Star Wars: Tales of the Empire | Series Review 

When people start realising that reviews are expressions of the reviewer's personal experience, and not an objective classification of something's quality, internet discourse will get much better.

Extremely underwhelming. I just had 0 emotional investment along the way in both Barris and Morgan

I think it’s probably really niche (too much so for it’s own good) because Barriss especially is such an exciting prospect to long time die hard clone wars fans. But less hardcore fans probably have no idea who she is. I’m pretty excited as a mega fan, but I definitely get why it’s probably gonna be alienating

As someone who really loved the Clone Wars and found Bariss a very interesting character, I am super excited to see where her character goes after all of these years. I understand this totally won’t be interesting for everyone though. Also Bad Batch season 2 and season 3 were both very solid and it ended in a super satisfying way imo, def check them out even if you don’t review them.

Extremely excited for this. Unlike some people, I don't swear by you opinion, but I was happy to hear your thoughts.

I was really looking forward to watching this since last year (or 2022?) we had the same thing with Ashoka and Count Dooku, and it was really phenomenal. For as small as it was, or short as it was, it was just fun to see Star Wars actually hit some level of hype or depth again. Imma still watch it, but I’ll keep my expectations in check. Disney+ was getting my attention back with X-Men ‘97 and I was hoping this would add to it…

I think this just goes down to a target audience sorta thing, since the Tales series feels very much made for people who are fans of Star Wars Animation. Thrawn showing up, Barris getting a sequel which makes Clone Wars fans go nuts, I think it’s simply because I know you’re less invested in those sides of the universe. It’s not really anyone’s fault, just that you’re not who it’s made for.

Hey, I really appreciate you saving me precious free time from Knuckles and now this! 🙏

Looking forward to this, thanks for your take Sean! I guess I’ll see how it plays for me tomorrow when it drops.

I’m watching for the animation. This style has evolved so much! Quick Saturday morning watch.

I agree with you about Morgan, she was a mid character in Mandalorian and Ahsoka and while I think that they didn't screw anything up in telling her story in this format(0,5 hour isn't that long to flesh out a character) they should have used somebody else in her place for Tales of THE EMPIRE, like maybe the Grand Inquisitor or Tarkin, people who bought into the empire whole sale. As for Barriss I was always a fan of her because she was a great example of the failures of the Order and her actions had a huge impact on the overall story and as you have mentioned she was an example of someone who was first drawn in but then realised that they didn't like what the Empire stood for.

Cannot wait to hear your review/thoughts on X-Men 97 when it finishes airing. So awesome!

Honestly Morgan elsbeth isn't an interesting character to focus or care about vs barris

Still very excited for this show!

Tbh I was let down by the trailer b/c of the characters they chose to focus on so I’m not surprised

I can see why you prefer the first season and thought that they could’ve explored other characters instead. But tbh I am very interested into the exploration of Morgan and especially Barriss. I always wanted to know more about what happened to them. Just on the trailer alone it’s cool to see how they connect with the overall story and other characters we enjoy.

I actually think i like this better than tales of the jedi. They were able to tell a more complete story with Barris, and Morgan's were basically her entire backstory

Glad to hear your thoughts on this show. Will you review the bad batch since it just ended?

Agree with your thoughts on the Morgan episodes. Definitely jumps ahead too much. Especially for a character I wasn’t too interested in anyways. Gives you even less chance to get attached. The Barriss episodes are much better. As a Clone Wars fan, I was looking forward to hers, wanting to know what happened to her after her fight with Anakin and imprisonment. And I wasn’t disappointed. But can’t say the same for the entire season.

While I'm very excited for this series, I'm a little hesitant that Morgan Elsbeth is one of the characters we're focusing on here. No offense to her actress or anything like that, but Morgan herself isn't exactly a character who, at least, I believe is that interesting and should be focused on in a story like this. Sure, other characters involved around her are like Grievous and Thrawn, but Morgan herself? Not so much. I honestly didn't even know she was supposed to be a Night Sister till after Ahsoka's show was on like it's 3rd or 4th episode. Also with her being recently killed off, do we really need to focus on her background? I mean, there are honestly plenty of other characters who I think can pull in the Spot light for the Empire, such as Tarkin, Krenic, Gideon, Yularen, even more can be shown with Thrawn if need be. Point is, while I am excited for this series, Morgan's character isn't exactly the reason for it.

Absolutely love tales of the Jedi, I’m still curious to check this one out.

