Full Series The Clone Wars Chronological Order (TCW Episodes & Viewing Orders)

So I've been test running viewing orders and in the near-chronological order I've been using, I hit a couple "season 2"-era bumps (which are also in the official chronological order) that has me going back to further refine my order to smooth the issue out. I'd like to see if anyone here sees any problems this configuration may cause that I may have overlooked.

The main issue I came across is with Lightsaber Lost, whose opening newsreel is entirely based around the events of Hostage Crisis. Now, neither my order nor the official chronological order take into account newsreel footage- nor do I believe one really should at this point. However, major issues are often avoided in current orders in this regard. But, here, it's not only "spoiling" events that don't take place for another dozen+ episodes, but they're pretty significant events from that episode (you see Bane and Aurra attacking the senate and senators, for instance)- we're not just talking about a couple secondary, out-of-context shots here, but rather a sequence.

So, IMO, it's significant enough of a distraction to warrant being made into an exception to the "ignore newsreels" guideline. So I wanted to move Lightsaber Lost (and, by extension, it's minor implied connection to Grievous Intrigue & The Deserter) to be set after Hostage Crisis. In addition I have a couple other minor tweaks (I'm trying to keep everything as close to the spirit of the official order as I can while addressing these smaller issues that they didn't take into account).

Here's, effectively, the "Season 2" and "early Season 3" stretch of episodes in this order, for context:
-Bounty Hunters (peaceful Felucia, so moved before Holocron)
-Holocron Trilogy
-Geonosis Saga (Senate Spy opens with Anakin returning from being away for a long tour of duty- no matter what order you use, there's an implied gap of time before this episode, but at least this way, unlike in the chrono order, Anakin was't just running around Coruscant with Padme in the previous episode which would have otherwise been the Zillo episodes)
-Mandalore Trilogy (when you remove LL & GI/TD, this becomes next by default [so keeps with the spirit of the order] and Ahsoka's recovery from Brain can explain her absence here as well, as a bonus)
-Zillo Duology (pushing it back not only addresses the Senate spy intro issue but also lets Rex's "falling" joke actually be the joke it was intended to be by being after Geonosis where Anakin tosses him off the wall. Also adds time between Mandalore Trilogy and Corruption)
-Sphere of Influence (due to Bossk, needs to be before Boba Trilogy)
-Corruption Duology (allows Lethal and Assassin to be back to back, even though a timegap is implied they're more strongly connected- i *might* try moving this to between ARC & Heroes, but i figure best to get this out of the way ASAP)
-Boba Trilogy
-Ziro Saga (Assassin, Evil Plans, Hostage Crisis & Hunt for Ziro)
-Lightsaber Lost, Grievous Intrigue & Deserter
-ARC Troopers (lets this stretch of episodes begin with the "Rise of the Bounty Hunters", mostly end with said rise of said hunters and then transition back to a grouping of three Grievous/larger war episodes)
-Heroes on Both Sides ("cost of war/new troops" debate following the attack on Kamino makes sense)

Thoughts? Any problems I might be overlooking?

 

It's an assumption it's Bossk- it's a minor background cameo that could just be another Trandoshan in Jabba's court. But moving Sphere there still works (I like trying to bring all these bounty hunter stories in before that Ziro arc).

Ahsoka's development is always the trickiest issue to juggle. I still have to rewatch Assassin and Lightsaber Lost back to back again to really get a feel for it there, but it seems like it shouldn't be too much of a regression since Ahsoka handles the lightsaber thing on her own without Anakin and is only assisted by a Jedi wiser than either of them.

Plus at the end I believe Sinube asks her to pass on this lesson to the younglings and that sort of follows up her trying to teach about corruption in Academy- at least thematically, but execution could be a different question.

 

I noticed that too- they’re minor/broad enough, IMO, to fit in with all the other out-of-order newsreel clips throughout the series.

Not to mention, due to how the various episodes are connected, you have to choose one or the other.

 

I had considered that but chose not two for three reasons:

1) Since the viewer doesn’t know there will be a second Battle of Geonosis, they would probably assume they were seeing events from/concurrent to/in proximity to the first battle from AOTC, not future events. So it’s not as glaringly problematic, IMO, as the Hostage Crisis exception I’m making.

2) I’m trying to stick to chronological order where possible, so keeping that arc before Geonosis maintains that spirit.

3) I’m also grouping episodes into new seasons, using the original titles where available. So, in this order, season 2 (“Rise of the Bounty Hunters”) starts with bounty hunter stories and ends with bounty hunter stories. Another example is my Season 1 begins with, and ends with, Ryloth episodes. So there’s a thematic bookend to things.

Also, semi-unrelatedly, but I believe I’ve cracked why the official chronological order moved the Zillo duo before Geonosis: Trapper has white armor in Zillo and the rest of his group gets killed. But he has camo ARF trooper armor on Geonosis under a different General.

I think they may have decided to make that an evolution of the character instead of having him go from ARF back to standard armor.

Regardless I think it’s a minor connection not worth valuing too highly since it still works in reverse and you get more benefit from the Rex joke, etc.

