Lit The New (Mostly) Comprehensive Clone Wars (L-canon?) Timeline

To be honest, I’ve never tried to reconcile the original Legends Clone War timeline with TCW, so have always kept them kind of seperate on my personal timeline

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BlXgAaPSr7KHaqI0cFx8moshwtQ-86GoVeeya99DQQk/edit?usp=sharing

I tried to post this directly in the thread, but the formatting didn't quite work. None-the-less, here's a google doc of my latest edit of the timeline so far, taking into account what we now know.

I've broken the war down into 6 month segments starting at the beginning of year 2, approximately where I believe TCW the series should begin 'if' we are creating a condensed timeline which incorporates as much of the old EU as possible. Dates from old EU stories will have to be ignored entirely, and we are instead compressing most events before Anakin gets his scar into roughly the first year, covering most of the original Star Wars: Republic run up to that point as well as the most of the micro series material up to his knighting.

This now puts the remaining series over the course of about 2 years or 24 months. Naturally, it's a packed timeline, but considering that many events happen concurrently with one another, it can more or less work.

I'll probably continue to refine it a bit more as the final arc draws to a close, also covering later post War Dark Times events another time, but I expect it to play out fairly similarly to what we see here.

 

I’ll admit I’m not a fan of including new canon stories. It’s hard enough the you have a pre TCW timeline, a Legends TVW timeline and then a canon TCW timeline. I’m not even sure I’m going to include the final season on my Legends timeline, vs my Canon timeline

 

I just rewatched the last few CW episodes on YouTube for fun.
The scene where Anakin and Obi-Wan receive word of the Chancellors kidnapping goes by very quick (In large part because its an extremely fast paced series).

I can actually see it taking place right after Anakin and Obi-Wan leave in Old Friends Not Forgotten pretty easily. In my head after the Anakin gives Ahsoka her lightsabers he goes off to watch the message Master Windu sent them about the Chancellors kidnapping. Its only then that the gravity of the situation hits him, and he starts demanding the clones jump to hyperspace ASAP. All things considered its a fairly smooth transition minus the markings on Anakin from the Nelvaan mission.

 

So it's what, Tythe > Mandalore > Nelvaan? Hasn't LOE been placed after CW 2003 for years?

@HEDGESMFG I believe Anakin's knighting was retconned to 4 ABG just before the EU was axed.

 

Well I don't know the exact timeline, others have pointed out that in LOE we don't actually see Anakin and Obi-Wan leave for Coruscant, Anakin wants to go and its possible Obi-Wan talked him out of it. They get redeployed to Yerbana in the meantime, which is where we pick up with them in TCW.

CW has to take place last because we actually see them jump to Coruscant there, whereas the other sources just show them preparing to leave.

 

It's Nelvaan, Tythe, Yerbana, then Coruscant I believe. Anakin and Obi-Wan don't actually go to Mandalore, Ahsoka does.

 

Yep. If you read the notes in the google doc, this is what I'm using. The Wook specifically states in the old EU that Nelvaan is 4 days before the Recapture of Tythe, which can happen near simultaneously with the Yerbana campaign. As you said, it just barely works, but it's good enough for me.

By no means is anyone here obligated to follow the timeline I've created. It's a fun thought experiment for the canon-nuts that Lit tends to attract, but I've had this around for 5+ years and wanted to give it one last go now that we're only getting a small minority of new content since I started this.

The old EU was already full of some pretty absurd retcons to begin with, so a few more in one tiny era is something I'm willing to toy with.

I'll work on the Dark Horse/Dark Times era material once the arc finishes and I have a better idea of exact placement of the final episodes.

 

I've said before I am 100% ok with the canon reboot and long believed it was necessary.

At the same time it is very fun to speculate about how new stories could fit in with old ones, especially when those stories directly reference old ones.

