Is Barriss Offee an Inquisitor/Second Sister in Rebels?

Former Jedi Padawan Barriss Offee was last seen as a prisoner of the Republic in Star Wars Clone Wars. But ever since the entry of the mysterious female Inquisitor in Star Wars Rebels, Season 2, fans have been wondering if Barriss Offee joined the Sith and became a disciple of Darth Vader. Is Barriss Offee the Seventh Sister in Star Wars Rebels?

No, Barriss Offee is not the Seventh Sister in Star Wars Rebels. But considering the vague end her character got in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Barriss Offee could have joined the Sith. Many fans still believe that the two were the same person.

Can’t blame them, they have many reasons to believe that Barriss Offee and the Seventh Sister were the same person. Firstly, they are both of the same race and look vaguely similar. That is if we ignored some tattoos and eye color.

Secondly, by bombing the Jedi Temple and killing many innocent people, Barriss Offee had proven that she was falling prey to the dark side. Even though she carried out the heinous plan to expose the misguided nature of the Jedi Order, it exposed her Sith-like capabilities. Vader could likely have approached Offee to join his forces after Order 66.

Thirdly, Ahsoka could have failed to identify the female Inquisitor as Barriss Offee because she two never really dueled the latter. Ever. With time and Vader’s training, Barriss could have changed her tactics drastically as an Inquisitor, making them unrecognizable for someone who knew Offee.

But fact remains that there is no proof in the canon stories that Barriss Offee transformed into Seventh Sister and hunted the Jedi for the Empire.

1. Is Barriss Offee Alive?

One of the first questions about Barriss Offee at the end of the Clone Wars is if she made it out alive. After being convicted of bombing the Jedi Temple, she had to be sentenced to execution. But we never see her being executed in the series.

As the Jedi Padawan to Master Luminara Unduli, Barrisss Offee fought in the Battle of Geonosis. She became a close friend of Anakin Skywalker’s Padawan Ahsoka Tano. Eventually, Barrisss grew disgusted with the Jedi Order due to its role in perpetrating violence during the Clone Wars. She bombed the Jedi Temple and framed Ahsoka as part of a scheme to prove her point.

Barriss won in exposing the rotten side of the Jedi Order, sowing a seed of doubt in Ahsoka, Anakin, and even the Grand Inquisitor who was deployed as a Coruscant Guard. She is convicted and imprisoned but what happens to Barriss afterward remains a mystery.

Over the years fans theorized that she could have survived Order 66 and served the Sith in exchange for her freedom. Making it very likely that she became one of the Inquisitors.

2. Is Barriss Offee a Sith?

Barriss Offee is a Force-sensitive Mirialan who trains as a Jedi Padawan during the Star Wars: Clone Wars. She carries a blue lightsaber and trains under Jedi Master Luminara Unduli. But she soon realizes how much violence the Jedi Order was perpetrating in the name of controlling it and grows severely disillusioned by it.

But just because someone hates the Jedi does not mean they have become Sith. In her attempt to prove the hollowness of the Jedi Order’s moralities, Barriss bombs the Jedi Temple and causes immense death and destruction. She even Force-chokes a man in the process of framing Ahsoka for the bombing. Does this behavior make her a Sith? No.

Barriss confesses to masterminding the bombing. In her defense, she reveals what she truly feels about the Jedi Order’s role in the Clone Wars.

“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, trial for the Jedi Temple bombing

The emotion behind this statement by Offee proves one thing that there was no way she could have switched sides to join Palpatine’s Empire. On the contrary, her warnings about “the Jedi becoming the real villains of the Clone Wars” actually raised questions at Palpatine’s Chancellorship. Had the Jedi Council paid any heed to them, the truth of Palpatine being a Sith Lord could have come out much before it did.

So there is little chance Offee could have joined Darth Vader and the Sith unless something major went on. Vader could have promised to save her life or push her to revenge on the Jedi. Something more than just her willingness to kill people, perhaps.

3. What race is the Seventh Sister?

Both the Seventh Sister and Barriss Offee belong to the planet Mirial. Its inhabitants were known as Mirialans, a near-human species native to the planet. They had green to yellow skin and tattoos adorning their faces.

The Mirialans were known for their spirituality and strong connection albeit primitive connection to the Force. Barriss’s Jedi Master Luminara Unduli was also a green-skinned Mirialan who served the Jedi Order during the final years of the Galactic Republic.

4. Why Barriss Offee is not the female Inquisitor in Rebels

One of the major reasons for fans wondering about Seventh Sister’s backstory was the juicy backstory of her leader, the Grand Inquisitor. He was a former Jedi serving as the guard of the Jedi Temple.

When Offee was arrested and brought before the Jedi Council, the Grand Inquisitor was present as one of the guards restraining her. It was revealed that Offee’s harsh words against the Jedi were partly responsible for the Inquisitor’s turn to the dark side.

So the confusion between Barriss Offee in Clone Wars and the Seventh Sister in Rebels is legitimate. But there are many reasons against this reasoning as well.

[Clone Wars] Barriss Offee/Seventh Sister - Look What You Made Me Do

Firstly, the two may belong to the same planet and race but their appearance could not be more different. The square-shaped freckle-type tattoos decorating Offee’s face are very different from the thin red dotted lines on the Inquisitor’s face. Barriss’s eyes are a brilliant blue while those of the Inquisitor were a menacing yellow.

Secondly, creator Dave Filoni is known for exercising immense caution in bringing back any canon characters in his spin-offs Clone Wars and Rebels. The idea is simple. Repeating characters across spin-offs tends to reduce the apparent size of the Star Wars Universe.

The least the creators would do is to give a proper explanation as to why Barriss Offee would return in Rebels. A proper backstory explaining under what circumstances did Offee join the Sith Lord Darth Vader and then went out spreading more violence by hunting the last of the Jedi. (Given Offee’s tendency to using violence to stop violence it does not seem like too much trouble for the writers.)

Thirdly, she believed in peace and that the Jedi had strayed from the path of peace. Her betrayal of the Jedi Order still reeked of her love for the ideals they stood for. Barriss Offee may have been a misguided traitor to the Jedi, but she wouldn’t become an Inquisitor.

The fact that she bombed the temple was itself quite out of character. There is already some explanation needed there. If the creators want to turn Offee into a Sith or their follower, there needs to be much more work done story-wise.

What do you think? Will Barriss Offee turn out to be an Inquisitor? Comment below and let us know.

5. About Star Wars: Rebels

Set between Episodes III and IV, the Star Wars: Rebels follows the spaceship crew Ghost, which completes smuggling missions and has a growing connection to the fledgling Rebellion against the Empire.

Ezra Bridger (voiced by Taylor Gray) is an orphan on the planet Lothal, who encounters the starship Ghost crew.

Kanan Jarrus (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), a former Jedi apprentice who survived Order 66, senses Ezra’s abilities with the Force and recruits him as a Padawan.

Rounding out the crew are Hera Syndulla (Vanessa Marshall), the ship’s pilot, Sabine Wren (Tiya Sirdar), a Mandalorian former bounty hunter and graffiti artist, and Zeb (Steven Blum), a Lasat who is the last of his kind and the heavy combat member of the team.