Clone Wars The Clone Wars Chronological Order (TCW Episodes & Viewing Order)

Leland Chee said:

Without a doubt, the most often asked question I’ve been asked since The Clone Wars started four years ago is, “How does The Clone Wars fit into the existing Expanded Universe Clone Wars timeline?” The first seasons of The Clone Wars were peculiar in that episodes didn’t air in chronological order. You would have episodes in Seasons 2 and 3 that were actually prequels to episodes in Season 1. Here are a few of my notes regarding the timeline to help sort things out.
First off, let’s look at the first two episodes of The Clone Wars airing insyndication across the U.S.:



“Cat and Mouse” (S216)

Obi-Wan and Anakin must break a Separatist blockade to deliver supplies to Christophsis. They encounter Separatist Commander Admiral Trench and get more than they bargained for.



“Hidden Enemy“ (S116)

Anakin and Obi-Wan discover evidence of a traitor amongst their ranks while attempting to lead Republic forces to liberate the planet of Christophsis from a Separatist siege.

The numbers in parentheses shows the air order number, with S216 being the 16th episode that aired in Season 2. Why not start with the Season 1 Episode 1? Because for the first time ever, The Clone Wars episodes are being presented in chronological order.

As for how The Clone Wars fits into the previous EU, here’s a recap of things that have transpired prior to the first episode “Cat and Mouse.” Asajj Ventress has emerged as Count Dooku’s assassin and has already had confrontations with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. General Grievous leads the Confederacy Droid Army and has confronted Jedi and Republic on numerous occasions, though he has not yet met Asajj Ventress. Anakin has attained the rank of Jedi Knight and bares scars on his face from the Clone Wars. The blue-marked 501st clone trooper unit under the command of Captain Rex are assigned to Anakin. Obi-Wan has taken a seat on the Jedi Council. His dedicated clone trooper unit is the orange-marked 212th Attack Battalion led by Commander Cody. As a gift from Padmé, R2-D2 now serves Anakin while C-3PO, having had his rusted silver coverings replaced with gold ones, now serves Senator Padmé Amidala.

“Cat and Mouse” and “Hidden Enemy” take place before 2008 The Clone Wars movie which gives resolution to the Battle of Christophsis and introduces Ahsoka Tano as Anakin’s Padawan. Other noteworthy events from the move that apply to the timeline: Anakin acquires the freighter the Twilight and Ziro the Hutt is imprisoned for conspiring against both Jabba the Hutt and the Republic. And Jabba has a son.

Admiral Yularen is first assigned to Anakin in “Cat and Mouse” marking his first chronological appearance in the series. The episode mentions Yularen’s previous encounter with Trench, though this event has never been depicted.

Here’s a look at the next two episodes of The Clone Wars airing in syndication.


“Clone Cadets” (S301)

Five headstrong clone cadets – Hevy, Cutup, Droidbait, Fives and Echo – struggle to complete their training on the ocean planet of Kamino



“Supply Lines” (S303)

Ryloth is under siege. Trapped on the surface, Jedi Master Di rallies the local forces with the help of rebel leader Cham Syndulla.

Note that both of these episodes originally aired as part of Season 3 of The Clone Wars. The central group of clones from “Clone Cadets” appear here for the first time chronologically, though their first air appearance is in Season 1. Clones from this unit will continue to appear throughout the series. The situation on Ryloth in “Supply Lines” sets up a major Season 1 story arc. This episode presents the first chronological appearance of King Katuunko, the leader of the Toydarians.

All of these episodes take place early on during the Clone Wars, mere months following the Battle of Geonosis seen in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. Many of the dates and events on previously existing EU Clone Wars timelines have been condensed into this period before the events of “Cat and Mouse.”

In future blogs, I will continue to share my Clone Wars timeline notes and add installments to this episodic timeline as the episodes air.

• Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
• Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
• “Cat and Mouse” (S216)
• “Hidden Enemy” (S116)
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008 theatrical release)
• “Clone Cadets” (S301)
• “Supply Lines” (S303)

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Ok I'm getting really confused I need to put all the clone wars episodes in chronological order for my star wars play list for my iPod. Does anyone know the order because apparently they are not airing in chronological order.

I don't think we know yet.

Here's my own personal order:

Rookies
Trespass
The Hidden Enemy
The Clone Wars movie
Bombad Jedi
Cloak of Darkness
Lair of Grevious
Downfall of a Droid
Duel of the Droids
Ambush
Rising Malevolence
Shadow of Malevolence
Destroy Melevalonce
Jedi Crash
Defenders of Peace

Rookies is a good standalone to start the series off, and along with Trespass and most likely Hidden Enemy could easily take place before the TCW movie because Ahsoka isn't around.

