Commissar Inquisitor

[Vindicatus]

As is the view that Gaunt has of the vast majority of the Commisariat; either too dull and dimwitted to do anything but hand out brutish punishment, or too self-indulgent and short sighted to show any real technical and tactical aptitude other than 'run forward, gunline, shoot'. While some possess certain amounts of cunning, it's usually self-serving at best.

 

You have failed to convince me otherwise by simply stating that I'm over-thinking the use of indoctrination, and that in attending the Schola Progenium, they must each possess a keen and calculating mind; having been subject to indoctrination myself (thank you, military service) I can honestly tell you that there are habits and attitudes and traits formed in even the shortest periods of service that take a lifetime to eradicate completely. Their's is not to question, merely to act on initial instinct through what their training has turned to muscle-memory: to pull the trigger. It is up to the Inquisition to question, to seek, to search.

[Chengar Qordath]

Certainly, the average commissar doesn't look too good if you're comparing them to someone like Gaunt or Cain, but that's to be expected. Gaunt and Cain are quite arguably two of the best commissars in the history of the Imperium, so of course they would make every other commissar is going to look brutish and uninventive by comparison.

 

Granted, a strictly average commissar would make a rather poor Inquisitor, but the Inquisition has never been in the habit of recruiting an average anything; they draw on the best of the best, especially when it comes to recruiting for their own ranks. An average commissar probably would not be significantly worse at being an Inquisitor than a mediocre Arbiter or a middle-of-the-road psyker. Just consider groups like the Inquisition Storm Troopers, the Inquisition's basic front-line troops, that are recruited from the top 5% of the Imperial Guard's elite stormtroopers.

 

With a question like "would someone from X job make a good Inquisitor", it's safe to presume that the Inquisition is still holding itself to its usual high standards, ergo anyone they would consider recruiting would be substantially better than the norm. An exceptional commissar (the only type the Inquisition would even consider recruiting) would probably make a decent Inquisitor, for all the reasons that have been pointed out by myself and other posters. OF course, there's a fair case to be made that an exceptional commissar is probably more useful remaining an exceptional commissar than he would be as an Inquisitor.

[Vindicatus]

Certainly, the average commissar doesn't look too good if you're comparing them to someone like Gaunt or Cain, but that's to be expected. Gaunt and Cain are quite arguably two of the best commissars in the history of the Imperium, so of course they would make every other commissar is going to look brutish and uninventive by comparison.

 

Granted, a strictly average commissar would make a rather poor Inquisitor, but the Inquisition has never been in the habit of recruiting an average anything; they draw on the best of the best, especially when it comes to recruiting for their own ranks. An average commissar probably would not be significantly worse at being an Inquisitor than a mediocre Arbiter or a middle-of-the-road psyker. Just consider groups like the Inquisition Storm Troopers, the Inquisition's basic front-line troops, that are recruited from the top 5% of the Imperial Guard's elite stormtroopers.

 

With a question like "would someone from X job make a good Inquisitor", it's safe to presume that the Inquisition is still holding itself to its usual high standards, ergo anyone they would consider recruiting would be substantially better than the norm. An exceptional commissar (the only type the Inquisition would even consider recruiting) would probably make a decent Inquisitor, for all the reasons that have been pointed out by myself and other posters. OF course, there's a fair case to be made that an exceptional commissar is probably more useful remaining an exceptional commissar than he would be as an Inquisitor.

 

 

This.

 

Sadly, the only really canon commissars we ever hear about are people like Cain or Gaunt, or on the opposite coin, the people in whom they indemnify (that VHPC commissar comes to mind).

 

If you're talking about drawing from the ranks the best of the best, I could see it, because that's only leaving people LIKE Gaunt or Cain. The bad part is the fact that there are so few of them out there that a loss of someone so influential in the Commisariat and the IG will have serious impact on the units under their command.