Review: ‘Tales of the Empire’ Is a Fascinating Collection of Dark Side Stories
Tales of the Empire is an excellent mirror of its anthological predecessor Tales of the Jedi. Though it isn’t really about “the Empire” as such — Imperials don’t even exist in the first episode — its stories revolve around two characters who end up serving the Empire at some point in their lives.
Just like Tales of the Jedi, some episodes of Tales of the Empire are more interesting and engaging than others, but all of them are fun to watch in their own way and each episode is gorgeously rendered and animated. While Jedi presented those stories in chronological order that meant jumping from character’s POV episode to another, Empire splits its season into two clear halves; the first three episodes focus on Morgan Elsbeth, while the last three focus on Barriss Offee.
While I wouldn’t say Morgan’s episodes bring new information that show the character in a new light, her stories do help flesh out her history. This means that by the time her death finally comes in Ahsoka, she feels like a deeper character at the end of her arc, rather than just a one-note side-villain wrapping up a sub-plot. Tales of the Empire shows Morgan’s descent into darkness. Her episodes show what happens when someone lets fear and grief take hold of their life, and how that darkness can ruin their lives and those of everyone around them.
Barriss’ episodes are the inverse of that. Her descent into darkness is not quite as deep as we might have assumed after last appearance in The Clone Wars, and you actively root for her to break free of the Empire and find herself again. Despite her past crimes, you realize that she isn’t fully gone yet. These episodes are the highlight of the series, closing the book on a character we’d been speculating about for 11 years.
I enjoy these animated shorts and I hope Dave Filoni continues to make them. They almost always bring fresh insight to characters, whether we know little of them or think we know everything about them already. This is certainly the case for Tales of the Empire.
Spoilers ahead…
We kick things off with “Path of Fear”, which shows the Battle of Dathomir from Morgan Elsbeth’s perspective. This is undoubtedly the most explosive episode of the series and perhaps even the most entertaining when it comes to pure action. Morgan watches her mother die at the hands of General Grievous — it’s always great to see him pop up in a story from time to time — and she tries to honor her mother’s last words to run and hide from the droid army, eventually falling unconscious.
The battle looks gorgeous, with Dathomir’s red hue and fiery forests looking like some kind of hellscape. But we soon find out this isn’t all Dathomir has to offer, as Morgan wakes up to discover she’s been rescued by the Mountain Clan, who seem to use the light side of the Force. Up in the mountains, there’s no hint of Dathomir’s crimson skies and dead forests. It looks like a different world entirely.
It’s here that Morgan is presented with a choice: she can either follow the Mountain Clan’s serene and peaceful lifestyle or embrace her fear and continue down a dark path fuelled by her grief over her mother’s death. She decides to turn her fear into a strength, persuading some of the Mountain Clan’s younger members to accompany her to a Nightsisters weapons cache, using fear to convince them that they need to arm themselves to better defend their clan.
Of course, they are spotted entering the cache by the droids and are ambushed when they leave. The Mountain Clan takes heavy losses and are saved when the clan’s matriarch destroys all the droids in a huge blast of light, proving that the light side of the Force would have kept them safe all along. Unfortunately, Morgan has embarked on a journey from which she’ll never turn back.
Morgan’s second episode shows us early on in her tenure as Magistrate of Corvus. While this one is not as flashy as “Path of Fear”, it does show us how Morgan first came into contact with Thrawn. We learn that she actually came up with the designs for the TIE Defender, Thrawn’s pet project in Star Wars Rebels, and it’s these designs that draw Thrawn’s attention.
When she returns to Corvus, the people are furious to learn that she failed to bring them the Empire’s contract. They claim they’d already sacrificed plenty for her under the promise that she would bring fortune and prosperity to their town, and it turns out they should be careful what they wish for.
It’s always great seeing Thrawn again — and Rukh! — especially in animation, and their conversation is the highlight of the episode. Thrawn agrees to give Morgan all the resources at his disposal and production begins on the TIE Defenders, but Morgan overworks the townsfolk and pays them very little. Things get worse and worse and morale has been ground into dust by the time of Morgan’s final episode.
