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“ | Give me the Holocron. | „ |
~ The Eighth Brother threatens Ezra Bridger to hand over the Sith holocron. |
The Eighth Brother is a minor antagonist in the epic space opera franchise Star Wars. He is an Inquisitor who was charged with finding the long-forgotten renegade Sith Darth Maul but instead encountered the Jedi company of Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger, and Ahsoka Tano. Maul teamed with the Jedi and battled the Eighth Brother, the Fifth Brother and the Seventh Sister. He was masked the whole time, but he was a Terrelian Jango Jumper. The Eighth Brother was the final member of the trio to die on Malachor, but was unique among the Inquisitorius for his seeming dedication to Palpatine above all.
The Eighth Brother is voiced by Robbie Daymond, who has also voiced Jugram Haschwalth in Bleach, Superior Spider-Man in Spider-Man, the Curious Cat in RWBY, and Flect Turn in My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission.
Biography[]
Serving the Empire[]
“ | The Grand Inquisitor: Form up. Now. Your masters are here. The Eighth Brother: Masters? We have only one master. The Emperor. The Grand Inquisitor: Times change, Eighth Brother. |
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~ The Grand Inquisitor informing the Eighth Brother of his new master, Darth Vader. |
The Eighth Brother served the Galactic Empire and was trained as an Inquisitor in the ways of the dark side. The Eighth Brother was already an elite fighter and agile warrior since his species allowed him to leap to extreme lengths.
In 19 BBY, not long after the formation of the Galactic Empire, the Eighth Brother and his fellow Inquisitors Fifth Brother, Sixth Brother, Seventh Sister, and Ninth Sister were sparring in the clandestine headquarters of the Inquisitorius, a converted former corporate building located in the Works District on the surface of Coruscant. Their training was interrupted by the arrival of the Grand Inquisitor and Darth Sidious, the former of whom had them form up. The Grand Inquisitor introduced the Eighth Brother and the other Inquisitors to the Sith Lord Darth Vader, the Emperor's Sith apprentice.
The Inquisitors were informed that Lord Vader, much like Darth Sidious himself, would be considered their master going forward. The Eighth Brother protested that the only master he recognized was the Emperor, though his opinion was casually dismissed by the Grand Inquisitor. Once the introductions were made, Eighth Brother and the other Inquisitors went back to sparring. Over the following years, the Eighth Brother and the other Inquisitors were trained in the usage of the dark side by Vader. The Sith Lord was a brutal teacher, often maiming his Inquisitors to make them feel a sense of loss.
Search for the Shadow[]
In 4 BBY, the Grand Inquisitor was killed in battle with a Jedi Knight who called himself Kanan Jarrus. Jarrus and his apprentice Ezra Bridger were members of the Spectres, a cell of insugrents against the Empire that operated out of a ship called the "Ghost." The Grand Inquisitor's death caused a power vacuum in the Inquisitorius. On the Emperor's orders, the Seventh Sister and Fifth Brother were dispatched by Vader to hunt down the Spectres. Concurrently, Vader dispatched the Eighth Brother to locate and capture Maul, a renegade Sith Lord who had apprenticed under Darth Sidious himself years before the advent of the Empire.
In 3 BBY, the Eighth Brother's search for Maul, whom he dubbed "the shadow," led him to the planet Malachor. Malachor was a barren, abandoned world once associated with the Sith. In ancient times, the Sith had built a great temple on the planet. The Malachor Sith Temple had a superweapon at its heart which, when activated via the use of a Sith holocron, permanently petrified all life within its vicinity. An epic battle between the ancient Jedi and Sith had been waged in and around the temple which culminated in the activation of the superweapon and the petrification of both sides and the entire planet.
Landing on the planet in his TIE Advanced version 1 prototype starfighter, the Eighth Brother stalked the area around the temple until he noticed three explorers making their way towards it. The Inquisitor tried to ambush one of the explorers by striking him from behind, but the youngest of the trio intercepted his attack with a lightsaber. The Eighth Brother realized that all three of the explorers were actually Jedi, and that he was sorely outmatched. Deciding to retreat, he tossed three explosives at the youngest Jedi and used the confusion to make a break for his ship.
