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Star Wars fans have noticed that something about the Inquisitors makes no sense – and now it's baffling us, too.
In the galaxy far, far away, Inquisitors are Force sensitive beings – usually Order 66 survivors – who work to capture other surviving Jedi or Force sensitives for the Empire.
We've seen a fair few of them in live-action, animation, and across the video games, including the Grand Inquisitor in Star Wars Rebels and Obi-Wan Kenobi, Marrok in Ahsoka (and soon Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord), and Trilla in Jedi: Fallen Order.
But, one fan has taken to Reddit to ask one burning question: how the numbering works. "The Grand Inquisitor makes sense to me, he's the leader of the Inquisitorious but I can't wrap my head around the rest," they wrote. "Is it a rank thing? That doesn't make much sense to me since we see 5th Brother push Reva around in the Kenobi show and he and 7th Sister act like equals in Rebels.
"Is it the order of recruitment? Again, this doesn't seem to fit as I doubt Palpatine and Vader would be interested in training children to be Jedi killers (I'm referring to Reva again right after the Clone Wars).
"Or do they do it simply to erase the names of the fallen Jedi Padawans after Order 66? Their original identities don't exist anymore and all that matters is their number identification as agents of the Empire. If I squint, I guess that explanation works but I'm not too sure. What do you guys think?"
"It's kept loose and vague so new Inquisitors can be made as needed," says one fan, which another agrees with: "Personally, I think canon should recycle Inquisitor designations as often as they want. There's no loyalty from the Empire toward these Inquisitors. They're pawns to be used up and discarded."
"So far it seems they've kept it intentionally vague so that 1- they aren't limited yet in how many Inquisitors they can have 2- a future writer can do something cool with the numbers," points out someone else.
"Maybe the numbers are cleared once the owner falls in combat and the new recruits take the first available. That way, there might have been a previous Third Sister who died not long before Reva got recruited and took her place in the numerotation," suspects someone else.
"I'm not sure about what the actual numbers mean, could be completely arbitrary, but it's done in order to dehumanize them. Most of the Inquisitors were former Jedi, so as part of their reconditioning they're stripped of their identities. They are Inquisitors, weapons of the Empire, and that is all they are," says another fan.
It's true that, aside from the Grand Inquisitor, the numbering of the Inquisitors is a little confusing. But, the names sure do sound cool, so maybe we can overlook any inconsistencies…
Next up for Star Wars is Maul – Shadow Lord, which arrives on April 6. After that, it's time for The Mandalorian and Grogu, which hits the big screen on May 22.
For everything else the galaxy far, far away has in store, check out our guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies and shows.
