I can’t get enough Star Wars animation. The recent release of Star Wars: Tales of the Empire confirms that there are still so many great stories to tell.
Following a similar model to Tales of the Jedi, we follow two characters for additional information about their life story. One is a prequel while the other is a sequel.
Also like Jedi, I liked one set of stories a lot more than the other.
The first three episodes were about Morgan Elsbeth. The best of these was the first episode where we saw even more of General Grievous and the battle droids destruction of the Nightsister witches that we previously saw in Clone Wars. The episode was violent and brutal, but it also exposed us to the Mountain Clan of witches on Dathomir who look like they might use a light side based version of magick.
The other two shorts reveal that Elsbeth was the one who came up with the TIE Defender beginning Thrawn’s interest in here and her ruthless leadership is Corvus leaving the planet semi-devastated when Ahsoka and Din Djarin visit in season two of The Mandalorian.
Similar to the Ahsoka stories in Jedi, I just felt like this was by far the weaker set of episodes. I think Morgan Elsbeth is an interesting character, but these episodes really did nothing for me beyond the first.
The Barriss Offee episodes, however, were exactly what I wanted from this show.
The last time that we see Barriss in Clone Wars, she has betrayed her Jedi brethren and is locked away in prison. The first episode picks up during Order 66 with Lyn the Fourth Sister, who Barriss knows from being a Jedi, offering her the opportunity to become an Inquisitor which she kinda reluctantly takes.
Side note: how do these Inquisitor naming rights go? We know that Reva and Trilla had to be tortured into becoming Inquisitors, yet they are the First and Second Sisters. How’d Lyn seemingly join from the jump and get saddled with number four? It’s a hard life out there.
The second short featured probably the most brutal scene in Star Wars animation as the Fourth Sister slaughters an entire village full of people for not revealing a hidden Jedi’s location. I was kind of stunned when it happened. It was ruthless.
Barriss also thought it was brutal and ruthless, and this was the turning point for her. I really enjoy Barriss’s redemption arc in these episodes, and the ending leaves us with more “What happened to Barriss?” questions, and I’m here for it.
Overall, the project is great. After Jedi and now Empire, I really hope that the next one that we get is Tales of the Underworld.
