Why 'Ahsoka' Series Will Be The Perfect Project To Bring Back This 'Clone Wars' Villain
One of Disney’s most anticipated Star Wars shows coming to Disney+ is the Star Wars: Ahsoka series. The star of the series is, of course, fan favorite Ahsoka Tano, played in the live action by Rosario Dawson. Dawson first premiered the live-action Ahsoka Tano in Disney+’s The Mandalorian Season 2 when Mando and then “Baby Yoda” meet Ahsoka while trying to find a Jedi Master. Ahsoka finally tells the entire Star Wars fanbase that “Baby Yoda’s” name is Grogu and we learn that Ahsoka is on the hunt for Grand Admiral Thrawn.
With these revelations, fans have speculated wildly what the series will focus on and when exactly in the timeline of the Star Wars universe it will take place. There are other speculations of who else might be involved in the story. Will there be new characters we haven’t met? Probably. Will there be characters that fans have grown to love or hate? Probably. And one of those characters, that has gotten quite a bit of speculation, is Barriss Offee.
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In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, fans met Ahsoka Tano as a young Padawan to Anakin Skywalker. Throughout the story she grows into a powerful Jedi, with quite the sad story towards the end of the series. She is also a commander in the Republic Clone Army during the Clone Wars. And during this period, we meet Barriss Offee, who is the cause of, or at least a contributor to, Ahsoka leaving the Jedi Order.
Barriss Offee is definitely one of the Star Wars franchise’s most complex villains. She was once one of Ahsoka Tano’s good friends, but Ahsoka was betrayed by Offee at the end of the Clone Wars. Because of this betrayal, Ahsoka leaves the Jedi and goes to forge her own path as a Force-user. We see Ahsoka after that in Star Wars: Rebels where she helps the Rebellion as Fulcrum. She is then brought into the live-action story in The Mandalorian. Because of Barriss Offee’s interaction with Ahsoka’s early life, it stands to reason that we may very well see her in the Star Wars: Ahsoka series.
Barriss Offee’s character has gone through quite the change from her Legends-era character to the Clone Wars character. In Legends, Offee is actually the same age as Anakin Skywalker and was a Padawan during much of the war. She could use the Force to heal others and became a healer during the Clone Wars. By the end, she had become a Jedi Knight and had a Padawan named Zonder. Barriss Offee died during Order 66 in the Battle of Felucia when the crew of an AT-TE walker opened fire on her.
Dave Filoni decided to radically change Offee’s canon character arc in Star Wars: Clone Wars. He made her roughly the same age as Ahsoka, who was, of course, quite a bit younger than Anakin. There was also no mention of Offee having Force healing abilities. In Clone Wars, Ahsoka and Offee become friends during the Second Battle of Geonosis. But Barriss turned to the dark side after becoming disillusioned with the Jedi Order and ended up bombing the Jedi Temple, framing Ahsoka for the crime. Ahsoka was eventually proven innocent and Barriss Offee was arrested, but her fate at the end of the series is ambiguous as Filoni wanted to potentially bring her back into the narrative. Ahsoka gives us the perfect opportunity for this since the two have such a charged history. Would we see Barriss Offee as the villain we saw at the end of Star Wars: Clone Wars? Or would she have mellowed in the years since? Obviously Ahsoka became a bit disillusioned with the Jedi as well, so how would their interaction be from this standpoint?
Barriss Offee often serves as a foil for Ahsoka Tano. Offee was ever the rule-follower up until she turned to the dark side and Ahsoka was ever the rebellious Padawan who did end up remaining steadfast in her ideals. We have yet to see Barriss Offee again in the stories, though Dave Filoni has hinted that he has plans for her. In Star Wars: Rebels we met an Imperial Inquisitor that was a female Mirialan, just like Offee, and fans were excited at first, thinking that it was her. Unfortunately, it did not turn out to be Offee and was instead an original character, which ended up working well for the show. In Jedi: Fallen Order there were more Inquisitors featured, but again, none of them were Barriss Offee.
One of the main storylines speculated for the Star Wars: Ahsoka series will be Ahsoka searching for Ezra Bridger and, by association, Grand Admiral Thrawn. We last see the two of them at the end of Star Wars: Rebels and find out that they have been missing for years. If this is the storyline that they do indeed follow, then we may also see Sabine Wren along with perhaps some of the other Star Wars: Rebels characters. The Bad Batch already brought more to the Hera Syndulla storyline, so perhaps she will play a role.
With all of this the case, Barriss Offee could conceivably show back up, feeling vindicated by the Republic’s turn to the Empire and the Jedi Order’s near destruction. She could fill the role of antagonist in the series, or at least one of them. However, Barriss Offee’s character is much more complex than just a regular antagonist, especially given her past with Ahsoka. It is safe to say that, if she does show up, her story will not be so cut and dry as villain and hero. She is a bit more of a grey character. Which, after all, do make the best, most interesting characters and is probably part of the reason why Dave Filoni wants to bring her back.
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Source(s): Screen Rant