For every single Star Wars tale with impossibly higher stakes and galaxy-shaping consequences, there are also a handful of stories with a smaller sized concentrate. These usually comply with characters who exist on the periphery of the bigger narrative, present sufficient to attract the audience’s interest but not central sufficient to warrant time devoted to exploring their arcs. Even though these sorts of stories are usually told by way of either books or comics, the animated Tales anthology has brought these much more focused narratives to the little screen. 2022’s Tales of the Jedi started the exploration of this new mode in a familiar medium, but this year’s Tales of the Empire truly proves why the anthology format is such a fantastic signifies of continuing these stories.

What Is ‘Tales of the Empire’ About?

Like Tales of the Jedi ahead of it, Tales of the Empire follows two characters in the course of the days of the Empire: Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto), whom we initially met in The Mandalorian and who met an untimely finish in Ahsoka, and Barriss Offee (Meredith Salenger), final noticed at the finish of The Clone Wars Season five.

Morgan’s 3 episodes, which kick off the season, comply with the Nightsister in her early days ahead of we ever meet her in The Mandalorian, fighting alongside her sisters against Basic Grievous (Matthew Wood), and at some point acquiring into her meeting with Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen). Although the broad strokes of her story are a thing the audience could have created an educated guess about, watching it play out tends to make Morgan a far much more tragic — or sympathetic — character. The most boring point a character can be is evil for evil’s sake, or for the sake of amassing energy just since, and thankfully, Morgan does not fall into either of these traps, with the series as an alternative painting a nuanced portrait of why she is the way she is by the time Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) goes to confront her on Corvus.

The second arc follows Barriss Offee in the days just after she was arrested for the bombings at the Jedi Temple. As opposed to Morgan, whose story serves as a prequel, Barriss’s arc is fully uncharted, albeit unsurprising, territory, as she is recruited into the Inquisitorius — Vader’s legion of Jedi-turned-Jedi hunters, and forced to fight for her survival beneath the new Galactic Empire. As opposed to Morgan, Barriss is under no circumstances explicitly painted as a villain, although like with all Star Wars “baddies,” this label appears largely subjective based on your point of view.

Barriss and Morgan’s Stories Complement Every single Other in ‘Tales of the Empire’

Though Morgan and Barriss come from unique areas in the galaxy, have unique relationships to the Force, and seasoned the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire differently, the two essentially have much more in popular than not, producing them a best duo for Tales of the Empire. Exactly where Tales of the Jedi paired Ahsoka (Ashley Eckstein) and Count Dooku (Corey Burton) since of their fraying partnership with the formal Jedi Order, Morgan and Barriss’s pairing in this anthology tends to make sense on a much more thematic level. The two are united not by affiliation or circumstance, but as an alternative by how they react to the horrifying reality of losing all the things they believed mattered to them.

Tales of the Empire is, at its heart, a story of discomfort and loss, and attempting your very best to survive in spite of it all. It presents two unique images of two unique females every carrying out what they assume is very best to regain all that they’ve lost, and dealing with the consequences of understanding that you can under no circumstances truly go back to the way factors have been ahead of. They have to find out to reside with the consequences of their actions but also, unfairly as it generally is, the consequences of the actions of these about them.

‘Tales of the Empire’ Is the Appropriate Spot for Additional Focused Stories

It becomes startlingly clear when watching Tales of the Empire that this quick anthology format is the very best way to inform stories like this onscreen. As compelling as they are, weaving them into, hypothetically, a Clone Wars arc or an episode of Ahsoka would distract from the bigger narrative, especially when there are not 22-episode seasons that can afford to invest a entire installment away from the Huge Story. It was definitely the correct move to save these character arcs for a series exactly where they could be the whole concentrate as an alternative.

I have wonderful affection for Star Wars books. For me, they hold just as substantially value in the general narrative as any of the films or shows. Of all of them, definitely of all the shows, Tales of the Empire feels the most book-like. Its whole narrative exists on the periphery of the bigger story, with familiar moments and characters to situate us in a time and spot, but otherwise stands wholly on its personal. It tells a total story inside its six episodes, although the series does not go as far as providing either of its narratives a definitive finish. This is much more of a side impact of contemporary media, rather than Star Wars itself, exactly where every single story have to be left open-ended sufficient for much more, need to there be a demand for it. Luckily, if this is what we can count on, then a second season would be much more than welcome.

Like the books, Tales of the Empire will most probably discover a target audience in these seeking to dive into Morgan and Barriss’s arcs a small deeper, rather than viewers with only a vague understanding of Star Wars, but that is by no signifies a poor point. Occasionally, a major franchise like this can get a small also stuck in its personal cycle, focusing on and repeating the exact same in-references more than and more than. That is not the case for Tales of the Empire. Alternatively, this anthology series is a thoughtful character piece that reflects on the inquiries of discomfort, loss, and healing that make up the galaxy far, far away.

Star Wars: Tales of the Empire (2024)

Evaluation

Tales of the Empire is a thoughtful series that enriches Morgan Elsbeth and Barriss Offee’s character arcs.

Pros

• The series truly focuses on Morgan and Barriss’s person arcs.
• The pairing of the two characters tends to make a ton of thematic sense.
• The show leaves space for much more story to be told.

Cons

• The series may be a small also niche for a broader audience.

Tales of the Empire premieres Could four on Disney+.

Watch on Disney+