Who's Quinlan?

This article contains spoilers for Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 3!

"Quinlan was here."

Now if you're anything like me, you sat straight up at lightspeed when you heard that line. I can't even imagine the chaos that happened in the Rogue Rebels' house when they heard it. But the less informed may be wondering who this Quinlan that apparently brings younglings through the Path to smuggle Jedi to safety is, and why Obi-Wan knows him. This here is a little introduction to Quinlan Vos, and telling you what to watch and read.

Quinlan's origins actually lie in Legends, spun off of a background appearance in The Phantom Menace. I'll be upfront- I know next to nothing about his Legends stories. The main part I know is that his padawan was Aayla Secura (the cool blue Twi'lek Jedi you can see running around in Attack of the Clones, or getting shot down in Revenge of the Sith), which is something that was carried over into canon.

I'm much more familiar with his canon story. He has a few cameos and mentions scattered throughout some books and comics (his name is in a hologram from a Darth Vader comic that confirms he survived Order 66, for example), but his main features are in an episode of The Clone Wars and a book.

He only gets one The Clone Wars appearance, but the episode is full of him. "Hunt for Ziro" features Quinlan and Obi-Wan trying to track down Ziro after he was broken out of a Republic prison. The episode is a great introduction to him- we get to see his abilities of psychometry (touching an item and seeing memories attached to it), as well as his fun, carefree attitude that makes him such a cool Jedi. And of course, his fun dynamic with Obi-Wan. His ability to exasperate Obi-Wan rivals that of Anakin's. It's really a great episode, and I'd recommend setting aside the 22 minutes it takes to watch it to get a feel for Vos.

His biggest feature in canon right now though is the novel Dark Disciple. Adapted from episodes of The Clone Wars that unfortunately weren't finished, Dark Disciple tells the tale of Quinlan's romance with Asajj Ventress as the pair team up to assassinate Dooku. The attempt fails, and Dooku ends up taking Vos and torturing him, turning him into an agent of the Dark side until Ventress, with the help of Obi-Wan, is able to get to him and save him. Unfortunately she is killed by Dooku as well. It's... more complicated than that. But it's a book I love, and would recommend reading or listening to, especially if you're a fan of The Clone Wars. I have a more in-depth review of it here.

That's a brief introduction to Quinlan Vos! I'm very excited to see where they go with his character in the future, and if we may see him before the end of Obi-Wan Kenobi! I mean, that mention was just too purposeful, right?