Agen Kolar was a Zabrak Jedi Master who joined the Jedi Council during the Clone Wars. At the end of the war, he was killed by Darth Sidious.
Biography[]
Becoming a Jedi Master[]
Most of Agen Kolar's early life is unknown but before the Clone Wars he was frequently assigned to missions across the Mid Rim. Hutt Space was one area in which he was known to operate, gaining an acquaintance, though hardly friendship, with the Besadii kajidic overlord Aruk Besadii Aora. Kolar also partnered with other Jedi on Rim missions, such as Quinlan Vos. Kolar gained prominence and respect among the Jedi for his skills and exploits, though his finesse in conducting diplomacy was notoriously lacking; he instead preferred to act, aggressively if necessary.
By the time of the Clone Wars, Kolar held the rank of Jedi Master, presumably having trained a Padawan to Knighthood previously, and was considered to be one of the Jedi Orders best swordsmen. At that time, his Padawan was a male Human, Tan Yuster.
The Battle of Geonosis[]
Agen Kolar on Geonosis.
When word reached the Jedi Council that Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi had been captured on Geonosis while investigating an assassination plot and after having stumbled upon an ominous meeting of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Kolar and Yuster were among the Jedi present in the Temple. Both were summoned to follow Mace Windu as part of the strike force sent to rescue Kenobi.
The pair were among the Jedi who infiltrated the galleries of the Petranaki arena, where Kenobi was to be executed. On Windu's cue, Kolar and his fellow Jedi revealed themselves in a show of force, but Confederacy leader and former Jedi Count Dooku deployed a force of battle droids against the Jedi. Kolar and Yuster battled fiercely, cutting their way onto the arena floor, but numerous Jedi began falling to the massed fire of the battle droids. Kolar and Yuster joined a circle of Jedi survivors on the arena floor, but Yuster fell in combat among them.
When the situation looked most grim, with the few remaining Jedi surrounded by an army of battle droids, Grand Master Yoda arrived at the head of the newly-commissioned Grand Army of the Republic. Kolar was saved and joined the battle against the Separatist armies on-planet, becoming one of the few survivors.
Jedi General[]
Master Kolar was saddened by the loss of his Padawan but stayed true to the Jedi principle of non-attachment, accepting Yuster's death and moving on. With the Clone Wars begun, Kolar was made a Jedi General in the Grand Army of the Republic. Ever a follower of the Council's will and a strong believer in the Jedi's duty to the Republic, he disdained those Jedi who opposed the decision to take an active role in the war. When Mace Windu discovered that the esteemed lightsaber trainer Sora Bulq had fallen to the dark side and joined Dooku, he warned Kolar of the betrayal and Bulq's history with Vaapad.
Battle of Brentaal IV[]
Agen Kolar? Do you live?"
"At the moment, Master Ti. How many more moments is questionable.
—Shaak Ti and Agen Kolar during the battle of Brentaal IV
Five months into the war, Kolar was assigned to retake Brentaal IV, a Core World located at a key hyperspace transit point, from an insurrection led by local clan leader Shogar Tok. Kolar, under the command of Jedi Council members Plo Koon and Shaak Ti, landed his troops on the planet, but the Republic's intelligence was faulty; Tok's ion cannons were operational and shielded, tearing the landing force to pieces. A quarter of the overall forces, along with Jedi General Shon Kon Ray, were lost almost immediately. Kolar was hard-pressed, though he retained many of his soldiers.
Shaak Ti found sanctuary in a prison, where she recruited several prisoners to aid her in infiltrating Tok's fortress via a sewer connection between the two facilities. In order to help her accomplish that, she ordered Kolar to lead an assault on the north face of Tok's citadel. Once she was inside, Koon, in orbit, would retreat and return in four hours, by which time she hoped to have sabotaged the defenses or captured Tok. Kolar, on the surface, was given the option to retreat or surrender.
When that time came, Kolar surrendered, along with his troops. He was brought before Tok and the holographic presence of Dooku, who interrogated him as to Ti's whereabouts. Kolar briefly resisted, earning him a beating at Tok's hands, before he testified that he had felt her die in battle through the Force. Kolar was imprisoned while Tok's forces searched for her body. There he remained until Ti succeeded; he and his troops were freed by two of her recruited prisoners: Jedi Master Quinlan Vos, Kolar's old ally, and Sagoro Autem. Ti was badly wounded after a betrayal by one prisoner, though, and Kolar took command on the ground in the aftermath while Ti recuperated in a bacta tank.
The pursuit of Quinlan Vos[]
Shortly after the Battle of Brentaal IV, Jedi Masters Mace Windu, Yoda, Ki-Adi-Mundi, and Tholme decided to use Kolar in a ploy. Vos, already under suspicion of deliberately providing the faulty intelligence for Brentaal, would be inserted into Dooku's camp as a double agent. However, they needed convincing evidence of Vos's break with the Order. To that end they provided him with high-value military codes which he was to attempt to sell to the Separatists, and the Council sent Kolar after Vos without the Zabrak Master knowing of Vos's true role. Only that small faction knew the entire scope of what was planned; Kolar was chosen for his unquestioning obedience to the Council and the likelihood Kolar would do his utmost to avoid delivering a killing strike.
Kolar traveled to Nar Shaddaa with three clone troopers in plain clothes. As Nar Shaddaa was in Hutt Space, the Republic had no legal grounds to arrest Vos there, but Kolar hoped to move swiftly and covertly and leave without the Hutts even being aware of a Republic presence.
