Tales of the Empire Thoughts
Tales of the Empire shows both the potential and the limits of storytelling for Lucasfilm animation.
When Tales of the Jedi season two was revealed (in a clever trick of the trailer) to be Tales of the Empire, following Morgan Elsbeth and Barriss Offee, respectively, how niche Star Wars animation had become more evident.
Tales of the Jedi showed snapshots of different eras of Ahsoka Tano and Count Dooku. Ahsoka’s was focused on her path towards the Rebel cells, while Dooku’s honed in on his disillusionment and ultimately betraying the Jedi. The two characters got three 15-minute episodes that merely explained the motivating factors of their journeys rather than character studies.
Tales of the Empire does better at painting a complete character portrait of two vastly different women of the galaxy. But, like Tales of the Jedi, interest might only take you as far as your feelings for Morgan Elsbeth or Barriss Offee.
Morgan Elsbeth’s Story
Morgan Elsbeth’s journey to the dark side begins during the Battle of Dathomir, an event shown in The Clone Wars and referenced in many mediums, including Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Grievous kills Elsbeth’s mother, but the Mountain clan of Dathomir (another group of witches led by a Matron) rescues Elsbeth.
Despite a second chance at life, Elsbeth wants to fight back against the Separatists, eventually leading to the death of some of the Mountain clan children, including the Matron’s daughter.
At some point, Morgan gets appointed Magistrate of Corvus, promising to bring prosperity to the townspeople. This promise eventually brings her to the Empire and Thrawn, who sees potential in her TIE Defender designs (a surprising reveal) and gives her access to Imperial resources, beginning the mining of Corvus.
Years later, a New Republic delegation arrives on Corvus and tells the dejected townspeople that the Empire has fallen. Despite the leader of the delegation being from Corvus, they believe Morgan will surrender or that they will be able to apprehend her. Things do not end well for them, and Morgan is back where she started as a kid, burning the world around her.
Morgan Elsbeth was never a character who worked outside the villain of the week in The Mandalorian’s second season. The decision to use her as a gateway to the live-action Nightsister of Dathomir made things more confusing. So Lucasfilm/ Filoni introduced people to another survivor of the Massacre of the Nightsisters (a warm-up to Order 66 in which Count Dooku sent General Grievous and his droid army to wipe out the Nightsister clan on Dathomir).
I understand the intention of explaining her lack of connection to the people on Corvus or her ties to Thrawn. Morgan sells the townspeople lies based on her desires, much like she did the Mountain clan children.
Young Morgan wanted to look for weapons as a kid because she wanted to fight and never saw the opportunity to build a new community/family with the Mountain clan. She refuses to surrender to the New Republic officials, having long since abandoned the people of Corvus because she has a vision (assuming it is to find Thrawn/additional Nightsisters). All this is for the Peridean Nightsisters to abandon her to escape their planet in Ahsoka.
Morgan made a slight impression in The Mandalorian but was a poorly executed character in Ahsoka, so the decision to devote one of the two arcs of Tales of The Empire could only be to serve a larger story rather than tell an engaging individual tale.
However, none of this makes Morgan’s story anything other than snapshots of a character who is the personification of “building the plane while flying it.”
Morgan Elsbeth was always just a catalyst to get Thrawn back on the board for what is likely to be the main villain of Dave Filoni’s film, which will be released theatrically. Therefore, a better use of these three episodes would have been focusing on Thrawn’s origin within the Empire and taking bits from Thrawn by Timothy Zahn.
Making Thrawn the subject instead of Morgan would accomplish two key things: It would add context for Ahsoka viewers who did not read the Thrawn novel on why he is a formidable villain. It would also raise the rewatchability factor before and during Ahsoka season 2 and the release of the theatrical film. Most importantly, showing the beginnings of a villain whose story is still developing and whose motivations are more compelling will always be preferred to backsplaining a character’s motivations that should have been clear long before Tales of the Empire.
The Nightsisters have appeared increasingly in Star Wars canon since The Clone Wars. Lucasfilm seems intent on expanding this lore by adding the Mountain clan (who were the Singing Mountain clan in the Legends novel The Courtship of Princess Leia). But with Merrin and Asajj Ventress (the latter rumored to be getting a series) still in the mix, Lucasfilm animation should have chosen a different path for these first three episodes.
Barriss Offee’s Story
It was quite something to go from the weakest of the four tales thus far (including Ahsoka and Dooku’s story) to the strongest, but “Devoted” makes an immediate impression with the sounds of Order 66.
The exploration of Order 66’s aftermath continues. However, this canon event has yet to wear out its welcome because it is shown through different characters (not always Jedi) in other parts of the galaxy.
Barriss is jolted awake from sensing Order 66. She sees the Jedi Temple on fire through a single window in her cell and asks the guards what is happening. The Shock Trooper, apparently aware of the discourse from The Clone Wars on whether Ahsoka was a Jedi during Order 66, responds that Barriss is lucky she is no longer a Jedi. So the Clones whose chip activated CAN differentiate between former Jedi and current Jedi. Check.
Sometime later, the Fourth Sister (Lyn) enters Barriss’s cell and gives her a choice: Join this new Empire or die a Jedi. It’s not much of a choice for Barriss, who has yet to understand the situation.
