U.I.C.S. ~ Barriss Offee
*U.I.C.S. stands for: Unnecessarily Intensive Character Study*
If you ask the casual Star Wars fan who Barriss Offee is, they will most likely look at you with a slightly confused expression and ask “uh…who?”. Admittedly, this reaction chips away at my soul just a bit, but it’s also not unexpected. She’s a relatively minor character in the grand scheme of the Star Wars universe…but hey. It wouldn’t be the Contrarian Corner if I wasn’t unnaturally obsessed with some obscure character no one else talks about. I’ve always been drawn to minor characters anyway.
For over eight years, Barriss was simply a “blink and you’ll miss it” background Jedi who joined the battle in the Geonosis arena in Attack of the Clones. The occasional supplementary material fleshed her out a bit more over the next few years, and she had a minor but recognizable role in the 2005 Clone Wars series of animated shorts. Still, she was no one to write an in-depth article over…until 2009.
It’s a widely understood fact for those who know me that I am borderline obsessed with The Clone Wars. I consider it to be the best piece of Star Wars media ever created. This extremely high opinion is due, in no small part, to the role that Barriss Offee plays, and her appearances in the show began back in the episode entitled “Weapons Factory”. This episode was part of the Return to Geonosis arc at the start of season two.
Barriss makes an understated first appearance, as she is introduced as the quiet, reserved, and studious padawan of the refined Master Luminara. She’s Ahsoka’s age, but the two are polar opposites. Ahsoka frequently quarrels with Anakin, and makes snap judgements based off her feelings. Barriss relies on practiced logical thinking, and doesn’t do well when circumstances shift beyond her preparation.
Still, she and Ahsoka hit it off, and the two are able to successfully infiltrate a Separatist weapons factory and destroy it. Ahsoka makes the tough calls and fights fiercely, while Barriss takes measure of the situation calmly, and also memorized hundreds of twisting tunnels to allow the two girls to sneak into the factory unnoticed.
Near the end of the episode, the two padawans are trapped inside of an indestructible tank buried under tons of rubble. As they contemplate their fate, Barriss has resigned herself to join the Force, while Ahsoka works tirelessly to find a way to escape. Barriss was raised to always respect the Force and its mysterious will, and she is devout in her followings of Jedi principles…even if the cost of following those principles is her life.
This philosophy of hers is expounded upon two episodes later, in “Brain Invaders”. Before everything goes crazy with mind controlling brain worms, Barriss and Ahsoka have a chat in their cruiser’s cafeteria. Barriss talks about how she admires the Jedi Code, and seems confused by Ahsoka’s implication that she and her master, Anakin, view the Jedi Code a bit more liberally.
In the course of the episode’s runtime, Barriss becomes enslaved to the brain worms, and fights Ahsoka. She demonstrates her considerable skill with a lightsaber while fighting Ahsoka, and the battle also brings out the best in the tenacious Togruta padawan. In a brief moment of lucidity, Barriss begs to be killed, adhering to what the Jedi Code would dictate in a moment of crisis. Ahsoka instead prolongs their encounter in order to save Barriss’ life. The action cements the two girls as best friends for the years to come.
It’s at this point that Barriss fades from the focus of the show for quite a while (nearly three seasons, to be exact). Still, she pops up from time to time wandering the halls of the Jedi Temple, for flying her starfighter to aid in various space battles. Ever the consummate Jedi, Barriss continues to fight for the cause she believes in, and strives for an end to the Clone Wars.
*We’re entering speculative territory now, as Barriss’ shift from the Geonosis arc to the Sabotage arc happens off-screen.*
But she is still a child, and her starry naivete cannot last forever. As the months and months of endless fighting and violence carry on, the war begins to take its toll on Barriss. She’d prided herself on her studious and inquisitive nature, but it’s coming back to bite her now. The apathy the Jedi Council shows towards the violent war is wearing on her, and the cries of the protesting public are becoming harder to ignore.
For the first time in her life, Barriss starts to question the validity of the Jedi.
At some point, Barriss reaches out for anyone who shares the same thoughts as her, and desperate to keep her inner turmoil hidden from other Jedi, she makes contact with anti-war protesters. Amidst those protesters, Barriss strikes up a partnership with a woman named Letta Turmond, who staunchly advocates for the Jedi Order to be taken down. Though it goes against everything she’s ever believed in, Barriss finds herself agreeing with the woman’s philosophy…
…or at least, most of it. Barriss grows more and more disillusioned with what the Jedi Order has become, but not what it USED to be. While Letta clamors for the Jedi to be dissolved so that the endless fighting can stop, Barriss wishes for a different outcome. She still loves the Force. She still respects the legacy of the Jedi of old. She doesn’t want the Jedi Order to be destroyed. She wants it to be remade.
For the first time in her life, Barriss starts to question the validity of the Jedi.
*We’re back into factual, canonical territory now.*
A plan is hatched, one involving Letta’s husband (who works with nanodroid explosives and other military supplies). Letta feeds her own husband a ticking time bomb, and then he shuffles off to work in the Jedi Temple’s hangar bay. A few hours later, the bomb in his stomach explodes, detonating a massive fireball in the hanger that kills over thirty people, including six Jedi.
