In Star Wars: A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi tells Luke Skywalker that Darth Vader helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights. As the franchise’s canon has expanded over the years, Lucasfilm established that the Sith Lord didn’t do this on his own. Following the rise of the Empire, Palpatine started the Inquisitorius Program, putting together a team of deadly Inquisitors to track down any Order 66 survivors. These Inquisitors have routinely played roles in various projects set between the prequel and original trilogies, including the TV series Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Jedi video game franchise.
The Inquisitors are featured once again in Lucasfilm’s new animated show, Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord. Marrok, a character originally introduced in Ahsoka Season 1, plays a supporting role. He arrives with the Imperial forces who take control of Janix, attempting to find Maul. In Shadow Lord, the younger Marrok is clearly a dangerous adversary, but there’s a scene that illustrates he is nowhere near as powerful of a threat as Darth Vader.
The sixth episode of Shadow Lord, “Chapter Six: Night of the Hunted,” begins with Marrok arriving at the home of Captain Lawson, and he engages in a duel with Jedi Eeko-Dio Daki and Devon Izara. During the escape attempt, Devon eventually takes control of an Imperial gunship; Eeko-Dio, Lawson and Lawson’s son Rylee board the ship and the group flies away. Marrok is in a position where he could have attempted to use the Force to bring the vehicle down, but he doesn’t even try. This illustrates the immense power gap between Darth Vader and his Inquisitors.
On the Obi-Wan Kenobi episode “Part V,” Vader was in a similar spot. While pursuing Obi-Wan and members of the Path, he used the Force to grab a transport mid-air and bring it back down to the ground. It was an incredible display of the Sith Lord’s power, and one that might have led to the desired results if Obi-Wan hadn’t banked on his old apprentice’s impulsiveness providing the group with an escape window. Had Vader been on the heels of Daki and Devon, he most assuredly would have brought the ship down, stopping at nothing in order to either kill the Jedi and Lawson, or bring them in for interrogation and torture.
Shadow Lord doesn’t explicitly provide a reason why Marrok doesn’t try to take hold of the gunship, but the implication is that he simply lacks the ability to pull that off. While he’s undoubtedly strong with the Force, he isn’t as strong as someone like Vader (who started life as the Chosen One destined to bring balance) or Sidious (who was one of the most powerful Sith in galactic history). Knowing his own limitations, Marrok opted to let the other gunships pursue the Jedi and Lawson while he found another way to catch up.
As the Empire looks to quell Maul’s burgeoning criminal enterprise and check a couple more Jedi off the list, it’s quite possible they’ll go the extra mile to give themselves the upper hand. “Night of the Hunted” ends with Marrok talking to a mysterious hologram. The identity of who he’s communicating with is intentionally left a secret, fueling fan theories that Star Wars is building up to a highly anticipated Vader vs. Maul showdown. If the Inquisitors are having trouble dealing with Maul, it would make sense to send the Dark Lord himself to take care of the problem.
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