Characters / Star Wars – Alexsandr Kallus

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Alexsandr Kallus

Species: Human

Homeworld: Coruscant

Callsigns: ISB-021, Fulcrum, Spectre-8

Voiced by: David Oyelowo ^{Foreign VAs} Latin-American Spanish dub: Raúl Anaya, Japanese dub: Takeshi Maruyama

Appearances: Adventures | Rebels | Servants of the Empire | Rebels Magazine

Senior Agent Alexsandr Kallus

"Next time they make a move we'll be waiting for them to snuff out that spark before it catches fire."

A graduate of the Royal Imperial Academy on Coruscant and star pupil of Wullf Yularen, Kallus become one of the Empire's leading ISB agents who specialized in rooting out rebel cells in order to keep order across the galaxy. Kallus was assigned to hunt down the Ghost and its crew before they could inspire a wider rebellion within the Lothal Sector, but his time pursuing them led to Kallus reexamining his belief in the Empire.

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As an Imperial Agent

A-J

• The Ace: He graduated the Royal Academy at the head of his class, leading to him becoming a high-ranking ISB officer, though he owes this position partly to Jovan.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Zeb thinks climbing the cave's walls is a good idea, despite failing numerous times due to the walls being ice and ledgeless. Kallus tries to warn him that he'll hurt himself. Zeb ends up falling back to the ground, back first. Instead of rolling his eyes or sighing, he actually chuckles. Doubles as Not So Above It All.
• Always Someone Better: Having been a struggling student back in his academy days, Jovan seemed to have been this to Kallus, who both recall how the former always defeated the latter in the war games and sims they did. Thanks to Jovan's mentoring, however, Kallus managed to get back on his feet and went from no hope of graduating to graduating at the head of his class, becoming the new cream of the crop. By the time "Kallus' Hunt" rolls around, Kallus has a hard time dealing with Jovan when he goes rogue (besides the incompetent troopers) until he realizes he needs to stop giving into Jovan's insults, calm down, and come up with a rational solution to the problem.
• Ambition Is Evil: He sees bigger and better things in his future, and treats every victory he claims over the heroes as a step closer towards achieving that.
  • Absolutely Everything You Need to Know reveals that while he may be ambitious, he likes to stay in action and on the field, so he rejects promotions that could end up making him a Desk Jockey.
• Arch-Enemy: Was shaping up to become Zeb's nemesis, due to their repeated encounters and Kallus's role in the Lasat genocide. Subverted after "The Honorable Ones", where both men gain a greater respect for the other, and Zeb specifically realizes Kallus isn't as bad as he had told himself before.
• Armor Is Useless: Averted, his fleximetal cuirass does save him from a few shots, but since it is light it can't help him with the force of the blast.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Unlike most Imperial officers, he's a physical threat to the heroes.
• Awesomeness by Analysis:
  • In The Rebellion Begins (novelization of "Spark of Rebellion" with additional scenes), Kallus is able to deduce that Zataire's son (who harbors anti-Imperial sentiments) is hidden away on Alderaan, finding that his supposedly Lothal-grown wine actually has a label for the Organa Ranch on Alderaan underneath. He uses this information to assure Zataire of his loyalty and full cooperation in the event something occurs that may cause any cracks in any of that. This is also Kallus's first chronological appearance, so it's also an Establishing Character Moment.
  • He can also tell that Hera is the pilot of the Ghost the first time they meet, judging by her regalia. Then again, that's sort of obvious.
  • He tells Zeb to climb the pillars, seeing that if they can hold up the cave, they can hold the combined weight of the two of them.
• Badass Arm-Fold: Does this frequently, like in "Spark of Rebellion" when he arrives on Kessel to confront the rebels in a shootout.
• Badass Normal: Unlike most Imperial officers, he actually gets his hands dirty in hand-to-hand combat. He's able to fight Zeb bo-rifle to bo-rifle and win, and those things weren't made to be wielded by human hands. He also lacks any (known) affinity to the Force. This does not stop him from getting into fights with Kanan and Ezra.
• Bad Boss: He has a low regard of his own troops, and less to civilians. The earliest example of this occurs in "Spark of Rebellion" — after Ezra and Kanan escaped with the Wookiees and left him clinging onto a support pillar, a Stormtrooper clinging to that same pillar asked him if that was the first Jedi he ever fought. Kallus kicked him into the abyss for the implied insult.
  • The novelization, The Rebellion Begins, implies that this was actually an exception and that he often doesn't take out his anger on Stormtroopers. So he's really a Benevolent Boss, but only enough to be a subversion of the trope.
• Battle Trophy: Kallus took a bo-rifle off the corpse of an Lasat Honor Guard he had killed and kept it as a souvenir of the Lasat Campaign. However, we find out in season two this is not actually the case. The gun is still a battle trophy, all right, but it was actually given to Kallus by a Lasat he bested in combat, as it is a Lasat tradition to surrender one's weapon when defeated by a superior opponent.
• Bayonet Ya: His bo-rifle has a bayonet on it.
• Beneath the Mask: Certain dialogue and supplementary material reveal this to be the case when he was a "loyal" Imperial Officer, which goes a long way to explain his character discrepancy in the first season and the first half of the second season, until "the Honorable Ones" where the mask, so to speak, falls off. Beneath the exterior of a hardened, ruthless, and cold Imperial Agent was a broken man, haunted by the pasts, and someone who really didn't enjoy half the stuff he was being ordered to do.
• Berserk Button: Maybe. When Rex dares him to come fight him and calls him a coward, Kallus is done putting up with the clones' Republic walker climbing up his AT-AT walker and orders his men to finish them off.
• Breakout Character: Kallus originally started out as a major recurring antagonist, but "The Honorable Ones" began his Ensemble Dark Horse status. It bore fruit in Season 3 and Season 4, where he becomes a major recurring protagonist with his own story explored as much the members of the Ghost crew have.
• Broken Ace: He starts to wonder if his achievements ever meant anything to the Empire and meant any good at the end of "The Honorable Ones". The next time we see him in Season 3, he starts doing less (though this is partly because Thrawn doesn't want people doing too much against the rebels and thus messing up his plans).
• Characterization Marches On: In "Spark of Rebellion", he kicks down a Stormtrooper for an implied insult. Up until about halfway through "The Honorable Ones", he's a Smug Snake and has plenty of Kick the Dog moments. Once he reveals his backstory, he has a Heel Realization (which ends up becoming a Heel–Face Turn) and his previous behavior is virtually gone, replaced mostly by either doubt/sympathy to the rebels or no comments on the situation. Word of God later revealed that his character arc was mostly planned from the start.
• The Chosen One: Kind of. He's the Warrior in the Prophecy of Three (where undoubtedly the hero is supposed to be the Child, AKA Zeb) as foretold by Chava. The only thing that he's been said to do is be "saved" by the Child, providing Chava isn't omitting anything. It would seem that Zeb saved Kallus by having started the latter's redemption arc thanks to the events on Bahryn.