Kolar's troopers raided Vos's attempted sale while he waited outside. Vos fought back, escaping the building, but Kolar Force Pushed him into a wall and drew his lightsaber, capturing him. Vos was manacled and placed in a speeder next to Kolar. In his hurry to leave, Kolar allowed Vos's agent, Khaleen Hentz, to escape. Vos protested his innocence, maintaining that he was attempting to feed the Separatists false information. Kolar, however, demonstrated that the codes were accurate. During their ride, Kolar and Vos briefly discussed whether the Separatists might have a point, but Kolar insisted that, as the Council had chosen to oppose them, the Jedi had no business supporting the Confederacy.
Kolar duels Quinlan Vos
Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Khaleen Hentz in her own speeder. Vos leaped aboard it, and Kolar and his troopers pursued. Vos jumped from Hentz's speeder in flight, hoping to avoid Kolar's notice, but Kolar was not deceived and leaped to follow, ordering his soldiers to continue their pursuit of Hentz. Kolar cornered Vos and engaged him in a duel. Vos held his own against the Zabrak for a while but Kolar disarmed him, pleading for Vos to return peacefully with him to Coruscant, where he could find his way back to the light. Vos summoned his lightsaber and attacked, but Kolar struck back, delivering a warning slice across Vos's shoulder armor to make the point that Vos was outclassed and should submit. Instead, Vos sliced open a cage of amphibians and ran while Kolar dealt with a tide of the creatures.
Kolar pursued Vos through a cantina and onto a dead-end walkway just outside it. However, the cantina's patrons knew Vos from his previous undercover work and moved to defend him. When the mob confronted him, Kolar ordered them to move on or accept the resultant damage. When they charged, Kolar began to engage them in unarmed combat, mowing though their numbers. He was interrupted by the arrival of Aruk the Hutt, who owned the cantina. The Besadii kajidic overlord demanded to know why Kolar was beating his customers; Kolar replied that he was on Republic business. Aruk pressed Kolar to leave, threatening a major diplomatic incident if he persisted. Knowing that pushing the Hutts away from the Republic and possibly into the arms of the Separatists was not worth Vos's capture, Kolar reluctantly allowed himself to be led back to his ship by Besadii guards. One bright spot did exist for the mission, however: besides preventing the actual sale of the codes, the clone troopers had captured Hentz.
Kolar was debriefed by the Council and sent back to his newly resupplied forces in the field; he transferred Hentz to Coruscant, but was told that it would be fruitless to attempt to pursue Vos further.
Not all of Kolar's time would be spent on the front lines though; he was appointed to the Jedi High Council at some point during the war, becoming a part of the decision-making process which he had previously obeyed unquestioningly. Frequently on Coruscant, Kolar received reports of the war's progress along with the other Masters, deciding as much as acting.
Personality and traits[]
Agen Kolar was known to take the blunt approach and preferred to fight first and ask questions later. Agen had very little interest in politics and negotiation and was therefore one of the more aggressive Jedi of his time and was known to rather enjoy combat. Kolar's way of negotiating was to order a person to stand down or face the consequences.
Despite his rather aggressive nature, Kolar was considered a fine Jedi, good enough to gain a seat on the Jedi Council. Kolar never doubted the wisdom of the Council and trusted it and its decisions completely and unquestioningly. Despite that, Agen was not a silent assenter on the Council, frequently injecting an observation or suggestion. He believed that the primary duty of the Jedi was to the Republic, and thus supported Jedi involvement in the Clone Wars.
Agen had great faith in his fellow Jedi and thought of them as his family, notably calling Quinlan Vos his "brother Jedi". Agen didn't like to think that Vos, or any other Jedi could fall to the dark side, though he would accept their fall once it had actually happened. Even when he confronted Vos, he displayed an unwillingness to seriously wound Vos, despite being engaged repeatedly by Vos in combat. He was also disdainful to those Jedi who opposed the decision to take an active role in the war.
Powers and abilities[]
A Jedi Guardian, Agen Kolar was a master of Form IV: Ataru and Form V: Djem So and considered one of the Jedi Order's most skilled swordsmen, with even Anakin Skywalker acknowledging that he'd taken some inspiration from the Zabrak's combat style. Kolar's skill with a lightsaber was great enough for him to survive the Battle of Geonosis, with the open space of the Geonosian arena enabling him to utilise Form IV acrobatics in the early stage of the battle before he fell back on Form V's precise deflection techniques to redirect the droids' blaster fire back at them. Kolar also defeated fellow Ataru master Quinlan Vos, using his hybridized style to outmaneuvre Vos with swift and dynamic swordplay while also countering all of the Kiffar's blows, turning his own kinetic energy against him with Djem So to create openings. Vos, after receiving a warning cut across his shoulder, recognised Kolar as the superior swordsman and fled.
However, although Kolar's mastery of Ataru compensated for Djem So's usual lack of mobility, he was susceptible to a crucial weakness in Form IV; it's lack of defence, especially in confined spaces such as Palpatine's interior office. Combining this weakness with being stunned by a Force Scream as well as Sidious' mastery of Force Speed, and Kolar was too slow to defend himself before he was fatally stabbed in the stomach.
Although he was a member of the Jedi Council, Kolar was quite weak in the Force, only using basic powers such as Force Push. Darth Sidious considered Kolar to be a threat in physical combat, hence he strategically eliminated him first before moving to deal with Saesee Tiin, Kit Fisto and Mace Windu, but harmless in terms of Force power. Kolar's lack of Force ability was exemplified by his susceptibility to Sidious' Force Scream in his final moments.
Kolar was also a master of hand to hand combat and even without his lightsaber he displayed the ability to easily overcome an angry mob of cantina patrons. He was also known to combine his skill in unarmed combat into his lightsaber battles sometimes delivering high kicks to his opponents as shown on Geonosis.