We Liked: Barriss’ Arc
Star Wars fans have waited over a decade to see what happened to Barriss Offee after she was jailed by the Republic for her part in the Jedi Temple bombing in Clone Wars season five. While there’s a lot of structural quibbles to be had about what we got (more on that later), at the core of it all beyond structural and pacing decisions, this feels like a Star Wars story that was worth that long wait.
It’s not even simply that Barriss gets to live—joining the Inquisitorius and grappling with what the Clone War had pushed her survival instinct to, leaning on the anger and the violence, and bringing herself back from that brink as she realizes the extent of what the Empire is about. But in getting to see Barriss grow and change beyond that moment, and become a healer who seeks the other path before violence, even as it threatens to get her killed in turn? The character now feels ripe for even further exploration… with some caveats that, again, we’ll get to later.