Morgan’s third story is probably the least interesting as it doesn’t tell us anything new about her, but it works to show us the completion of her arc. Those who once followed her, seduced by her false promises out of fear, have been dragged down with her. In symbolism of her completed transformation, she gives the order to torch Corvus’ forests and heap more misery on her subjects’ lives. There can be no redemption arc for Morgan, so instead this is a tale of what happens when someone gives into fear, anger and hate.
We pick up with Barriss during Order 66, as she watches the Jedi Temple burn from her prison cell. She is worried, and we can see that though she wanted to teach the Jedi a lesson during the Clone Wars, she doesn’t want the order destroyed. Days later, she is given an “opportunity” by Lyn, the Fourth Sister who made her debut in Obi-Wan Kenobi. Barriss is brought to Fortress Inquisitorius on Nur, which is still under construction at this point.
She is tested by the Grand Inquisitor himself, who commands her to try and land a blow on him. She doesn’t, but he sees promise, likely sensing the darkness inside her. Eventually, she becomes an inquisitor after Force-choking a former Jedi padawan she once knew from her time at the order.
Though she opens herself up to the dark side, she never fully gives herself over to it. I’m surprised that the Inquisitors still made her one of their sisters — notably, her eyes remain blue throughout the series even though we can see that Lyn’s eyes have turned red and yellow — but perhaps they were convinced by her previous act of terrorism on the Jedi Order during the war.
Her second episode sees her out on a mission with Lyn as they track down a Jedi on a remote planet. While Lyn uses fear and terror to try and convince the locals to give up the Jedi, Barriss uses empathy and compassion to convince the young child to reveal their location. It’s clear that Lyn disapproves of her tactics and you wonder how on earth Barriss got this far with the Inquisitors.
They eventually find the Jedi and after a beautifully lit and atmospheric lightsaber fight, Barriss nearly convinces the Jedi to surrender before Lyn strikes them down the spine. This proves to be Barriss’ breaking point and she realizes that the Inquisitors are monsters. She will not serve them anymore and Force pushes Lyn off a cliff. I didn’t necessarily expect a redemption arc for Barriss — I thought we’d be seeing another tragedy — so so the drama and tension plays out wonderfully.
Her final episode jumps ahead a few years, but still before the events of A New Hope. We discover that Barriss is living in isolation on a frozen planet somewhere, acting as a healer for the locals with two faithful attendants. A family comes to her, wanting to know why the Empire is after their child. Barriss tells a tale of the Jedi, and how they would recruit special children like him. She looks back on the order fondly, a far cry from when we last saw her in The Clone Wars.
Sadly, we see that Lyn is on the child’s tail and is surprised to find Barriss there. She reveals that she’s been searching for her for years and had given up on ever finding her. She is forced to ignore to try and retrieve the child. Despite Barriss’ warnings, she gets lost inside the icy labrynth. I don’t know if I was quite sold by her experience inside the maze — I would have liked more Force trickery and shenanigans to really tap into Lyn’s fear — but her frustration gets the better of her and she’s incredibly on edge.
Realizing that she’s lost the child, she tries to head back to Barriss so she can kill her. Barriss never acts in anger, imploring her to turn away from the Inquisitors and the dark side, and she comes close to breaking through. Lyn lashes out in frustration, only to accidentally stab Barriss in the chest. In that moment, Lyn seems utterly horrified and sorry for killing Barriss and it seems the former Jedi might have succeeded in turning the Fourth Sister back to the light.
Lyn carries Barriss’ body out of the maze and it’s unclear what fate has in store for them. It seems likely that Barriss died, turning an Inquisitor back to the light in a beautiful final act. But the abrupt nature of the ending does leave the door slightly open for Barriss to recover and come back in a future story. There will also be questions about what happens to Lyn, and if she really did leave the Empire and return to the light. Hopefully Filoni can answer that, whether in an interview or a future story.
It was a great idea putting Barriss’ story last. While Morgan’s episodes show what happens when someone surrenders to their anger and embraces the dark side, Barriss’ episodes end on a note of hope, showing us that it is always possible to return to the light. At its core, this is what Star Wars is about.
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.