• Co-Dragons:
  • He, the Grand Inquisitor, and Minister Maketh Tua are this for Tarkin. By the end of "The Siege of Lothal", he is the only one of the three still alive.
  • Continues in Season 2, where his late co-dragons are replaced with the Fifth Brother and the Seventh Sister.
  • In Season 3, Konstantine becomes a co-dragon with him, this time, under Thrawn's directives. By the end of Season 3, he's defected and Konstantine is dead.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: He conducts a very special interrogation with Tarkin and the Inquisitor on Kanan.
• Colonel Kilgore: Kallus is very enthusiastic about his job and takes pride in the fact that he decimated a planet and species. He also isn't afraid to mix it up personally and he seemed to enjoy the opportunity to fight Zeb. The massacre part is subverted when it turns out that not only was he lying about being its commander, but he's actually remorseful of it and the only reason why he acted the way he did in "Droids in Distress" was due to inner conflict between his guilt and anger towards the species for one member murdering his team, his anger obviously taking him over.
• Cool Helmet: One that denotes his status as an ISB agent. It even covers up his sideburns. Uniquely for Imperial headgear, its design evokes ancient Roman helmets. It's worth noting Navy Trooper helmets also have similar designs.
• Covers Always Lie: He appears on one of the variant covers for Kanan #1, but is completely absent from the comic.
• Curtains Match the Window: He has dark blond hair and light brown-yellow eyes.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His first mission was to Onderon. He and his team were attacked by Saw Gerrera's rebels, with a Lasat mercenary going around to make their bodies corpses if they weren't already. For unknown reasons, he was spared.
• David Versus Goliath: He's only human, but he can best Zeb — a Lasat that is larger than him and has more experience using the bo-rifle — in single bo-rifle combat.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • More low-key than most examples, but Kallus definitely has his moments. For example, he sarcastically calls Ezra "Padawan Jabba", and he also makes a snide little remark to Minister Tua when she demanded he focus his efforts on finding who ruined her parade while his forces were already engaged in the manhunt for Tseebo.
    • He actually put Jabba the Hutt down as an alias for Ezra, so another officer is able to identify him instantly when he sarcastically gives that as his name.
• Determinator: He's fully committed to following the letter of Imperial law. No matter if you are the Ghost crew or some other rebel (but especially the Ghost crew), he will not rest until he catches you, as stated in the pilot's novelization . . . That is, until "The Honorable Ones".
  • Jovan exploits this via I Shall Taunt You. Kallus eventually realizes that he's losing his objectivity, so when he gets back to the task at hand, that's what helps him catch Jovan in the end.
  • Taken to ridiculous levels in "Relics of the Old Republic" and "Legends of the Lasat". Kallus will not let a storm stop them from following the rebels, and he doesn't care if the rebels end up outside the known galaxy, which would be away from the Empire's jurisdiction.
• Disappointed in You: Sums up his feelings during his confrontation with Swain. The feeling is mutual.
• Double Meaning: His comments to Tua before her assassination are not just him saying he's simply just doing his job (but is obviously taking pleasure out of it, especially in regards to what is about to happen), but also subtle jabs at how both he and Vader know exactly what she's up to and thus are dealing with her accordingly.
• The Dragon: He's stuck in this role, being the most active threat to the heroes while his boss changes each season. In Season 1 he occasionally served this role to the Grand Inquisitor. In Season 2, he is one of Darth Vader's lieutenants, at least in the areas concerning the Ghost crew and their fellow rebel cells. It's evident in Season 3 that he was primarily Governor Arihnda Pryce's Dragon, as much of his operations were on Lothal.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Judging by when he recollects the events of Onderon to Zeb, it's clear that he cared a great deal about his brothers-in-arms and was traumatized by their merciless deaths. The fact that he calls them "the boys", not unlike how Hera occasionally calls her rebel subordinates "the boys" or the clones calling each other "boys", and not "the troopers" or "the men" but rather his equals that he knew beyond the blaster, is what really seals it.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Even he is appalled by the brutality of Aresko and Grint's executions. According to the novelization, Kallus feels their loyalty warrants them better than an execution.
  • He's visibly shocked when Vader orders the destruction of Tarkin Town in an attempt to root out the rebels, but carries it out regardless, because it's Vader.
  • Kallus is clearly unimpressed by Thrawn, immediately calling out the high number of civilian casualties at the battle of Batonn. He is unaware that it wasn't Thrawn who caused the casualties as revealed in the Thrawn Trilogy.
  • He's also visibly disturbed when Thrawn lets Mr. Sumar die from his unstable speeder bike explosion. Though by the time Thrawn joins the ensemble, Kallus has already become a Fulcrum, so technically it's not this trope anymore.
• Evil Brit: Voiced by a British actor, as with almost every Imperial officer.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He can't fathom why Swain would throw away her prospective life and future for a "life of misery" when she goes rogue. However, it would seem that he's begun to understand why in "The Honorable Ones".
• Evil Is Petty:
  • He sends a Stormtrooper falling to his doom because the Stormtrooper had brought up Kanan effortlessly humiliating him. Possible subversion, as the novelization says he rarely takes out his anger on his men.
  • After losing to Zeb at the beginning of "The Honorable Ones", he expresses his anger by questioning how Zeb could've bested him if he had lost once back in "Droids in Distress".
• Evil Mentor: To Swain, as well as some other ISB officers-in-training, apparently.
• Evil Virtues: Specifically loyalty, bravery, determination, and honor to some degree.
• Exact Words: His bo-rifle was "removed" from a Lasat Guardsman, implying he looted it from their corpse as a trophy and leaving it vague as to whether or not he actually killed the guardsman himself. Technically, the guardsman "removed" it from himself and gave it to Kallus, because giving up your weapon after losing to your opponent and giving it to them as their trophy is the Lasat code of honor, and Kallus makes it clearer that yes, he did kill the guardsman himself, so his claim to the bo-rifle is legitimate.
• Expy: Kallus was initially fleshed out as a ruthless, efficient, humorless and analytical Middle-Management Mook, a more up-close and personal version of Grand Admiral Thrawn, and his concept art reveals he was even designed as a Chiss. By the time the actual Grand Admiral joins the cast, Kallus has already diverged ideologically from that persona and the two play a cat-and-mouse game as Kallus leaks information to the rebels.
• Extreme Doormat: He's this to his Bad Bosses, though downplayed. He's more than happy to finally work to his fullest extent when Vader comes in, but at the end of that episode, when Kallus tries to get chummy (almost certainly having to do with his fondness for camaraderie as we find out in "The Honorable Ones" due to his brotherhood with his late unit), he is shut down. He tries to do the same thing again with Pryce (who is arguably slightly better than Vader or Tarkin) in "The Last Battle", but she also doesn't care.