 

Well, I'm still sculpting things but this is what I have right now:

Season 0: Begun, The Clone War Has (6 Episodes)
-Christophsis & Castle Trilogies
(If I wasn't sticking to the spirit of the official chronological order, I'd almost certainly move the Mandalore Trilogy and Clone Cadets to be before the Christophsis events as well, but, alas...; Theme as it is is, well, Anakin meeting and accepting Ahsoka)

Season 1: A Galaxy Divided (22 Episodes)
-Ambush Duology before Clone Cadets
-Droid Duology before Malevolence Trilogy (due to the reference to Ahsoka's flying)
-Rookies between Nute Trilogy (really concurrent to Lair) & Dooku Duology (still searching for Grievous in wake of Malevolence)
-Trespass after Virus Duology instead of before (to use Ahsoka's absence as recovery time).
-Ends with Ryloth Trilogy
(everything else is same as chronological order; theme of season is Ryloth to Ryloth)

Season 2: Rise of the Bounty Hunters (20 Episodes + Prelude to Point Rain)
(Almost everything we've talked about here today: Starts with Bounty Hunters, ends with Lethal Trackdown. Would have liked to have squeeze in the Ziro Saga to contain all those bounty hunter storylines into one season but it'd be too many episodes for one season (unless you kick Mandalore Trilogy to Season 0).

Season 3: Secrets Revealed (22 Episodes)
-Ziro Saga, followed by Lightsaber, Grievous & Deserter.
-ARC Troopers
-Heroes on Both Sides+
(Everything else is chronological order. Season starts with an Ahsoka solo mission and ends with an Ahsoka solo mission [if I had fit the Ziro Saga into Season 2, I would have opened with Lightsaber Lost for S3 to maintain that theme], so more of her growth as a character. The "secrets" are in the middle: Ziro's plot, the deserter clone and his family, Maul/Savage, Mortis)

Season 4: Battle Lines (22 Episodes)
-Shadow Warrior before Mon Cala trilogy (I prefer the better intro and original intention over the minor cameo discontinuity)
(Everything else chronological. Don't have a theme yet.)

Season 5: Evil Alliance (23 Episodes)
-Clovis arc between Onderon and Young Jedi.
(Everything else is chronological though I am very tempted to push the Maul Duology from S4 into Season 5 as a new S5 opener (leaving Massacre/Bounty as the S4 finale) and bump the final S5 Ahsoka arc into S6 to make room, thus making S5 begin with, and end with, Maul, Savage and the Shadow Collective arc- which fits the name I gave the season)

Season 6: The Lost Missions (10 Episodes, plus 4 Story Reels & 8 Unproduced/Unadapted Episodes)
(Chronological minus Clovis, plus Crystal Crisis; if the Ahsoka S5 arc is bumped into an opener here and we factor in the unproduced Ahsoka underworld arc as the presumed finale, it would make the theme of the season once again Ahsoka to Ahsoka- this time specifically dealing with her leaving the Jedi order)

Season 7: The Clone Wars Legacy (4 Story Reels, plus 1 Graphic Novel, 1/2 of a Novel & 8 Unproduced/Unadapted Episodes)
-Bad Batch, Dark Disciple Part I, Son of Dathomir

Season 8: Clone Wars Saved (4 Episodes, plus 1/2 of a Novel & 12 Unproduced/Unadapted Episodes))
-Dark Disciple Part II, The Siege of Mandalore

(with those last few tentative, pending what final episodes we actually get next year)


EDIT- You know, the more i write it out here, the more I may break with my one guideline and move Mandalore Trilogy to be the first episodes of "Season 0"... because as we speak of bookending themes, having the first storyline of the entire series be about Mandalore when we know the series finale is also about Mandalore only makes too much sense... the only oddity is that means Ahsoka doesn't get introduced until the 6th episode (at the end of the 2nd story arc, effectively) instead of the 3rd (at the end of the first story arc). Hmm...

I'll probably end up just making the two versions of whatever the final configuration ends up being: 1) The Official-But-With-Fixes order & 2) A personal preferred/recommended order with that expanded "Season 0" content.

EDIT 2- Hmm, apparently Sphere of Influence was originally going to be a prequel to Trepass but they deleted that subplot and replaced the Chairman with the second Neimodian. Might have to consider that an indication that, even in an alternate preference, Trespass can't go into "Season 0" and, potentially, might have to go later...

EDIT 3- Damn, The Academy refers to Master Kenobi's "recent" visit from the Trilogy, so that rules out a "Season 0" placement for the Mandalore Trilogy- at least not ithout moving Corruption duo much earlier which I'm not sure you can do...

 

Yeah, that's my layout for 4-6. The other 8 would be the Boba/Bane arc (which would have seemingly been before Crystal Crisis, but production numbers are flexible) and the Ahsoka Underworld arc (which would have been after). The 8-count operates under the assumption that each arc would have 4 episodes long (because if you ignore my retheming of the seasons to accommodate my rearranged order and go by the aired seasons (but ignoring the "extra" Clovis for now since that would have been decided to be moved after the fact when Young Jedi was added into S5), then you end up with 22 episodes for Season 6, which is a likely target episode count even though there weren't set numbers as to how long each season was, so a longer Clovis-including season isn't out of the question).