Poor choice of character studies. Their not strong leads or have the potential of strong leads. They’d of been better with characters like Baylon Skoll and Shin Hati if you were picking characters out of Ashoka

I think your point stands for them putting the magistrate in. Like she’s not interesting enough to explore but Barriss is much more interesting and worth the time to explore. At the end of the day, your enjoyment comes down to your interest in that side of the Star Wars universe and investment in the characters. The big thing I disagree with is that I think Disney should be exploring much more low profile characters in these rather than Ahsoka.

I think one big difference between Morgan's and Barris's stories is that we see character growth in Barris but Morgan largely stays the same in all three episodes. For Morgan there's also some very big gaps - How'd she become the magistrate, and when did she get so good at designing starfighters? Doesn't seem like something a former witch would come up with. And as you said, these aren't completely Empire-focussed - two of Morgan's episodes aren't even during a time period when the empire is in power. I think it would have been more effective if they'd swapped out Morgan for Thrawn - everyone loves Thrawn, and his journey was very in the empire. Morgan could have appeared in one of Thrawn's episodes to set up their relationship for Ahsoka.

I do love tales of the Jedi can’t wait for this new one

For the most part I enjoyed the shorts, animation and sound were great as with the writing. I just don’t understand why they advertised the two biggest draws to the mini series, that of Thrawn and of course Vader and had barely any scenes of them besides what we saw in the trailers. I for one and I’m sure many others would’ve wanted to see Vader interact with Barris considering their shared past.

I saw the opening about new characters and that's the catch 22 fans have. They want new stories about new characters but very rarely are they that invested in them. And while new characters break out (Thrawn, Kyle Katarn, Grogue, etc) there are 30 times as many that don't work. And then fans still want more adventures with the classic characters.

I personally enjoyed this show enough. Okay yea i was hoping for more cos the trailer looked amazing but i was pretty satisfied. I do agree that morgan and barriss are a bit too obscure to have lead roles on screen and are best left to expanded media like books and comics to get their spotlight

I would really like you to make a video proposing the right characters to do Tales of... episodes on. Not "fixing" the season type of video, just proposing interesting ideas, can also be Bounty Hunters and stuff that doesnt connect that may require a newer title

The episodes drop tomorrow ?

Also, Baris isn’t dead. If things stay consistent, that lightsaber stab wound she got only tickled

With s1 I watched them in order for character, so I watched ahsokas 3 and then dookos 3. Sadly for this one it seems only one side of the story will actually add something

How does Morgan block blaster bolts? She isn't a jedi and pretty sure she isn't using Disney magic?

This looks pretty good.

I was so disappointed that they refused to give us proper lightsaber duels. The grand inquisitor doesn't use a lightsaber against Baris. When she's fighting the other jedi, they're given 1 lightsaber, in the final battle Baris doesn't have a lightsaber. Also in season 1 Ahsoka didn't use a lightsaber. It was cool back then but now it's definitely overdone and it just feels cheap like it's too much effort to show sabers clashing

I strongly disagree about Barris, she can definitely hold her own with these shorts. Her character doesn’t need to be fully established like Ashoka to work, what happened in clone wars already established enough and works alone. The problem is they didn’t utilize her potential, and what they could have done with her character. Like her and Ashoka could have been enemies, or Vader and Barris could have had some history in the show considering she played a major role as to why Ashoka left the temple. They didn’t get creative enough. Instead, Barris accidentally dies from Lynn. It would have been much cooler if Vader was the one to finish her off, or if Ashoka brought her back to redemption. However, I do think she didn’t need to be in this show. I agree this has nothing to do with the empire 😂. They could’ve focused on Vader and Palpatine, or more of the inquisitors could have been focused on.

So far, I've watched the first two episodes, and they're already 100 times better than Tales of The Jedi in tone, story, animation, dialogue, and presentation-every which way possible. I guess we all have our preferences.

I quit the series after one episode. I was like I don't care about Morgan Elsbeth, and I listened to dark force rising audio book instead.

It would have been far more interesting if it focused on almost any of the other characters featured in the trailer, like grievous, thrawn or the grand inquisitor

I watched this show not overly invested because Morgan and barris aren’t really that important. I went in not really caring but I do like Star Wars so I watched it.

I like how tales of the Jedi showed Dooku falling from the light and tales of the empire showed Bariss coming back to the light.

Took 10 years to follow up on bariss and they give 13 min episodes. What is happening

I'm not overly satisfied with Tales of the Empire, I'm not gonna lie. I didn't care much for Morgan as a character, and Barriss' arc felt very rushed to me.