• False Flag Operation: He and Vader successfully frame the rebels as being the ones responsible for Tua's death.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • The Ultimate Star Wars source book specifically mentions that he views non-human species with disdain. For the Lasat, at least part of it might be due to a grudge for one killing his first team. Years later, he apologizes to Zeb for the massacre, noting that it wasn't personal, which might be a hindsight view.
  • The novelization of "Droids in Distress" implies he feels this way towards droids.
  • During his first meeting with Hera when he corners her, Kanan, Ezra, and Trayvis in "Vision of Hope", he comments on her species and her regalia. The fact he said those observations out loud with a condescending tone to his voice heavily suggests he was going to make remarks to her in regards to how female Twi'leks are typically stereotyped as promiscuous figures.
  • He showed shades of this towards the clones when he first met Rex, Gregor and Wolffe.
  • The novelization of "Spark of Rebellion" implied he was this to the citizens of Lothal, but "Through Imperial Eyes" later suggests that he's gotten over it.
• Faux Affably Evil: At first. Character Development slides him into Affably Evil and later Good Is Not Nice instead.
  • After blackmailing Zataire, he looks upon Lothal's grasslands from space. He notes to himself how green they are, and how he's going to "make that land bleed red" when he eliminates the rebels.
  • He treats Ezra decently when he's being used as bait, but tries to kill him when he shows his Force-sensitivity and immediately concludes he's Kanan's Padawan (which at the time, he wasn't).
  • Later, he gleefully rubs the Lasat massacre into Zeb's face. Turns out that due to his grudge against Lasats, he did it just to get a rise out of him, partly to make the fight easier.
• Firing One-Handed: Kallus has a tendency to fire his bo-rifle one-handed, and is shown to be fairly accurate when doing so; impressive considering the size of the gun and the fact it wasn't designed for humans to wield. In contrast Zeb, a member of the species the gun was designed for, fires using both hands.
• Foil:
  • To Minister Tua. Having been the Imperials with the most screentime with each other in Season 1, we got to see how both are rather prideful and loyal to the Empire, as well as being ambitious. They both uphold public stability in their own ways; Tua is relegated more to politics and office work (that in this government, may or may not be trivial to the bigger picture) but ultimately could not do anything else beyond that, while Kallus actively does the dirty work protecting the Empire to purposely avoid getting stuck in the office; in other words, Tua is all bark and no bite, while Kallus has the bite to back up his bark. This in turn causes their conflict in Season 1. They even get parallel scenes. In Season 3, where Kallus has become a Rebel spy because it is the right thing to do, while Tua was fearful for her life and used the intel she had as a bargaining chip so that the rebels could put their lives on the line for her, only to end in a trap and the cost her life anyway. Kallus even helped orchestrate Tua's assassination before turning to the Rebels.
  • He is also a foil to Zeb. Both are/were high-ranking officers of their military with a Dark and Troubled Past that involved the massacre of their colleagues. As the years passed, both of them tried to hide their grief in fighting for their respective sides so that history wouldn't repeat to others, but eventually were forced to confront their pasts but were able to confide in someone about their trauma (Zeb confided in Ezra, Kallus confided in Zeb) in order to become better people (Zeb was able to lead his people to Lira San and so far, also recruit Kallus into the Rebellion and is supposed to save an unidentified Fool at some point, and Kallus consequently became an important Fulcrum informant to the Rebellion).
• Foregone Conclusion: Kallus has gained prominence in Imperial ranks that he's established himself as the best officer to deal with the rebel problem, granting him the honor of even being one of Darth Vader's lieutenants, so something had to have prevented him from being present in the Original Trilogy where his services would've been useful. As it turns out, he defected from the Empire.
• Fragile Speedster: Downplayed, while not exactly fragile due to his armor, his fighting style is noticeably reliant on maneuverability, allowing him to beat Zeb in an open area, but losing rather quickly to Zeb when in a much more confined area.
• Freudian Excuse: The reason why he's so determined to eliminate Rebel threats is because his very first unit was killed by the worst of them, the Partisans. So naturally, It's Personal, he's come to believe that all Rebel fighters are Always Chaotic Evil, and he doesn't want history to repeat.
• Hidden Depths: "The Honorable Ones" shows that there's a lot more to him than being a standard snooty Imperial agent.
• Honor Before Reason: Fittingly, in "The Honorable Ones". After getting free of the cave, he had no real reason to let Zeb (his archnemesis) live, but he saved him due to Zeb's own insistence of using this trope.
• The Idealist: Surprisingly, he's this. He genuinely believes that the Empire is a force of good, and any questionable actions committed by it are either things he doesn't know about, or things he never bothers questioning or commenting on because he thinks it's the right and necessary thing to do, though parts of these can also be chalked up to him also being an unconditional Jerkass at points. Most noticeable in "Kallus' Hunt" and more so in "The Honorable Ones".
• Informed Attribute: Kallus is said to be notorious for breaking prisoners under interrogation, as shown when Ezra gets captured and pretends to give a confession, where Lyste implies Kallus has done this before. However, Kallus hasn't been shown actually attempting this onscreen. The only person he's shown trying to interrogate was Ezra, but he had to use a different approach on him.
• Inopportune Voice Cracking: Whenever he's extremely angry, in fear for his life, or just in pain, often whenever he interacts with the rebels after his Heel–Face Turn away from his colleagues. It's played seriously, but it's still quite amusing to listen to.
• I Shall Taunt You: He mocks Zeb over the Lasan massacre in their first duel, claiming that he was the one who ordered it. We later learn that he wasn't the one who made that call, and was simply directing his misplaced anger at the Lasat race onto Zeb due to trauma he experienced at the hands of a mercenary of the same species.
• It's Personal:
  • Kallus's less than stellar view of Lasats comes from an encounter he had with a Lasat mercenary, who killed his crew. Averted, however, in that Kallus was not the one who ordered the Lasat genocide.
  • He chooses to confront Swain personally in "No Sympathy".
• Jaw Drop:
  • His reaction on Kessel when Kanan ignites his lightsaber, complete with a brief Stunned Silence.
  • Has a small one when a strange, cobbled-together ship swiftly manages to wipe out whatever TIEs he throws at it before coming in to deal a blow on the ship adjacent to him, all while composing grace. Leads to This Cannot Be!
  • Upon offering to hold Zeb's bo-rifle so that the latter has free hands to climb with out of the cave, Zeb instead throws it and their other stuff up to the surface. Kallus reacts with this, accompanied by silent indignation.
• Just Following Orders: At the time, he had no idea that the Empire set out to kill the Lasat populace — he just believed that they were going after the dissidents.