The Dooku trilogy follows because the episodes seem less event oriented and I moved the Malevolence stuff to later because of the nature of the episodes - good guys destroying a big deadly space weapon - it just felt like there was so much going on that we needed more episodes leading up to it. It's basically the "sweeps" episodes of the series and I thought they bumped it up too early. I also like how it ties together with the Aayla Secura two parter in that it forms a little "Separatist weapon saga."
I also moved back Malevolence to after we see Ahsoka's flying so that we know why Anakin is concerned about her skills.

I moved Ambush because I just didn't think like it felt that early in the timeline. I liked that we got a break from Ventress for a while after the movie, by moving the episode, and I also thought her intro in Cloak of Darkness was a better way/episode to bring her back after the TCW movie, particularly when Dooku tells her not to fail him again it now makes more sense to me after her having just failed big time in getting access to Hutt Space for the CIS.

I feel like the Ambush and Malevolence trilogy took place so early because the creators of the show wanted to make a big splash (Yoda episode, super weapon trilogy to hook us back next week) and not because that's where they fit chronology.

I really hope they start showing them in chronological order. Star Wars time jumps way too much for me, it would be nice to actually get the story in order for once. Plus, when they Anakin said Ahsoka was a crappy flier, I was pretty ticked because I knew I had missed something there, and I wanted to see what had happened that made Anakin nervous about her flying.

I've been thinking it about, and I think Rookies must take place before the Malevolance arc for two reasons:

Firstly, there is a line in the episode where when Anakin and Obi Wan are talking about trying to find Grievous, Anakin says "Clone Intelligence spotted him here, in the Balmorra system, but that was weeks ago." That seems to indicate foreshadowing for The Malevolance arc (which takes place in the Balmorra system). It could be that he's referring to having a past encounter there with him, but it seems unlikely since he says "Clone Intelligence". If he was referring to them having a past battle during the Malevolance arc, he wouldn't need Clone Intelligence to tell him such, since they themselves had encontered him.

Also, it would make sense that the next episode Grievous appears in should be the one where he has to redeem himself for losing the Malevolance. (Lair of Grievous)

I revised this because I left the Dooku two-parter out! Doh!!

Rookies
Trespass
The Hidden Enemy
The Clone Wars movie
Bombad Jedi
Cloak of Darkness
Lair of Grevious
Downfall of a Droid
Duel of the Droids
Dooku Captured
The Gungan General
Ambush
Rising Malevolence
Shadow of Malevolence
Destroy Malevolence
Jedi Crash
Defenders of Peace

Regardless of the shooting order, we already know they aren't shooting them chronologically so that isn't a huge factor for me. Also, the webcomics have no bearing for me. It's about flow mostly. I try to space out the "big" episode with the "smaller ones"... i.e. a Malevolnce arc vs. a Lair of Grevious episode.

If you really want to you can move Ambush earlier, as well as swap the order of Malevolence with the Nute trilogy. But I don't like Ambush coming too early and I still say Rookies is a great way to start the series compared with the other stuff, since we can't use the movie as a start because of Hidden Enemy.

I also like Trespass as a follow-up to Rookies because it seems to take place before Ahsoka come on board. Or another option is to follow-up Bombad Jedi or Cloak of Darkness with Trespass so that while Ahsoka is with Luminara Anakin and Obi-wan are doing their own thing. I tried watching it in that order and it worked well and broke up the little arc in a fun, logical way.

Thanks. Yeah, I get that it wasn't their intended chronological order but unless I'm missing something I believe it works chronologically.

Two studios? I thought they did everything in Singapore? Are they doing animation at the Presidio, too?

Oh man thanks!
Can you ever tell which one did what?

Is the Signapore considered in-house and the other considered out-source? How did I miss this??

Quest, in both of these lists you have Ambush placed after the droid duology, while the comic leading up to it shows that it was Skytop Station that was used to find Yoda and track his journey to Rugosa... A station can't track anyone if it's been destroyed.

Understood. So which order are you going by?

IMHO it makes no sense that Lair of Grievous would come before the Malevolence and Droid stories. If Dooku was willing to kill his nr. 1 general just because of what happened in Rookies, were GG didn?t really lose much resources or men at all, then what would Dooku do if Grievous went on to lose both "Sky Top" station and "The Malevolence"?

thanks so much guys for your help! I'm obsessive about chronological orders so thanks

Nothing changes the fact that G.G. lost both "sky top" and the Malevolence. At least this way Dooku was captured so he failed himself after Sky Top and between Malevolence, so it softens the blow. And according to the opening narration Grevious has scored som major Sep victories that occured between episodes so he has probably gotten on Dooku's good side again.

Also -- not sure what you mean by his # 1 general -- isn't that Grevious?

But that's not the correct chronological order...

It could be.

I actually get a kick out of the fact that it's not all being aired in strictly chronological order. It follows the tradition set by the films. Even the Indiana Jones films and tv show use the same modus operandus.

Still, it is nice to know that we're pretty likely to have official confirmation on the order of things in the next few months!