As Tales of the Empire digs its method by the story of Barriss Offee—and her quest to outlive the rise of the Empire, at any value—there comes a second that climaxes a decade-plus look forward to followers who’ve wished to see what occurred to the previous Jedi Padawan after the stunning conclusion of her story in Clone Wars. It’s a second lengthy within the making, and one which was essential to the actress behind her as nicely.
That second comes on the climax of the second of Barriss’ three episodes in Tales of the Empire, “Realization.” Having already accepted—and survived—the supply of becoming a member of the brand new Imperial Inquisitorius after the Republic’s fall, whereas on a mission to seek out a Jedi in hiding alongside the Fourth Sister (Rya Kihlstedt), Barriss is horrified by the Inquistors’ violence and chooses to go rogue herself, flinging the Fourth Sister off a cliff face with a push of the Pressure, and throwing her personal helmet down together with her.
Within the subsequent episode, “The Method Out,” we meet Barriss as we’ve by no means had the possibility to see her earlier than. An undisclosed variety of years later, she has had the possibility to reside and get older. She’s reduce her hair, and on a distant, icy world, she has change into a non secular healer, a sensible girl who cures and advises the individuals who search her in want. It’s an enormous second, not simply to see Barriss flourish and thrive, however to see her dedicated to the the perfect of the Jedi—the perfect she’d so fiercely imagine the Order had fallen away from in its participation within the Clone Battle—and change into somebody who is aware of when to struggle and when to supply an open hand. She’s a great distance from being a younger girl so shocked and horrified by what she noticed the Order changing into, her solely response to its participation in interstellar conflict may very well be violence in sort. And for Meredith Salenger—who has thought in regards to the selections Barriss made in Clone Wars for so long as followers have—it was a robust second to be part of.
“I imply, I believe it’s like in life—as you undergo your life, while you’re an adolescent you’ve obtained this vitality to struggle, to change into combative, and I believe for Barriss, she was all the time so… methodical and conservative in her coaching and desirous to do the fitting factor, enjoying all the things by the e book,” Salenger lately advised io9 about attending to see Barriss develop and change into the sensible girl we meet in “The Method Out.” “I believe as you develop and study, and as you become older, Barriss makes errors—desirous to do issues the way in which they’re carried out—however all of it might probably solely change if there may be an underlying love for everybody and desirous to shift individuals’s views to being extra caring and extra therapeutic. As a substitute of doing this by violence, let’s do it by altering individuals’ hearts and minds and displaying compassion. Serving to.”
It’s a shift in perspective that offers Barriss a chance to be explored additional in Star Wars’ future. In a mirror to the climax of “Realization,” when the Fourth Sister lastly tracks Barriss down for her betrayal, their encounter culminates with the previous by chance managing to stab the later—and in doing so realizing that Barriss’ pleas to her to vary and see a brand new path have been potential. Tales of the Empire concludes with the Fourth Sister, reclaiming her former id as Lyn Rakish, carrying a wounded—however seemingly nonetheless alive—Barriss to help. It was a very long time coming, however ultimately, Star Wars followers obtained to see what grew to become of the wayward Padawan… and the way she grew to become a Jedi far past something the Order she grew disillusioned with may think about.
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire is streaming on Disney+.
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