K-Y

• Kick the Dog:
  • He proudly brings up his involvement with the genocide against the Lasat species in front of Zeb, tauntingly and with no remorse. The novelization of this scene suggests he did this to draw out Zeb. Further supported by "The Honorable Ones", where he apologizes for past events.
  • Then he kicks off Season 2 by assassinating Maketh Tua, under Vader's orders. And just to twist the knife a little deeper, in the run-up to said event he makes subtle and sarcastic taunts directed towards her.
  • In "Wings of the Master", he puts a planet's work force on starvation rations simply so they can serve as bait for the Rebel fleet. Then he stationed a naval blockade around said planet that was large enough to make sure that the rebels would be incapable of breaching it.
• Knight Templar: He's a true believer of the Empire who doesn't necessarily regard what he does as "evil". "The Honorable Ones" plants a seed of doubt in him, and falls more into My Country, Right or Wrong.
• Last-Name Basis: Kallus is his last name. According to Word of God, his first name is Alexsandr, but this never comes up in Rebels itself.
• Leitmotif: The sinister "Enter Kallus". The main notes are almost exactly the same as part of the Star Wars theme, possibly as irony to how he's not one of the heroes and serves a perversion of the Republic. Or, it's to foreshadow that he does become a hero and joins the Rebel Alliance.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: After he and Zeb parted ways, they agreed to never mention their encounter to anyone. In "The Antilles Extraction", he broke that agreement when he had to explain to Sabine why he's even letting them escape.
• Meaningful Name:
  • "Kallus" is pronounced like "callous". "The Honorable Ones" shows that he's capable of doing some good, though.
  • His Star Destroyer at the beginning of the show is called the Lawbringer; rather appropriate given the fact that he an ISB officer and therefore a member of COMPNOR, though this seems to be a coincidence as the Lawbringer is a part of the Imperial fleet on Lothal, not actually given to him from the ISB or COMPNOR.
  • "Alexsandr" means "defender of humanity/man". It has been used as the name of several kings and emperors in Europe, particularly Alexander the Great. Fitting for a warrior that serves to defend peace and order.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: His main weapon is a bo-rifle — which can alternate between being a rifle and an electrified staff. It originally belonged to a Lasat Honor Guardsman he defeated in combat, and the guardsman gave him the weapon as a show of respect for a superior warrior.
• Mook Lieutenant: Kallus doesn't have any real decision-making capability in the Empire. He simply commands and coordinates troops hunting down Rebel cells. The producers have explicitly stated he is supposed to represent the mid-ranked Imperial officers who ran the Empire on a day-to-day basis. This is a huge hint that Kallus did not command the massacre on Lasan or order the use of disruptors, as it wouldn't make sense for someone lower than ranks such as Moff or Admiral to make such huge decisions. The irony of it all is that he ends up surviving more than any high-ranking Imperial he ends up subordinate to.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: "The Honorable Ones" makes it clear he is loyal to the Empire and believes in its cause, but he's more aware of the atrocities his higher-ups have committed.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Kallus (callous) is a pretty fitting name for the Star Wars equivalent of a KGB officer. That, and combined with the title of "Agent", is a sign that if you mess with this guy, you mess with the State Sec.
• Nothing Personal:
  • To Jovan, saying that he's not arresting him because he betrayed him or the Empire, but because it's the right thing to do. Although it's obvious that it was getting personal, because he refused back-up and went after Jovan himself, as well as letting his taunts get to him.
  • Says this to Zeb as he apologizes about the massacre on Lasan, as he was only following orders.
• Not So Above It All: Ezra has only told him he was "Jabba the Hutt" once, and Kallus has never let him live it down. Not only does he demonstrate this by referring him to him as "Padawan Jabba" in "Vision of Hope", but he actually entered it as one of his aliases in the Imperial database. Partly serious and justified, because Kallus probably does expect him to use it on other people (which he does) and it is likely a requirement to enter known aliases for criminals whenever it comes up for the exact same reason, just like in real life.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • As soon as he finds out that Kanan is a Jedi fugitive, he goes from being on top of the situation to fearful.
  • He has another moment when Tarkin has Aresko and Grint executed for criminal incompetence, as he realizes that if he makes another major screwup, he's next.
  • When the clones have their old Republic walker climb on his AT-AT walker while shooting it down.
    Kallus: THEY'VE LOST THEIR MINDS!
  • "The Honorable Ones" is twenty minutes of Oh, Crap! for him.
  • Whenever he gets Force-pushed by Ezra.
• One Degree of Separation: In an issue of Adventures, he hires IG-88 to help him hunt down Han and Chewie.
• Pet the Dog:
  • After inspecting a Rodian citizen to identify if he's the fugitive they're looking for, he tells him to enjoy the rest of his Empire Day after none of his soldiers did so.
  • After a rough start, "The Honorable Ones" has Kallus choosing not to fire on Zeb twice despite being tempted to (first time, he was in danger and could be seen as pragmatism, second, he could have left Zeb for dead), Kallus revealing that he did not send out the order to massacre Lasan and wasn't aware that the Empire was making an example of it, refers to the Lasat that gave him his bo-rifle as a fighter that went down honorably, and speaking fondly of his late, first team.
• Poison and Cure Gambit: Uses one in "Sabotaged Supplies" on the supplies stolen by the Ghost crew to give to Tarkintown, knowing that the crew would go back to the Imperial Complex to try and retrieve the cure, even if the rebels are aware that it is a trap as well.
• Police Brutality: He's implied he has done this before, but the only time onscreen is when Ezra gets captured again, takes Kallus' hand, and punches himself to make it look like Kallus beat him when another Imperial is about to walk into the cell.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  • In the novelization of "Droids in Distress", he says this before he's about to deal the final blow to Zeb. Ezra stops it from happening.
    Kallus: Demonstration, complete.
  • Technically counts when Kallus smugly makes a stealth jab at Tua's faltering loyalty in "The Siege of Lothal", though he says one more thing to that person before they die, warning them to take cover when the rebels show up, as they aren't aware that this was actually a set-up by him and Vader.
    Kallus: Can't be too careful with security these days.
• Properly Paranoid: Kallus doesn't turn away intel just because the person sending it is supposedly unreliable. Ain't that right, Wolffe? He will follow up on it.
• Psychotic Smirk: Displays it numerous times, it's almost a bit of a signature facial expression of his. He drops this after a Heel Realization, or at least the "psychotic" part.
• Rank Up: Kallus is given an unspecified promotion after the events of "The Siege of Lothal".
• Schrödinger's Canon: In Fantasy Flight Games' Age of Rebellion (which is a hybrid canon using both Legends and new canon information), "Forged in Battle" states that during the Siege of Lasan, Imperial Security Bureau agents were equipped with T-7s during this time, implying that Kallus might have been an agent already by that point in time.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Downplayed, as he relatively seems to have gotten over his Dark and Troubled Past (or more likely, at least tries not to think about it), but he harbors a Thousand-Yard Stare when he recounts his experience on Onderon to Zeb.
  • In "Spark of Rebellion", while it possibly was just a standard reaction to recoil, when Sabine blows up her starbird graffiti and Kallus is thrown by the explosion, he immediately tries to get up (but he starts to get vacuumed out into space before we see anything else), shown as reacting faster than the other Imperials in the bay.
