Darth Vader’s Inquisitors are one of the best Disney additions to Star Wars. The idea is delightfully simple; the Inquisitors are fallen Jedi who continue Order 66, hunting down Force-sensitives and Jedi survivors across the galaxy. Introduced in Star Wars Rebels, the Inquisitors have appeared in a staggering number of different TV shows. Delilah S. Dawson even penned a Star Wars novel, Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade, one of the best books in canon.
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Unfortunately, the Inquisitors haven’t always been portrayed in the best possible way. This is largely because they’re the villains, and they are frequently brought in ahead of a boss fight – usually against Darth Vader. The Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor games are perfect examples, because there the Inquisitors are certainly dangerous, but they’re essentially mini-bosses. In other stories, the Inquisitors have seemed pretty easily dealt with; Marrok wasn’t exactly a force to be reckoned with in Ahsoka.
Star Wars is Finally Fixing its Inquisitor Problem
Maul – Shadow Lord is finally fixing Lucasfilm’s Inquisitor problem. The latest Star Wars animated show is set in the Dark Times of the Empire’s reign, with Darth Maul and two Order 66 survivors desperately attempting to keep off the Empire’s radar. They’ve failed, and episodes 5 and 6 see Imperial Inquisitors lead a mission to Janix, putting the entire planet under lockdown. Palpatine clearly takes Maul very seriously indeed, because the two Inquisitors have enough forces to take over the entire planet.
Most striking of all, though, is a stunning scene in which Brander Lawson is interrogated by the Inquisitor named Marrok (the same character who was so underwhelming in Ahsoka). This is probably one of the smartest scenes in the entire show, because it gives a sense of the scale of an Inquisitor’s threat. Here, the Inquisitor isn’t dealing with a main character (meaning there’s no plot armor), and Lawson doesn’t have the Force to fight back with. Instead, Marrok simply looms over him from behind, and he feels almost as menacing as Darth Vader himself.
Maul – Shadow Lord is doing a very good job of making the Inquisitors seem like a genuine threat, for possibly the first time. Incredibly, a single Inquisitor is able to take on a Jedi-Sith team-up, and it really does feel as though Darth Maul and Devon Izara are fighting for their lives, barely surviving the encounter. It’s suddenly clear why the Empire trained these particular Jedi as Inquisitors; they’re powerful and dangerous, experienced enough to give even a man trained by Palpatine a run for his money.
Maul – Shadow Lord episode 6 ends with Marrok giving a report, and we don’t know who he’s speaking to. Most viewers assume this will be Darth Vader, simply because we’ve been wanting a Maul-Vader duel ever since The Phantom Menace. While this would technically relegate the Inquisitors to minibosses once again, in this case it’s certainly forgivable; the show has done such a good job with the Inquisitors, it will be thrilling to see how it would handle Darth Vader too.
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