I'm going to be looking at FOD after I'm done with this viewing. But, it all depends on how closely you intend to watch them. Technically, all of them except for The Starfighter stunt have to happen before Heroes on Both Sides due to Ahsoka's promotion (new braid) and the new character models. She gets her new braid in The Padawan Path and doesn't have the braid in any other episode (Starfighter doesn't give us a clear look at it since she's in a cockpit so technically that's the only one that doesn't have to be before Padawan).

However, if you ignore that small detail (which you can barely catch most of the time), I like having Unexpected right before Sabotage because of Ahsoka's awareness of Anakin/Padme at that point, which pays off a moment in her goodbye to Anakin in The Wrong Jedi. So moving it there makes for a stronger thematic/emotional context despite her missing the braid. The others I would put earlier before Heroes (or pair a second FOD episode with Unexpected so it's not sitting alone by itself).

But during this viewing I'm going to see if anything from Heroes and beyond in TCW would contradict Ahsoka seemingly knowing about Anakin & Padme before hand, to figure out a "all of them before Heroes" technically-correct version which would likely begin with Teach You and end with Padawan to make Yoda the bookending theme.

 

Just as a quick update:

-As i edited in before to my post above, in spirit, Trespass and Mandalore Trilogy cannot go into Season 0, though Trespass could go into Season 2.

-The rearrangement of Corruption Duology to be before the Boba Trilogy to allow Assassin to take place right after Boba Trilogy not only works well for the seasonal grouping I use, but it actually works better with the content of the episodes despite the inclusion of Corruption footage inbetween the Boba footage and Assassin's start and the narrator mentioning "several harrowing adventures alongside her master".

Specifically, Ahsoka at the start is instructed to give her mission report and, in a scene or two later when she is discussing her dreams with Yoda, she clarifies that that report is the one regarding Aurra Sing's death. So the report is very unlikely to be about her Mandalore adventure or other offscreen mission. That renders the "several harrowing" comment to be a more general statement not meant to be taken as a literal chronological progression from the Boba/Aurra recap that precedes it, but rather a second, overlapping, statement.

-The transition to Lightsaber Lost's new position is much more effective in regards to the extensive Hostage Crisis footage in the newsreel.

-The placement of ARC Troopers feels a little off (but not entirely unworkable) being right after Grievous Intrigue/Deserter (despite the Grievous connection). The heavy setup connection to Rookies makes it feel like it might be a bit too long since then (even though some time must pass), even though where it's at mostly respects the chronological order list. I'm wondering if putting it between Children of the Force and Senate Spy (where it can reflect the "lengthy tour of duty" Anakin is returning from in the prologue of SS) might be an option. It might be too much "Big Action" having both the Kamino battle and Geonosis battles happening back to back though.

Alternatively, I may try to slide it back to being between Zillo and Sphere. That would evoke the chronological order by having it be immediately before Sphere of Influence and still have it...eventually.. be before Evil Plans (even if that episode is now several more down the road). Also gives more time for the black market to seep into Mandalore in the wake of the trilogy, but not so much time as to make things like the Kenobi reference or park destruction feel too distant.

EDIT- I've settled on, effectively, swapping (from an original chrono POV) Grievous Intrigue episodes with ARC Troopers. This way the series still has these moments of major Grievous attacks spread out in roughly the same location they were originally (ie: one per season).

So I'm putting ARC Troopers between Brain Invaders and The Mandalore Plot, where GI/TD/LL sat on the chrono order. Meanwhile LL/GI/TD remain where I moved them to, after the Ziro arc but before Heroes on Both Sides.

It actually works rather well because the focus on Grievous in GI/TD is much more escalated than it is in ARC, so there is a progression that emerges there rather nicely. And it just feels so much better having ARC be 18 episodes closer to Rookies than I had it before (and about 12 episodes closer than the chrono order).

EDIT 2- Also, as a minor bonus, this arrangement resolves the minor TV-94/TV-94B continuity error.

 

So, it might have taken me a little bit longer than I planned, but I've finally completed my video breaking down the viewing order I've been working on throughthe course of the above posts. Sticks to the spirit of the Official Chronological Order, but fixes its mistakes and irons out a few bumps.

Behold! The Enhanced Viewing Order:

 

Wrongs must be righted.

 

Ooh, nice catches. The Senate Guards might not be as concrete cause I think they were still around and it could just be different circumstances but your conclusion is clearly what happened there. The Palpatine model is a big one, though. It's easy to focus on the updated models for Anakin, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka and overlook the other characters like Palpatine sometimes.

I'll try to add an annotation with them if I can, or if/when I do a revision in the future (with the final Season 7 episode titles and/or in case S7 throws us a curveball and changes what was originally supposed to go down) I'll include that addendum. Thanks for checking out the video.