A recent Star Wars idea suggests what Palpatine’s Imperial Inquisitors wanted. Constructed following the Order 66 Jedi Purge, the Inquisitorius came to be led by none other than Darth Vader. In the Star Wars chronology, it’s also plausible that they were crucial to the Emperor’s covert ambitions to immortalize both himself and his Empire.
It has been established that, as seen in Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine recruited and corrupted disenfranchised Jedi to become the Inquisitorius, and that this occurred just before he transformed the corrupt Republic into his Empire.
The Imperial Inquisitors, now enlisted as dark-side operatives, were assigned the mission of locating any remaining Jedi in the wake of Order 66. But season three of The Bad Batch lends credence to the theory that the Inquisitors’ purpose extended beyond their assassination of any Jedi they came across, and had something to do with Palpatine’s intentions for the future.
Jedi Hunters Made Up Palpatine’s Imperial Inquisitors
Emperor Palpatine formally established the Imperial Inquisitors following Order 66 as a continuation of the Jedi Purge to eradicate the Jedi Order. Darth Vader placed the Inquisitorius under his leadership, with their Grand Inquisitor leading the charge as they organized their hunts for any remaining Jedi.
Notably, this included Obi-Wan Kenobi, Vader’s former mentor, from the exiled Jedi Master’s Disney+ series, which takes place ten years after the events of Revenge of the Sith. As a result, the show introduced several Inquisitors in live action.
Despite having vanished by the time of the original trilogy, the Inquisitors had their most notable appearance in the animated series Star Wars Rebels, wherein they were assigned the mission of tracking down Jedi such as Ahsoka Tano, Kanan Jarrus, and Ezra Bridger.
But one storyline in particular saw the Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister set out on a more unusual mission that would have implications for Palpatine’s covert plans that he had started during the Clone Wars (and even throughout his reign as Emperor).
The bounty hunter Cad Bane was contracted, as demonstrated during the Clone Wars, to abduct and transport to Palpatine young children who were still Force-sensitive and had not yet been taken to the Jedi Temple.
Palpatine’s conception of Project Harvester began during the Clone Wars when he saw an opportunity to train a horde of spies and operatives with extensive knowledge of the dark side. However, Anakin Skywalker and his student Ahsoka Tano were finally able to save these specific children that Bane had abducted.
To do this, the official Project Harvester was started back in the Empire’s heyday. Children who were sensitive to the Force were being abducted by Inquisitors on multiple occasions.
Even though the Inquisitorius was unsuccessful in many of their attempts, as demonstrated by the Seventh Sister and Fifth Brother in Star Wars Rebels, they were probably successful in other contexts. Therefore, there’s a good chance that Project Harvester and Project Necromancer, two more of Palpatine’s ideas, are connected in some way.
