How Star Wars Outlaws Ties Kay Vess to Qi'ra, Vader, Lando and More

I’ll be honest: I didn’t expect Star Wars: Outlaws to be such a love letter to the messy, criminal side of the Original Trilogy era. Kay Vess is brand-new, sure, but the game plants her right between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and that means the guest list is stacked. If you haven’t finished the main story, consider this your final spoiler warning.

Let’s talk about the famous faces Kay bumps into on her grind through the syndicates.

First up: Lady Qi'ra. I’ll say it—Qi'ra is easily one of the most underrated players in the whole Star Wars sandbox. In Outlaws, Kay meets her on Kijimi, and if you know Qi'ra’s backstory, you know she isn’t just another crime boss. She was Han Solo’s old flame in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and she clawed her way up through Crimson Dawn after Dryden Vos got taken out. Then, after Maul dies before A New Hope, Qi'ra takes the throne. In the comics, she absolutely goes off: during War of the Bounty Hunters, she swipes Han's carbonite block right out from under Boba Fett and auctions it to the highest bidder. ND-5 even brings up that auction in game, which made me grin like an idiot.

The wild part? Qi'ra isn’t simply squeezing Kay for profit. She wants to destabilize the Empire and free the galaxy from Sith control. That’s what she means when she chats about "true freedom." Outlaws frames her as manipulative—and she is—but her endgame is pretty noble. After the game, comics like Crimson Reign and Hidden Empire show her taking a swing at Palpatine. She doesn’t win outright, but she gives the Rebellion a huge boost before vanishing. If that isn’t a chaotic-good queen move, I don’t know what is.

Of course, you can’t have Star Wars without a little Vader. In Outlaws, he’s not the main event, but his presence hits like a brick. The story reveals that Zerek Besh, the hot new syndicate everyone’s scared of, is actually an Imperial Security Bureau front. Sliro, its leader, is an Imperial soldier who got rich playing gangster. The real mission? Build a massive intelligence network to expose Rebel agents hiding in the underworld.

Palpatine isn’t known for his patience. Vader shows up as the galaxy’s scariest performance review. He basically tells Sliro, “Produce results or don’t produce anything ever again.” That pressure sets off the endgame, with Sliro’s half-brother Jaylen Vrax trying to take over. Kay stops Jaylen, and Zerek Besh crumbles. It’s wild to think that Kay, a thief just trying to keep her crew alive, accidentally kneecaps one of Palpatine’s most valuable espionage weapons before Return of the Jedi.

Now, Lando. Meeting Lando Calrissian in Outlaws felt like running into an old friend who still owes you credits. He’s up to his usual smooth-talker tricks, hiring Kay to recover an artifact he gambled away in a Sabacc game. That’s a hilarious callback to him losing the Millennium Falcon in Solo. But here’s the grown-up twist: Lando wasn’t just being careless. The artifact was a cover for extracting intel from a Rebel spy planted in the underworld. He’s not the same guy who lost the Falcon; he’s becoming the man who will eventually help blow up the second Death Star. The first DLC, Wild Card, reunites Kay and Lando for a Sabacc tournament, which sounds like trouble with a capital T.

The sequel trilogy also gets a little nod. On Akiva, Kay meets a teenage mechanic named Temmin Wexley. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because he grows up to be Snap Wexley, the Resistance pilot from The Force Awakens. Outlaws builds on the Aftermath novels: Temmin’s dad is captured, his mom is fighting with the Rebellion, and he’s stuck building droids to keep lonely. It’s a small cameo, but it ties the eras together nicely. Eventually, Temmin trains under Wedge Antilles and becomes a hotshot pilot. Not bad for a kid who just wanted some company.

Finally, there’s Hondo Ohnaka. He doesn’t physically show up in the base game, but Sheriff Quint on Tatooine drops his name, and that’s a giant neon sign. Hondo is the lovable, self-serving pirate from The Clone Wars and Rebels. The tease sets up the second DLC, A Pirate's Fortune, where Kay teams up with Hondo to hunt legendary treasure. Trust Hondo? I’d sooner trust a Kowakian monkey-lizard with my lunch.

Quick cheat sheet:

• 🎭 Qi'ra: Crimson Dawn boss with a secret anti-Sith agenda

• ⚔️ Darth Vader: enforcer who makes Zerek Besh’s failure personal

• 🎲 Lando: smooth Rebel spy in the making

• 🚀 Temmin Wexley: future Snap Wexley, now a lonely mechanic

• 🏴‍☠️ Hondo Ohnaka: pirate tease for the second DLC

The beauty of Outlaws is that Kay doesn’t need to be a Jedi or a general to matter. She stumbles through the galaxy, makes a mess of Imperial plans, and gets a front-row seat to the criminal underside of the Original Trilogy. If this is how Star Wars games are going to handle the timeline, sign me up for more scoundrel stories.