AU timeline (for my main AU series) for the Clone Wars - Part Three
Continued from second post, over here https://polgarawolf.livejournal.com/249398.html (with most of the actual timeline), which was continued from the first post, over here https://polgarawolf.livejournal.com/249242.html since apparently I talked so much that LJ couldn’t fit everything in a single post.
ALSO, I STILL DON'T KNOW WHY IT KEEPS RANDOMLY CHANGING FONTS. SERIOUSLY, I HAVE TRIED TO FIX IT AND I’VEGIVEN UP ON THE FRAKKER.
- It is worth noting that I plan on altering the timeline for the latter half of Catalyst, so that a research facility can have been built on the former B’ankor Refuge on Coruscant and Orson can have Galen working there on Project Celestial Power before the end of the war (rather than sending him off to Lokori to work for Helical HyperCom and waiting to snooker him into the job with a bribe of kyber crystals soon after the war ends. I feel as though Orson misses a golden opportunity to turn the tables on Galen and lure him in, in regards to Project Stardust [i.e., the Death Star], when Galen tries to “repay” Orson for rescuing his family by “rescuing him” with a proposed shared project, and that’s one of the planned major break-points for the AU version of Catalyst that I want to write, though the timing on the Second Battle of Geonosis and the capture of Archduke Poggle the Lesser and how quickly it takes Orson to recruit Poggle - and, thus, the Geonosian workers of the Stalgasin hive - to start building the actual physical framework for the Death Star “deep-space mobile battle station” project will also be minor points of divergence). The Erso family and Orson Krennic are all going to be on Coruscant, during the staged battle for Coruscant, and I am planning on having a major point of departure from canon and Catalyst both at this point, so that the accelerated timeline for the story will coincide mostly with the revelation of Palpatine being Sidious (with an epilogue likely involving assorted other characters who, in canon, would have either been big bads among the Imperials or else absorbed into the ranks of the Sith’s various Dark Side Adept servants).
- As my 2021 NaNo project, I’ve already begun working on an altered version of Ahsoka that takes place mostly in the same time period(s) as the book but with at least a few flashbacks set not long after the end of my Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith trio, with Ahsoka being in what used to be the Outer Rim as part of a solo mission that’s essentially meant to act as her Trials of Knighthood (much the same way that Siri Tachi’s undercover mission as part of slave trader Krayn’s gang in the old SW EU comics stood in for her Trials of Knighthood as a Jedi Shadow). The solution to Taria Damsin’s supposedly incurable and ultimately lethal illness (Borotavi syndrome) is indeed based on Dr. Netzl’s further research into the Lanteeb herbal remedy against damotite poisoning, the damotite-based bioweapon Bant'ena Fhernan’s coerced into creating for Separatist Lok Durd, and the cure/vaccine for that bioweapon, based on the remedy for damotite poisoning, as well as his interactions with the Lanteebans on Naboo, which has allowed Taria to step in and basically help prepare and monitor Ahsoka during this mission (and, thus, her Trials), with help from Master Jedi Bendu Shadow Feemor Taiqobos (who, in my AU, was orphaned as a Jedi Padawan, completed his training to Knighthood under Qui-Gon Jinn, and was essentially renounced by Jinn, along with Xanatos, after the disastrous mission to Telos IV. Obi-Wan has only recently discovered all of this and publicly claimed Feemor as part of his lineage in both the old Jedi Order and the New Jedi Bendu Order, and Feemor’s involvement is largely due to the fact that Ahsoka is considered part of that lineage by Obi-Wan and Anakin, though he claims that it’s because Ahsoka is operating undercover, her mission acting as part of a much larger mission to infiltrate areas of space either claimed by or threatened by the Imperial Sith Order - a splinter government claiming to be the rightful successor of Palpatine’s regime and, thus, the only lawful rule of the galaxy, declared at the end of the Clone Wars and revolving around Ferus Olin/Darth Kra’taral as Sidious’ Dark Side heir and Wilhuff Tarkin as the head of the military - gather/share trustworthy and actionable intel, and try to combat the rising tide of darkness and savagery sweeping across so much of what used to be the Republic’s Outer Rim Territories). Ahsoka will, in essence, be working to help organize resistance and rebellion against this new threat (the self-proclaimed Imperial Sith Order) rather than against what would’ve been Sidious’ Empire.
