Tales of the Empire explores the important moments in the lives of Morgan Elsbeth and Barriss Offee in a six-episode mini-series!
Star Wars animated shows have become key when it comes to understanding certain characters or connecting the dots in the bigger picture.
The Clone Wars was Dave Filoni’s creation, its success allowed him to continue creating storylines that have led to The Mandalorian and the Ahsoka series.
The Clone Wars is a very important part of Star Wars for many of us, if you haven’t watched it, I recommend you to do so. I’ll help you understand better what happens in this series.
Before getting started, I want to mention the fantastic cast of the show:
- Diana Lee Inosanto as Morgan Elsbeth
- Meredith Salenger as Barriss Offee
- Rya Kihlstedt as Lyn Rakish (Fourth Sister)
- Shelby Young as Nadura
- Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan Kryze
- Mathew Wood as General Grievous
- Xander Berkeley as Gilad Pellaeon
- Dee Bradley Baker as Clone Trooper
- Warwick Davis as Rukh
- Jason Isaacs as the Grand Inquisitor
Most of these actors have been involved in shows like Clone Wars, Rebels, The Mandalorian, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. It was so good to hear them again after so many years.
The article contains spoilers from this point going forward.
Morgan Elsbeth: From Dathomir to Peridea
The Path of Fear showed us another perspective of the Nightsisters’ extermination. After Mother Talzin’s plan to assassinate Dooku failed, he retaliated by sending General Grievous and his droid army.
We knew that Merrin from Star Wars Jedi Survivor and Asajj Ventress survived the massacre, but the Ahsoka series revealed that Morgan Elsbeth was the third survivor.
All three of them suffered deeply but only Morgan refused to abandon the idea of revenge over anything else. From that moment, fear and anger would be Morgan’s guides.
There’s no question that what happened at Dathomir transformed Morgan and the way she views life. Ironically, this trauma also turned her into the same type of person who would wipe out an entire population just for her benefit.
Morgan Elsbeth’s obsession would take her to the doorsteps of the Galactic Empire, the new rulers of the galaxy and home to the most powerful people.
Tales of the Empire shows that Morgan Elsbeth came out with the design of the TIE Defenders, a very powerful ship that Thrawn would attempt to manufacture in Star Wars Rebels.
It might have started as a relationship where both would benefit but, as we saw in the Ahsoka series, she would later become a very loyal follower and the only reason why Thrawn was able to return from Peridea.
The third episode didn’t do much for me, it showed the version of a character that we already knew from The Mandalorian. Maybe showing the moment where she learns about Thrawn’s defeat at the Battle of Lothal would have been a lot more dramatic and valuable, but that’s just my own opinion.
How Morgan met Thrawn
It doesn’t matter if it’s Star Wars Rebels, Ahsoka, or Tales of the Empire, Thrawn’s presence takes every scene to the next level. One of the things I really like about him is how careful he is when it comes to choosing his potential allies.
Being smart is not enough, the individual should have other skills that make him/her stand out from the rest. Like Palpatine, he likes to put people to the test, and what better way to do so than sending Rukh, his favorite assassin to try Morgan’s abilities?
While I understand that Morgan wants revenge, it’s never stated against whom. General Grievous, Dooku, and the CIS were defeated before the rise of the Galactic Empire. Everyone responsible for the slaughter of the Nightsisters is long gone.
Merrin used to believe that the Jedi were responsible for killing her sisters, but that was due to ignorance. There’s no way for Morgan actually to think the same, and even if it is the case, there are little to no Jedi left.
Maybe if Morgan said something like “I want power to prevent what happened to my clan from repeating” I would understand it but she’s actually using the word revenge.
By definition, revenge is to hurt or harm someone in retaliation for something they did. Who is the target of said revenge? I just don’t get it.
This is something that really bothers me about Morgan Elsbeth as a character. She is interesting and fun to watch but I think this was a very good opportunity to properly explain how, why, and against whom she wanted revenge, but it failed to do so.
If you are a fan of the MMO SWTOR, you can use our guide to learn how to re-create Morgan Elsbeth and roleplay as her in SWTOR.
The New Republic’s Incompetence
The Mandalorian shows how the Imperial remnants spread across the galaxy and managed to gather a considerable amount of power without the New Republic even being aware of their activities.
How they managed to do such a thing is not shown explicitly but by watching how the New Republic is filled with bureaucrats and unexperienced people it’s not too hard to figure out.
Nadura was a former “worker” in Morgan’s factories but she left and became an official ambassador of the New Republic.
After the Galactic Empire was defeated she returned to Corvus and attempted to remove Morgan in the dumbest way possible.
I can’t remember the last time that asking nicely someone to surrender their power actually worked especially when it’s someone who only sees other people as expendable resources.