Letta is supremely pleased, and she is able to instantly rally her followers to protest on the steps of the Jedi Temple, yelling about the innocent lives lost under the Jedi’s foolhardy protection. Barriss, meanwhile, has only begun to put her plan into motion.
The timing of the temple bombing was purposeful, as the attack took place when Barriss’ best friend, Ahsoka, was off world on a mission with Anakin. Thusly, the Jedi summon her and her master back so that they can investigate the evidence of the bombing without bias. The council is not so blinded to totally rule out a Jedi being the perpetrator of the assault, so Ahsoka and Anakin get to work examining the crime scene, while Barriss keeps an inconspicuous eye on things in the background.
The trail of evidence does, in fact, lead Ahsoka and Anakin to Letta, and they promptly arrest her after she stumbles into an accidental confession. Letta is dragged off to jail thinking that her scheme failed, whereas Barriss contemplates for one final time if she truly wants to move onto phase two of her plan. There’s no going back if she does so.
This leads right into a pivotal conversation between the two friends. Ahsoka’s been asked to visit Letta in her jail cell (Letta wants to confess to everything), and before she heads off, Barriss asks Ahsoka if she thinks the Jedi are right to ignore their emotions. Ahsoka says yes, but that it isn’t always easy to do so. Still, she thinks it’s the Jedi’s duty to keep pushing forward.
The short pep talk Ahsoka gives in this scene is pulling double duty. One, it’s a poignant summation of Ahsoka’s character development throughout the series. Ahsoka is the Jedi without fear, the consummate portrait of the great heights the Jedi Order can strive to. She’s perfect, in Barriss’ eyes. However, this reaffirmation Ahsoka goes through in this scene serves as the final catalyst for Barriss’ plan. It’s now abundantly clear that Ahsoka is exactly who Barriss needs, and the crestfallen expression on her face as she turns to walk away is heartbreaking.
She’s about to manipulate Ahsoka into taking the fall for everything. If she can make out the best Jedi of all as one who would stoop to murder and terrorism, then the whole Order will fall with her.
Predictably, Barriss wastes no time in setting the stage for the next step of her plan. While Ahsoka is meeting with Letta, she Force chokes Letta to death through the ceiling of the prison (right before Letta can reveal Barriss’ involvement), leading to Ahsoka being implicated and temporarily held in a holding cell. Barriss then sneaks into the prison, kills the guards, and slips Ahsoka the key card to her cell door with the Force, as to avoid being seeing. Thinking Anakin is helping her break free, Ahsoka eagerly escapes her cell…
…only to find a hallway littered with the bodies of clones. Panicking, Ahsoka is spotted by another patrol of clones, and she makes a break for it, only furthering the extremely suspicious feelings welling up inside of the clones chasing her. In fact, as Ahsoka flees the prison, she comes upon body after body up slain clone. Barriss has carved a clear path that both ensures Ahsoka’s escape, and implicates her further.
By this point, Republic officials believe that Ahsoka is the true mastermind of the temple bombing, and that she killed Letta in a foolish attempt to silence her. With no chance to catch her breath, Ahsoka descends into the depths of Coruscant, vanishing from the clone guards and the police. Frightened and alone, while feeling betrayed by almost everyone she knows, Ahsoka accesses a secure communication line and contacts the only person she feels she can trust: Barriss.
Exactly as Barriss planned.
Putting up a façade of sympathy and compassion, Barriss lays the groundwork for the next phase in her plan. She plays on the deep bond of friendship she shares with her distraught friend to guide her into the bowels of Coruscant towards an abandoned factory. Barriss has already set the stage in this factory, and Ahsoka is left without a clue in the world as she believes Barriss is assisting her in finding the true culprit.
There’s a spanner in the works, however, in the form of Sith-turned-bounty hunter Asajj Ventress. Asajj runs into Ahsoka because she’s intrigued by the reward out for her capture, but after sensing Ahsoka’s life experiences are eerily similar to her own, Asajj decides to stick with her instead. The two don’t quite get along, but they aren’t at each other’s throats either. They part on amicable terms once Asajj leads Ahsoka to the factory.
Not knowing Asajj had ever made contact with Ahsoka, Barriss ambushes Asajj, knocking her out and stealing her lightsabers and gear. In the disguise of Asajj, Barriss attacks Ahsoka at the factory, utterly dominating her former friend.
Though Ahsoka is an extremely formidable opponent, Barriss excels at planning ahead, and she prepped the factory specifically to serve as her tailor-made battleground. It’s almost upsetting to see how flawlessly Barriss strings Ahsoka along through one trap after another, eventually ending in Barriss smacking Ahsoka’s lightsaber from her hand and kicking her off a balcony, causing Ahsoka to land amidst a pile of crates containing nanodroid explosives…
…right as the police and clone guards arrive. Seemingly caught with irrefutable evidence, Ahsoka is immediately detained while Barriss watches from above.
