Books Ahsoka novel

@Barriss_Coffee Oh don't, if Barris is in this, that would be crazy. she could get her own novel.
Got it- Break her out with the Separatists council between Season 5 and 6, have her be some sort of myth/legend, then tie her to the Inquisitors. Somehow.
Maybe have Ahsoka track her down and other possible Jedi, leading to the Empire finding out about a "Fulcrum".

Or have Bariss as an Inquisitor.

 

Asajj Ventress got her own novel - why not Barriss? I could go for that! Both Asajj and Ahsoka are very interesting characters who have things in common, not least of which is taking another road from the causes each of their early lives were defined by.

But Barriss is kind of the flip side of Ahsoka. We know the broad reasons why she did what she did, but not really the events that led her there. There needs to be a reckoning - and I'm not even sure if it should be a battle but rather some kind of reckoning of principles. That's be interesting in light of what Barriss said at the end of Ahsoka's trial and what became of the Republic.

 

@Skydoll Wait, Barris as an Imperial Senator? Or just a Rogue Politician like a Rebel but not aligned with them. That's a really interesting idea. Someone in the shadows campaigning against the Empire but not necessarily a Rebel or willing to fight. More of a advocate for change.
Dooku was similar so why not Barris?

Heck Lucasfilm if you want one, I'll write it over Summer. Contact me.

 

Something like that, yeah.

I think Ahsoka was a badass warrior with a good and pure heart and a slightly off-kilter moral compass, and I loved her for it. But she was at her absolute best when her cool was ruffled and her principles under fire. Barriss, more than anybody, represented a sort of - anti-Ahsoka, for want of a better term. And yeah, her final actions (that we know of) hint at a more sophisticated set of motivations than we know. She might have been a terrorist, but she caught the winds of change before anybody else in the Jedi Order did. Funny way of articulating it and a need for change, but she sure has lots of shades of gray to explore.

LMK if you want a co-author!

 

@Skydoll What does LMK stand for?

The novel would have to have a bigger focus on her training with Luminara. I never really understood why we never got more of that. It's was a nice parallel in the Geonosis arc and I thought we'd see more of it.
Anyway my ideas aren't so bad- Remember she was in AOTC in the Chancellor's office and the character guides and reference books said she was learning to be diplomatic and about politics.
To expand you could have the Empire have to order a hit on her- either Tarkin or the ISB.

At this point, I think I could do it. I'm tempted to, for fun.

 

Darthmaul208 LMK = let me know! (Not that I have time, i just meant it as a supportive gesture!)

I don't think your ideas are bad at all, and are consistent with the character - go for it!

 

It has been bugging me. I already have a few TCW ideas, so maybe I could incorporate them. I have a hard time thinking about the difference of scenarios that are not fan service. Some ideas that come, seem too silly or ridiculous even know it happens in SW all the time.

What's the difference between official stuff and fanfiction? Where do you draw the line? What's the difference for the writers?

A few scenarios seem like a good idea but are not that logical. The character would have to be very careful where she treads (like a butterfly and time) because you can't have her as an ex Jedi running around as an Imperial Senator at the the time it's disbanded in ANH.

It's a tough one. Are you sticking around? Can I bounce ideas off you?

I too am short on time so I don't really want to start, but developing ideas is fun enough.

(I may also have a SWTOR novel idea, a Dooku novel I sorta promised someone here and several other TCW stories plus a whole heap of other ideas. No time to do it though)

 

That is an excellent point about Barriss. Obviously the story would need to take place during the TCW era; occurring before the Fugitive arc of Season 5. Maybe she'd go on some exclusive mission with Luminara and a band of clones. For all we know, she might have had a falling out with her Master. It would explain why Luminara was nowhere to be found with her on Coruscant during that last arc.

 

Do it! I can't promise to be around as a sounding board, but if the creative impulse takes you, you should go for it!

Right - I was always curious about that, especially as Luminara seemed so revered amongst even her Jedi peers. Next time we saw her, in Rebels, she was bones. But there's a part of me that yearns to know Barriss' fate, and part of that could be telling that tale, which ended in ignominy, at least as far as the Jedi were concerned. But I can't help thinking that, as he was led away at Ahsoka's trial, Palpatine had Barriss introduced to some black ops group that might even have been an induction into... later Inquisitorship, perhaps? I'm not saying that's what happened, just that it'd be fascinating story territory to explore.

And, even if she didn't want to be a part of such a thing, she'd be off on a sort of quest of her own, perhaps meeting Ahsoka much further down the line. And wouldn't it then be even more fascinating for Ahsoka to find that she had even more in common with Barriss at that point than she could ever have conceived of, earlier in life...?

 

Well for awhile there had been some speculation that the Seventh Sister on Rebels was in fact Barriss. You can imagine I was hoping for that scenario; considering the interesting turn of events it would've caused. Think of the revelation of the two towards the end of Children of the Force.

 

I still say that it was a big missed opportunity not making the Seventh Sister Barriss.

 

Well then we'd have had the torches and pitchforks from the naysayers suggesting that Ahsoka's character was taking over the series.

