The Inquisitors are perhaps one of the most menacing contributions that Dave Filoni has dreamed up for the Star Wars universe. Essentially delivering an army of Sith without breaking the dreaded Rule of Two, the Inquisitors were the perfect addition to the franchise to deal with the problems of the surviving Jedi and provide them with a narrative challenge without them seeming weak or circling back to Darth Vader.
The Grand Inquisitor was quite the threat to the characters in Star Wars: Rebels, even making an appearance in Obi-Wan Kenobi. The character went through quite some iterations before his appearance was finalized for the show, as was revealed in the Star Wars Insider Magazine by Dave Filoni himself.
The Grand Inquisitor was originally conceived as a Chagrian
Dave Filoni revealed that the Grand Inquisitor, who is depicted as a Pau’an, was originally conceived as a Chagrian, the same race as Palapatine’s aide, Mas Amedda. While designing the character, Filoni found it important to play with what a villain looks like, which he considered to be a challenge always. Citing examples of Vader and Maul, Filoni revealed what was going through his mind to Star Wars Insider:
It’s always tricky designing a villain. You fail into clichés so quickly. I always wonder where the villain shop these guys go to is…
Howard Roflman, the executive vice president of franchise management at the time, was the one who suggested that the character be a Pau’an, something that was cemented with the character’s first appearance in Star Wars Rebels.
The Inquisitors allowed Dave Filoni to flesh out the lives of the Jedi after The Clone Wars.
The Inquisitors were a great addition to Star Wars lore and an intelligent way of doing away with the Rule of Two without breaking canon. Given the amount of Jedi-aligned force users that survived Order 66, the Inquisitors tipped the balance in favor of the Sith, which allowed for these Jedi in hiding to face some trials throughout their adventures, without having them be depowered somehow.
Be it the Cal Kestis, Kanan Jarris, Ahsoka Tano, or Obi-Wan Kenobi, almost every Jedi that survived Order 66 had a run-in with an Inquisitor, training directly under Darth Vader, who was out to hunt and murder them at the behest of the Empire. While most of them would meet their ends at the hands of Padawans that never really fully realized Jedi, it only went on to cement how much stronger the power of the Light side was, compared to the Dark Side.