It begins to become clear just how extremely brilliant Barriss’ plan is. If Letta had never been found out, she and Barriss could’ve planned more attacks on the temple. If Ahsoka had fled Coruscant and escaped capture, Barriss still could’ve used the political momentum from the temple bombing to stir up the people to revolt against the Jedi. Or, everything goes perfectly (and it does up until now), and Barriss makes Ahsoka out into the end of the Jedi. To top it off, none of it points back to Barriss. She’s supremely safe.
The only thing that could even attempt to stop Barriss now is random chance (or perhaps the Will of the Force). And, of course, that’s exactly what happens.
While Ahsoka is disbarred from the Jedi Order and sentenced to a trial, Anakin does some investigation of his own after being told by Ahsoka that she received help from Asajj. He tracks down Asajj and demands to know what part his former archenemy had in implicating Ahsoka for the crimes, but Asajj pleads innocence. She regales Anakin about how alike she and Ahsoka truly are, and she also informs him that the only other person Ahsoka was in contact with was Barriss (Ahsoka had mentioned Barriss to Asajj in the brief time they travelled together).
Returning to the temple, Anakin confronts Barriss in what is one of my absolute favorite scenes in the entire show. He causally picks up the girl’s lightsaber, and asks why she was in contact with Ahsoka. When Barriss explains her desire to help her best friend, Anakin mentions how Ahsoka is convinced Asajj betrayed her, and Asajj pointed the finger at Barriss.
Barriss is stunned to hear this, as it’s the first time she’s alerted to the fact that Asajj was ever travelling with Ahsoka. The discreetness of her plan hinged on there being nothing to connect back to her, which was the point of attacking Ahsoka while disguised as Asajj. Now, there’s a clear connection, seeing as Asajj knew Ahsoka was in contact with Barriss, and insisted on her innocence to Anakin. Barriss is a planner, and when her plans go south, she panics.
Growing in confidence, Anakin takes a swing at her with his lightsaber (a swing he could easily divert if need be). Still, on edge and not thinking straight, Barriss draws her own lightsaber and parries the attack. Or rather, she draws Asajj’s lightsabers, which she decided to keep after stealing them for her disguise. As she notes with a certain smugness “I think they suit me”.
It’s worth nothing here the possibility of Barriss being corrupted by the Dark Side. It’s my interpretation of the Star Wars universe that the Dark Side is like some sort of darkness that latches onto someone the more evil, violent acts they commit. There’s no way to know for certain, but Barriss’ attitude in this scene implies she’s been at least partially corrupted by the Dark Side from the killing she’s done in this arc. Of course, her own corruption plays right into her general philosophy of the Jedi Order driving their own members to violence in the Clone Wars.
Regardless, she and Anakin launch into an incredible duel through the halls of the temple and out into the courtyard. Anakin is the Chosen One, and the strongest Jedi to ever live, yet Barriss consistently keeps up and even overpowers him on two occasions. She’s drawing on her anger and hatred, true, but this fight also demonstrates her mastery of spatial awareness and fighting in closed spaces. The battle with Ahsoka in the abandoned factory prepared the viewer for this insight into Barriss’ fighting style.
As the fight moves into the courtyard outside, Barriss loses the advantage of the environment, and falls victim to Anakin’s significantly stronger physical strength. At the climax of the duel, Anakin comes extremely close to killing her, and he only barely restrains himself. They need her alive, so that Ahsoka can be saved.
Anakin and Barriss arrive just in time to stop Ahsoka from being declared guilty, and Barriss is led to confess. Her confession is a poignant and succinct summary of the inner turmoil that has driven her actions across the previous four episodes, and even before.
She’s discovered the truth that the council of Jedi Masters have been too blind and arrogant to notice. She’s recognized that the Clone Wars, and its endless cycle of death and violence, is corrupting the Jedi Order. Jedi are no longer serving as protectors of the peace, but as generals and killers. Each drop of blood shed is corrupting the Jedi, driving them further from the light and closer to the dark. In time, the Jedi will be nothing be servants to the Dark Side.
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It’s rather interesting to see just how spot-on Barriss’ thinking was, with regards to Palpatine.
Is Barriss correct in her thinking? Yes, of course. Was she right in doing what she did? Not at all. She betrayed her best friend and nearly ruined her life, personally killed well over forty people, and was clearly aiming to destroy even more in her desire to break down and rebuild the Jedi Order. She’s also, frankly, not particularly nice about it, which is no doubt due to the influence of the Dark Side creeping in.
She is both understandable, and despicable. Sympathetic, and also heartless. In other words, a perfect villain.
The last we see of Barriss in this show, and indeed in all of Star Wars, is a shot of guards taking her away to prison while Ahsoka looks on, an expression of unfathomable pain on her face. Ahsoka is horrified at what Barriss has done, but her former friend’s words also ring true. Over the course of the arc, Ahsoka has come to realize many of the things Barriss has said, and when the final scene comes around, she makes a life-altering decision because of it.
She is both understandable, and despicable. Sympathetic, and also heartless. In other words, a perfect villain.
Never in my life has a character who only appears in six episodes of a show had so much of an impact on the story, the characters, the theme, and my own life. When it comes to Star Wars, Barriss Offee is one of the best.
But hey, that’s just my opinion!
The Contrarian Corner 