The basic events from the Battle of Coruscant from legends have been canon for a couple years, they are directly referenced in a lightsaber guidebook but its still cool to hear these events be referenced in TCW considering how easy it is for these background sources to be overlooked.

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Roron Corobb and Shaak Ti from the canon Battle of Coruscant.

 

Yes, the clone wars was an unusual era in the sense that the creators clearly wrote the show with previous EU material in mind, but George then stepped in a vetoed a bunch of ideas partway through the process, ultimately freeing up the staff to do what they wanted to do, damn the consequences. George being notorious for changing his mind during the creative process (even contradicting things he previously told EU writers directly) added to the problem.

But unlike the nuCanon, the whole thing wasn't tossed out wholesale yet, so a lot of specific events were never depicted on screen precisely because they still relied on old canon info to tell the story, most notably the microseries. Personally, I just can't watch TCW 'without' having the microseries events in mind (it being both a start and end point), and it looks like the show will keep that mentality right up to the very end. Fine by me.

 

One of the more bizarre (near) continuity flubs was a deleted scene where they killed off Ma'kis'shaalas.
Thankfully that scene in Nightsisters was deleted, but if they had gone through with it they would have not only messed with his appearances in the EU, but ROTS as well.

 

Despite the retcons I've always found it kinda nice how the 3D show has tried to honor things that have come before...not always well...but tried, and the fact that they popularized characters like Asaj Ventress in the eyes of many as well I think is cool.

It shows just how BIG a impact the 2D Show still has on Star Wars lore to this day.

 

For most of the series I just assumed TCW takes place during the time gap after Anakins knighting in CW.
The canon reboot and the siege of Mandalore kind of mess with that original thought, but as I said before it can still work surprisingly smoothly.

That is if we just take TCW into account. From a larger canon standpoint we now have the issue that Obi-Wan is on the Council while still training Anakin now that its been established new Council members can have Padawan's.

 

I think at least Season 1 and 2 of 2D Clone Wars remains in tact it's that 3rd Pre Ep 3 season that gets...muddied.

 

Not really. Episode 21 is an endcap added onto the battle with Grievous, but that was an issue before TCW due to Anakin being Knighted right after they discuss the fight on Hyperoi, which the old EU dated as only a few months into the war, while simultaneously having him Knighted in the 3rd year of the war. That was 'always' a problem best ignored, with the only issue now being a single shot of freshly Knighted Anakin leaving in a late war starfighter at the end. Which you can assume to be either a prototype (ALA the early A-Wings in the old Droids cartoon), or just excise one single scene from personal canon. Hardly the end of the world here.

Microseries episode 22 is a montage of clips that can occur at almost any point in the war, in nearly any order. The length of Anakin's hair and the depiction of his glove arm are an issue, but not a huge one. Episodes 23-25 are skip straight to the battle of Coruscant, while also having the battle of Nelvaan, which as we've discussed here, hasn't been touched at all (unless this week's episode changes that. Doubtful based on what they've released so far). Nelvaan happens in the days/weeks before Episode III and always has. That issue predates TCW by 3 years and we've more or less already solved it.

 

Why do the clone wars need to be confined to a neat and tidy 36 months exactly? Why can't they be 38 months, or 42 months?

 

The original Timeline was precisely three years, with Order 66 (16:5:22) apparently occurred on the fourth anniversary of the Battle of Geonosis (13:5:22). While you could argue that it could've been longer -- the Clone Wars TV series may or may not have made it appear that it went on for more than three years (though no less than four) -- the best we have is knowing by these days (I still go by these dates myself until proven otherwise).

 

Yes, it could be tweaked by a few months here and there (starts in early 22BBY, ends in late 19BBY, ect. ect.) but since all publications on the topic, new and old, confided it as a strictly 3 year war, I'm trying to keep it as that, as that determines where the films themselves fit. Again, personal canon certainly allows you the viewer to change that if you wish (they have also officially changed Han Solo's age (and tweaked Anakin's age), so a future potential retcon isn't 'impossible', but I'd categorize it as pretty unlikely.

