Every now and then, for reasons best known to my subconscious, I’ll think to myself “Whatever happened to Person A?” Person A can be anyone in my real-world or a character in a fictional world like Star Wars. More than once I have wondered what happened to certain characters in the Star Wars universe whose whereabouts, or even existence are unknown. With the onslaught of Star Wars content that we will be getting for the rest of our lives, whereabouts unknown means a chance we could see the character in some way down the road. To be fair, a character’s death doesn’t mean we won’t get new stories from them (the Obi-Wan Kenobi and Andor series coming are prime examples of continuing stories of characters whose fates we know) but the answer of what a character has been up to since we last saw them is very rarely answered in Star Wars. Ahsoka will change that when her series premieres, but in the meantime, it is fun to theorize on where these characters might have ended up (and if we might see them again). First off, let’s discuss whatever happened to Barriss Offee.

Barriss Offee made her first appearance as a Padawan of Master Luminara Unduli in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. Like most of the female Jedi in that film, she had zero lines; fortunately, her story continued in a few arcs in the animated series The Clone Wars. The series redeemed a lot of characters, especially Anakin and Padme, and introduced arguably one of the most popular modern Star Wars characters, Ahsoka Tano. While Barriss is used mostly as a parallel for Ahsoka’s believes on war and the Jedi Order, her arc is fascinating mainly because there is so much change that happens off-screen. Barriss is first introduced as an ideal Jedi Padawan, following the orders of her Master and the Jedi Council and acting selflessly. At some point during the Clone Wars, she became disillusioned with the Jedi Order and started to question their role in the war. This culminated in a plot in which Barriss and her co-conspirator, Letta Turmond, blew up the Jedi Temple, leading to the deaths of Jedi, clones, and innocent civilians working there. She then killed Turmond to protect herself and frame Ahsoka for the bombing, signally a vastly different Barriss than the one we first met in season two. She was eventually caught and confessed her role in the bombing, but had some words regarding the Jedi Order:

“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.”

– Barriss Offee, The Wrong Jedi (The Clone Wars, Season 5)

No lies detected. She was closer on the mark than she knew given that the Jedi were fighting for the Republic, which was controlled by Palpatine against the Separatists, also controlled by Palpatine. Ahsoka is cleared but the damage to her faith in the Jedi was done, and she promptly left the Order.

Ahsoka’s story is still being played out but, of what became of Barriss, we can only guess. In a 2015 panel discussion, Dave Filoni confirmed that, while Barriss was supposed to die in “The Wrong Jedi”, he kept her alive for future plans. Could these future plans be coming to fruition this year with The Bad Batch? Here are a few possibilities:

She Became an Inquisitor

This was a popular theory among many in the Star Wars community, especially when Rebels introduced the Seventh Sister who was also a Mirialan. This was quickly debunked as the Seventh Sister was confirmed to be a new character. The theories lived on and were given new life when the trailer for Jedi: Fallen Order was released and there was another female Inquisitor as the main villain. This would have been a perfect synergy of canon cohesiveness and would have added another level of hype to the game; unfortunately, this also was proven to be false as the character was revealed to be Trilla, the former apprentice of one of the main NPCs, Cere Junda.

This theory is still not dead and might be more of a possibility than other theories for two reasons. The first is because the actual number of Inquisitors was never confirmed, therefore, Lucasfilm can continually add more Inquisitors as they see fit. There are 11 known Inquisitors and, of those, she could only be the Fourth Sister who we don’t know anything about, including whether she lived through the reign of the Empire. The second reason is that given the way Inquisitors were recruited (by either joining willingly, getting kidnaped as children, or being tortured) it seems like it would be easier to convince a former Padawan who has already put both feet in the dark side pool to just jump in rather than spending the time and effort tracking and torturing. The Bad Batch would be taking place during the time that Palpatine and Vader would be building the Inquisitorius and be looking for Jedi. Plus, she was already in the custody of the Empire so Inquisitors wouldn’t need to go far. Unless…

She Somehow Escaped Prison

It would not be the first time someone would have escaped Imperial custody (she wouldn’t even be the first Jedi to escape Imperial custody) but Barriss was being held on Coruscant which I imagine would be even more difficult to manage after the Clone Wars. She could have escaped before Order 66 and the grip of Imperial big brother settled across the galaxy. That would mean that she would be on the run from Vader and the Inquisitors, which would also fit into the timeline of The Bad Batch. It would make for a compelling arc if the Bad Batch come across Barriss Offee during one of their jobs, and then what? Would Order 66 compel the clones to try and kill her or does the inhibitor chip even work for them? We will likely get an answer to the latter in the upcoming Disney+ series. Technically, Barriss would no longer be a Jedi but that didn’t stop the 332nd from taking all the shots on Ahsoka in the final episode of The Clone Wars so I doubt that would make a difference.

She Was Killed During Order 66

This is not likely given Filoni’s statement but that was back in 2012 and the Star Wars universe is bigger now, with more characters to explore. There is a chance Filoni could have changed his mind and will put Barriss’ fate to rest in another interview by confirming she was killed in her cell during Order 66, similar to how Maul was almost executed and more in line with her fate from the legends timeline.

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Barriss Offee’s whereabouts are an open thread purposely created by Dave Filoni so I am sure we will get either closure or a continuation of her story, if not in a series then perhaps a novel like Asajj in Dark Disciple or a comic series. Until then, I will continue to ask myself the question whenever I look at my Barriss Offee Clone Wars figure staring back at me from the shelf.