"Long live the Empire."
Hello everyone!
I'm talking, of course, about the GALACTIC Empire, ruled by none other than Darth Sidious.
Back in 2022, Disney graced us with the animated Tales of the Jedi, and everyone around the world rejoiced.
Then they dropped the absolutely spectacular news that in 2024, we'd be seeing the OTHER side of the coin.
Aka, the Dark Side.
As if anyone would need any MORE invitation to watch this May 4th; hide your Force sensitivity, and let's have a look at Tales of the Empire.
Links to previous related posts can be found at the bottom of the page, as per usual.
Just as in Tales of the Jedi, Tales of the Empire follows the story of two individuals who find themselves trying to survive this harsh new world after the fall of the Old Republic, in this case Morgan Elsbeth and former Jedi Barriss Offee.
We all know Morgan from the live-action adaptations of The Mandalorian and Ahsoka, but Barriss is an even older name that stirs many memories, as she was a Padawan learner during the Prequel era whom we got to meet more personally during The Clone Wars - most notably, she and Ahsoka Tano handled quite a few feats together and became fast friends.
This is important for later, but first we have to take a look at Morgan's story arc.
It begins in The Path of Fear, during which the lung-hacking General Grievous attacks the planet of Dathomir to turn it into the wasteland everyone knows and remembers from latter media. Morgan is the only one (allegedly) to survive, taken in by the Mountain Clan, where she plots revenge, despite the fact that the Mother tells her the clan's way of life is different.
This doesn't stop Morgan from sharing her beliefs with other youths, and of course it ends badly when they get their asses handed to them by a bunch of droids, saved only by the Mother who takes her unfortunately-fallen daughter with her to bury her.
She also gives Morgan a little lesson: just because someone doesn't wish to fight, doesn't mean they're incapable.
We time-skip forward to The Path of Anger, where Morgan's trying to get an in with the Empire, but the Empire isn't at all interested in her cost-ineffective plans, and rather in the planetary system she's based off of.
She then nearly gets assassinated before it turns out to be a test for her to meet none other than Admiral Thrawn (at this point he doesn't yet have the 'grand' in his title), who offers her part of his resources if she'll work for him, sparking the beautifully dangerous allegiance which eventually drags him back to the galaxy far, far away.
I swear the guy could see the future.
Anyway, in The Path of Hate, the New Republic finally lands on Corvus, where Morgan's basically established herself as dictator, and things do NOT go well when the entire delegation's massacred, and the planet's surface burned to a crisp, because Morgan's learned the same lesson Daenerys Targaryen did back in Game of Thrones: you're either loved or feared as a ruler, and she's opted for fear.
She also makes the capital mistake of ignoring that the distress signal the delegate sent out went straight to Bo-Katan Kryze, which will eventually bring none other than Ahsoka to her doorstep, but as you do.
At this point, Tales switches to an imprisoned Barriss in Devoted, and FOR FUCK'S SAKE FILONI STOP WITH THE SHOWING OF THE BURNING TEMPLE!!!
Ahem.
As she's been imprisoned for quite some time because of her accusations against the Order, Barriss is surprised when a former acquaintance - friend? - of hers, Lyn, comes to spring her. She takes her to the Fortress Inquisitorius (still under construction) where she squares off against another familiar face, Dante, to become one of the Inquisitors herself.
She also gets to meet none other than Darth Vader, little knowing that the man underneath the mask is someone she would know rather well.
In Realization, Barriss and Lyn are hunting down rogue Jedi, and Barriss kind of clocks into the fact the Empire isn't all that interested in keeping its people alive when Lyn goes on a massacre in the village that's been helping said rogue, or later when she deliberately wounds the Jedi after he's already surrendered, to leave him to die.
Nope, says Barriss, that's my hard line, so she yeets Lyn off the mountain and takes the Jedi to help him.
We finally meet her again in The Way Out where she's been holed up on some icy planet as the Wise Mother, helping people who come to her with some sort of illness or ailment, but when a couple bring their child to her there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with him.
Nothing, that is, other than the fact he's Force sensitive.
Unfortunately, Lyn's been tracking them, so Barriss sends the little family, along with her two helpers, to her starship, which will take them to "an old friend", and if it isn't either Bo or Ahsoka then I'm eating my Harry Potter socks.
She then squares off against Lyn, warning her that if she enters the canyon the refugees are fleeing through, she won't come out again because she doesn't know the path.
Lyn goes in anyway, gets hopelessly lost, and then stabs Barriss (accidentally, it should be said) when she comes to help her. As Lyn isn't ENTIRELY inhuman despite her Sith yellow eyes, she stays with Barriss until the end, and Barriss tells her there is ALWAYS a way out, because only the Empire would want you to believe there isn't.
The final shot is of Lyn walking out of the canyon, finding her way, with Barriss in her arms, and then the story closes.
DUN DUN DUN!
If anyone was expecting some happy, fluffy storytelling, I've got news for you: you haven't been paying attention.
But these skits are masterful in showing us how individuals went to work for the enemy, and just what circumstances prompted some of them to rebel, not to mention we get to see what life was like under the Emperor (not good, I'll give you THAT).
The one thing that could possibly be a little confusing, and was to me as well, is Morgan's story, because for all she knows, the droids were the bad guys burning through the galaxy when they came to Dathomir, but my memories are sketchy. I don't exactly remember the stories that were spun around Grievous and stuff, so chances are I've forgotten details.
The only way her working FOR the Empire makes sense is if Grievous - through that clever plot of supposedly abducting Palpatine - is portrayed as the bad guy and the Empire as good after defeating the Separatists as well as the Loyalists, but like I said, I need to brush up on my Star Wars history.
IN ANY EVENT, I loved these. They just always turn out absolutely amazing, and they connect to so much of the current media that they're almost essential to better understand some of the nuances of the story Filoni's trying to tell.
As always, In Filoni We Trust. Also, if you didn't make the connection between Morgan's chapter titles and Yoda's line from The Phantom Menace (ICONIC because Menace re-released to theatres at the same time Tales came to Disney+), then you, too, need to brush up on Star Wars lore.
Until next time though - may the Force be with you!
xx
*images and video not mine
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