This particular error of chronology is probably an honest mistake that would have been caught and fixed if the show hadn’t been abruptly cancelled at part of the DISNEY buyout, but the fact remains that the last four episodes of that season are canonically impossibly chronologically set, since the dating used within the actual episodes places them not only prior to the war but prior to the end of TPM (since Palpatine is made Supreme Chancellor before the film ends!). It’s such an obvious and enormous mistake in chronology that one can’t help but wonder how many other such mistakes in chronology were committed over the course of the show that might have been caught and corrected if the show hadn’t been made at such a breakneck pace. Just a little more planning at the beginning probably would’ve helped to keep such mistakes from happening. I know a lot of the episodes scattered across the entire show actually overlap in timeframe - which is where Ahsoka being sent out by herself or Obi-Wan being on a solo mission or battles being run by Jedi other than our intrepid trio tend to come into play and makes sense, since of course with a war this big there would almost surely always be multiple far-flung active battlefields and multiple combat/war-related/Jedi peacekeeping related missions happening at once, since the war spans/threatens so many systems - but honestly, logically speaking, if from the very beginning they’d wanted to make six full seasons or more of this show and have it make any kind of sense for fitting into the limited amount of time that the war’s said to have covered (that being three standard years, which plausibly could have easily been stretched a few months more than three exact years, since it’s unlikely the war would’ve lasted exactly three years to the day), what they should have done was to make absolutely clear from the very start of it all that The Clone Wars film and season one and possibly season two are basically happening in the rest of 22 BBY, the next few seasons (three and four) mostly occur in 21 BBY, the next few seasons (five and six) essentially are in 20 BBY, and then anything else after that, like what became Dark Disciple, the story reels for various unfinished episodes, and etc., including most of what ended up being in the DISNEY revival, should’ve been during the beginning/first half or so of 19 BBY, before (or concurrent with) RotS and the end of the war.
Unfortunately, since the creators of the show apparently couldn’t keep track of when things were happening during the show and during the war (or when they wanted them to be happening or they were already supposed to be happening), what we end up with is a mess of chronology that often makes no sense at all (as with actual statements issued in the last four of The Lost Missions that would place them prior to the end of TPM and long before the war actually begins, if you go by what the characters in those episodes actually literally say). So regardless of when episodes are said to be set, odds are that the timeline for Star Wars: The Clone Wars as a whole should end up shifting at least somewhat to make the distribution of episodes overall more even and to make room for additional episodes either occurring prior to the end of season five and The Lost Missions of season six (that aren’t obviously already happening earlier in the war, anyway, as with the Rush episodes) or at some point during when Obi-Wan and Anakin are supposed to be assigned to the Outer Rim Sieges, after losing Ahsoka. I’ve tried to do just this, in as logical a fashion as I could figure out how to do it, but the buyout and cancellation and revival have made it kind of a running process for me to even be able to deal with the materials being released, so I really do apologize if it seems like I’m repeating myself a lot here or as if I’m moving things around awfully arbitrarily, to try to make everything I want to keep fit like I want/need it to fit.
Season seven for Star Wars: The Clone Wars is definitely over with, but there’s really no telling whether or not DISNEY SW is done with the Clone Wars now or not. When the cancellation originally happened, it left like thirteen whole story arcs entirely unaccounted for that, if I’m remembering correctly, were meant for seasons five and six and a planned seventh season, back before the DISNEY buyout basically put a screeching halt to the whole animated series, though apparently only the scripts existed at that point. Since the revival only had twelve episodes and only three distinct story arcs, it could be that the others are meant to either be adapted for other materials to go along with the revival, depending on whether or not DISNEY thinks it would be at all profitable to justify doing anything else with those stories (like use them as the basis for more comics or more books). Dave Filoni and the various writers have always said they were about three seasons ahead of what was airing, Pablo Hidalgo has confirmed multiple scripts that never got made into episodes, and season five was originally supposed to have 25 full episodes, with seasons six and seven both slated for twenty-four episodes each, which leaves like . . . forty episodes that didn’t get made, if all of those episodes had completed scripts. Granted, at least twenty of those are pretty much accounted for by The Clone Wars: Legacy (and the DISNEY revival accounted for some of them again, in more complete fashion), but that still leaves a lot more scripts than can be accounted for by the twelve episodes in the revival alone. If the other scripts truly are complete (or even just mostly finished) and fans prove that there’s still a thriving market for this kind of prequel-era storytelling, then the DISNEY people would be idiots not to want to do something (eventually) with all of those remaining scripts. Granted, DISNEY has already made some spectacularly awful decisions, when it comes to SW; hopefully, though, it won’t necessarily mean that they will make similarly stupid decisions again, in regards to these scripts. I’ll likely adjust for any additional new prequel-era/Clone Wars-related material if I need to, but I feel like most of what they’ve covered in the revival is just more of what’s supposed to have been happening in the last year or so of fighting already, anyway (and so would be happening in 20-19 BBY anyway).
