Facts About Quinlan Vos Only Die-Hard Fans Will Know

Star Wars

Aug 31

Quinlan Vos is a Jedi who may be more obscure to those who only watch the films. But if you read the Star Wars: Republic comics from the Expanded Universe, read the Dark Disciple novel in canon, or even watched The Clone Wars episode "The Hunt for Ziro," you might know at least a bit about him. He is quite a popular character to some. Here are some facts about Quinlan Vos that die-hard Star Wars fans may know.

The Phantom Menace

The character design of Quinlan Vos was inspired by a background character shown in The Phantom Menace, specifically when Sebulba fights Jar Jar. Vos can be seen briefly sitting at a table. In the comics, Aayla Secura would explain that she and Vos were undercover at this time. The details of this mission are not explained, but had Vos and Secura known of the urgency of Qui-Gon Jinn's dilemma, they might have helped. While this explanation does cover why Vos does not speak to Qui-Gon, it feels flimsy to me. I would have thought that Jinn would have sensed Vos and tried talking to him. Maybe this is something to be covered in some future From a Certain Point of View: The Phantom Menace book. After this film, he appeared in the comic Emissaries of Malastare but then became a main character in the Star Wars (1998) comic story arc Twilght in 2000. John Ostrander really ran with the character.

Master and Apprentice

Speaking of Aayla Secura, she is Quinlan Vos' apprentice. When they first appear in the Twilight arc, Quinlan Vos and Aayla Secura had amnesia. As a result, they both touch the dark side and skirt the Jedi code, wanting revenge for certain things. Vos' master is a human male Jedi named Tholme. In Legends, after the troubles that Vos and Secura endure with the dark side, it is decided that Tholme should complete Secura's training, which he does. Tholme exists in canon, though his fate is a bit different.

Force Abilities

A Force ability heavily associated with Vos is psychometry, which involves touching an object to see where it's been and who has interacted around it. He has this ability in both Legends and canon. When Vos has amnesia and no qualms about playing loose with the Jedi code, he actually uses Force lightning, surprisingly. In Legends, he actually gets close to the dark side a bunch of times. The Jedi Sora Bulq (who later goes against the Jedi Order) teaches him an aspect of the lightsaber form Vaapad, which involves getting close to the dark side. Mace Windu is a master of this technique, and while he does not go dark, he expresses a lot of concern when Vos tries it. Vos gets closer to the dark again when he goes undercover as a double agent acting as Count Dooku's underling, even killing in order to be convincing. In canon, he also gets closer to the dark when Asajj Ventress trains him so that they can try to kill Count Dooku. He eventually gets captured by Dooku and risks going even darker. Seems like Vos has bad luck with the dark side.

Upbringing

In Legends, Quinlan Vos, being a Kiffar son of rulers on the planet Kiffu with psychometric abilities, was supposed to be a Kiffu Guardian. Tholme initially trained him in Jedi arts on Kiffu instead of Coruscant, but that all changed when Vos' parents were murdered by Anzati, members of a near-human Force-sensitive species. (There's more to this, which I recommend reading.) His aunt Tinté made him use psychometry on his mother's medallion, which allowed him to see her death, much to his dismay. Tholme knew Quinlan would not be safe here, so he took him to Coruscant to be trained as a Jedi.

Order 66 Survival

George Lucas was very intrigued by the character of Quinlan Vos. So much so that he even considered including him in Revenge of the Sith. All that we ended up getting was a passing mention of him having moved his troops to Boz Pity. An animatic was made in which Vos, on Kashyyyk, would have had his tank blown up. What we got in the Republic comics was Vos, still on Kashyyyk, but his fate playing out differently, as George Lucas gave instructions to not kill off the character in the comics, though the idea was considered. It seems possible that Lucas wanted to utilize Vos in the live-action Star Wars: Underworld series that never got made. In canon, however, Vos is still a survivor of Order 66. Charles Soule's Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith comic series alludes to his survival a couple of times, with his name even appearing on a list of Order 66 survivors. However, Vos has not made a canonical appearance post-Clone Wars yet. Maybe he could appear in The Bad Batch?

The "Dude" Jedi

Quinlan Vos was originally supposed to appear in The Clone Wars season 1 episode "Bombad Jedi," using his abilities to help make it seem like Jar Jar Binks is a Jedi. However, the team could not make another character model at the time. However, he made an appearance in the season 3 episode "Hunt for Ziro." Oddly, his personality felt more like that of a surfer bro, much to the annoyance of some fans of the comics. He even paraphrases a quote by "The Dude" from The Big Lebowski: "Well, that's your opinion, man." However, in the unproduced episodes of the show that became the Dark Disciple novel, he feels closer to how fans perceived him in the comics.

Source(s): Wookieepedia

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