• Smug Smiler: He has an incredibly smug smirk that he deploys from time to time, although special mention must go to "Zero Hour", where he gives what must be his smuggest one yet as he's preparing to escape the Chimaera.
• Social Climber: He sees his job as a means of advancing through the ranks of the Empire to satisfy his ambitions.
• Sole Survivor: Of his first unit. He doesn't understand why, suggesting he may have Survivor Guilt. He's also the sole survivor of the main Imperial cast of Seasons 1 and 2.
• The Spymaster: As a intelligence officer, handling spies is part of his purview. Namely, Senator Trayvis.
• State Sec: Kallus works for both the ISB's Departments of Investigation, which is in charge of suppressing rebel activity, and Internal Affairs, which is in charge of rooting out traitors in the Empire's ranks.
• Stern Teacher: Unsurprisingly, Swain's comments about him seem to suggest he's this.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Kallus is very competent, but is limited by being a Badass Normal, being undermined by ambitious individuals with more authority than him, and others ignoring him. The Fifth Brother ruined his plan to capture the Rebels by ordering away his air support. Otherwise, he would have won.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
  • He and the Fifth Brother do not get along. Kallus doesn't particularly like the Fifth Brother telling him how to do his job, or even taking it. He also doesn't seem quite fond of the Seventh Sister either.
  • He and Zeb get stuck with each other on the cold moon of Bahryn.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: He ordered hand-held weapons designed to take down warships to be used against the population of Lasan. And no, he is not sorry about the resulting massacre. However, Kallus wasn't really the one who gave the order. Oh, he was still part of the Lasan Campaign, but he wasn't the one in command nor was he the one who made the decision. He just said it to rile up Zeb.
• This Cannot Be!: His response to seeing a B-Wing take out an Imperial light cruiser with a couple of shots? A slack-jawed "That's not possible!"
• Token Good Teammate: Takes on this role to the other Imperials in Season 3, due to his secret Heel–Face Turn. Despite comments like complimenting Pryce on her offscreen ambush in "The Last Battle", he has very little confrontations with the rebels compared to Season 1 and 2. And when he does confront them, he's actually helping Sabine, Wedge, and Hobbie defect, and requests them to tell Zeb that "they're even". He also questions Thrawn's methods, as the Grand Admiral has a history of large civilian casualties.
• Tuckerization: His first name is derived from his temp recording voice actor, Alex Spotswood, a production manager/coordinator for The Clone Wars and Rebels.
• Unreliable Narrator:
  • Turns out he was this during his confrontation with Zeb back in "Droids in Distress". No, he's not actually responsible for deploying disruptors at the Siege of Lasan.
  • Not one meant out of intended malice, but a realistic one. He tells Zeb that he was Just Following Orders at Lasan, but it doesn't justify his actions nor does he seem completely convinced of this answer himself either, since he made it clear on previous occasions that his rivalry with Zeb is personal and driven by a Fantastic Racism grudge.
  • Regarding his account about Saw Gererra's role, it's subverted later on. No, he was not being biased to make himself look like the victim and Gererra the bad guy; We see how dishonorable he is and even the other rebels are well attest to that.
• Villain Has a Point: In "The Honorable Ones", Kallus asks the Armor-Piercing Question to Zeb about whether he sees all Imperials the same. This point is rather prudent, as Zeb is very much vehement to all Imperials, which was his attitude towards Minister Tua.
• Villain Protagonist: He has his own magazine comics to himself, "Kallus' Hunt" and "No Sympathy".
• Villain Respect:
  • Orders Admiral Titus to triple guard an imprisoned Ezra in "Stealth Strike", and warns him not to underestimate him for being a mere child.
  • He admires that the rebel fleet hid in multiple hangars on Garel and thus managed to elude the local Imperials, before he and the others attack it in "Legacy". He gets called out for this by the Seventh Sister, because their successes mean his failures. He snarks back that if they work together, then maybe they'll actually win this time.
  • Develops this for Zeb after "The Honorable Ones".
• Villainous Friendship: Season 2 suggests that this trope is followed between him and Konstantine, but "The Honorable Ones" heavily implies this relationship is purely business by Konstantine's reaction to Kallus' return, averting this trope. Kallus has also shown low-key abrasiveness towards other named Imperials, such as glaring at the Grand Inquisitor and being a Smug Snake to the failure of others like he was to Tua and Titus. The only other colleague he's interacted with without negativity is Lyste, though by the time the two of them ever share screentime, Kallus has already had his Heel Realization. Even then, Kallus ends up betraying Lyste by manipulating him so that he looks like The Mole that Thrawn and the others are looking for, though it was just supposed to be a distraction at first.
• Villainous Valor: He challenges Zeb one-on-one, then beats him in a fair fight. He begins to complain about not winning their rematch in "The Honorable Ones", but Zeb shuts him down.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Jovan in "Kallus' Hunt", when he arrests him for treason.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Having been heavily implied to have been a Mook before becoming an ISB Agent, this would be what happened in his Dark and Troubled Past. Like any other soldier, you wouldn't react well to seeing your comrades get killed right in front of you, later turning out to be the sole survivor, with all of you helpless to stop it. Especially when it's your first mission in action. It seems that the Onderon rebels felt the need to scare the Empire, going so far to kill Stormtroopers when they are no longer a threat.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • He's willing to shoot Ezra when he thinks the boy is a Jedi, but is rather polite when he thinks of Ezra as nothing more than bait.
  • While not as bad, his body language is rather condescending when he interacts with Zare and an undercover Ezra in "Breaking Ranks". Justified, it's an office/military base, so it's expected for unequal treatment between superiors and subordinates, and cadets are expected to act like adults.
  • In Imperial Justice, he issues orders to take the children of wanted fugitives to lure said fugitives out. After that, he has the kids be placed in presumably foster care (and considering the Imperial government is in charge of that, it probably isn't necessarily a good thing). In all likelihood, he probably thought the parents weren't suitable to care for their children anymore, being considered criminals by the Empire.
  • After Kallus has his Heel–Face Turn and is serving as The Mole, when Ezra punches himself with Kallus's arm to make it look like to the other Imperials that he got beat up, the agent looks uncomfortable while doing so, making this trope a subversion.
• Would Not Shoot a Civilian: Zigzagged. In his eyes, you're not a civilian if you're a rebel sympathizer in any shape or form, which includes being helped by the rebels rather than you helping them. He has no problem arresting the citizens of Tarkintown and burning it down or starving a planet to lure rebels into a trap. However, "Steps Into Shadow" has Kallus comment disapprovingly that more civilians than rebels were killed in Thrawn's victory at the Battle of Batonn.
• Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: His bo-rifle's electricity is yellow, while Zeb's is blue/purple.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: A villainous example: when Ezra expresses disbelief in the possibility that the rebels will come back to rescue him, he disagrees and encouragingly smirks at the kid. Ezra is being used as bait.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Lasat honor rules require a warrior to surrender their weapon to a foe who thoroughly beats them. That's how he got a hold of his bo-rifle; he didn't loot it off a dead Lasat Honor Guard, he defeated one and he relinquished his bo-rifle to him.

