Star Wars: Tales of the Empire review
Following the acclaim of Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, Lucasfilm’s Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni returns with the follow-up installment Tales of the Empire.
Filoni is no stranger to guiding stories that further flesh out the Star Wars lore. Clone Wars, Rebels, Bad Batch and now Ahsoka have largely succeeded from Filoni’s ability to tell intricate stories that work within the universe. They complement what’s already played out instead of clashing with it.
Tales of the Empire is a decent successor to Tales of the Jedi though not nearly as engaging. Tales of the Jedi all but mandated being included in marathon Star Wars sessions. That’s no coincidence as TOJ focused on popular Clone Wars characters Filoni spent years fleshing out with Count Dooku and Ahsoka Tano.
Billed as an anthology series, Tales of the Empire, like its predecessor doesn’t cover a wide array of characters. Again, the spotlight is on two characters — Morgan Elsbeth and Barriss Offee.
Just a random background Jedi in the Prequel Trilogy, Filoni used Clone Wars to make Barriss one of the more fascinating characters in the series as a traitor to the Jedi. Exploring her path in the Empire particularly her reunion with fellow former Jedi, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader sounded very tantalizing.
Elsbeth doesn’t have as rich a history debuting in The Mandalorian before becoming a major antagonist in Ahsoka. By the weakest definition, Morgan and Barriss could qualify as characters associated with the Empire although they’re hardly linchpins of the galaxy’s evil ruling class.
There’s other characters in the Empire that might have benefitted more from this deeper dive into their backstory. Deidre from Andor perhaps? Grand Admiral Thrawn? Moff Gideon?
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Of the two, Morgan has the better mini-arc. Tales of the Empire episodes are short with the average being around 13 minutes. It’s an easy binge for viewers who want to take it all in and move on to the next thing.
Morgan was a Nightsister of Dathomir, home to one of the most brutal episodes of Clone Wars. Her traumatic backstory leads to her being a cruel warlord before aligning with Thrawn. Diana Lee Inosanto voiced the character she played in live-action in a welcome bit of continuity. There’s some very well staged action sequences in Morgan’s arc showing her prowess as a fighter.
Morgan’s backstory isn’t as complex as other characters. Her arc is adequately told in two episodes especially since her most significant actions play out on Mandalorian and Ahsoka. Still, Morgan’s arc feels complete. There’s not a lot of untouched ground with her making it more satisfying on some levels compared to Barriss.
Barriss’ three mini-episode arc covers her Imperial journey via The Inquisitors so quickly it feels rushed. In Clone Wars, Barriss did some pretty terrible things and Tales of the Empire doesn’t fully explore her coming to terms with her actions in the war.
A path to redemption could have been fun to explore but only if the payoff involved the character who was most wronged by her actions. This felt like a seriously missed opportunity unless Filoni isn’t done crafting Barriss’ story.
Following the Clone Wars/Rebels/Bad Batch style of animation, Tales of the Empire looks good. Fight scenes have the appropriate amount of tension, thrills and adrenaline rush. Lighting and coloring effects add to the mood and the score impressively adds to the emotion and tone of the story.
Tales of the Empire does work in some solid lore-expansion moments, but Barriss needed more time and the series needed a true cog in the Empire to make good on its promise.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Photo Credit: Disney