The two older Jedi pursued the Eighth Brother, who stayed out of reach by using his lightsaber to fly above them. When he reached his ship however, he discovered that an astromech droid affiliated with the Jedi had already co-opted it. The droid fired the TIE Advanced prototype's cannons at the Inquisitor, disarming him and knocking him to the ground. The two pursuing Jedi swiftly caught up and captured the Eighth Brother. The Inquisitor realized that the unexpected Jedi were likely Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger of the Spectres, in addition to a formidable and infamous former Jedi named Ahsoka Tano.
Jarrus and Tano questioned the Inquisitor on what he was doing on Malachor. Knowing that Jarrus and Bridger were being hunted by the Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister, the Eighth Brother covertly activated his wristband distress signal while the Jedi weren't looking in the hopes that they would rescue him. Not long afterwards, a light began emanating from the temple. With the Eighth Brother in tow, Jarrus and Tano rushed over to the temple's entrance. Bridger had been separated from the other Jedi when the Inquisitor had fired his missiles, and so Jarrus suspected that his apprentice was somehow related to the strange light.
As the Jedi discussed how they might get into the temple, the Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister ambushed them and released the Eighth Brother from his handcuffs. The Eighth Brother used the Force to recover his lightsaber from Jarrus, and then surrounded the two Jedi with his fellow Inquisitors. As the Force users began to duel, the entrance to the temple opened and, to the Eighth Brother's shock, Ezra Bridger emerged with none other than Lord Maul by his side. In an instant, Maul ignited his lightsaber and leapt into the fray to aid the Jedi. The Inquisitors stood no chance against Maul, who toyed with all three of them simultaneously.
After standing off to the side and watching for a moment, Jarrus and Tano re-entered the battle on Maul's side. The Eighth Brother asked Maul if he had retrieved the holocron required to activate the temple's superweapon, to which the former Sith Lord replied that he would find out soon enough. Realizing that they were hopelessly outmatched, the Jedi hunters retreated by using their lightsabers to fly away. The three Inquisitors contacted Darth Vader and informed him about the situation. While they waited for their master to arrive, the Inquisitors listened in on their enemies using a device they'd planted on the Jedi.
Defeat and Death[]
The Inquisitors later discussed the potential threat of Maul possessing the Sith holocron that was sought by Darth Vader, and the Eighth Brother impulsively left the pair to reclaim it on his own. He attacked Kanan and Ezra and managed to knock Kanan out and tried to kill the boy before Maul and Ahsoka arrived and drove the Eighth Brother away. Teamed with the Fifth Brother, they engaged Kanan and Ahsoka, while the Seventh Sister engaged Ezra and Maul.
After Maul managed to kill the Seventh Sister and later the Fifth Brother, while Kanan damaged the Eighth Brother's lightsaber. Over-matched and outnumbered, the Eighth Brother attempted to flee using his spinning lightsaber blades to fly away as he leaped from the top of the temple. However, the damaged weapon malfunctioned, causing it to explode into pieces, and sent the screaming Inquisitor plummeting to his demise.
Trivia[]
- The Eighth Brother was the fourth and last Inquisitor introduced in Star Wars Rebels, and the only one not to show his face.
- He also had the shortest presence in the series, debuting and dying in the same two-part episode.
- Eighth Brother's lightsaber had a unique buzzsaw feature that sprouted blades from its hilt, reflective of his aggressive style, but in the end, it did him little good on Malachor.
- Despite being called a Terrelian Jango Jumper, his arms and legs don't look humanoid like Cassilyda Cryar.
- He was originally going to survive his fall in Twilight of the Apprentice Part II, only to be killed and turned into stone by an energy blast fired from the Malachor superweapon, when attempting to get back to his ship.