Tales of the Empire Episode 1, 2, 3 BREAKDOWN!

#StarWars #talesoftheempire #talesoftheempirebreakdown #morganelsbeth #breakdown #pathoffear #pathofanger #pathofhate
00:00-04:21 - Episode 1
04:22-08:31 - Episode 2
08:32-12:41 - Episode 3
The full season of Tales of the Empire is here and we need to break it down! So let’s get straight into the first three episodes! In the first episode we begin with Morgan Elsbeth’s story, titled the path of fear. The episode throws us right into the battle of Dathomir, something which we saw happen in the clone wars. And I would argue the perspective this episode gives us is far more brutal than the one we got in the clone wars. The grounded perspective of the witches makes it all the more terrifying whereas in the clone wars show we see the events take place largely through Ventress where we know she is likely going to survive. There is also a great scene in the episode where Morgan is desperately trying to kill a super battle droid and it just keeps on taking hit after hit. Which is really what super battle droids are really about, being able to absorb more damage than their B1 counterparts. Morgan Elsbeth’s mother steps in to save her and things get desperate as Grievous makes a terrifying entrance stabbing one of the witches in the back. We see a duel between Grievous and Elsbeth’s mother and we see her scythes gradually run out of power as it comes into contact with lightsabers, and Grievous ends up stabbing her with his third arm. Which is the same way he killed Jedi Knight Nadar Vebb in the clone wars. And this episode does a great job in depicting Grievous at his most terrifying, really leaning into the horror and psychopathic elements of his character. Morgan barely survives the encounter with the separatists and is picked up by a newly introduced group known as the mountain clan. Which really expands the lore of Dathormir beyond just the night sisters. In present canon there are only two other clans that we know of besides the night sisters and the mountain clan, and that is the singing mountain clan and the howling crag clan. Now there isn’t a whole lot of detail on what these other clans do, and I do wonder if the singing mountain clan is the same one shown here, but judging by the lack of singing in this episode, I would presume that they are a different clan. We see morgan elsbeth’s face paint melt off and we learn from the mountain clan’s matriarch that this is due to the spells of the nightsisters fading. Which is an interesting concept that does explain why morgan elsbeth doesn’t have any face paint when we see her in the mandalorian and the Ahsoka show. It also further explains why she gets them back later on when she finally reunites with other nightsisters. Morgan Elsbeth observes the destruction of her clan and there is a great moment of animation when she punches the ground. Its quite amazing the amount of detail they put into the way the soil interacts with Morgan’s hand. Morgan sits by the campfire and its fires remind her of t he separatist massacre, we hear echoes of blaster fire mixed in with grievous laughter and it's pretty clear that Morgan herself is traumatized by the event whether she would like to admit it or not. There is a sense of fear that has taken root within her which only continues to grow as the episode progresses. Morgan is invited to a hunt alongside Nali, the matriarchs’ daughter. The two are temporarily spooked by tri-fighters and Morgan ends up spreading the fear within her to those around her. What’s interesting here is that while Morgan doesn’t have ill intentions and you can kind of understand where she is coming from, she is still primarily driven by a sense of fear. Effectively clouding her ability to clearly comprehend her situation. In a way the reason why the Nightsister ended up massacred at the hands of separatist has everything to do with the fact that they couldn’t keep to themselves. Instead choosing to play politics with the Sith that ultimately led to their demise. Something which the matriarch of the mountain clan understands. Elsbeth ends up leading three other mountain clan sisters to a night sister weapons vault but this ends up attracting the attention of the separatist. The matriarch ends up stepping in to save them and we get an impressive display of what the mountain clan magic looks like. And its an interesting contrast with the nightsister’s green magic which I thought was really cool. And it does make me wonder what the magic of the other clans on dathomir will look like. Despite this Morgan’s own fear ends up costing the lives of two others and just before the matriarch leaves she tells Morgan that she pities her for the road she walks which essentially foreshadows the pain and suffering Morgan will eventually have to go through, linking itself to one of Yoda’s greatest sayings by the end of the third episode...

[@Bluebird1441]

👍👍

[@ilariodinicola8162]

As for the venators, their presence is misleading as the episode as it set around 3bby/2bby

[@CATDRL2]

I have been eagerly waiting for your video. It has been quite chaotic with all the Star Wars content that was released at once, so I understand the delay.
Morgan's backstory did a great job of explaining her appearance in "The Mandalorian" episode "The Jedi" and the first season of "Ahsoka." Her determination for revenge is ironic as the enemy that killed her mother and her race is the same people she ends up joining. It was surprising to learn that Morgan was such an aerospace expert that she designed what would become Thrawn's proposed space fighter. But where did she get the Beskar Spear from? Her easily giving thatup to Din-Jarin to kill Ahsoka was very important. Morgan garded that spear with her life, and to give it up to kill a Jedi meant that she knew that Ezra (a Jedi) was responsible of exiling Thrawn and was force to recoken with.
To fully understand Morgan's path, I rewatch the three Morgan Tales and then watch the two connected episodes from "The Mandalorian" and the beginning of "Ahsoka." This explains a lot of the questions I had when we first saw Corvis forest all burned up, the population held as slaves, Morgan's reluctance to inform the population that the war had ended, the reluctance of the Mayor to talk to Din, and the hiring of the mercenaries that Morgan needed while she was away building Thrawn's rescue ship to protect Corvis and hiring Shin and Baylan.
As for the com at the end, I would have thought the New Republic would initially send Ahsoka to Corvis to investigate the death of the New Republic crew. Also, by triggering Bo's "com" (which the New Republic would not have received), it was a way for Ahsoka to alert herself of a possible Thrawn connection without implicating herself directly. Ahsoka was trying to keep that information off the radar of the New Republic. In the end, Ahsoka would have completed the New Replubic mission disaster, and made headway to getting the orb that would help locate Thrawn, without direct implication to the New Replubic, she would pass that onto Hara would unfronately fail to get support for. It could still mean many things, and it's somewhat unclear and spectulaive. But it allows a loose connection to the "Heir to the Empire" episode that leads into "The Jedi" episode, both from "The Mandalorian" season 2.
Overall, the Tales did a great job with Morgan's backstory, it wasn't as emotional as the upcoming Barris set, especially the ending. I'm eagerly anticipating that. Did she die or not?
Best,
Tony.

[@TheLostAcolyte]

Apologies for the long wait! Indeed it does fill in a lot of the gaps especially motivations wise. Just dropped the breakdown for the next three episode on Barriss so be sure to check that out! Curious to know what you think!

[@CATDRL2]

@@TheLostAcolyte I will do, I'm also having a busy weekend. But I"ll get to it, I'm sure it will be enjoyable.

[@CATDRL2]

@@TheLostAcolyte I have spoken, please read my comments for Barris.

[@cmu0012]

Not power. Revenge