Ahsoka Tano made her Star Wars debut in 2008’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars. And people were certainly taken aback by her appearance. After all, the prequels had never hinted that Anakin Skywalker had a Padawan at all. Also, her absence in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith made everyone think that this was going to be a continuity disaster. 

But things changed as the years went on. Ahsoka was able to win fans over with strong storytelling and Ashley Eckstein voice acting. Also, the best part was that her addition didn’t destroy continuity in any way. Instead, Lucasfilm Animation inserted Ahsoka’s story so craftily into the overarching Clone Wars narrative that she became an important part of it. 

Ahsoka chose to leave the Jedi Order after she was disillusioned by the Council’s decision to blame her for the bombing of the Jedi temple. Her departure fuelled Anakin’s growing unease with the Jedi. In Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 7 we saw the arc coming to a conclusion since Ahsoka returned and got caught up with Order 66. 

Her story paralleled Anakin’s fall to the darkness in a really heartbreaking manner. All these factors accumulated to make Ashoka a famous character. So no one was really surprised when Lucasfilm brought Ahsoka back in the post-Return of the Jedi era, portrayed by Rosario Dawson in season 2 The Mandalorian. 

Now she is going to get her own series on Disney+ titled Ahsoka. This will be a spin-off of The Mandalorian season 2. As for the plot, we don’t know much about it. However, there are some rumours floating around that an old opponent of Ahsoka could return and that is Barriss Offee. 

Who Is Barriss Offee? 

Barriss Offee was a Jedi padawan who trained under Jedi Master Luminara Unduli and became close friends with Ahsoka after fighting alongside her on various occasion. As the Clone Wars raged on, Barriss began questioning the intellect of the Council. Later on, she was able to recognize the flaws of the Jedi Council. 

But instead of seeking reform, she lashed out and bombed the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Then, even though she was friends with Ahsoka, she still allowed her to shoulder the blame. Offee even went as far as to actually frame Ahsoka for the crime as well. 

However, Anakin caught Offee and made her confess her crimes, and that too just in the nick of time before Ashoka got sentenced. Watching Barriss Offee, it’s clear that she is an evil mirror of Ashoka. After all, both of them were disenchanted by the Jedi. The difference between the two of them is that Barriss’ disillusionment led to her getting seduced by the darkness. But Ahsoka didn’t let that happen to her. 

How Was Ahsoka Different From Barriss Offee?

In spite of the accusations, Ahsoka walked away and forged her own path later on. So she accomplished something that neither Offee nor Anakin managed. She also held on to the truths that the Jedi should have followed while also letting go of the Order that should have upheld them. 

In E.K. Johnston’s novel Ahsoka, which takes place after the fall of the Jedi, she says that:

“Barriss Offee was wrong about a lot of things, She shouldn’t have killed anyone, and she definitely shouldn’t have framed me for it, but if we’d listened to her — really listened — we might have been able to stop Palpatine before he took power.”

What Happened To Barriss Offee After She Got Caught By Anakin? 

The last we saw of Offee was her getting taken away by the Jedi Temple Guards probably to a Republican prison. Originally it was planned for her to die at the ending of Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 5, where she killed herself after detonating a few of the bombs in the Temple attack. 

But the showrunner of Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 5, Dave Filoni rewrote the script to ensure her survival. Back in 2015, he explained in a Star Wars liveblog that he had plans for Barriss. So it’s reasonable to assume that these plans will be extending into the Dark Times. After all, a fallen Padawan would be the ideal recruit for the Emperor. 

In fact, Palpatine recruited a bunch of fallen Jedi to be his Inquisitors- a team of powerful Force-users who reported directly to Darth Vader. These Inquisitors had only two roles- to go after Order 66 survivors and to bring Force-sensitive children so that the Emperor could corrupt them and use them in the future. 

So it would make sense if Offee too ended up as an Inquisitor and continued to act as a mirror to Ahsoka. After all, Anakin’s Padawan lived after Order 66 and was, as expected, hunted down across the galaxy by the Inquisitors. In Star Wars: Rebels she gets shown helping some Force-sensitive children so that they don’t wind up in the Emperor’s camps. 

As such, the one best friends would have remained at cross roads even during the Dark Times. 

How Would Barriss Offee Fit In The Upcoming Ahsoka Show? 

The upcoming Ahsoka show is set 5 years after the demise of the Empire. Ahsoka is searching for Grand Admiral Thrawn all across the galaxy to find Ezra Bridger, her friend. Fans will remember that in Rebels, Thrawn escaped into the unknown regions of the galaxy with Bridger. From this, it seems like Thrawn is going to be a major villain of the show. 

After all, he is planning an Imperial Remnant right on the Outer Rim that the New Republic isn’t aware of. This mirrors his job in the Thrawn trilogy (of the old Expanded universe). There Thrawn had organized the whole Empire and launched a brutal blitzkrieg on the entire galaxy. 

Barriss could still be used as Ahsoka’s mirror and she could be shown working with Thrawn as well. In the Thrawn trilogy, he struck a partnership with a corrupted Jedi Master to find better ways of using the Force. Barriss here could step into the role of the Jedi Master and use the darkness to power Thrawn. Thus, it would lead to a more fascinating confrontation between Barriss Offee and Ahsoka. 

If this does end up happening then the parallels would be immense. After all, the Imperial and the Rebel; Anakin Skywalker’s Padawan and the last ones of Darth Vader’s Inquisitors; the darkness and the light would clash. The story potential is immense here. It just remains to be seen what Lucasfilm will do with it. 

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