Tales of the Empire

Grievous on Dathomir killing Nightsisters…?? Son of Dathomir adaptation perhaps? I am intrigued by that and the Bariss storyline. The Elsbeth background storyline, not so much. Thought she was really wasted in Ahsoka, and I don’t think delving into her family history and revenge storyline is going to make me care about her any more.

Overall, this is a nice surprise of a show to be added. I am shocked it was kept under wraps so well! I like the idea of these anthology animations covering the different factions. A lot of potential there. Tales of the Old Republic someday…?

Tobar said:

Acbagel said:

Grievous on Dathomir killing Nightsisters…?? Son of Dathomir adaptation perhaps?

This looks to be a retelling of the battle in Massacre from Elsbeth’s perspective. I don’t think this has anything to do with Son but I still hold out hope that we’ll see that and Dark Disciple adapted as miniseries some day.

Ahh, you may be right… Man, would’ve been a great time to make DD or SoD. Hope to see those brought to life one day.

Looks good! Looking forward to it.

I’m interested in the Barriss Offee episodes finally explaining her story, but will give the Morgan Elsbeth episodes a miss.

Was this meant to come out before the Ahsoka series did? (It seems set up material for Morgan and how she became so loyal to the Empire and Thrawn, but would have been better to show this before the Ahsoka series and her lackluster ending in that show).

MORC said:

Keyan Farlander said:

I’m interested in the Barriss Offee episodes finally explaining her story, but will give the Morgan Elsbeth episodes a miss.

Was this meant to come out before the Ahsoka series did? (It seems set up material for Morgan and how she became so loyal to the Empire and Thrawn, but would have been better to show this before the Ahsoka series and her lackluster ending in that show).

It’s crazy how much they have been jumping around the same small time frame of the universe with all these spinoffs. Telling a story like this gets increasingly harder, specially when all those plot lines are interconnected.

Yep, it really is baffling. There doesn’t appear to be much thought or planning going into many of these modern releases. It feels haphazard, and as you say makes it more difficult when the stories are interconnected.

Maybe we’ll be pleasantly surprised?

MORC said:

Cool, but are we going to ever see an animated series like this for OT characters?

Unfortunately, I doubt it. They seem to struggle writing consistently for their own created characters and lore, let alone iconic OT characters.

I’d love to see it one day, of course. Although done by different creatives that have been in charge since 2008, who continue to mine the EU for ideas and stories, even write over other creatives’ 2014+ canon, as well as using empty fan service instead of creating something that has weight, or has something to actually say.

With that, I hope I’m wrong, and this TOTE will be a good watch, do something fresh, maybe even risk taking, though I’m not holding my breath on that.

Very disappointed by the storyline decisions this time around. To the point where I was actively hating every second of watching Episode 6.

Visually, they have mastered their craft. The art style and thematic depictions are top-notch, probably the best we’ve ever seen in Star Wars animation.

Nothing wrong with Elsbeth’s episodes, other than I find them to be somewhat… pointless? I guess it provides a little bit more context for her appearance in Mando, and some of her attitude in Ahsoka. But when you have an entire universe of characters to choose from to tell 40 minutes of high-quality visual storytelling, I am not exaggerating when I say I could name 200 other characters I would have rather seen get the spotlight than Elsbeth. Her arc here just doesn’t mean anything at the end of the day. Grievous was the highlight of her episodes, followed up by Thrawn. Overall, very mediocre plot with great visuals and thematic presence. 6.2/10

Episode 4 starts incredibly strong with Barriss adjusting to a new life in the Empire. The pacing was as good as it can be in a 15-minute timeslot, and everything here was pure setup potential. Episode 5 appears to start to deliver on this with a very dark and compelling opening scene, but wow does it go off the rails. All of the setup from the previous episode gets tossed out the window, and we get example #100 of dark sider turns good. I just really can’t fathom how that decision makes sense in the second half of the episode. Then 6 just completely lost me from the very premise, to the point where I actively disliked watching it anymore. The Sister gets just as much focus as Barriss, the stupid stab through the chest doesn’t kill people trend, she ALSO turns light, Barriss looks 50 years older but the Sister hasn’t aged a day? And what a tease of Vader for absolutely nothing. That was by far the most interesting premise in the entire show, yet we don’t get anymore than the trailer. Visually still looked great, but I strongly disliked the storyline choices to the point of not even enjoying watching it and now having to try to wipe it from my mind, so a 2.3/10 for me on this arc.

I was a huge fan of Tales of the Jedi, but Tales of the Empire really, really dropped the ball for me. The title of the show barely even makes sense… The Empire was not the focus at all, and at least half the show is set in a time period where the Empire doesn’t even exist. Just very confusing directing decisions, and I left feeling like at best this is simply not worth watching because it adds nothing to the saga other than an improvement in visual effects, and at worst feeling like I disliked it so much I’m going to pretend it doesn’t exist in my headcanon. It gets a 3.1/10 overall from me and I would not recommend it to anyone unless you view it as a tech demo for what the future of Star Wars animation could be.

Should have been called “Tales of the Outcasts” as the Empire was pretty much non-existent in the series.

Honestly such a waste - bare bones Cliffnotes scripts really let down the concepts, there’s nothing here the trailer didn’t already substantiate in a minute of montage editing.

And sure, it’s often felt like intentional withholding of interesting stuff in these animated shows, but this one uniquely bulldozes through the concepts it puts on the table. This was supposed to be answers and payoffs. Bariss’ speculative future was so exciting and compelling in imagination, that’s gone now.