Mike is back! This time, he sets his sights on Jedi who fell: Pong Krell and Quinlan Vos.
Note: this article contains spoilers for The Clone Wars season four and Dark Disciple.
By Mike Audette // The Clone Wars were a dark time for the galaxy far, far away, in more ways than one. With the Senate being run secretly by Darth Sidious (known publicly as Chancellor Palpatine from Naboo), his influence over both sides of the war was ever present. This guiding hand allowed for an unprecedented amount of instances of Jedi succumbing to the power of the Dark Side in a very short time. Pong Krell and Quinlan Vos were two Jedi generals who became consumed by the dark, but only one came back to the light. What are their differences and what are their similarities? Let’s take a look!
Introduced in Season Four of The Clone Wars, Pong Krell was a Besalisk Jedi master known as a war hero for his battle record despite showing carelessness for his clone casualty rates. We learn right off the bat that he doesn’t have any respect for clones when we first see him take charge of the 501st as Anakin is assigned to return back to Coruscant. Krell displays a level of disdain towards Captain Rex when discussing battle strategy. It’s interesting to note that when we first meet Krell he tells Anakin that his presence has been requested by the Jedi Council at the behest of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. Did he know of Palpatine’s special relationship with Anakin? Did he mention this in order to ensure Anakin would not question this order? I think Krell was informed ahead of time (by Palpatine?) and mentioned this to use to his advantage. Over the course of the four-episode arc we see a number of telling personality traits that tip us off to Krell’s sedition.
While only featured in one episode over the course of The Clone Wars, Quinlan Vos was the subject of the recent novel, Dark Disciple. In order to train for his assignment to assassinate Dooku, Vos is introduced to the dark side of the Force by Asajj Ventress. While this flies in the face of everything Vos knows to be right, he does it willingly. The motivations of Krell and Vos differ greatly. Krell believes that the Jedi have lost their way and renounces his status as a Jedi, yet continues to masquerade as a general to undermine Republic war efforts. For Vos, his motivation to embrace the dark side stems from his relationship with Ventress, and shifts from their common goal to destroy Dooku to their romance. This was a corruption that that eventually led to Vos believing that he would be apprenticed to Count Dooku, which happens to be what Krell envisioned for himself also.
One big difference between the two is that we do not know if Krell had any contact with Dooku before deciding to turn away, while Vos had been imprisoned and tortured by Dooku in order to be completely consumed by the dark side. From what we know of Krell is that he had no respect for the clones, believing them to be lesser creatures bred in a laboratory. How this plays out through his arc is cruelly shown in his battle tactics where he constantly orders his troops to engage in no-win situations, which bring the best out in Rex and Fives. This cold and calculating style of leadership should have been a tip-off to the other Jedi, but since they were embroiled in their own battles they did not notice.
In Dark Disciple we see some of the same characteristics shown in Vos as was in Krell. On several missions, things went unexpectedly wrong for the Jedi while Vos was sabotaging them still reporting to Dooku. Vos was doing an excellent job of hiding away his true corrupted self fooling the Jedi Council who could not see through the clouded dark side–just like Krell.
So what common factors do we have here? In both cases the Jedi Council has failed to see how both Jedi Masters had fallen to the dark side while masquerading as normal Jedi generals. When we come to the end Krell’s episode arc in season four we finally see his delusions of grandeur. He had fallen out of line with the Jedi Order and believed them to be weak. He had seen the future and the downfall of the Republic and how a new empire would take its place and he intended to be part of its new rule. Manipulating a number of clones in the process he had almost been successful in his mission. What he didn’t account for is the clones’ individuality shining through, notably with his most ardent supporter Dogma, who had heard enough and killed Krell when he was incarcerated.
With Quinlan Vos, we have a lot of differences to look at in his ties to the dark side. His main motives to embrace the dark were brought on by Ventress in training to become stronger in order to take on Count Dooku. He was made to kill a beast on Dathomir known as “The Sleeper,” an underwater creature all Nightsisters must face in their training. Knowing that this was beyond wrong for a Jedi he went through with it, letting his feelings of love towards Ventress propel him. Two things forbidden by the Jedi Order were the exact two things that led Vos down the path towards the dark. Consumed by his love for Ventress, after being rescued from Dooku, Vos believed that he had come back to the light, while unknowingly still acting as an agent for Dooku. Where Vos differs from Krell, as well as most others who fall to the dark side, is how he comes back to the light. Ventress sacrifices herself to save Vos from receiving a death blow of Force lightning from Dooku and in this final act, Vos realizes what the dark side had done to him and taken from him.
These two examples show to what extent the dark side of the Force can corrupt and manipulate even the most righteous beings. It takes what people desire most and twists them as they pursue those goals, until those twisted beings no longer understand how their actions affect those around them.