The dark side of the dark side
The very moving finale of The Bad Batch has once again confirmed it: the expansion of Star Wars finds his best ideas in animation. Perhaps it is due to the powerful heritage of The Clone Wars or fewer contingencies compared to live-action series. In any case, the Dave Filoni method, although it is far from perfect, still has some good cards up its sleeve.
We could criticize him for his very (too?) sharp fan-service, but his way of developing the George Lucas universe through his own characters always offers him more possibilities, especially when it comes toexplore tragic destinies at the time of the rise of the Empire.
We didn’t know we wanted to know more about Morgan Elsbeth, but actually we did.
The Clone Wars, Rebels And The Bad Batch were already imbued with a certain darkness, sometimes surprising for a program primarily reserved for young audiences. In reality, the new Disney+ productions know that they are primarily targeting a niche of fans. This is what can both annoy and delight on Tales of the Empirewhose 6 short episodes are divided into two distinct parts.
For this painting of the dark side, the first three “tales” focus on the rise to power of Morgan Elsbeth (the Nightsister and antagonist of the series Ahsoka), while the next three bring Barriss Offee, Jedi traitor of The Clone Wars which led Ahsoka Tano to leave the Order at the end of season 5. Imprisoned by the Republic after her actions, she is offered the opportunity to become an Inquisitor.
“You’re probably wondering how I got here.”
Fear, anger, hatred
If you don’t understand anything, or if Disney+ seems to you to be scraping the bottom line, that’s normal. Tales of the Empire has no other ambitions than that ofa little candy on the rare still virgin interstices of the franchise. In itself, it is true that the approach serves above all to complete Wookiepedia files and to feed the catalog of the streaming platform. Nevertheless, doesn’t this obvious commercialism exploit, deep down, what we have always loved with Star Wars ?
Particularly since the prelogy, George Lucas’s direction has turned towards the teeming of details, towards the connection which can linger for a handful of seconds on something a priori innocuous. Lucas’ images call for an off-screen space to be filled, and frames into which you have to enjoy diving, here served by an even more impressive quality of animation than before.
A few familiar faces come to say hello
More than ever, the episodes of the mini-series focus on small moments of life, themselves showing the evolution of its characters between each chapter. Certainly, the protagonists chosen are not the most exciting on paper (especially compared to those of Tales of the Jedi), but their belonging to the dark side reinforces a writing that is directly inspired by the moral talewith all the tragic dimension that this supposes.
If Barriss Offee’s journey does not avoid a somewhat easy redemption, Tales of the Empire deals with a denial of horror that could not be more contemporary, and a need to give meaning to suffering, even if it means embracing Evil. We will mainly remember its first half, which gives Morgan Elsbeth a most fascinating origin story, forged by the pain of the genocide of her species. As is often the case with animated series Star Wars, it is in the darkness and nightmares that they find their best moments.
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire is available in full on Disney+ since May 4, 2024
