Growing up, I read tons of the Dark Horse comic books -- so much of my idea of what kind of stories Star Wars could be came from those, and Quinlan Vos was absolutely one of my most favorite characters.
I think part of it was that this was the early 2000s, I was a pre-teen, and he looked like this:
(Side-note: Vos was created by Jan Duursema, who not only has the most Star Wars-y name I've ever heard but she also created Cade Skywalker, pictured below, who looks like if Star Wars was scored by the Offspring).
But I think beyond the impression that the superficial elements of the character left behind, I think there was so much that made Vos interesting and complex that got smoothed out into nothing in The Clone Wars and Dark Disciple.
As in Dark Disciple, Quinlan was "an undercover Jedi operative" of sorts -- this was around 2003-2004, where Jedi Sentinels, cool Jedi agents who used blasters and were a little more covert were in vogue (it's one of the three Jedi archetypes in KOTOR, contemporaneously). But an important distinction is that Vos was undercover from the beginning of the Clone Wars, infiltrating the Separatists from the criminal underworld. I think it was this long-term perspective that made Vos so interesting: He was the most clear-eyed about the violence in the galaxy, not the weirdly naive character we got in Dark Disciple. And he definitely fucked.
One of the most crucial differences between Vos' story in the Republic comic book line and Dark Disciple was his romantic relationship with Khaleen Hentz (Assajj Ventress was a rival of Vos, but in the comic she had none of the character arc that TCW gave her). Rather than being the guide to the Jedi entering the underworld, Khaleen was a thief and informant who fell in love with an undercover Vos, and instead was a criminal who got swept up in Jedi business and the Clone War.
I actually really dig the romance between Vos and Khaleen. It feels natural during the comic, and I like that Quinlan is just totally accepting of both of their feelings -- He has no guilt over falling in love, and it's that romantic connection that lets him resist Dooku's temptations and kill his Dark Jedi antagonist.
I think the main quality that endears Quinlan Vos to me is that more than any other Jedi, he was concerned with which acts of violence the Jedi Order condoned, which ones led to the Dark Side and which ones could be rationalized. As he spins his web of betrayals, cover identities, false flags and double-agenting, Vos can tell that he's losing touch with the Jedi and with the Light Side of the Force, but he has an unshakeable faith in himself that he won't turn, no matter how many assassinations he's forced to commit. But the Jedi Council, his master, his padawan, all have doubts about him. Being a spy during a war is absolutely the wrong occupation for a Jedi, but the Council gave him a mission and then lost all trust in him because of what he had to do in accomplishing it.
These comics weren't perfect by any means, but it is interesting to note which storylines and characters got reanimated by Disney, and which were relegated to Legends. I'm not particularly attached to most of the Legends continuity, though I do have nostalgia for that era of Star Wars media landscape, where novels, comics and video games were in abundance, with a surprising amount of creative freedom in each of them. I like the idea that "Ooh, who is this guy?" can lead you down a funky rabbit hole of comic book side-stories, rather than the same cast of characters appearing in three-different tentpole series, so high-budget and mass-marketed that it becomes harder and harder to ignore their deficiencies. (This is more related to this season of the Mandalorian than Dark Disciple)
I loved the AMCA episode on Dark Disciple, and I cannot wait for that crew to reach Rebels, which has a reputation that I think is wholly undeserved. Several of my all-time favorite Star Wars moments happen in that show. But this latest episode made me recall a childhood spent loving characters like Quinlan Vos, and I'm really grateful that it prompted me to go back, re-read and reconsider a slice of Star Wars that I once had a tremendous amount of affection for.
[Edit: also I forgot to mention that Quinlan Vos' backstory was that his parents were killed by vampires]
I mostly wrote this for myself (0 follower hype) but on the off-chance anyone got this far, thanks for reading! I made this account to post erotica, but maybe I'll just do a Star Wars blog instead or in addition to. Can never have too many of those! Maybe I'll write about Darca Nyl next or something.
