Star Wars animation is in a peculiar place right now. Star Wars: The Bad Batch just came to an end this week, wrapping an impressive 3 season run in a fitting conclusion while also leaving the door open for more animated storytelling set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. However, after Lucasfilm’s next animated venture, Star Wars: Tales of the Empire, it’s unknown what the future of Star Wars animation will be. Beyond the fact that the studio is hiring more animators, a large indicator that production is ramping up on various projects, Tales of the Empire will leave Lucasfilm Animation in a sort of mini-hiatus publicly. These new Star Wars original shorts could be an exciting breath of fresh air for some. For others, though, this might be slightly underwhelming.
This second season of the Star Wars: Tales anthology franchise is born out of a concept for series creator Dave Filoni in the same vein as its first season, Tales of the Jedi. In other words, Filoni is using his leverage within Lucasfilm to tell or conclude stories about specific characters from his older projects that he wouldn’t be able to do in other mediums. This is not necessarily an issue, especially when you look at how well-written Tales of the Jedi was. Although fans pointed out how Ahsoka Tano’s (Ashley Eckstein) plot may have tread on conflicting ground with writer E.K. Johnston’s version of events in her Ahsoka novel, Filoni’s goals with the character were still achieved as was the same for Count Dooku’s storyline.
Instead of focusing on well-known characters like in Tales of the Jedi, Dave Filoni’s Tales of the Empire focuses on two lesser-known names to the public: Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) and former Jedi Barriss Offee (Meredith Salenger). Throughout these animated shorts, Barriss and Morgan’s narratives never quite live up to the Tales of the Empire title like how Ahsoka and Dooku’s stories meshed perfectly with the Tales of the Jedi banner. This is a rather small complaint in the larger scheme of storytelling presented in Tales of the Empire. However, Star Wars fans hoping to get any sort of deep insight into the Empire in this show will be disappointed, excluding the inclusion of the Inquisitorius program in Barriss’ episodes.
The primary issue of Tales of the Empire is Dave Filoni’s desire to expand the character of Morgan Elsbeth with half of the animated anthology shorts. Elsbeth was intriguing in The Mandalorian and Ahsoka, but she never seemed like someone who cried out for lore expansion on this level. This is pretty evident in Elsbeth’s three shorts. While it is fascinating to see how the massacre of Dathomir at the hands of General Grievous (Matthew Wood) and the Separatists drives Elsbeth to help the Empire in a unique way, that’s all it really becomes.
We never learn much more about Morgan Elsbeth in Tales of the Empire than what already was shown and told through conversation in Ahsoka. There’s no sense of an actual narrative worth telling in any of Elsbeth’s three shorts. By the third episode, it feels like Filoni is retreading what he already did in the first two shorts. If you can’t write 30 minutes worth of compelling, or even interesting, story for a character, perhaps it would have been best if the focus was shifted elsewhere.
On the flip side, Barriss Offee has left fans clamoring for answers for over a decade now. She was last seen being sent to prison near the end of Star Wars: The Clone Wars after bombing the Jedi Temple and framing Ahsoka Tano for the crime. In Tales of the Empire, Dave Filoni sticks to how he has presented Barriss and her morals since The Clone Wars Season 2. This brings an engaging dynamic into the Inquisitorius program as we see a young woman who wants to do right within a sea of evil surrounding her. Fans speculated for years that she could have reappeared as an Inquisitor in Star Wars Rebels, Ahsoka, or any other animated or live-action series, but it is clear that Filoni bided his time with Barriss to tell her story properly with the focus that she deserves within her three shorts.
The three Barriss Offee shorts will likely create new questions and juicy topics that fans will be theorizing about for years to come (hopefully not another decade). Dave Filoni provides just enough answers as he crafts a storyline that feels true to the core message of “good vs. evil” in Star Wars. Moreover, Tales of the Empire encapsulates the complex soul of Barriss that was shown in The Clone Wars. But at the end of the day, this leaves Tales of the Empire as a strange mixed bag. It’s one-half unnecessary and tiresome versus one-half poignant and thrilling. When the right character is presented in front of him, Filoni still clearly knows how to deliver an enriching tale. Unfortunately, only one of the two characters focused on in these six shorts gets that type of treatment.
Morgan Elsbeth’s journey in Tales of the Empire becomes repetitive, retreading basic ground already established in other material and never adding more to make the audience understand her in a full capacity. On the other side of the coin, Barriss Offee’s story is complex and interwoven through the dark and the light, where you can never be too sure where her loyalties will end up. Barriss deserves the spotlight given to her and successfully saves Tales of the Empire from being a waste of time. Tales of the Empire is definitely worth the watch, especially for die-hard Clone Wars fans. Yet, only focusing on two characters once again leaves this anthology series kind of feeling like wasted potential.
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire premieres May 4 on Disney+
Release Date: May 4, 2024.
Created by Dave Filoni.
Executive Produced by Dave Filoni, Athena Yvette Portillo, & Carrie Beck.
Voice Cast: Diana Lee Inosanto, Meredith Salenger, Rya Kihlstedt, Wing T. Chao, Lars Mikkelsen, Jason Isaacs, & Matthew Wood.
Composers: Sean Kiner & Deana Kiner.
Production Companies: Lucasfilm & Lucasfilm Animation.
Episode Count: 6.