One could argue that since the New Republic wants to provide a non-violent resolution but if you’re going to do it the least thing you could do is have the proper backup.
Sending a young and inexperienced ambassador with six guards to deal with a cruel Magistrate who’s being guarded by HK Assassin Droids is plain stupidity.
If this incident repeated itself multiple times I can see why Moff Gideon and the other members of the Shadow Council were able to evade the New Republic so easily.
Joining the Inquisitorius
For many years we’ve speculated about Barriss Offee’s fate. She almost got away with bombing the Jedi Temple and incriminating Ahsoka but Anakin proved his apprentice’s innocence and Barriss was taken into custody.
Not much later after that, Order 66 happened and the destiny of Barriss remained a mystery. Until now.
She didn’t join the Inquisitors with much joy, it was that or dying so you can understand why she went along with it. It was so cool to see the final test to officially become an Inquisitor.
It is very similar to what the Sith from the Old Republic era would do to decide who would become a Sith Acolyte.
The book Rise of the Red Blade goes into more detail about the process of becoming an Inquisitor but watching it in a series was super fun even if it only lasted for a few minutes.
Barriss might have betrayed the Jedi, but she didn’t fully embrace the dark side of the Force. She wasn’t excited about the idea of fighting Dante, it wasn’t until his former colleague attempted to kill her that Barriss temporarily reached the darkness inside her.
Since these events happened right after the fall of the Galactic Republic, it looks like Barriss, the fourth sister, Marrok, and the unknown Inquisitor who also appeared in Tales of the Jedi were part of the first batch of Inquisitors.
I would have liked to see a little more about the others but at least we got to see Darth Vader for a brief moment.
Barriss Offee’s Redemption
It was very surprising that despite being an Inquisitor, Bariss continuously showed compassion for others. Not only because it contradicts what being an Inquisitor means, but also because she was allowed to behave that way.
I assume it was because the Fourth Sister clearly cared about Barriss, but I can’t imagine the Grand Inquisitor tolerating those qualities. Without a doubt, she would have been executed or tortured.
It takes a couple of demonstrations of plain cruelty from the Fourth Sister for Barriss to realize that after everything that happened, there’s still a Jedi inside her.
As interesting as it might be, it’s always sad to see a Jedi fall to the dark side. Watching Barriss Offee rebel against the Fourth Sister was surprising but exciting at the same time.
The last episode is, in my opinion, the most important one of the series. Barriss is hiding in an isolated location with the only purpose of helping people in need, the parents who fled from the Empire call her The Healer.
When Barriss reveals her face it gives the impression that it’s of old age but this theory is scraped immediately after the Fourth Sister re-appears showing no signs of aging. Why does Barriss look so old then?
I believe that the answer lies in her new unofficial title. The reason why she’s called a healer and why she looks so old is because Barriss Offee has been using Force Healing.
This technique allows the user to heal others in exchange for their own vital energy. Barriss used this ability to help many Jedi recover their strength after the Battle of Geonosis.
Using such power indiscriminately would shorten the life of the user and that’s exactly what happened here.
After living the horrors of the Clone Wars and serving the Empire, Barriss has forsaken any desire to fight. She isn’t willing to fight her former friend, even if this means losing her own life.
And that’s exactly what ends up happening, Barriss Offee gets stabbed by the Fourth Sister, and this will end her life but in exchange, Lyn is able to break free.
I really enjoyed how Barriss Offee became a healer both literally and metaphorically. She used her own energy to heal others’ lives and in the end, she also surrendered her life so her friend would recover hers.
Final Thoughts
I think that choosing Morgan Elsbeth for Tales of the Empire was a poor choice. I like the character but Thrawn or Baylan Skoll are candidates that would benefit a lot from this small series.
There are other inconsistencies that bother the obsessive side of me. The most notable one is that the series justifies that Morgan’s skin looks “normal” because she lost the powers of the Nightsisters. The fact that this applies to Morgan but not to Merrin doesn’t make sense to me.
The origin of the TIE Defenders is different in the Thrawn Trilogy written by Timothy Zahn but since these novels are more than thirty years old they are obviously not part of the current canon so it’s not that big of a deal.
I would have loved to see how Morgan ended up hiring Baylan, Shin, and Marrok to work for her. Maybe this information will be revealed later but I think this was a good opportunity to do so.
On the other hand, Barriss Offee’s arc was satisfying. I loved watching the Grand Inquisitor and Darth Vader being animated in Clone Wars style.
The story was a lot more compelling and while more questions emerged, we were finally able to close the chapter of Barriss Offee.
Who would you want to see featured in a “Tales of” series? I’d like to know more about the Grand Inquisitor, Asajj Ventress, and Thrawn. Hopefully, it won’t take too long before Lucasfilm announces that they’re working on another mini-series of this kind.
