“ | Barriss Offee was wrong about a lot of things. She let her anger cloud her judgement and she tried to justify her actions without considering their wider effects. She was afraid of the war and she didn't trust people she should've listened to. But she had a point about the Republic and the Jedi. There was something wrong with them, and we were too locked into our traditions to see what it was. Barriss should've done something else. 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. | „ |
~ Ahsoka Tano expressing her feelings over Barriss Offee's actions. |
Barriss Offee is a major character in the Star Wars franchise. She was a Mirialan Jedi Knight, General, and Healer. She carried a blue lightsaber (later Asajj's two red lightsabers) and was once a friend to Ahsoka Tano.
She was portrayed by Nalini Krishan in Attack of the Clones and voiced by Meredith Salenger in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series.
History[]
Barriss was once the loyal Jedi Padawan of Luminara Unduli and a skilled healer. In the period of the Clone Wars, she earned the rank of Jedi Knight and General. However, as she was fighting in this galactic conflict, she slowly realized how bad it truly was and came to blame the Jedi Order for causing it in the first place. This led her to secretly turn to the dark side.
Fueled by delusion and immorality, to show her protest, she launched a secret bombing on the Jedi Temple. She forced Letta Turmond to feed explosive nano-droids to her husband, Jackar Bowmani, who worked in the Jedi Temple as a munitions expert. The next day in the hanger, nano-droids blew up, killing Jackar and six Jedi as well as clone troopers. All evidence led to Letta and she is sent to the prison. When Ahsoka came to see her, Letta was Force-choked to death by Offee, but it was Ahsoka who ended up in the prison for "killing" her.
Offee later entered the prison, killed several guards and helped Ahsoka to escape, with her believing it was her master, Anakin Skywalker, who helped her. Unfortunately, Ahsoka was blamed for killing the guards and had to flee and attempt to prove her innocence. She contacted Offee, who pretended to help her and led Ahsoka to a warehouse. She then knocked off Asajj Ventress, stole her mask and lightsabers, and attacked the Togruta, disguised as Ventress. Their duel ended when Ahsoka fell off a balcony, landed near crates of nano-droids, and was arrested by the clones. Shortly afterward, Ahsoka was brought before the Jedi Council, who proceeded to expel her from the Jedi Order, stripping her of her rank, title, and battlefield privileges, and turned her over to the Republic military courts so she could receive more "impartial' judgment.
However, Anakin was the only one who correctly believed Ahsoka was innocent and hunted for proof of the real culprit. He questioned Ventress who told him that Ahsoka was in contact with Offee, making him suspicious. He came to the Mirialan's quarters where he talked to her about his investigation. Realizing that Anakin was onto her, and was about to attack her with his lightsaber, Barriss decided to drop her cover by pulling out Ventress' blades to defend herself. They fought throughout the temple, during which, Anakin chastised her for betraying Ahsoka, only Barriss to respond by saying that trust is overrated and that violence is what the Jedi believe in anymore. Their fight took to the courtyard, where Barriss was finally defeated and captured.
Anakin then brought Offee to Ahsoka's trial, thus saving his Padawan from capital punishment. Offee fiercely stated what she believed to the entire court: She felt that the Jedi had grown corrupt and were the ones truly responsible for the Clone Wars; that they are the real villains, the real ones to be put on trial. Barriss also stated that it was only a matter of time before they and the entire Galactic Republic would fall. Afterward, she was imprisoned while all charges against Ahsoka were dropped. The young Togruta was personally invited by the Jedi Council to rejoin the Order, but she refused and left, having lost faith in the Council for not believing in her.
Barriss breaking the partnership between Anakin and Ahsoka lead to unknown consequences and possibilities. Anakin had lost his Padawan, who had served as a humbling and compassionate bond, but losing this meant there was one less obstacle to his decline into becoming Darth Vader. Ahsoka may have been saved in the long-term, since she was able to build connections that she would later use in service of the future Rebellion, which she couldn't have done if she remained within the Jedi Order.
Barris' prediction about the moral decay of the Galactic Republic would come to fruition as Darth Sidious transitioned it into the Galactic Empire, initiating the Jedi Purge in the process. Her former master, Luminara Unduli was betrayed and killed. Unduli's bones were later used by The Grand Inquisitor to lure the Jedi who survived Order 66 from their exile. Sometime after the rise of the Empire, Barriss is freed from her imprisonment by the Fourth Sister and recruited into the Inquisitorius, a group of force-sensitive Jedi hunters.
Personality[]
Barriss was at first an average young Padawan, aiming to be a Jedi, holding a strong sense of compassion and justice. However, her Master, Luminara Unduli's meditatively detached persona meant that Barriss was not properly informed about the horrors of war; when the Clone Wars began, she had a vague understanding of its dangers, yet lacked the teaching to either reassure or merely inform her. Upon entering her first significant battle on Geonosis, she was joined by fellow Padawan, Ahsoka Tano; the girls became fast friends, largely due to predominantly spending their time with people who aren't in their age group. Due to Anakin's more straightforward training, Ahsoka's own experiences, and Ahsoka's inherently strong-willed nature, she was of immense support to Barriss.
