Quinlan Vos – ‘Star Wars’ Character Spotlight
Welcome to the first entry in a new series on Star Wars News Net — our Star Wars Character Spotlight, where we take the opportunity to highlight the supporting and tertiary characters that pop up across the various different Star Wars eras who deserve a bit of love. We’ll look at each character’s highlights and think about where they might pop up in future Star Wars stories.
Join us as we take a look at our first character in this series; Quinlan Vos, a character well known to most fans who read the Legends books and comics.
Quinlan Vos first appeared as a background character in The Phantom Menace while Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon visited Mos Espa. His facial tattoos and long hair were memorable enough that Star Wars comic writers brought him back as a full-fledged Jedi, creating equally memorable stories that eventually caught George Lucas’ interest.
A Kiffar Jedi Master who fell to the dark side during the Clone Wars, most of his character progression was erased when Disney bought Lucasfilm and established that stories outside films and TV were no longer canon.
Over the years work has been done to retell that fall to the dark side, though of course the details have changed. Dave Filoni initially sought to tell that story in The Clone Wars animated series and had the story mapped out over multiple episodes, but after the show was temporarily cancelled the arc was transported to a novel instead.
An unconventional Jedi
Quinlan Vos had a reputation for playing fast and loose with the rules of the Jedi, so much so that it’s a surprise he managed to attain the rank of Master at all. He was far more open to attachment than most Jedi and would frequently start fights with his colleagues as a padawan. At some point, he formed a friendship with Obi-Wan Kenobi, a much more traditional Jedi than him.
His proficiency with Force psychometry enabled him to carve out a place for himself in the Jedi Order, as having the ability to experience the memories of other beings by touching objects allowed him to become an expert tracker. The Jedi Council would often send him on missions dealing with the galaxy’s underworld, as he could reach places and attain leads that most Jedi couldn’t.
He is notably responsible for discovering future Jedi Master Aayla Secura on a mission to Ryloth and recruiting her to the order, eventually taking her on as his own padawan. This story originated in Legends material, but appears to have been made canon in Star Wars encyclopedias.
We don’t know why he was present on Mos Espa during The Phantom Menace – only that he was on his own unrelated mission, which has never been explained.
The Clone Wars
Quinlan Vos did not appear in Attack of the Clones, so even though Legends material later placed him at the Battle of Geonosis, we have no idea if current canon agrees. He was active in the Clone Wars though.
Vos experienced a tragic loss in the first year of the war, when his old master Tholme died in battle. He didn’t know exactly how his master died – he was actually killed by Asajj Ventress, though he wouldn’t learn that until later – but he felt rage and anger as he struggled to cope with his loss.
This inability to control his emotions should have raised some alarms with the Jedi Council, but they continued to send him on dark and shady missions. They were at war after all, and frequently had need of his skills.
Quinlan got his animation debut in the third season of The Clone Wars, when he was paired with Obi-Wan Kenobi on a mission to hunt down Ziro the Hutt, who had been broken out of a Coruscant prison by bounty hunter Cad Bane.
The pair arrived on Nal Hutta and made use of Vos’ psychometric abilities to track down the Hutt. Their search eventually led them to Teth, where they found Cad Bane standing over the Hutt’s dead body. Working together, they forced the bounty hunter to flee, but failed their mission to bring Ziro back to Coruscant alive.
That’s not the only story we have that sees Quinlan Vos going up against Cad Bane; the two squared off against each other in the ninth issue of the Hyperspace Stories comic, as they both hunted a former employee of Count Dooku.
Dark Disciple
Now we get to the story of Quinlan Vos’ canonical fall to the dark side, which was due to be told in The Clone Wars but got moved to a novel called Dark Disciple after the series’ temporary cancellation. A lot is packed in here (several episodes’ worth), so feel free to read our review for a more detailed look at the story.
Quinlan Vos was ordered by the Jedi Council to assassinate Count Dooku. It was a dark task that went against everything the Jedi Order stood for, but it was late in the war and the Council was getting desperate after Dooku ordered the slaughter of innocent refugees. They ordered him to get close to Asajj Ventress in order to get intel on Dooku.
Vos had little problem getting close to the bounty hunter. She reluctantly accepted him as her partner on a bounty and when that went well, he stuck around. They eventually fell in love, with Quinlan once again struggling to show discipline when forming attachments.
Eventually Quinlan revealed his true identity and Asajj agreed to help him assassinate Count Dooku, but warned him that he would not be able to complete his goal without embracing the dark side. The pair traveled to Dathomir to train Quinlan. He tried to learn dark side techniques without giving into anger, but he did allow himself to give into his romantic feelings towards Ventress. Once that happened, surrender to anger soon followed as their training continued. He claimed that he would not return to the Jedi Order after killing Dooku, and would remain by her side instead.
Their first confrontation with Dooku ended in failure, with Vos captured and Ventress forced to flee. Quinlan broke under repeated torture from Dooku and fell to the dark side, becoming one of his fearsome new generals. However, Vos still intended to work undercover for the Jedi as a double agent, planning to ascend the Separatist ranks all the way to the top to get a shot at killing both Dooku and Darth Sidious.
There were multiple double and triple crosses from here and it all ended in a three-way fight with himself, Dooku and Ventress, which ended when Asajj sacrificed her own life to save Vos. Quinlan defeated Dooku once more, but was overcome with emotion at Asajj’s sacrifice and realized he had lost his way. The Jedi arrived to arrest him once more and he willingly surrendered.
Quinlan returned to the light side and delivered Asajj’s dead body to Dathomir before rejoining the Republic as a general.
Order 66 and The Hidden Path
Dark Disciple is the last canon story we have on Quinlan Vos in the timeline, as he has been surprisingly absent from any stories post-Order 66. Legends comics showed him on Kashyyyk at the time of Order 66, and it seems those stories have been canonized, as the Star Wars Battles That Shaped the Galaxy encyclopedia mentions that Vos was reassigned from Boz Pity to Kashyyyk at the end of the war, having previously led a siege on Saleucami. On Kashyyyk, he became known as “Defender of the Home Tree” shortly before the events of Order 66.
Vos gets a brief mention by Obi-Wan in Revenge of the Sith and was originally intended to be included in the Order 66 montage, but thankfully his death scene was never filmed.
He has been acknowledged in current canon, though. The 2017 run of the Darth Vader comic acknowledged that Quinlan Vos had never been recorded as dead in the aftermath of Order 66, and most recently his name was mentioned as an easter egg in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.
It was revealed there that not only did he survive, but he had been working with the Hidden Path to rescue Force sensitive beings and hide them from the Empire.
What next?
It’s surprising that Lucasfilm haven’t opted to use Quinlan Vos in any stories since Dark Disciple (Hyperspace Stories #9 excluded), as one of the more badass Force sensitive characters out there. It’s possible that he could turn up in future stories involving the Hidden Path, whether that be in a potential second season of Obi-Wan Kenobi or the third Star Wars Jedi video game.
Legends offer no clues as to where the character might go, as all the comics starring him are set during the prequel era or in the direct aftermath of Order 66. With the news that Asajj Ventress is still alive and back bounty hunting, it seems likely that any future stories involving her will also see Quinlan Vos pop up by her side. Hopefully that will be sooner rather than later – we’ve waited long enough.
When do you think we’ll next see Quinlan Vos in Star Wars? Let us know in the comments.
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.