On a separate note, the newest TCW episode just finished airing, and it seems to fit roughly in the middle of RoTS... firmly after the battle of Coruscant, but up to and likely simultaneously with the battle of Utapau. I suspect Order 66 will be early in the next episode, putting the events in Palpatine's office between these episodes and the lead in to Order 66 right in the middle...

 

Same for me. And most of the micro-series still works. Especially Volume 1.

I still consider it to be my head canon first meeting between Anakin and Ventress, how Anakin got the scar, how he was knighted, first reveal of Grievous to the Jedi, how Palpatine was kidnapped...

 

In Legends, the show isn't even the first meeting of Anakin and Ventress, right? Doesn't the Republic comic where she gasses the Gungans take place before that?

 

Most notably, Ventress already knows Anakin and Kenobi in TCW movie and its prequel Hidden Enemy. TCW movie outright says Ventress wants revenge for some harm Anakin previously did to her. This only makes sense if you've seen the Legends Clone Wars microseries (where Anakin tosses her off a Yavin building) and/or Dark Horse's Dreadnoughts of Rendili (where Anakin gets the scar and tosses her into the Coruscant depths).

Kenobi already knowing Ventress also relies on Dark Horse where she kidnapped him.

As far as I know Anakin and Kenobi first meeting Ventress hasn't been addressed in Canon.

 

I'm not talking about TCW. I mean I think the Yavin meeting in the 2D Clone Wars takes place after Ventress gasses the Gungans in Republic 51/52. I just looked over it again, and while she and Anakin don't really talk to each other, Obi-Wan has no idea who she is, which he would if Anakin had already met her. For what it's worth, the comic came out a year before the episode and was obviously intended by Dark Horse to be Obi-Wan and Anakin's first introduction to her.

 

Ah the comic where she gassed Ohma-D'un and then made Gungan zombies I think? (Ironically a hint to her nightsister origins long before she was connected to nightsisters and it was established they did those things). That comic was a pretty harsh sequel to what was a kid's game (Ohma-D'un's gungan colonization was in the game https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Wars_Episode_I:_The_Gungan_Frontier )

 

I've been wondering how Raxus fits in to everything. If the Separatists have a comfortable capital it doesn't make sense for the Sep. Council to be on the run in ROTS. Additionally the map of the Outer Rim Sieges in the Essential Atlas shows Raxus in CIS territory at the end of the war. My theory is that it was something like Richmond in the Civil War, with Felucia and Toola being Petersburg. Essentially, the planets surrounding Raxus were about to fall and once that happened the CIS capital would quickly be overrun. So the Seperatist leadership left Raxus as a preemptive measure. Do any of the NuCanon sources mention Raxus and what happens to it in the war?

 

Raxus is a weird one, as old canon was never quite sure what to do with either Raxus or Raxus Prime. I don't think it was ever even clarified if Raxus later became the junk planet, or if they were 2 worlds in the same system, or if Dooku founded the Separatists on the junk planet then moved to the non-junk one.

Since it doesn't affect the timeline and since TFU is pretty hard to salvage, I pretty much just ignore that issue.

As for the council itself, the corporate leaders are clearly different from the CIS parliament, which was the entire point of their creation in the show. The CIS heads in the film are corporate leaders who are responsible for running/funding the war behind the scenes, and were later retconned to be independent entities publically neutral to both sides, while the political leaders of the movement are those seen and known in the parliament itself and were the public leaders of the faction, working with Dooku as a political leader.

The political leaders seem to either deliberately ignore their own side's war crimes and act ignorant of them, or they are often shielded from the truth by propaganda about just how ruthless the real leaders truly are. The episode Heroes on Both Sides establishes the idea and heavily implies the CIS populace is fed a ton of Anti-Republic propaganda abput the war's true nature. (Not that they were wrong when the Empire took over...)