As a Rebel Agent

Captain Alexsandr Kallus

"The day I betrayed the Empire was the day I finally stopped betraying myself."

As the hunt dragged on and the Empire's atrocities became more widespread, Kallus's loyalty began to break, culminating in him becoming an informant for the Alliance's "Fulcrum" intelligence network. Unfortunately, his betrayal was discovered by Grand Admiral Thrawn, who began using him as an unwitting pawn. After narrowly escaping arrest at the Battle of Atollon, Kallus officially defected to the rebellion as an agent of Alliance Intelligence.

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• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: In "Through Imperial Eyes", the introduction takes place from Kallus's literal point-of-view as he is woken from his sleep by an alert and first rinses his face in the mirror.
• Ambiguous Gender: Before the second Fulcrum is revealed to be Agent Kallus, a man, their gender and identity is disguised much like the previous Fulcrum's.
• Anti-Hero: After "The Honorable Ones", while he does take a level in kindness, he can still make sadistic choices if he needs to. Namely, he frames Lyste — who has been nothing but friendly to him — as Fulcrum so that their superiors' suspicion is shifted to the lieutenant instead. Also doubles as Beware the Nice Ones.
• Ascended Extra: In a way. When the first Fulcrum's identity was still unknown, she was more or less relegated as a mystery in the background. Word of God is that the second Fulcrum will receive an actual plot that will eventually build up to The Reveal unlike how Fulcrum was revealed to be Ahsoka at the end of the Season 1 finale with a couple of hints throughout the season. And now with The Reveal that Kallus is our new Fulcrum, it does indeed raise the stakes for Kallus and makes him more important to the plot.
• Badass in Distress: He's under immense stress as Fulcrum, especially because Thrawn is ready to out him if he trips up.
  • He gets found out in "Zero Hour", and ends up being captured, tortured/beat up, held hostage, and Forced to Watch as Thrawn makes his move against Chopper Base.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: At first, it seems like he just wants to make it even with Zeb indirectly by helping Sabine and the defecting pilots escape, but it later turns out that it's only half of the story when it turns out he's Fulcrum II; the other reason is because he's realized the Empire never meant well for anyone, and that his experience with the rotten apple of the Rebellion (that is, the Partisans) is not an accurate image of what all rebels are like, which he learned through the experience on Bahryn with Zeb.
• Broken Pedestal: Sees the Empire as this after "The Honorable Ones". However, when he meets his mentor, Yularen, again, he has nothing but respect for the man and has no reason to be against him. Likewise to Yularen until the end of "Through Imperial Eyes".
• Butt-Monkey: In "An Inside Man" to Ezra and Kanan (mostly the former). It might as well be delayed karma, since he's never been beaten up like that in previous episodes.
• Character Development: He's less of a Smug Snake and more quiet and humble in Season 3, no doubt thanks to the events of "The Honorable Ones" and his new secret allegiance to the Rebellion.
• Deadpan Snarker: In "Zero Hour", he's on fine form snarking at Thrawn and Pryce while being held prisoner.
• Defector from Decadence: In "Zero Hour", after spending some time as The Mole and getting his cover blown, he finally escapes and joins up with the rebels.
• Defiant Captive: In "Zero Hour", he keeps up an unending stream of snark directed at Thrawn and Pryce while being held captive on the bridge of the Chimaera.
• Destination Defenestration: Not a window, but Ezra Force-shoves him through a glass panel in "An Inside Man".
• Early-Bird Cameo: In Aftermath, Wedge mentions that he was recruited by Fulcrum. At the time the novel was released, it was assumed that Ahsoka recruited Wedge some time prior to the Season 2 finale. This gets debunked in the Season 3 trailer of Rebels, where we discover that a different Fulcrum recruited him instead.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Ends up living with Zeb and the Lasat on their new home, discovering that he was not in fact responsible for exterminating the Lasat.
• Easily Forgiven: Averted. Despite the reveal that he's now a Fulcrum agent, the rebels are not willing to forgive his previous actions. However, Zeb still trusts him and Sabine is open to a friendship. At one point, the rebels do decide to attempt a rescue mission for him. Although Ezra and Kallus still have some trust issues, it works out fine except that Kallus stays to continue his act as Fulcrum. Ezra is a bit saddened but understanding when this happens.
  • Happily, in the Season 3 finale, the Ghost crew appears to have come to accept him. During the battle, when the Ghost receives Kallus's SOS, they immediately go to retrieve him before entering hyperspace. When everyone is sheltered in the Ghost en route to Yavin 4, he stops Kanan to thank him for taking him in. Kanan thanks him for everything and putting everything he knew at risk.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: In Season 4, his hair is loose and uncombed, now that he is a rebel officer. Also, his sideburns are now accompanied by stubble.
• False Flag Operation: Participates in one with Ezra and the rebels when they attempt to rescue him (which he was not informed of) when it seems that the Empire is close to discovering his cover, but ultimately chooses to stay behind once it seems that the blame has rolled over to Lyste during the mission.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With the Ghost crew. The Distant Finale shows that he and Zeb became best friends.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Not that there's any practical reason to randomly bring them up in a conversation. While "friend" may be pushing it and the parallels are there between Kallus and Tua, Jovan, & Swain (and also some others like Aresko and Grint), none of the three latter characters are ever brought up again in-universe or out-of-universe despite Kallus's Heel–Face Turn. Though considering Kallus has had some self-contemplation ever since "The Honorable Ones", chances are he does think about them. Season 3 has already shown him reluctantly framing Lyste and showing remorse when Konstantine is indirectly killed by his actions, so it's not like he isn't aware of his effects on his colleagues.
• Former Bigot: During his time as an antagonist, Kallus displayed a number of prejudices towards certain groups. His Heel–Face Turn and Character Development helps to drop this attitude.
• Foreshadowing: How Fulcrum II managed to find out about TIE pilot cadets (that likely have little to no connections to people in power) questioning their loyalty in a certainly high security military academy (which even Ahsoka was unable to do) to help them become rebels raises a red flag. This is because he got it from ISB intel, being part of the agency itself.
  • Many people caught on to Kallus's uncertain body language when accompanying other Imperials and that Fulcrum's voice in the call from "The Antilles Extraction" sounded like the voice of Kallus/David Oyelowo, even without the pitched up voice edit.
• Good Costume Switch: The Season 4 trailer shows that after defecting from the Empire, he's switched out his ISB uniform for an Alliance officer's uniform, and has adopted a more casual hairstyle. Also serves as a Mythology Gag for an early design of Han Solo, which is funny considering Zeb is based on an early design for Chewbacca.
• Good Is Not Nice: Even with his Heel–Face Turn, he's still willing to commit questionable acts (though nothing as bad as starving people or assassinations/genocides like before) like framing a fellow officer who has been nothing but amicable to him, because he's not going to let his years of training as a State Sec agent go to waste, even if he knew other skills that didn't mean doing these morally grey actions.
• Heel–Face Turn: Kallus eventually becomes a Fulcrum agent in Season 3 after Zeb "accidentally recruited" him in "The Honorable Ones". However, Kallus had to fight long and hard to earn his redemption and the rebels' respect, and it isn't until the Season 3 finale that he fully defects.
• Heel Realization: At the end of "The Honorable Ones", he's a lot more conscious of the atrocities that have occurred under their watch, and his faith is shattered to the point of becaming The Mole in the Empire before fully defecting later on.
