Star Wars Is Setting Ahsoka Tano Up For a Showdown With A Major Rival

Star Wars is setting Ahsoka Tano up for a showdown with one of her biggest rivals. 

That much seems clear after seeing the recent Star Wars: Tales of the Empire trailer. The anthology series followup to Tales of the Jedi will instead explore two dark side characters: Nightsisters member Morgan Elsbeth, and fallen padawan (and Ahsoka's former bestie) Barriss Offee. The reveal that we will get three animated segments dedicated to Barriss was truly surprising; Morgan Elsbeth plays a major role in the current New Republic era of Star Wars content (Ahsoka, The Mandalorian), so getting more backstory and development makes a lot of sense. Barriss Offee hasn't been seen in Star Wars since the Season 5 finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars in 2013, when Anakin Skywalker arrested her for bombing the Jedi Temple and framing Ahsoka. 

The question hanging over Star Wars: Tales of the Empire is why is Barriss Offee is being brought back now, of all times. Keeping in step with Tales of the Jedi: Ahsoka was featured in that series just before her series launched; it stands to reason that Barriss Offee will have a larger role to play in Star Wars going forward – or perhaps, Tales of the Jedi could reveal that Ahsoka and Barriss already came to blows in a major fight – we just didn't know it at the time. 

The trailer for Tales of the Empire has a lot of clues about Barriss's storyline in the series. We see that she gets freed from a Republic prison by red-colored Coruscant Guard Shock Troopers, who are loyal to Palpatine/Darth Sidious. Barriss then ends up in the Inquisitor Program, gaining the attention of the Grand Inquisitor himself. She's trained with a class of Inquisitors that include some of the more mysterious (read: unexplained) members of the Jedi-hunting group, like Marrok from the Ahsoka series, or the unnamed Inquisitor that Ahsoka fought before joining the Rebellion (as seen in Tales of the Jedi).

There are two ways that Barriss Offee's journey in Tales of the Empire can go: 

1. Barriss finds the Inquisitors, their Sith masters, and the Empire to be as corrupted as the Jedi Order and Republic, and so she breaks away, either being killed in the process or escaping to a fate unknown. That could set Offee up to re-appear in Ahsoka Season 2 as a major rival/antagonist for Ahsoka, which would be thrilling, as both women seek out a new path to serving the Force. 
2.  Barriss finds her place and true self in the dark side and the Inquisitors, and Star Wars fans get a major retcon that helps tie off Barriss Offee's story for good. 

Is Barriss Offee Seventh Sister?  

Barriss Offee is a green-skinned Mirialan female. There also happens to have been an Inquisitor character who was also a green-skinned Mirialan female: Seventh Sister. Coincidence? It's starting to look like maybe not... 

Seventh Sister was featured in Star Wars Rebels Season 2, as she ambitiously sought to replace the Grand Inquisitor after his death. She was dispatched to hunt down the Spectre group of Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarrus, Sabine Wren, Hera, and Zeb, battling them on several occasions. Seventh Sister and her partner Fifth Brother also attracted the attention of Ahsoka Tano, when they began abducting Force-sensitive children on Palpatine's orders. She dueled Kanan and Ezra several times and lost, eventually attracting Darth Vader's attention for her failure. 

When Ahsoka and the Spectres allied with Darth Maul on a mission to retrieve a Sith holocron from a temple on Malachor, Seventh Sister and Fifth Brother continued their pursuit of the group. The two Inquisitors partnered with another, Eighth Brother, and battled the Spectres, Ahsoka and Maul. All three Inquisitors were killed, and Vader came himself, facing Ahsoka in the now-classic duel "Twilight of the Apprentice." 

Since that Rebels story arc, there have been many fan theories that Seventh Sister was Barriss Offee, with her mind and spirit having been broken by the Sith. Tales of the Empire seems to be making that theory look more and more credible; however, when Ahsoka and Seventh Sister battled on Malachor, there was absolutely no recognition between them, and no resolution to their deep arc together. 

Star Wars may settle for the dramatic irony of having the audience know the connection, even if Ahsoka didn't; or, perhaps Tales of the Empire will include a callback that hints that everything was worked out between them before Malachor. 

There's also an interesting fan theory from Ahsoka that could tie in: That Eighth Brother was resurrected by Nightsisters magic after the Battle of Malachor, and became Morgan Elsbeth's henchman, Marrok. Tales of the Empire has teased the idea that Morgan and Barriss's arcs will converge in some way: maybe we get the twofer of Barriss being revealed as Seventh Sister, and having the character resurrected for a later appearance in Ahsoka 

However it all plays out, it seems Ahsoka Tano has a significant showdown headed her way. 

Star Wars: Tales of the Empire will stream on Disney+ on May 4th.