Happy May the 4th everyone! Star Wars Day is here again and we’ve been treated to the second season of the ‘Tales’ anthology series that started with 2022’s Tales of the Jedi. Tales of the Empire is split between Morgan Elsbeth (from The Mandalorian and Ahsoka) and Barriss Offee (from Attack of the Clones and The Clone Wars).
These two powerful arcs apply empathise to the backstories of these two female villains that we’ve had before. The Barriss story was incredibly compelling as fans have waited since The Clone Wars’ 2012 cancellation to witness what happened to her.
Both storylines feature characters that fans know from all over the timeline, including Darth Vader, The Grand Inquisitor, the Fourth Sister, the Inquisitor that Ahsoka kills in Tales of the Jedi, Marrok (from Ahsoka), General Grievous and Wing (from The Mandalorian).
Tales Of The Empire: Filling In Backstories And Futures
Tales of the Empire gives stepping stones to continue Morgan and Barriss’ stories. Morgan’s story ends in Ahsoka. Yet, Barriss’s fate is up in the air as she gets stabbed by the Fourth Sister by accident.
Barriss’ fate is similar to Asajj Ventress’s when she appeared in The Bad Batch. Despite having died in the novel Dark Disciple, she somehow survived and showed up to assist Omega, much to the stress of Hunter and Crosshair who have to look up who they’re facing.
In the end, Barriss is redeemed, but whether there is more to her story, is another question altogether.
Moving onto Morgan and her Tales of the Empire arc is the opposite of Offee’s. Elsbeth starts out facing General Grievous when he exterminates the Nightsisters, an event Merrin mentions in the video game Jedi: Fallen Order that we get to see in Tales of the Empire.
Morgan’s arc is her becoming the tyrant we meet in The Mandalorian and continues during Ahsoka.
Meanwhile, Barriss’ arc sees her realise she was right about the Jedi and their flaws. But they didn’t go around massacring millions of people for no reason. She realises that the Empire believes killing, enslaving and terrorising people is the way to gain respect. In reality, the Empire is no different to the Separatists and that Imperial regime is worse on a grander scale.
The animation on the series is incredible and shows how far it has come since the early episodes of The Clone Wars. The best animation was on Grievious who looks very much like the CGI version used in Revenge of the Sith.