Review the finale of bad batch

I'm fed up with Lucasfilm's fascination with telling the backstories of its characters after it's killed them off. I do not care if the Star Wars series is built upon in-medias-res storytelling where you jump into the effect and later see the cause. It's been done to death and clearly the studio has learned nothing from the past 7 years.

I wanted a tales of the Sith series focusing on Darth Maul and Palpatine becoming sith and planning the siths 1000 year vendetta against the Jedi.

While I am genuinely excited for this series, I also still don't care for the characters were following, Bariss Offee's story I'll probably like the most from what I heard from you, but Morgan Elzbeth's story is something I don't care for, I'd say this review is far more compelling than the other just postitive 0 complants early reviews that feel like are made just for people to get excited and the actual product we watch results into some nitpicks from fans like Ahsoka and now this

They should have done a series from a Stormtrooper’s perspective similar to the Clones in Clone Wars.

Gonna be honest, the Thrawn episode was my favorite episode just because Thrawn is so entertaining to watch. But besides that, the Barriss episodes were much better than the Morgan episodes

Morgan was Wack. Barris story was dope and i actually really liked it personally. The animation was pure 10 every episode, we can all agree.

How was general grievous

Morgan’s episodes felt pointless. Barriss was more interesting but I kinda wish she went full evil because the crimes she committed during the Clone Wars were pretty awful and if she’s gonna go back the other way, I needed more time to explore her turn back to the light

You gotta watch the bad batch season 3 still

Star Wars Tales Of The Empire said Season 1 on it not season 2.

Make review on shogun 2024

Tales of the empire was amazing

Why didn't you review the Bad Batch?

I think there is meant to be a tales of the Jedi s2 coming out this year. This is some other tales show i am pretty sure.

I love that Barris is getting a story but Morgan is definitely not interesting to me. They should have leaned into Tarkin I think that would’ve been great

I'm excited for this but I think calling this Tales of the Empire was a mistake. Should of been Tales of the Darkside or Sith or something like that.

You talked so much about what you didn't like about Morgan's story but you barely scratched the surface on Barriss story. It would be nice to get your thoughts on both because this review was primarily focused on Morgan.

I did not care about Morgan when I saw her the first time on The Mandalorian and now I care less. I still don't understand her. She wants revenge against who?

First hey sean

I agree. I was expecting to see more about the Empire; but the Empire is just the scenario in this show... sad

Why am I surprised at this review

give us a story of what R2D2 and C3PO were up to in between Revenge Of The Sith and A New Hope. For a show called Tales of The Empire...the lack of actual Empire involvement was lame.

I dont know how no one else figured this, but star wars plot is just about being in jail or being kidnapped. I am getting so tired of it. Season 7 of TCW: Ahsoka gets in jail twice by the pykes and then they invade mandalore and put Maul in jail. Clone is kidnapped. The Mandalorian: Grogu keeps gettimg kidnapped and in jail, Mando in actual jail. Revenge of the sith: Palpatine kidnapped New Hope: Leia in jail Return of the Jedi: Han in Carbonite jail, Leia in jail, Luke in jail, c3po and r2d2 jail The Bad Batch: each member ends up in jail and the Australian clone girl gets kidnapped 50 times and in jail. TCW movie- Rotta the Hutt kidnapped, another Hutt goes to jail TCW- 780 people go to jail/get kidnapped Andor: All about jail Sequels- Poe gets kidnapped, Chewie gets in jail, Rey gets jailed Episode 2- main characters in jail and forced to fight in the arena

How much Burning Bush have you been smoking?😁😆😂🤣.

How could they not have Vader say ANYTHING to Bariss. That’s probably the main reason most people watched. Smh

Should have done thrawn instead of Morgan

Sean watching all live action and tales series, but not watching the bad batch Its treason then

