When I readied myself to watch Tales of the Empire, I realized I’d made a crucial error. Last year, when I watched Tales of the Jedi, it had been in the middle of my Rebels rewatch. This meant that if TotJ failed me, I could turn to my Star Wars comfort show. This time, with TotE, I didn’t have any such cushion.
Well, it turned out I didn’t need it, but that was close!
I posted my pre-watch thoughts on TotE here. As much as I love SW – specifically the TCW era – this show intimidated me. It wasn’t the Morgan Elsbeth episodes, as I was looking forward to those, but the Barriss Offee ones. I went in expecting a dark, heavy miniseries that would determine her fate forever. And that wasn’t quite what I got.
Let’s do this in order, starting with Morgan’s episodes. Unlike TotJ, TotE divided the Morgan and Barriss storylines evenly, with the first half belonging to one character and the second half to the other. It gives the series a better sense of unity than TotJ. Without jumping between timelines and storylines, it’s easier to get invested in both character’s arcs.
