Star Wars Just Revealed The Real Reason Palpatine Needed Darth Vader & The Inquisitors

Summary The Inquisitors were crucial in eliminating Jedi survivors and finding Force-sensitive children to maintain control in the galaxy.

Jedi numbers remained stable during the High Republic Era due to recruitment limitations, preventing an increase in Force-sensitives.

Palpatine strategically used Inquisitors to prevent a surge of Force-sensitive individuals and maintain dominance in the galaxy.

The premiere of The Acolyte is arriving soon, but it seems Star Wars is already using it to reveal why Emperor Palpatine needed Darth Vader and his Inquisitors. The Imperial Inquisitors were used during the reign of the Empire to help eliminate any remaining Jedi who survived Order 66. Additionally, the Inquisitors sought young Force-sensitive children, something that was seen in Star Wars Rebels. The Inquisitors were led and trained by Darth Vader and were stationed on the planet Nur in the Mustafar system, allowing Vader to keep a close eye on them.

While Palpatine’s Order 66 was a rousing success for the Sith Lord, there were still many Jedi scattered across the galaxy that had to be hunted down. Many of these Jedi would eventually be found and executed by the Inquisitors, though some notable Jedi would die in other ways, like Yoda or Kanan Jarrus. While the Inquisitors were dark-side users, they were not considered to be members of the Sith, as the Sith Rule of Two says that there can only ever be a master and an apprentice at one time.

1:58 Related Star Wars: All 16 Inquisitors In Canon Explained 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?

Jedi Numbers Had Been Stable For A Century Before The Prequel Trilogy

The Acolyte Will Highlight This

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During the High Republic Era of Star Wars, both the Republic and the Jedi Order expanded. This was done mainly through exploration and bringing new planets into the fold of the Republic. As this happened, the Jedi were able to find and bring more and more Force-sensitive individuals to the Jedi Temple. However, it seems that exploration at some point stalled—meaning both the Republic and the Jedi’s numbers leveled off. It’s not clear when this happened, but it’s possible that with the end of the High Republic Era, exploration and expansion also came to an end.

This end of exploration may indicate that there was a cap on the number of Force-sensitive people in the galaxy at any given time. It’s important to remember that the Jedi Order relied solely on the recruitment of young children and that Jedi were not permitted to reproduce and have children of their own. This means that the number of Jedi in the galaxy during the High Republic Era is actually the natural level of individuals who are Force-sensitive. With so many Jedi, it also means that the number of Force-sensitives was replenishing quickly.

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Without The Jedi Recruiting, Numbers Of Force-Sensitives Would Increase

Jedi Recruitment Acted as a Kind of Crowd Control

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It’s known that Jedi were forbidden from having emotional attachments and weren’t allowed to do things like get married and have children. This meant that the Jedi wouldn’t be reproducing and having more Force-sensitive children. It’s been shown in Star Wars that any Jedi, or Force-sensitive individual who has children, those children are almost always also Force-sensitive. This can be seen with Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa being the children of Anakin Skywalker, and again with Leia’s son, Ben Solo.

There was a real possibility that the number of Force-sensitive individuals in the galaxy would increase exponentially.

This phenomenon is not just within the Skywalker family either. Kanan Jarrus had a child, Jacen Syndulla, with Hera, and Ahsoka season 1 showed that it seems Jacen is also Force-sensitive. This means that once the Jedi were eradicated and recruitment stopped, Force-sensitives would slip through the cracks and would likely go on to lead normal lives where they too would reproduce and have more Force-sensitive children. This means that there was a real possibility that the number of Force-sensitive individuals in the galaxy would increase exponentially. Without the Jedi, there was nothing to normalize the number of Force-sensitives.

Palpatine Needed The Inquisitors To Keep Force-Sensitives Down

Palpatine Foresaw This Issue

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Palpatine giving the Inquisitors two jobs—one to find and execute the remaining Jedi, and the other to find Force-sensitive children—was fairly ingenious. With the Inquisitors being Force-sensitive themselves, it makes them uniquely qualified to find and identify Force-sensitive children. It’s unclear what the Inquisitors did with the children they stole, but it’s possible that the children were either executed, trained as more Inquisitors, or used for experiments like Project Necromancer. Children being used for experiments was recently seen in The Bad Batch season 3, so there’s no reason why the Empire wouldn’t restart that initiative.

Despite more and more Force-sensitive children falling through the cracks because the Jedi Order was decimated, the Empire used the Inquisitors to prevent an explosion of more and more Force-sensitive children. While the children born during the Empire wouldn’t have been old enough to reproduce during the Empire’s reign, once both the Inquisitors and the Jedi were gone in the early days of the New Republic, there would be no telling how many Force-sensitive individuals were born in the Star Wars galaxy.

The Acolyte premieres on June 4 on Disney+.