• I Know You Know I Know: At the end of "An Inside Man", knowing Thrawn, he already knows that Kallus is Fulcrum. Kallus knows that Thrawn is aware of him, and the both of them are aware that they're at a standoff now. Although it's later revealed that Thrawn wasn't as sure of Kallus being the traitor as it initially seemed. It certainly didn't become an issue until he made a transmission that caught Thrawn's attention.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Wedge, who is considerably younger than Kallus.
• Irony:
  • Kallus initial position and allegences are in direct opposition to his position as Fulcrum, and he previously worked to and succeeded at capturing Imperials attempting to defect. This is especially highlighted after "The Honorable Ones" and "An Inside Man". Even more so because he was State Sec and Internal Affairs, and now he's Fulcrum.
  • Kallus frames Lyste as Fulcrum, something that Ahsoka might not be too happy about as she was the subject of a frame up during the Clone Wars.
  • One from all the way back to the novelization of "Spark of Rebellion", specifically the scene of his Establishing Character Moment:
  Kallus: The one and only danger to our beloved Empire, my dear captain, lies not from without, but from within.
  • Kallus plotted Tua's death because he could see her loyalty to The Empire wavering. After "The Honorable Ones", Kallus ends up on the other side of this by seeing the atrocities of the Empire, and starts to question the lack of camaraderie and compassion in the Empire.
  Kallus: Can't be too careful with security these days.
  • In "No Sympathy", Kallus arrests two young and disillusioned officers who attempted to defect. In "The Antilles Extraction", he helps two young and disillusioned pilots defect.
  • In the same comic, after defeating the rebels, he also says this:
  Kallus: This is why the rebels won't win. A lack of resolve and an unwillingness to give everything to win. There can never be any sympathy for them.
  • ...which is funny, because at the end of Season 3, now that he's a rebel, he admits to Thrawn that the rebels will always find a way to win because they do the impossible, no matter the odds.
  • In "The Siege of Lothal", one of the cues Vader gives Kallus is that the compassion of the rebels is their weakness. Zeb showing compassion to Kallus eventually leads him to reconsider his allegiances... though it also makes him more of an open target to his Imperial colleagues.
  • In "Legacy", upon Kallus commenting that the rebels' strategy in using multiple hangars to hide their ships is clever, the Seventh Sister remarks that "You respect them, even though they represent your constant failure." By "The Honorable Ones" and Season 3, he's really come to respect the rebels, especially Zeb and the rest of the Ghost crew.
  • In "The Siege of Lothal", when Tua died in an explosion, Kallus' loyalty was further cemented by Vader's effectiveness. In "An Inside Man", when Mr. Sumar dies in an explosion, Kallus' loyalty is further questioned if not already gone because of Thrawn's effectiveness.
  • Tua bartered Imperial intel to the rebels for her life. Trayvis gave false Imperial intel and encouraged ineffective moves by the rebels. Kallus provides as much genuine Imperial intel as he can solely out of morality.
    • Both Tua and Trayvis were used in False Flag Operations (the latter being involved willingly), both partially set up by Kallus. Thrawn wants to do this with Kallus, now that he knows that he's Fulcrum.
    • In addition to the above in regards to False Flag Operations, all three were intended to destroy the rebels to some extent. Trayvis was either going to turn them in to be tried and/or discover information about them from the inside after being rescued but instead ultimately caused a chain of events that led to the ignition of the Rebellion; Tua was the bait in a Xanatos Gambit, where the rebels were either supposed to die while trapped on Lothal taking the bait or the destruction of the rebel fleet (which partly works); Kallus has to use an unsecured transmission line as a last resort to warn the rebels at Chopper Base, which allows Thrawn to confirm that the location of the rebels is at Atollon, causing a deadly campaign in an attempt to destroy them.
  • Kallus was disappointed in one of his best pupils, Swain, for trying to run off with Imperial data when she tried to join the rebels. Yularen is disappointed in one of his best pupils, Kallus, for leaking Imperial data to the rebels and trying to join the rebels.
  • Kallus is saddened when he overhears Zeb reuniting with his surrogate family, but receives no warm welcomes or concern when he returns to the Empire. Later, Kallus ends up getting a glimpse of what it is like to be in that surrogate family when he teams up with Ezra after having his Heel–Face Turn and becoming The Mole, something that may be a taste of what's to come or something he'll never have. It's the former.
  • It is implied that in "The Siege of Lothal", Tua traveled to Old Jho's bar in order to make what was ultimately her final transmission and ask the rebels for help, and it is also implied that her transmission was overheard/discovered by the other Imperials, leading to her death and the rebels suffering from a Curb-Stomp Battle by Vader. In "Zero Hour", Kallus travels to Ezra's long abandoned communications tower to make an emergency transmission, but Thrawn and the other Imperials soon catch up to him (getting him beat up/tortured in the process) and also discover the location of the rebels' base by tracing his signal, allowing them to demolish Chopper Base.
  • If Kallus was still loyal to the Empire by Season 3, he likely would've gotten along with Thrawn much more swimmingly (though he probably still wouldn't approve of the civilian casualties at Batonn), his relationship to Thrawn and Pryce being parallel to his relationship with Vader and Tarkin earlier on in the show.
• I Shall Taunt You: He does this to Governor Pryce while she's in the middle of a Villainous Breakdown in order to facilitate his escape from the Chimaera, by getting her to order him Thrown Out the Airlock so he can get off the bridge, overpower his guards and escape.
• It's All My Fault: He never says it out loud when it happens, but the look on his face when he realizes Thrawn played him into giving away the location of Chopper Base and later when Sato dies in a Heroic Sacrifice to kill Konstantine says all.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Downplayed. He's immensely happy to meet Yularen again, but obviously the two treat it professionally. It doesn't last, considering Kallus is a traitor by then and Yularen is still greatly loyal to the Empire.
• Kubrick Stare: Does one out of Suppressed Rage (which is pretty serious, considering of all the other times he was mad, it was either as a humorous Not So Stoic moment or shades of Villainous Breakdown) during a mission meeting with the other rebels in regards to how they're gonna deal with Saw Gerrera—the man behind his Dark and Troubled Past.
• Legacy Character: By virtue of being the Fulcrum that debuts after Ahsoka, the first Fulcrum seen in canon. Though interestingly, this Fulcrum has never met his predecessor in person.
• Makes Us Even: What he instructs Sabine to tell Zeb after he helps her escape from Skystrike in "The Antilles Extraction", although he only did so because he was unsure if the Rebels would believe he was Fulcrum at that point.
• Mission Control: His new role as part of Massassi group is to collect intel, summon soldiers to the briefing center for Mon Mothma's meetings.
• The Mole: After having his faith in the Empire shaken, Kallus takes up the mantle of Fulcrum, taking advantage of his access to Imperial intel to leak it to the Rebellion.
  • Feed the Mole: What Thrawn suggests doing once he finds out who the 'inside man'/Fulcrum II is. He doesn't start doing feeding Kallus misleading intel until after he gets confirmation that it is Kallus in "Through Imperial Eyes", however.
• Mysterious Employer: Fulcrum's function. Unlike with the previous Fulcrum, however, none of the rebels have met Fulcrum II in person. Or so we all think.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Encouraging Wedge to go on a certain mission ended with him crashing into a volcano and breaking his leg in three places, nearly blowing his career as a Rebel pilot.
  • What makes it even funnier is that Kallus breaking his own leg in a crash was what lead him to defect to the Rebels.
