sister beyond the fact she's an ambitious Inquisitor baying for Jedi blood. From the trailers, it's clear she'll be assigned the task of hunting down Obi-Wan, especially given that there's footage of her on Tatooine. Reva is a character created almost entirely for the Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Outside of a brief mention in a De Agostini Star Wars Encyclopaedia in 2021 as a footnote in a section about Darth Maul and other dark side users, all that's known of Reva the Third Sister comes from the trailers and interviews with Moses Ingram and the Obi-Wan Kenobi production team. Unlike the Grand Inquisitor, there's no prior Reva canon for the series to build on. This may be more of a boon than a burden for Ingram since there are no existing fan expectations for the character, giving Ingram a lot of freedom to make the "fiercely intelligent and very quick on her feet" (via Vanity Fair) Reva the Third Sister her own.

The Fifth Brother

The death of the Grand Inquisitor leaves a subsequent power vacuum among the Empire’s other Inquisitors. Introduced early in Star Wars Rebels season 2, the Fifth Brother hopes to replace the Grand Inquisitor by hunting down the two prospective Jedi who defeated him. Unlike the Grand Inquisitor, who pursued Jedi with a balance of wit and power, the Fifth Brother was almost entirely uninterested in finesse, opting to use brute strength almost exclusively in his conflicts with Kanan and Ezra. Throughout Rebels season 2, he works closely with the Seventh Sister, a fellow Inquisitor. Though the two were a deadly brains-and-brawn duo, the Fifth Brother ultimately met his end on Malachor, where former-Sith Lord Maul killed him during his short-lived truce with the Rebels.

The Seventh Sister

This Mirialan Inquisitor was one of the most persistent antagonists of Rebels season 2, along with her partner, the Fifth Brother. Like her cohort, the Seventh Sister was vying to become the next Grand Inquisitor, with her strategic methods and crafty use of ID9 Parrot Droids complimenting the Fifth Brother’s brute force. The two came dangerously close to defeating Kanan and Ezra numerous times throughout the season, and like her partner, the Seventh Sister was also killed by Maul on Malachor. In her final moments, the Seventh Sister was subdued by Maul, who goaded Ezra to give in to the dark side and execute the helpless Inquisitor. Ezra refused, prompting Maul to horrifically dismember her with his lightsaber.

The Eighth Brother

With only brief appearances in Star Wars Rebels and the Star Wars: Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith comic series to date, very little is still known about the Terrelian Jango Jumper aka Eighth Brother. This deadly Inquisitor is something of a halfway point between the Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister, making use of his species’ natural agility as well as explosives. The Eighth Brother played a small but important role in Rebels’ season 2 finale, having been dispatched to Malachor post-prequels to track down Darth Maul, but instead summoning the Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister for assistance upon discovering the Rebel Jedi. Like the others, he dies on Malachor, with his defeat mirroring that of the Grand Inquisitor. Kanan, no longer afraid of the Inquisitors, damages his lightsaber, leading the Eighth Brother to fall to his death.

The Sixth Brother

This Inquisitor first appeared in the 2016 novel Ahsoka and was later expanded on in Star Wars: Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith. The Sixth Brother, once known as Bil Valen, is notable for being an overconfident bully who brutalizes the weak and defenseless but stands no chance against powerful opponents such as Ahsoka Tano. An unarmed Ahsoka was able to kill the Sixth Brother by using the Force to sabotage his lightsaber, detonating it. The Sixth Brother’s lightsaber crystals were then purified by Tano, turning them from red to white, before being used in her lightsabers seen in Star Wars Rebels.

The Sixth Brother was also shown to be a coward with no sense of camaraderie for his fellow Inquisitors. When surrounded by mind-controlled, traitorous, Purge Troopers, he cuts off the Ninth Sister’s leg to allow himself to escape. Unsurprisingly, he was not well-liked by the rest of the Inquisitors or even Darth Vader himself.

The Tenth Brother

The Miraluka Prosset Dibs made his first appearance not as an Inquisitor, but initially as a Clone Wars-era Jedi in the Star Wars: Jedi of the Republic – Mace Windu comics. It was during the Clone Wars that Dibs lost his faith in the Republic and the Jedi Order for their role in turning the Jedi, who were meant to be peacekeepers, into soldiers. Prosset’s disenchantment was not unlike that of Barriss Offee and the Grand Inquisitor. He even tried, unsuccessfully, to kill Jedi Master Mace Windu, cementing his fall from grace and laying the groundwork for his seduction by the dark side.

Prosset Dibs appears once more in the Star Wars: Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith comics, now as an Inquisitor known as the Tenth Brother. Despite his objection to the Jedi acting as warriors, he has since completely abandoned his values and embraced the dark side, accompanying Darth Vader and other Inquisitors to hunt his former comrades. In one final irony, the Tenth Brother is killed when his squad of Purge Troopers (who, at this time, were made up of the final batches of would-be Republic Clone Troopers) is mind-controlled by a former Padawan to execute Order 66 on their Inquisitor leaders. In this way, the Tenth Brother ironically died as so many true Jedi did at the end of the Clone Wars.