Barriss quickly learns that whatever this new Inquisitorius is, they have a deep hatred for the Jedi and fight out of anger. And so she tries to fight out of anger. After her trial, in which Barriss fights to the death with a former fellow Padawan and wins, she is inducted into the Inquisitorius, which appears to have five members (including the Grand Inquisitorius). Some inconsistency questions arise if you read Rise of the Red Blade, which implies that many more Inquisitors are being trained/groomed during this time.
Sometime later, the Fourth Sister and Barriss (who does not have a number) arrive on a remote planet to search for a Jedi survivor. When a villager says there is no Jedi, but a little boy tells Barriss there is one in the mountains (under the impression it is the right thing), the Fourth Sister kills the villagers for lying to her.
The two find the unnamed Jedi, and while fighting them, Barriss convinces the Jedi to surrender before the Fourth Sister stabs them. Not willing to let the Jedi die, Barriss Force-pushes the Fourth Sister off the mountain.
Years pass, and Barriss is a healing working, assumingely, with The Path network for Force-sensitives when she comes across the Fourth Sister (whom Barriss repeatedly calls Lyn). Barriss is a master of her abilities and warns Lyn not to venture into a cave to pursue the child. Lyn does not listen and gets lost, getting angrier that she cannot find her way out. She accidentally stabs Barriss with her saber when she tries to help.
Lyn mourns that there is no way out (clearly referring to the Inquisitorius), but Barriss ensures Lyn that she can show her. Lyn carries her former sister out of the cave.
These three episodes do so much more in the same amount of time, so kudos to writers Nicolas Anastassioufor (“Devoted”) and Matt Michnovetz (“Realization” and “The Way Out”) for making the most of limited time and reiterating that you do not need an hour (or even 30 minutes). It is all about pacing and balancing the showing and telling.
Despite Lyn’s ambivalence and Imperial talking points, Barriss still challenges her. By the time the two reunite, when Lyn comes for the Force-sensitive child, Barriss knows who she is, and the Fourth Sister is no match. Strangely, Lyn seems more interested in finding the child than fighting Barriss. Perhaps years of hearing herself repeat Imperial propaganda has deflated Lyn’s spirit.
Lyn is deeply affected by Barriss’s words that she already “knows the way out” from the Empire, signified by Lyn leaving her red blade behind. She had little to do in Obi-Wan Kenobi, so the potential for her to appear in other Star Wars series is not only likely but welcomed.
As for Barriss, her fate is unclear, though many assume that she is still alive (many Force-users have survived a stab to the abdomen). Like Morgan’s story, Barriss also has a full-circle moment: Just like Barriss did not leave the Jedi in “Realization” to die, Lyn does not leave Barriss to die in the cave. There are also hints at a rumored The Path series with the “traveler” and Barriss’s “old friend” (Quinlan and Ahsoka are candidates for these monikers).
Lucasfilm has yet to confirm whether it has always had the idea to expand on the Fourth Sister since she was introduced in Obi-Wan Kenobi (though likely, as animation still needs a lot of lead time), but it is less about filling in gaps and more about opening possibilities for future stories.
The Through-line: A Way In and A Way Out
In “The Path of Fear,” the Mountain clan Matron offers Morgan a way out of her anger only until she gets her daughter killed. Then, she abandons Morgan, telling her that her path is set on fire. While this is a dramatic way to end the first episode, it highlights the difference between the Matron’s handling of conflict versus Barriss’s way.
Morgan and Barriss also have a moment in their second episode where they are conversing with a potential friend or possible foe after a brutal fight scene: Morgan with Thrawn and Barriss with the Fourth Sister. Thrawn sells Morgan on his vision for the Empire, eradicating the “sickness” of the Rebellion and how she could fit into that vision. The Fourth Sister tries to convince Barriss that leaving a Jedi behind to die does not matter because the Jedi should “be eradicated wherever they are found.”
Both Thrawn and the Fourth Sister use the word “eradicate,” which speaks to how propaganda moves through all areas of the Empire.
Neither Morgan nor Barriss genuinely believe in the Empire. Morgan says that she wants revenge for the death of her people and a way to channel that anger for power. That is her way in. Barriss responds that the Fourth Sister still has “one Jedi left to deal with,” reclaiming the word that has become so dangerous during the Reign of the Empire. That is her way out. These parallels are one of the cleverer ties between the two journeys and are a significant turning point in these women’s lives.
The title Tales of the Empire already limits stories to the 24 years of Imperial rule. And yet, even this season chose two characters whose stories started during The Clone Wars. Are we ready to move on yet?
This pocket of Star Wars created by Dave Filoni and now bringing in new talent does have winners but struggles with scale for a franchise that should be bigger. The result is a world within Star Wars that feels small. Tales of the Jedi could have covered anything and anyone in the Jedi Order but chose two characters from Dave Filoni’s The Clone Wars.
The title Tales of the Empire already limits stories to the 24 years of Imperial rule. And yet, even this season chose two characters whose stories started during The Clone Wars. Are we ready to move on yet?
I wish animation could be enough for people and that characters could have complete arcs within its medium because it has served characters like Ahsoka, Thrawn, and now Morgan Elsbeth far better than live-action.
Then perhaps this Tales of series could take a few more changes and free up our exploration of the Star Wars timeline. Lucasfilm has a talented team of writers and animators. They just need the nerve.
Originally published at http://creditsandcanon.com on May 11, 2024.
