Barriss Offee, a former Jedi padawan and friend of Ahsoka Tano’s, hasn’t been seen since Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 5, but the popular theory of her becoming an Inquisitor wouldn’t work. Barriss Offee, who was significantly reimagined in the canon continuity, was no longer a Jedi healer who died during Order 66, but instead became a violent terrorist who fell to the dark side, bombed the Jedi Temple, and betrayed Ahsoka Tano. Offee’s whereabouts and status are unknown, but her The Clone Wars characterization and absence make the possibility of her becoming an Imperial Inquisitor unlikely.
Imperial Inquisitors made their canon debut in Star Wars Rebels and were expanded on in 2017’s Darth Vader comics. The Inquisitors are Sith in all but name, and every member is a fallen Jedi who joined the Empire, sacrificing their principles for survival. Inquisitors are trained in the ways of the Sith by Darth Vader, supporting their Dark Lord in hunting down the Jedi survivors of Order 66 and ensuring that Force-sensitive infants are raised to become Imperial agents.
Barriss Offee’s violent and treacherous turn to the dark side and the introduction of canon’s Inquisitors in Star Wars Rebels led to speculation that she’d be part of their ranks. The Seventh Sister, a female Mirialan from Rebels season 2, was believed to have been Offee until it was confirmed that she’s an original character. Jedi: Fallen Order’s Second Sister was similarly believed to have been Offee until her identity of Trilla Suduri was revealed. While Barriss Offee becoming an Inquisitor isn’t impossible, it wouldn’t be in character for her, given her motivation for bombing the Jedi Temple. The Star Wars franchise may also be saving Offee’s return for a more personal conflict with Ahsoka Tano.
Using the dark side putrefies a Force-sensitive into the worst version of themselves. Similar to a Faustian bargain, the dark side promises everything to its victims, but takes their humanity from them. With this in mind, Barriss Offee could have become a loyal agent of the Sith, but it’s unlikely since Offee’s horrific actions were meant to protest the corruption of the Jedi and the Republic. Offee murdered Jedi, Clone Troopers, and innocents in her attack, but the Empire is precisely the result of the Republic’s corruption that she wished to avoid.
For this reason, Barriss Offee would likely become an unaffiliated dark side user, assuming that she escaped her incarceration and wasn’t executed by the Republic or Empire for her crimes. Though no longer a Jedi, Offee would likely still be targeted by Order 66, so she’d be a fugitive of the Empire. With the Imperial Inquisitors having been part of Star Wars canon material for years and not including Offee among them, it would seem that her return to the franchise will be elsewhere.
Barriss Offee’s actions made her a rival of Ahsoka Tano’s, as she framed her friend as the perpetrator of the bombing, getting her expelled from the Jedi Order and nearly killing her. With Tano being the protagonist of the upcoming Star Wars: Ahsoka, the best place for Offee to return would be in her rival’s Disney+ series. As an Imperial Inquisitor, Barriss Offee would be going against her Star Wars: The Clone Wars character arc, but as an independent villain, she can return to menace Ahsoka Tano years after the fall of the Empire and seamlessly continue her story.