The Second Sister

A tragic villain, the Second Sister is the main antagonist of the 2019 video game Jedi: Fallen Order. Previously the Padawan Trilla Suduri, she and her master Cere Junda survived Order 66 and hid from the Empire for a time. Junda was eventually captured by the Imperials and subjected to torturous interrogations, finally succumbing and giving away Trilla’s location. Feeling betrayed by her master and subjected to the same torture, Trilla fell to the dark side, becoming one of the cruelest and most formidable Inquisitors.

Out of all the Inquisitors, the Second Sister would perhaps have been the one best suited to becoming the second Grand Inquisitor, had the narrative timeline aligned for this event. The Second Sister was as tactful as she was powerful, nearly killing the former Padawan Cal Kestis multiple times. Kestis ultimately defeated her at the Inquisitor fortress on Nur, however, and the Second Sister came agonizingly close to forgiving her master before Darth Vader himself intervened and killed her for her sentiment.

The Ninth Sister

A secondary villain in Jedi: Fallen Order, the Ninth Sister has tragic origins, not unlike those of the Second Sister. In Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith, she reveals that, despite her natural Dowutin strength, her real power came from her aptitude at accurately reading people. This was a fitting specialty for her during her days as the Jedi Masana Tide, but like Trilla Suduri, she was tortured by the Empire to a breaking point, falling to the dark side and using her empathic powers for evil.

Moreover, the torture that turned Masana into the Ninth Sister left her with a frightening callousness to pain and even dismemberment. The Ninth Sister lost an eye to Darth Vader during a training session and a leg to the Sixth Brother in a cowardly moment of betrayal. Given her proven resistance to pain and injury, it isn’t clear whether or not she survived her duel with Kestis, despite falling off one of the tallest trees on the planet into the darkness below.

The Unknown Male Twi’lek Inquisitor

This unnamed Twi’lek Inquisitor had only a brief appearance in Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith. Despite this, he displayed a soft side that was decidedly unImperial, but notable all the same. He dutifully participated in the mission resulting in former Jedi Master Eeth Koth being murdered by Darth Vader, as well as his infant daughter being kidnapped. Despite this, the Inquisitor openly showed affection, possibly romantic interest, in a fellow Inquisitor. He likely felt free from the restrictions of the Jedi Order he once served, who forbade earthly attachments. This ultimately led to his execution by Darth Vader, who disapproved of their mutual affection (an act possibly motivated by jealousy, given Vader’s own origins).

The Unknown Female Inquisitor

The also-unnamed Inquisitor, who felt mutual affection for the unnamed Twi’lek, made her motivation abundantly clear during her short appearance in the Star Wars comic Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith. Having been part of the same mission as her Twi’lek cohort, this Inquisitor cruelly toyed with Eeth Koth’s wife, Mira, during the kidnapping of her daughter. Later, after fleeing from Darth Vader over her attachment to the Twi’lek, she made the lofty proposition of killing Vader because she wanted, more than anything, for her and the Twi’lek Inquisitor to be free. Unsurprisingly, the plan failed, and both were killed by the powerful Sith Lord.

The Grand Inquisitor In Star Wars’ Kenobi: Appearance Change And Controversy Explained

The Grand Inquisitor has featured prominently in the promotional material for Obi-Wan Kenobi, but his appearance has been tweaked in response to widespread online criticism. Played by Rupert Friend, he was set up in the first teaser as one of several antagonists for Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan. It's a safe bet that a key plot point of the series will be Obi-Wan trying to evade capture by the Grand Inquisitor and the Inquisitorius. While the trailers for Obi-Wan Kenobi have been positively received for the most part, the same can't be said for Friend's Grand Inquisitor. His look has caused a fair bit of controversy, with many commenting that vital aspects of his character have been lost in the translation from CGI to live-action.

The glowing yellow eyes, spinning lightsaber, and ridged alien scalp look menacing in a cartoon primarily aimed at younger audiences. The Grand Inquisitor fans saw in the first Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer didn't carry the same malevolent gravitas. His eyes also weren't glowing or yellow. The signature thin face from Star Wars Rebels appeared puffy and bloated due to heavy prosthetic makeup. In the teaser, he looked goofy, and swathes of Star Wars' incredibly active fanbase were quick to point this out. Some even started a petition to get Disney to "Fix the Grand Inquisitor".

In a franchise with live-action villains as iconic as Darth Vader, a Star Wars antagonists look is important. A space opera like Star Wars requires a lot of suspended disbelief; the line between epic and corny can be as thin as a poorly designed bad guy. There have been some amazing unofficial design edits of a more Rebels accurate Grand Inquisitor posted online, and despite reception to later Grand Inquisitor trailer footage being slightly warmer, many Star Wars fans are still holding out hope that Disney will do as Paramount did with Sonic and give his live-action look an overhaul before Obi-Wan Kenobi debuts.

(Some of this Information from the article was provide by Screenrant and the Wookieepedia, most of it was edited due to not being updated)