Star Wars: Tales of the Empire - The Sith Have Stories Too (And May the Fourth Be With You)
By John Kirk
Rating: A-
It’s clear why director Dave Filoni has been given the cartoon keys to the Star Wars kingdom.
A just and rightful successor to George Lucas’s legacy, Filoni first made a name for himself with the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars, where he managed to bring balance to the Star Wars franchise, establishing the importance of the Clone Wars and providing deeper canonical understanding between Star Wars Episodes II and III.
In Star Wars: Tales of the Empire, he does the same sort of thing, just on a lesser scale.
Disney is releasing six 15-minute episodes in time for the unofficial “Star Wars Day.” These six focus on two important characters that help provide a greater understanding of two different time periods in Star Wars history.
A young Morgan Elsbeth in Star Wars: Tales of the Empire
The first three episodes look at the back story of Magistrate Morgan Elsbeth (voiced by Diana Lee Inosanto), whom we first met in The Mandalorian and later see in Ahsoka. She’s a compelling character who deserves this introspective background study. The stories that Filoni weaves bring greater understanding of a character we only got to see briefly in the episodes of those series.
Set in the time after the defeat of the Empire and the first few years of the New Republic, the episodes are too short to describe without giving away crucial spoilers. Despite their length, they are thoroughly enjoyable, complete stories and thoughtfully add to the canon. Of course, this is Filoni’s strength and gives further merit to the unofficial Star Wars motto: “In Filoni We Trust.”
It’s also a chance to enjoy Diana Lee Inosanto even more. A recent fan-favourite, loved and accepted at comic conventions and Star Wars events, Inosanto is a martial artist, the daughter of martial arts legend, Dan Inosanto, and is also the god-child of Bruce Lee himself. Even though these are animated episodes, her voice role still allows her to be part of the franchise and contribute more of her character, which, in the end, serves the fans.
The second three episodes also revolve around a single character, namely the former Jedi, Barriss Offee (Meredith Salenger), a padawan who was captured during the time of Clone Protocol 66. This is the time when the Clone Army betrayed the Jedi Knights. We see an important episode of canonical history that helps to explain the actions of the Jedi who were caught by the Empire and the choices they were forced to make to live.
Again, critical insight into the history of Star Wars shows us that Filoni not only knows his subject but his craft. These are highly specific but somewhat obscure topics that would never have seen the light of day in a regular series but add valuable insight and connective tissue that binds the Star Wars universe together.
If you think about it, he’s kind of like The Force in his own way.
What adds to the rich tapestry of these episodes are the guest appearances of other characters that fans love as well. While their presence may be brief, they still add canonical importance and joy to the viewing experiences of the fans.
Stories about the Empire are few, given that they’re the “bad guys” in the franchise. But that doesn’t diminish the importance of the stories they have. This series reminds me of the Shadows of the Empire comic titles from Dark Horse Comics in the late 90’s and the more recent Darth Vader books from Marvel in 2020.
Even Fred Kennedy (aka Fearless Fred) from Q-107 created his own podcasts about the plight of the Imperial Mudtroopers, titled Mud79. There’s a need for stories like these – a chance to see the other side, if you will, and Dave Filoni is the master of not only creating stories that bring balance to the Force, but also to the canon of the franchise.
Tales of the Empire is brief and can be binged in a couple of hours, but the downside is that it will leave you wanting more. If there is a criticism to this series it’s that there needs to be more episodes devoted to understanding how and why the villains joined the ranks of the Empire. Some joined out of necessity, some joined out of duress and some honestly joined by mistake.
With only six 15-minute episodes, it’s clear that there isn’t enough background that fans would like to see. With any hope, this might be something that Filoni will consider for the future.
Hey – rebellions are built on hope. Maybe future tales of the Empire will be too?
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire. Directed by Dave Filoni. Starring (voices) Diana Lee Inosanto, Meredith Salenger, Rya Kihlstedt, Wing T. Chao, Lars Mikkelsen, Jason Isaacs, Matthew Wood. Begins streaming May 4 on Disney+