• Noodle Incident: At some point between Season 2 and Season 3 of Rebels, he somehow became a Fulcrum informant and managed to get the necessary set-ups for it, including a frequency directed towards Atollon by using the Bridgers' transmission equipment.
• Not Helping Your Case: When he shows up to help Kanan and Ezra escape the Imperial complex, he tauntingly says "Don't move, rebels", which instantly causes them to believe it is a trap before he can explain that he is Fulcrum and he's helping them.
• Not Quite the Right Thing: He chooses to stay behind when the rebels attempt to rescue him, believing he's perfectly covered his tracks and thus has no need to flee if he doesn't seem to have been suspicious at all. Unfortunately, he forgets to get rid of one detail, which allows Thrawn to deduce that he is indeed Fulcrum and allows him to set his Feed the Mole plan for him into action, especially now that Kallus is in a false sense of security.
• Not So Above It All: In Season 4, he and Rex argue about who is going to command the Ghost while Hera is gone. Kallus claims that he should do it because he's commanded Star Destroyers before and it'd be perfectly ironic to how he used to chase after the Ghost as an Imperial. And then Rex puts him in place, to which Kallus silently and sheepishly gets up from the captain's chair and sits down in the co-pilot's chair.
• Not So Stoic: Usually combined with Oh, Crap!.
  • Especially in "The Honorable Ones", when he chuckles at Zeb's misfortune, and also whenever he screams, to the point his voice cracks. Hear it in all its glory here.
  • At the beginning of "Through Imperial Eyes", when he discovers that for some reason, Ezra got himself arrested, a pissed off Kallus immediately sets up an "interrogation" and tells him off, and he's flabbergasted to hear that the rebels are attempting to rescue him even though at that point, Kallus has no reason to believe his cover and life are in mortal danger. He also tells off Ezra when he tries to take the Kalikori, because considering Thrawn, he'd instantly know something is wrong if something was even a centimetre out of place. He also asks Ezra if he's crazy thinking that sending a transmission through Thrawn's office would be a good idea before invoking Touché since it would look like it was approved by the top dog.
• Odd Friendship: With Wedge. The main reason why it comes off as odd is because Aftermath suggests that Wedge never found out who Fulcrum II's identity was. It's also kind of weird that a young pilot and a disillusioned State Sec agent who's in his late thirties/early forties are friends.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • He keeps his cool and stays reserved in "An Inside Man", but Kallus knows he's in trouble when Thrawn makes it clear he suspects that he may be Fulcrum.
  • In "Warhead", Kallus is visibly shocked when he hears and sees a Star Destroyer crippled by the droid's Self-Destruct Mechanism. He's mostly impressed, but makes it look more like an Oh, Crap! to his colleagues, but his comments to Thrawn indicate that he didn't think the rebels would pull off a stunt like that.
  • A subdued one in the intro of "Through Imperial Eyes", when the masked bounty hunter is revealed to be Ezra. He appears intrigued in the scene, but he's actually pissed.
  • When he realizes in "Zero Hour" that Thrawn is ready to attack the rebels at their home base. Promptly followed by Thrawn confronting him at Ezra's tower in the middle of a transmission, making it crystal clear that he knows and that Kallus is doomed.
• Properly Paranoid:
  • It is implied that he discovered the Skystrike defectors by intercepting Wedge's initial distress transmission. It looks like he deleted the first one and replaced it with his own, which is what the rebels on Atollon hear in the episode. Doing so allowed Pryce and Kallus (who found out about the defectors via ISB intel) to have a (slightly) harder time identifying who the defectors are when they arrive, as the Fulcrum transmission is anonymous whereas the Imperials would recognize Wedge's voice due to how amateurish his transmission likely was. With the revelation that Kallus is the next Fulcrum, it's implied the ISB intercepted Wedge's transmission, leading to Kallus passing on the intel to both Pryce and the rebels.
  • "Through Imperial Eyes": When the rebels send Ezra to retrieve him from the Empire without informing the agent first, he gets pissed, due to it putting both his cover (which had not been revealed to the Imperials yet with only Thrawn only suspecting Fulcrum's identity) and the rebels in grave danger. At the end of the episode, it turns out that he was right, because Thrawn deduces that Ezra was aboard the Chimaera and Kallus was aware of it yet did nothing, confirming that Kallus is Fulcrum so he can finally put his Feed the Mole plan into action.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Becomes one in Season 3 of Rebels, more or less, in spite of being a rebel spy in the Imperial ranks. However, he can still commit more questionable acts if he needs to in order to maintain his cover.
• Redemption Demotion: Downplayed. During his Heel–Face Turn, he makes careless mistakes that he otherwise wouldn't have due to the immense stress he's under. For example, when Thrawn unexpectedly called him to the Chimaera, he didn't cover his tracks properly and forgot to discard Ezra's bounty hunter helmet.
• Redemption Earns Life: By the end of Rebels, he is the only Imperial to have undergone a Heel–Face Turn, and the only recurring villain to unambiguously survive the entire series.
• The Reveal: In "An Inside Man", Kallus is forced to reveal his identity as Fulcrum to Ezra and Kanan in order to convince them that he can help them escape from the lockdown.
• Retired Badass: After the Galactic Civil War, he retired from service to Lira-San.
• Sadistic Choice: He frames Lyste as being Fulcrum, despite the amicable relationship between the two. While it wasn't initially part of the plan and was just to keep Lyste off of him while he escapes with Ezra and company, he decides last second that he'll stay instead, which brings it up to framing Lyste. The look on Kallus' face as Lyste is being dragged away heavily suggests that it really wasn't something he wanted to do.
• Seeking Sanctuary: In this case it's deliciously ironic, because he had already prevented other Imperial turncoats, including Tua and Swain, from successfully reaching the Rebellion.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Is absent from the first Season 3 trailer. Physically, at least - his distorted Fulcrum transmission is heard.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Ezra when the rebels attempt to rescue Kallus without informing him prior. It actually works out relatively fine.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After the events of "The Honorable Ones", he has fewer to no psychotic smirks/slasher smiles and Smug Snake moments, and he's noticeably a little more quiet and humble. This also led to him becoming a Fulcrum informant, and later outright defects to the rebellion.
• Trust Password: "By the light of Lothal's moons," in the event Fulcrum II has to reveal their identity to a rebel, in this case Ezra, Kanan, and Chopper.
• Turn the Other Cheek: After Konstantine shows no concern about his well-being at the end of Season 2, Kallus stops interacting with him as much and shows more annoyance towards him in Season 3. But at the end of the season, while Kallus is certainly remorseful about having been part of the reason why rebels are dying at the Battle of Atollon, he is especially horrified when someone he did know personally, Konstantine, is killed in a blazing inferno right in front of him.
• Walking Spoiler: It's hard to talk about him after Season 2 without bringing up that he's Fulcrum II and has had a Heel–Face Turn or vice versa.
• When He Smiles: Whenever it isn't malicious, that is. He chuckles when one of Zeb's attempts to climb the cave ends with the Lasat falling right back to the ground, and his face lights up when he meets Yularen again. The warmest one is in "Zero Hour", when he thanks Kanan and the Ghost crew for taking him in despite their pasts, and Kanan thanks him for everything.
• Who Watches the Watchmen?: As an officer of the ISB, Kallus monitors the loyalty of everyone within the Empire, and no traitor makes it past him. Later on, it occurred to almost no one that Kallus himself would become a rebel agent, and it's incredible that he was able to deceive even his own boss and last long under Thrawn.

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"I'll take that as a compliment."