Barriss Offee is a uncommon character for Star Wars. Not simply because she was a Jedi so horrified by the half the Order needed to play within the Clone Warfare that she took excessive motion to attempt to cease it, however just because the subsequent step of her story was left untold for over a decade. Now, in the end, it’s time to inform it, and the girl behind her is simply as excited as you might be to see what’s subsequent.
Meredith Salenger, who voiced Barriss all through her appearances in The Clone Wars—the place we noticed her go from the reserved, however forceful padawan of Luminara Unduli, to certainly one of Ahsoka Tano’s closest pals, to the architect of a stunning assault on the Jedi Temple—has waited so long as followers have for what’s about to cross. It’s been 11 years since Barriss’ final look within the fifth season of Clone Wars, the place, after the Order had ostracized Ahsoka for a purported position in staging an anti-war bombing on the Jedi Temple, Barriss revealed herself because the bomber, fierily condemning the darkish path the Jedi and Republic alike had been taking because the warfare drove on.
“I’ve been in love with the character of Barriss for… I imply, it was years in the past. It appears like endlessly in the past. I’m thrilled, in fact,” Salenger not too long ago instructed io9 over Zoom about ready for her return to Star Wars. “Each time I noticed one thing nice occur with Ahsoka, I used to be like, ‘Barriss is her greatest pal, is she coming again?’ I do know she betrays Ahsoka, however… they had been greatest pals! Someday Dave [Filoni, Clone Wars producer and Lucasfilm’s Chief Creative Officer] known as me and instructed me [she was coming back], and I used to be very excited. I believe followers are excited, too, as a result of everybody’s at all times like, ‘What occurred to Barriss?’ So, we’ll see…” Salenger’s love for the character, in addition to fandom’s embrace of Barriss, has endured ever because the sequence got here to an finish.
“I cherished the present. I cherished The Clone Wars, I cherished Rebels, I cherished actually every part Dave Filoni has created,” Salenger added. “I’ve been a fan of, obsessive about [Barriss]… so, similar to the followers, I too am questioning what occurred to her. I’ve been to some of the Cons and issues, and the followers are asking what occurs to her and really, Ashley [Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka in Clone Wars and Rebels] and I are nonetheless pals. We have to get the band again collectively! So for me, it’s been actually thrilling.”
Whereas it’s been years for us and Salenger alike, Tales of the Empire—Lucasfilm’s subsequent animated anthology sequence premiering on Disney+ this weekend for the studio’s annual Star Wars Day celebrations—will choose up nearly precisely the place we left Barriss, imprisoned by the Republic and confronted with a horrible alternative within the title of survival, because it transforms into the Galactic Empire. However even earlier than that dilemma, Salenger has had loads of time to sit down with the alternatives Barriss made in on the climax of Clone Wars’ unique run.
“In a means, we’re kind of related in how we wish to comply with the foundations—we now have a very robust ethical compass. What she does on the finish [of Clone Wars season 5], the bombing of the Jedi temple—I imply, personally, I don’t assume I might have gone that far. Her determined want, her morality, is simply so robust,” Salenger stated of Barriss’ headspace, popping out of her trial and into the early days of her punishment. “She’s nearly like a Jedi extremist. She’s been skilled in peacekeeping, and all of the issues the Jedi stand for, and I believe she’s actually misguided. She bought sort of confused by issues on the finish—she wished her place so strongly to be identified, that she went about it the unsuitable means. She is aware of she did. But it surely was nearly like, ‘I want this final result to occur, by no matter means essential, to the crux of what a Jedi is.’ I believe that simply drove her mad a bit.”
It’s on this risky headspace that we meet Barriss in Tales of the Empire, when she is obtainable an opportunity to hitch the brand new order within the type of the Imperial Inquisitorius. “My ideas actually align with Barriss in that second of like, ‘What has occurred right here?’ This isn’t the way it ought to be,” Salenger teased of Barriss’ early reactions in Tales to the autumn of the Republic. “She’s in jail, she’s been jailed by the Jedi Council. Who is aware of how lengthy she’s been there? However for her to see what is occurring via Order 66, I believe there’s a aid she shouldn’t be on the market, that she’s alive. But in addition she thinks, ‘that is unsuitable.’ I believe it’s the violence that’s so strayed from who the Jedi are—the violence that claims, ‘it may’t be like this.’ She used violence to fight the violence, and now she’s seeing extra of it, and he or she’s extremely conflicted.”
“Personally—and this can be a separate factor from [Tales]—I believe there’s guilt. And when the Fourth Sister comes to supply her a means out of imprisonment, it’s like a curiosity of what’s going to occur, and the way does Barriss really feel about this,” Salenger concluded. “But in addition, that is the one solution to survive. And it’s extremely conflicting [for her].”
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire begins streaming on Disney+ Could 4.
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