Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith led to her generally being viewed as a continuity nightmare in the making.
But something changed as the years went on. Strong storytelling in The Mandalorian season 2.
Dawson is set to star in her own Disney+ TV series, The Mandalorian season 2. Little is known about the plot right now, but there have been rumors an old opponent of Ahsoka's could return - Barriss Offee, a Jedi Knight who served in the Clone Wars.
Barriss Offee Is Ahsoka's Clone Wars Mirror
A Jedi Padawan who trained under the ill-fated Jedi Master Luminara Unduli, Barriss Offee became a close friend of Ahsoka's as a result of fighting alongside her on several occasions. As the Clone Wars progressed, Barriss began to question the wisdom of the Jedi Council and ultimately recognized the very real flaws of the Jedi Order. But rather than seek reform, she lashed out in pain, orchestrating a terrorist bombing of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Shockingly, Barriss allowed Ahsoka to be blamed for the attack, and even actively began attempting to frame her friend. Fortunately, Anakin caught Offee and forced her to confess her crimes to the tribunal - just before Ahsoka was sentenced.
There is a sense in which Barriss Offee has always been a twisted mirror of Ahsoka Tano, in that both found themselves disaffected with the Jedi. The key difference, of course, is that Barriss' disillusionment led her to fall to the dark side, while Ahsoka walked away. Ahsoka accomplished something neither Barriss nor Anakin Skywalker himself managed, holding on to the truths the Jedi were supposed to cling to while letting go of the Order itself. "Barriss Offee was wrong about a lot of things," Ahsoka observed in E.K. Johnston's novel Ahsoka after the fall of the Jedi, recognizing the parallels. "She shouldn't have killed anyone, and she definitely shouldn't have framed me for it, but if we'd listened to her — really listened — we might have been able to stop Palpatine before he took power."
Barriss Offee Could Have Continued To Mirror Ahsoka's Story
Barriss Offee was last seen being taken away by Jedi Temple guards, presumably to a Republic prison. She was originally supposed to die at the end of Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 5, killing herself when she detonated some of the bombs she'd used to attack the Temple, but Star Wars: The Clone Wars showrunner Dave Filoni rewrote the script so she survived. As he explained in a Star Wars liveblog in 2015, he had plans for Barriss. It's reasonable to assume these plans extend into the Dark Times, because the fallen Padawan would have been a perfect recruit for the Emperor.
In fact, Palpatine recruited a number of fallen Jedi to serve as his Inquisitors, a group of powerful Force-s who reported directly to Darth Vader himself. The Inquisitors had two roles; to hunt down Order 66 survivors, and to identify Force-sensitive children the Emperor could corrupt and use to explore the future. It would be fitting for Barriss Offee to wind up a member of the Inquisitors, with her story continuing to serve as a mirror-image of Ahsoka's. Anakin Skywalker's former Padawan Star Wars Rebels she was shown helping prevent some Force-sensitive children falling into the Emperor's clutches. The two former friends would therefore have remained at crossed purposes throughout the Dark Times of the Empire's rule.
Barriss Offee's Possible Role In The Ahsoka TV Show
The Ahsoka TV series spins out of The Mandalorian season 2, set five years after the fall of the Empire. Its titular hero is searching the galaxy for Grand iral Thrawn, the Chiss Grand iral who vanished into the depths of the Unknown Regions in Star Wars Rebels - and took one of Ahsoka's closest friends, Ezra Bridger, with him. Thrawn appears to be being set up as the main villain of this era, orchestrating an Imperial Remnant on the Outer Rim the New Republic is unaware of. This mirrors his role in the old Expanded Universe's Thrawn trilogy, where Thrawn organized the Empire and launched a devastating Blitzkrieg on the galaxy. But what role would Barriss Offee play in such a story?
Star Wars could continue using Barriss as a mirror of Ahsoka, with Barriss actually working with Thrawn. In the Thrawn trilogy, the Grand iral struck an alliance with a warped Jedi Master in order to find creative ways to take advantage of the Force; Barriss could perform the same role in canon, using the power of the dark side to boost Thrawn's forces. This would set up a fascinating confrontation between Ahsoka Tano and Barriss Offee, the former Padawan of Anakin Skywalker and the last of Darth Vader's Inquisitors, the Rebel and the Imperial, the light side hero and the dark side acolyte. It's not hard to see the story potential here - and hopefully Lucasfilm will choose to mine that potential.