Yeah, no, this was really disappointing. The Morgan Elsbeth episodes were ok, but just not engaging at all. I couldn't give any more of a fuck about this lady. Why aren't we getting Grievous, Darth Maul's Son of Dathomir animated, Palpatine and Darth Plagueis, Vader doing cool shit in his prime, Tarkin? Oh, I know, the force is female, that's why. And the Barris Offee "redemption arc" that just comes out of nowhere was dogshit. I did like the first episode quite a lot, but then she (who, let's remember, articulated the murder of dozens/hundreds of innocents, didn't give a fuck and blamed her best friend to be locked with a life sentence). I mean, it could have been done decently, sure, but there was just no time to develop the story. All of a sudden she was like "oh, I see, the empire does evil things, screw it, now I'm a jedi again". Wtf? Then the same thing with the fourth sister. All of a sudden "oooh man, I might have just killed the person that I've been hunting for so many years, dang it, you know what, yeah, I think it's time to be good again!" I swear they change their morals more than they change their fucking panties, dude. That's just awful lazy writing. Also, have you guys noticed how every disney character these days needs to have a "redemption arc", showing that "ooohhh, you see, he/she was good all along, just misguided, poor purehearted thing". I hate this with a passion! ffs, can't someone just be evil for the love of being evil and not giving a care in the world?? I fear that if someday disney shows the backstory of Palpatine in depth, we're gonna find out that he was a nice guy all along, really trying to do his best.

Should’ve been tales of the sith instead

Episode 1: Pretty great start. Lovely to see our boy Grievous. The fight scenes were amazing! Love the ‘day sisters’ thingy and I hope we see more of it. 8.5/10 Episode 2: Was solid. Cool backstory, but did not add that much to the story. Thrawn was awesome!! But the rest was fine. Although that fight scene was EPIC! 7.7/10 Episode 3: Well well well. Great to see the new republic. That fight scene that ended that girls life was… brutal. She burned!.. was a great backstory to see that forest burning what we saw in Mando season 2. 8.1/10 Episode 4: This was just PHENOMENAL! Barris sensing order 66…! Seeing the temple burning… everything, from the fights up until Vader entering! 10/10 Episode 5: This episode did something great in my eyes. Turning back barris was something lovely. Seeing what she believed was wrong was a good thing… but that killing scene… that child… damn that hit deep. 8.3/10 Episode 6: The last episode took a weird turn for sure. Barris looking old now was weird, but okay. But her stab.. yea.. sure… But the way she was in the light made me feel good. Also she said there was a ‘she’. I hope she was talking about Ahsoka for some reason. But maybe that’s far fetched. 7.5/10 The series final rating: 8.4/10 Great! Favorite moment: STAR WARS BLOOD

Barris story was on the better side. but Morgan story shouldn't have happened. should have been Thrawn or Baylan

Honestly the first 3 episodes were kinda meh but the barris episodes were great

I think the Jedi series was better. I liked the first baris episode, and then they kinda lost me.

so tales of the empire was a waste of time that's a shame.

I don’t want to see Morgan Elsbore ever again. I don’t care for her character at all and yes I know what I said and that was intentional because she’s such a bore.

Spoiler alert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . So.. I guess not dying from lightsaber stab is now running joke in Disney Star Wars? Why leaving open ending if they won't finish the story. It felt honestly like half of the season. Not complete story

I really liked it. For me it’s a more entertaining Star Wars rebels. However, it was a bit underwhelming with grievous and I’m slightly confused with the ending.

I think you and other reviewers don't realize how contradictory you are. Also, just because something didn't go the way you expected doesn't mean it's bad, just that you're bad at predicting this stuff. That's probably why you're not a writer for Star Wars.

To be honest, I wasn’t very impressed with this one. It felt like it was trying to convey a story too big for 6 10 minute episodes.

Tales of the "Empire". What wasted potential. Could’ve been about Vader or Thrawn. Not a random character from the mandalorian that no one cares about

Females still make better inquisitor

Animated star wars no thanks. How about live action not written by sellout hacks.

Probably the worst animated series yet poor dialogue poor story/concepts nothing new shown about her character of that we didn't expect or care. Yet again the focus that Disney takes is questionable was expecting a darker indepth experience and again why is every important character in story always a women now its become a clear observation

This was wildly disappointing and underwhelming. DEI strikes again

the series was hot garbage

It was boring and pointless

Do you really love star wars

You’re not the target audience. This is for the hardcore fans

Nobody wants girl boss back storys. Give us Grievous, Baylon Skoll, more Darth Vader stories.

Every Disney Star Wars and Marvel movie and or show is an poorly disguised pilot for an strong female character who fights. Every DC show and movie is a poorly disguised pilot for an gross character who is gross and probably an epstein island fan. You will be baited with cool concepts and characters from the past but Disney and DC have their own agenda now.

Dave filoni proved yet again how terrible he is. Terrible season

Yeah this was mid compared to tales of the Jedi

Everything has to be about women

Yeah it was trash