For starters, the opening chapter of Star Wars: The Clone Wars is set shortly after the galactic conflict began at Geonosis, but the central characters have already assumed their statuses from Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith Obi-Wan is already a Jedi Master, Anakin Skywalker is a Jedi Knight and even has a scar on his face.
In other words, Star Wars: The Clone Wars gets (somewhat) transformed into a traditional TV series.īut even with this “normalization process,” there are still some noticeable gaps with continuity, and they’re worth just quickly addressing. Related: Marvel’s Star Wars Reveals the Dark Origin of the Clone Warsĭespite this loose, almost fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants storytelling methodology – which stands in stark contrast to all subsequent Star Wars TV endeavors – a chronological viewing order increases Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ continuity and, therefore, narrative payoff not only does it negate the need for audiences to try and keep track of all the myriad story arcs and how each new installment, even those released entire seasons apart, fits into them, it also maximizes character development and the flow of certain conflicts on the battlefield.
And then there's the sequel series to The Clone Wars – The Bad Batch, which came out of a pilot arc within that first show, and continued when it first aired in 2021, to be followed up by at least one more season. There are arcs related to specific clone troopers, individual Jedi Knights, the Mandalorians, and even the resurrected Darth Maul. Lucas chose to tell stories out of sequence, to jump around the timeline with impunity and explore multiple characters rather than stick with one particular protagonist as they work their way through the Clone Wars. When George Lucas and Dave Filoni began Star Wars: The Clone Wars, they modeled it on something like a monthly comic book series, with groups of episodes linking together into one story arc, and multiple story arcs comprising each season - and even with occasional "filler" episodes. Star Wars: The Clone Wars was aired out of chronological order, so its episode listing on Disney+ is also out of order – but, fortunately, Star Wars has provided the right way to view the show.