 

I, for one, am quite glad that the Tech Witch didn't end up being Barriss, and that's just because it went against many people's expectations and added a new Mirialan to the canon roster.

 

I also think it worked out for the better.

 

We had that anyway.

 

You mean the torches and pitchforks? I guess you're right.

 

I recall that scenario, yeah.

I think what both TCW and Rebels did was open out the SW universe and take it beyond being just the Skywalker saga at all times, which is what the movies are. To a certain extent, Ahsoka anchors Rebels back to that, so it would make sense to wrap up Barriss' arc that way. It just seems too obvious and tidy to me though, so although I wanted to see her again, I'm kind of glad they didn't do that.

I actually think that Barris could be more interesting and layered than just another bad guy. What makes Ahsoka so strong - and so popular, I think - is that she functions as both a sort of audience ID figure (not a Mary Sue) but she's ended up having all these other shades to her by virtue of the fact she's been around so long, in relative terms. Along with Anakin and maybe Ob-Wan, she's had more onscreen time than practically any other SW character, so she's developed a lot of nuances, not least of which is the fact that she's not a Jedi, but she still held true to certain values (which is why she ended up as Fulcrum). Barriss has exactly the same potential, only her choices are far more extreme. I think Barriss would see herself as proactive, and Ahsoka as reactionary - part of the old order. Barriss was quite clearly hungry for change, by any means necessary. She might've been nuts, but clearly, she was onto something.

And, when it came down to it, Ahsoka didn't do the expected thing either - which was to stay with the Jedi. Maybe a little of Barriss rubbed off on her, right at that point. That's why I'd like to see these two characters meet again. Ahsoka must hate Barriss (even though she'd controlled and sublimated her emotions as a Jedi)... but in a weird kind of way, she must be grateful to her for exposing some of the contradictions at the heart of the Jedi Order, something she'd been a part of most of her young life. What are Ahsoka's feelings as to escaping Order 66? She might have survivor's guilt, and a whole lot of other complex, conflicting emotions. If Barriss turned up again, post-Order 66 - would she be glad to see another survivor?

So many observations and questions. I hope the book answers at least some of them. But if it doesn't - there's room for further tales!

 

This is actually a tricky question: while a post-Order 66 meeting (confrontation?) between Barriss and Ahsoka is a compelling concept for many of the reasons you articulate, I'm not sure how much it really fits with what we've been led to see this book as. It sounds more like it's focused on how she began working with Bail and assumed the 'Fulcrum' role - and TBH, that's something I personally am much more curious about. But does that leave room anywhere for that other story?

 

I don't know - I haven't read the book yet.

I'm just making stuff up, braingazing possible story directions - for both Ahsoka and Barriss. (I don't know whether you read, upthread, the idea of a Barriss novel was also mooted.) It's not a grand unified theory - just a bunch of ideas that I thought might be cool to explore. I'm not even wedded to the idea of their meeting happening post-Order 66. I'm certainly not in on the grand plan that Dave Filoni mapped out for Ahsoka's life, or how EK Johnston might interpret that.

They're the kind of characters that inspire such things. And I'm curious as to whether others would be interested in them meeting again, because I know I would be.

 

For all we know, Ahsoka (post-Jedi of course) could've helped spring Barriss out of prison. Maybe they came to a mutual understanding of the disagreement with the politics of the Republic and the Jedi, and went out on their own together.

 

That could prove interesting. I hope the novel at lest mentions Barriss and how Ahsoka feels/copes with her betrayal.

 

I do think the novel should definitely mention Barriss. However I don't feel like the new canon should do anything more with her character than that. I think it be better to just let the people reading the expanded Star Wars universe assume that Barriss was killed in prison during order 66.

 

The betrayal should certainly be an important aspect of the early parts of the novel. Considering it's supposed to begin just after Ahsoka walks out of the Council, she has the events fresh in her mind. Two days before, how could she ever have imagined that she'd be associating herself with Ventress while her best friend is responsible for framing her?

 

Why? That's kinda dull. Spin-offs are designed to explore exactly this kind of material and this new novel certainly qualifies as that. Simply from the perspective of exploring Ahsoka's psychological state at this point in her life, it's interesting. Barriss represents a pivotal moment - even if she never saw her again, she'd hover like a specter over all of Ahsoka's future actions. Ahsoka has to deal with this somehow, even if she never encounters Barriss ever again. She'll either need a lot of therapy or give herself something seriously distracting to do. But either way, it's something she'll have to fully deal with at some point, as it's a major element in her history from this point forward. I think any good storyteller would want to get to grips with it. It's meaty character stuff.

Exactly. Her whole world has just been turned upside-down. Everything she trusted, everything she thought she knew - evaporated in an incredibly short space of time. What a difference a couple of days make.

 

That sounds like a terrible idea. Barriss was responsible for the deaths of innocent civilians and was more than willing to let Ahsoka rot in jail or sentenced to death just to cover her ass. Had Barriss been Lux, I doubt anyone would ever suggest that they should hang out again because they ‘shared’ similar political ideals.