Warning: This article contains spoilers for Tales of the Empire episode 1, "The Path of Fear."
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire is finally here! Half of the anthology series is told from Morgan Elsbeth's perspective, who was introduced in the second season of The Mandalorian.
At the time, little was known about Morgan. She was introduced as the dictatorial Magistrate of Corvus, a forest planet in the Outer Rim. It wasn’t until the first season of Ahsoka that we learned that she was a Nightsister.
Tales of the Empire unravels Morgan’s story, which begins in the episode “Path of Fear” with a tragic undertone about a woman whose loss leads to a path (pun intended) to darkness. Let’s explain what this episode's ending means for Morgan Elsbeth.
"It appears your path is set, Morgan Elsbeth. I pity you, for I can see what is to come."
Those chilling words were said by the leader of the Mountian Clan witches of Dathomir, called the Matron, to Morgan after she decided to enact vengeance against the Separatist battle droids for her mother’s death. Morgan witnessed her mother’s death at the hands of General Grievous during the massacre of the Nightsisters on the planet Dathomir.
Morgan and her mother were part of the Nightsisters, who fought to defend themselves from General Grievous and his army of battle droids. Luckily, Morgan survived the massacre and was recovered by the witches of the Mountain Clan. The Mountain Clan Matron tells her she can stay with them until she decides her own path.
A path we know is going to be one of darkness.
After witnessing her mother’s death, it is clear that Morgan is fueled with revenge and would do anything to enact it. The primer to that is the fear expressed by the Mountain Clan witches. The fear that the droid army might attack them next.
While the Mountain Clan witches are apprehensive about the droids possibly attacking them next, the Mountain Clan Matron assures them that would never happen as long as they do not provoke the droids. But Morgan uses the fear as an opportunity to retaliate against the droids by telling the Matron's daughter Nali that she watched her mother die and asks her if she is “prepared to do the same knowing there was more could have done to prevent it?”
This clearly shows that Morgan is an opportunist and would exploit anything for her own gain. A trait that she would use in her career as Magistrate of the planet Corvus and an ally of Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Despite her mother’s advice not to provoke the droids, Nali and her friends follow Morgan to attack the droids. However, this costs the lives of Nali and another witch. The Matron is forced to use her power to save Morgan and one of the surviving witches.
When the Mountain Clan mother said, “I pity you, for I can see what is to come,” one can assume that she might have seen a path fueled by fear—not Morgan’s fear but the fear of others, which would fuel Morgan’s rise to power. We saw how that fear was used to keep the people of Corvus in line to help consolidate her power as the Magistrate.
One has to wonder if Morgan had heeded the advice of the Mountain Clan mother. Would she have been a more benevolent leader to the people of Corvus? Would she have come to grips with what happened to her mother and let go of the pain?
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire is now streaming on Disney +.