Ivan Radford | On 04, May 2024

“Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Those words of Yoda hang over the latest venture into the Star Wars universe. Titled Tales of the Empire, the series is a follow-up to Tales of the Jedi – a mini-animated anthology that provides, as its title suggests, snapshots of the Empire taking its hold. It’s small and slight but packs a thrilling, surprising punch.

After Tales of the Jedi zoomed in on Ahsoka Tano and Count Dooku, Tales of the Empire once again takes us back to a long time ago to spotlight two little-known faces in the galaxy far away: Morgan Elsbeth and Barriss Offee. They’re both faces who have appeared on our screens before, and recently – the former was a memorable villain in Disney+’s live-action Ahsoka series, while Barriss Offee appeared in The Clone Wars. Neither are characters fans are calling out to see more of, and that’s precisely why Tales of the Empire is such a treat.

We begin with Morgan, whose path to the Dark Side begins with anger – anger and a desire for revenge that’s rooted in loss and devastation. A Damothir witch whose people wound up on the wrong side of General Grievous (Matthew Wood), it’s General Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) who eventually sees the potential in both her brains and her powers. Diana Lee Inosanto, who impressed in the otherwise underwhelming Ahsoka, clearly enjoys the chance to peel back the layers of the ambitious and ruthless witch, digging into her feelings of being undervalued – while Mikkelsen reprises Thrawn with a cool, calculating authority. It’s a thoughtful study of the need for purpose, and how vulnerability can be manipulated and hatred harnessed by the wrong people.

The second half follows Barriss (an excellent Meredith Salenger), a former Jedi Knight who turned against the Jedi order. In the aftermath of Order 66, she trains to be an Inquisitor – the kind last seen in Disney+’s live-action Obi-Wan Kenobi series. We follow her journey alongside another Inquisitor, Lyn, and what ensues is a probing exploration of friendship, loyalty and humanity – what does it take for you to buy into a cruel organisation, and what would it take to push back against it?

These aren’t new questions in the Star Wars universe, which is, really, the whole point: the themes of light and dark at the heart of this epic franchise are so timeless and universal that they can be found on almost any level in any character. That is, as long as they’re written well enough. Here, Dave Filoni (now the Chief Creative Officer of Lucasfilm) once again demonstrates he’s a good pair of hands with George Lucas’ creation and that he gets it – not just picking the prequels-era as a time ripe for mining new moral dilemmas, but bringing enough depth and conflict into these short 15-minute episodes that they feel rich and intimate in their own right.

It helps, as well, that the anthology jettisons any backstory or wider links to the Star Wars saga. The connections are there for fans looking for them, but they’re in no way essential to enjoying either Tales: these are two individuals’ stories captured at a key turning point in their lives, and by keeping things so specifically personal, their arcs are at once accessible and absorbing.

Given the glut of Star Wars content in recent years, it’s such a refreshing approach, made all the more so by the fact that there are only six episodes on offer here. It’s not a daunting or drawn-out slog, both of which could be said of other recent Star Wars TV outings. And yet there’s still meat to sink your teeth into, from politics and disinformation to war and the importance of having a sense of belonging.

It’s all served up with some gorgeous animation, with a visual style that’s somewhere between the cartoon vibes of The Clone Wars and the artistic flourishes of Visions – a vibrant and painterly midpoint that appropriately brings shadows and grit to echo the darkness on offer. The result is a perfect Saturday morning treat, proving that there are still new corners of the Star Wars universe to explore and new ways of telling them that make such exploration worthwhile.

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