When Barriss and Ahsoka were buried alive, they were presumed dead. Luminara, believing in the transitory nature of life, accepted that they had moved on into the Force, whereas Anakin refused to give up, the latter leading a successful rescue. Learning that her Master was willing to accept her death without protest made Barriss feel as though she didn't matter, shaking her sense of self-worth and faith in the Jedi. Before she could process this, a Geonosian parasite had infested several clones and her, leading them to be puppets into retaliation for the planet's invasion. Barriss was freed from the parasite, but this added to her trauma.
Barriss and Ahsoka parted ways due to different duties, but they would reunite on Coruscant. Barriss, having been traumatised by the war and becoming disillusioned about the Jedi commitment to peace yet seeing their hypocrisy in still engaging in the Clone Wars, instigated a terrorist plot against the Jedi Temple, in some misguided attempt to protest it; ironically, not seeing her own hypocrisy in using violence to protest violence. Despite their friendship, Barriss framed Ahsoka, causing the latter to go on the run; Ahsoka sought her help, yet Barriss callously gave her a false lead that would end in Ahsoka's arrest. After Ahsoka's arrest, Anakin's faith in his Padawan's innocence motivates him to investigate himself; he interrogates Asajj Ventress (also framed by Barriss) who told him that Ahsoka was in contact with Barriss, which lead a suspicious Anakin to her. Feeling cornered, Barriss pulled out lightsabers she had stolen from Ventress, thus proving her guilt. but was swiftly defeated and taken into custody by the Jedi Knight.
Barriss was moved by Anakin into the tribunal that was sentencing Ahsoka. Seeing no more use in subterfuge, Barriss admits her crimes, which exonerates Ahsoka, but Barriss goes on to blame the Jedi Order for causing her actions; she condemns the Jedi for - what she believed - prolonging the war despite the oath to keep peace. Barriss confessed her fear that the Jedi and Republic were close to becoming the very thing of corruption and cruelty that they are meant to fight against. As Barriss and Ahsoka part for the final time, Barriss has a solemn expression, indicating that she had enough awareness left to feel guilt at betraying and ruining the life of one of her only friends.
Barriss was still in custody when the flawed Galactic Republic was reformed into the tyrannical Galactic Empire, thus proving most of her paranoia about the Republic true. Due to being dismissed from the Jedi, Barriss was not a victim of Order 66. Despite her apparent moral absoluteness, she was released from prison to be inducted into the Inquisitors (TBD)
Killed Victims[]
- 5 Jedi (killed in a bombing)
- Tutso Mara (killed in a bombing)
- Letta Turmond (Force-choked to death, successfully framing Ahsoka in the process)
- 3 clone troopers (slashed with a lightsaber)
Quotes[]
“ | Anakin: "Ahsoka trusted you and you betrayed her!" Bariss: "I've learned that 'trust' is overrated. The only thing the Jedi Council believes in is violence!" |
„ |
~ Barriss Offee expressing her views. |
“ | I did it. Because I've come to realize what many people in the Republic have come to realize, that the Jedi are the ones responsible for this war. That we've so lost our way that we have become villains in this conflict, that we are the ones that should be put on trial! All of us! And my attack on the Temple was an attack on what the Jedi have become: an army fighting for the dark side, fallen from the light that we once held so dear. This Republic is failing! It's only a matter of time. | „ |
~ Barriss Offee's confession. |
Gallery[]
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Trivia[]
- Barriss Offee's final fate in Canon Continuity is unknown. Some believe that Barris Offee joined the Inquisitorius of the Galactic Empire after the war, like many other former Jedi. Though this has yet to be confirmed.
- Ironically, if she became an Inquisitor, she would have been trained and led by the very same man who exposed and captured her: Anakin Skywalker, who later became Darth Vader.
- Many people have claimed that the Seventh Sister is Barriss Offee due to their similar appearances, but Filoni confirmed that they are two different characters.
- Ironically, if she became an Inquisitor, she would have been trained and led by the very same man who exposed and captured her: Anakin Skywalker, who later became Darth Vader.
- She was originally supposed to die in the season 5 finale but was spared since Dave Filoni said he had plans for the character.
- Despite this, Barriss hasn't appeared in any form of Star Wars media since then but is set to return in "Tales of the Empire" where she becomes an Inquisitor.
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode director Giancarlo Volpe originally pushed for Barriss Offee to have a romantic relationship with Ahsoka Tano in "Weapons Factory", only for his idea to be ignored likely due to how conservative children's television shows used to be back then in the 2000s. The later episode "The Jedi Who Knew Too Much" would suggest she had feelings for Tutso Mara, a male Jedi Knight. In the Legends Continuity novel MedStar I: Battle Surgeons, Jos Vondar feels attracted to Barriss and thinks about how she may look like under her robes, but it's unknown if Barriss felt anything similar for him in return.