Who Is Barriss Offee, Ahsoka’s Jedi Nemesis…& Star Wars’ Newest Inquisitor

Barriss Offee, once a friend and later a bitter enemy of Ahsoka Tano, will become the Star Wars franchise’s latest Imperial Inquisitor. Barriss Offee shocked viewers of Star Wars: The Clone Wars when she betrayed the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order, bombing the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and later framing Ahsoka Tano for the heinous act. Offee’s betrayal and the Jedi Order’s lack of confidence in Ahsoka’s innocence directly led her to leave the Order, yet viewers have long wondered what became of Offee after the truth was revealed and she was arrested.

Notably, Barriss Offee was a markedly different character in her original incarnation. The Star Wars Legends continuity established Barriss Offee as a Jedi healer of roughly the same age as Anakin Skywalker. The Legends-era Offee never betrayed the Republic, and instead tragically died in Order 66 on Felucia. The Clone Wars and other modern Star Wars canon materials reimagined Barriss Offee as a Jedi Knight around the same age as Ahsoka Tano and an eventual terrorist whose story is finally due to be continued in the forthcoming animated miniseries Star Wars: Tales of the Empire.

Barriss Offee Was One Of Ahsoka’s Closest Friends

The Padawan Of Luminara Unduli Shared Many Experiences With Ahsoka

Ahsoka Tano and Barriss Offee meet in The Clone Wars season 2’s Geonosis story arc, with the two forming a close friendship, though their first missions together were rife with trauma. The pair destroyed a Separatist droid factory but were trapped inside a Separatist super-tank and buried under the factory’s ruins for some time before being rescued. Even after the battle, Ahsoka and Barriss found themselves fighting each other when the latter – along with numerous clone troopers – had their bodies temporarily hijacked by Geonosian brain worms.

Ahsoka Tano and Barriss Offee’s friendship continued to grow after the Second Battle of Geonosis, making Offee’s eventual betrayal even more devastating. Ahsoka Tano was not initially part of Barriss Offee’s plot to bomb the Jedi Temple, but as her investigation brought her closer to uncovering the truth of the attack, Offee framed her for murdering a co-conspirator and later for the bombing itself. Notably, another of Barriss Offee’s friends – the Jedi Knight Tutso Mara – was killed by Barriss Offee’s bombing.

Why Barriss Offee Betrayed The Jedi

Barriss Had Lost Faith In The Jedi & Their Participation In The Clone Wars

Barriss Offee justified her horrific actions in The Clone Wars by stating that she felt the Jedi and Republic had lost their way. Whether Offee is correct, her disillusionment with both organizations led her to fall to the dark side, turning her into a hypocrite. Offee believed that the Jedi and Republic were responsible for the galaxy-spanning Clone Wars and the widespread suffering it inflicted, yet her actions were never going to end the war, they only caused more suffering. Little did she know that neither entity was responsible for the Clone Wars.

While the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic had become corrupt and complacent well before the Clone Wars, the war itself was the result of the Dark Lords of the Sith: Palpatine and Count Dooku. The Separatists were controlled opposition to unite the Republic and render it susceptible to a totalitarian coup. Barriss Offee’s actions would only further play into Palpatine’s machinations, with her bombing of the Jedi Temple changing nothing and her fall to the dark side making her a useful pawn for the Sith Lord once the Galactic Empire supplanted the Republic.

Star Wars Has Confirmed Barriss Offee Became An Imperial Inquisitor

The Fallen Jedi Padawan Will Now Serve A New Master

While Barriss Offee’s actions had major ramifications for Ahsoka Tano’s story, she herself was scarcely mentioned after The Clone Wars. With numerous opportunities for the Star Wars franchise to continue Offee’s story having come and gone in the 11 years since her final The Clone Wars appearance, it is relieving that she will finally resurface in Tales of the Empire. Given Barriss Offee’s turn to the dark side at the end of The Clone Wars, many viewers expected her to join the Imperial Inquisitors, which Tales of the Empire’s trailer confirms.

Barriss Offee’s new status as an Imperial Inquisitor already presents tragic consequences and ironies for her betrayal in The Clone Wars. Offee will now serve the very evil that she perceived the Jedi and Republic to be, and she will be trained in the ways of the dark side and Sith combat techniques by Darth Vader (who she tried to kill when he was Anakin Skywalker) and the Grand Inquisitor (a former Jedi Temple Guard who seized her following her betrayal). Whether Barriss Offee’s Star Wars story continues past Tales of the Empire remains to be seen.