u/GeminiTrash1

Before I give the run down of the special I'm just going to make anyone interested aware that the full Holiday Special is accessible and free to watch on YouTube. It's about 1 hour and 30 minutes long

Now for the plot. The special takes place shortly after the original Star Wars film ends (A New Hope) and the Wookie's celebration of life is nearing. So Han Solo and Chewbacca make their way to Kashyyyk, but find the Empire is hot on their tail with Darth Vader commanding the pursuit. When Chewbacca doesn't show up on time his family get in touch with Luke Skywalker and hearing the Chewbacca and Han are missing he sets out to find them and shortly after he does the Millennium Falcon is crashed into a nearby swamp world.

As Luke lands he meets Boba Fett who immediately offers to help Luke find his friends and after they reach the Falcon he finds Han has been poisoned and himself becomes poisoned because it was airborne. At this point Boba seeks out an antidote with Chewbacca, but they split up and Boba Fett is revealed to be working for Vader after he privately contacted him and is informed by Vader that the Rebels must be taken alive, but R2-D2 intercepted the transmission. After Boba Fett returns with the antidote he's outed as an Imperial ally and he flees.

This results in a blockade being placed around Kashyyyk as a measure to intercept the Falcon. Under Imperial law Chewbacca's family gets harassed by Imperial Stormtroopers searching for rebels, but soon after they leave and one Trooper is ordered to remain. Han, Chewbacca, and Luke soon arrive and immediately take out the trooper who was in that moment about to kill Chewbacca's son and a merchant then reports to the Empire that the Trooper robbed him blind and took off. At this point the Wookie's celebration of life begins and Chewbacca takes part in it's ceremony with his family.

On the whole I think this plot is actually pretty good. It's just insanely low budget and there's a lot of TV screens. Honestly if the Holiday Special were remade in better quality and removed the "not so Star Wars stuff" it'd probably be a solid short film

Just a run down for Bariss in Legends she was a dedicated healer and specialized in Form 3 for pure defense as to do no harm as a pacifist. A Paragon of Jedi values. She was a Knighted Jedi General (Anakin's Senior) during the Clone Wars with her own Padawan and was presumably killed during Order 66 on Felucia.

In canon Bariss was aged down to be slightly older than Ahsoka which was apparently done so Bariss and Ahsoka could form a romantic relationship. Bariss isn't a healer or a pacifist and in fact eventually becomes radicalized turning to terrorism to make her points. Certainly no Paragon of Jedi values. Bariss in canon also never gets knighted, she doesn't ever gain her Padawan, and she never experiences Order 66.

I'd be Okay if Bariss had become friends with Anakin and acted as sort of a second mentor to Ahsoka and character foil for Anakin and I'd probably even be okay with her death being walked back. That said where do the character trait circles intersect between canon and legends? I get that legends was never supposed to be 100% concrete, but at what point do you just make a new character? The only things Bariss Offee has in common between canon and legends is her name and character design. Bariss in the Clone Wars could've just been anyone. This isn't exclusive to Star Wars but it always rolls me when creators do this, just 180° a character. Sometimes it's a better idea to just make a new character.