(I have no idea what the frak the author of Dooku: Jedi Lost was trying to do and I honestly don’t care. Even allowing for the script format, it’s next to unreadable, and it doesn’t even attempt to be consistent with anything else about Dooku in the original canon, the EU, or even the rest of the newer DISNEY!SW canon, which makes it entirely too easy to dismiss/ignore as bad writing. The same largely goes for the majority of E. K. Johnston’s frankly shamefully asinine Queen trilogy, which reads like fanfic from a teen who’s obsessed with clothes/fashion and completely ignorant as to how politics in general, much less democratic governing bodies, actually work, contradicts Lucas’ canon at least as often as it contradicts the earlier EU, and, in all honesty, doesn’t seem particularly consistent with the comics in the newer DISNEY!SW canon, either.)
Since I have Ahsoka being reclaimed by her “real” Master, instead of leaving the Jedi Order, anything about her that’s likely to come up in any other materials following the Star Wars: The Clone Wars revival will likely either end up being discarded/written over entirely or else end up being modified somehow to fit in with the time I have her spending with Yrannia Tey (I already know that Ahsoka definitely ends up in charge of Master Tey’s command extremely early on in the whole Siege of Mandalore storyline that’s picked up in The Final Season - basically, her supposedly “recovered” Master goes down in the first real fight that the two end up in - with Ahsoka then assuming command over the battalion Yrannia Tey had been given charge before Anakin sends her that partial battalion (and Obi-Wan also asks for volunteers from the 212th to go join them), under Rex, to help out with the whole Mandalore and Savage Opress problem; anything/everything else kind of depends on what DISNEY gives us that can be worked with, though, since right now we mostly just don’t know what Ahsoka’s supposed to have been doing for all of this particular stretch of time, canonically, given that she’s not with Anakin and Obi-Wan for the Outer Rim Sieges and the majority of Ahsoka is set after the war ends and Ahsoka basically has to go into hiding to avoid being murdered by her own men and/or hunted down and slaughtered by the Empire). I like Ahsoka’s character enough that I’m already adjusting my main AU series to make more room for her and for the impact that she’s had, especially on Anakin and Obi-Wan, so if DISNEY gives us something else about her worthwhile, it’s entirely possible that I’ll come back and adjust as much as I have to, to make room for more information about what Ahsoka’s supposed to be doing during those last six-seven months of the war before Palpatine is discovered to be Sidious (or else I might figure out a way to incorporate it somehow into the Ahsoka rewrite, either through brief mentions or allusions or else possibly with the flashback sequences, depending on what kind of information it is that we’re talking about). Until I know more, though, I’m happy with keeping my timeline for the war pretty much as it is right now.
Of course, it should be kept in mind that the entirety of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and all of its related EU/Legends materials are going to be slightly off, in regards to what I’m saying is going to have happened in some form, at some point, in my main AU series, since first of all Ahsoka is merely temporarily assigned to Anakin and Obi-Wan (since her real Master is too frail/wounded to be physically able to keep up with her training, after the First Battle of Geonosis), second of all Bail Organa has been a loyal friend/ally of Obi-Wan Kenobi since long before he took Anakin Skywalker on as his Padawan, thirdly Asajj Ventress has a twin sister (who I am saying survives the events of Dark Disciple, given that DISNEY retcons Ventress’ death there in Star Wars: The Bad Batch), fourthly the so-called Darth Maul character is actually just a twisted clone of the original Maul (created by Sidious, mostly to put the hurt on Obi-Wan and to cause more chaos/trouble), fifthly Bo-Katan Kryze has enough of a working conscience to act soon enough to help Obi-Wan save Satine’s life, so that Obi-Wan can then defeat and slay the false Maul (although Savage Opress still escapes justice), sixthly Quinlan Vos isn’t a brainless mook who drifts about the galaxy aimlessly but rather a highly skilled Jedi Shadow (a chameleon able to slip effortlessly in and out of various created personas, over the course of dangerous missions) who’s able to survive horrors and still hold to the Light (even though he’s thoroughly in love with Khaleen Hentz and she’s having his baby, by the time the war’s wrapping up), eighthly Mon Mothma loses all of her memories of the war due to the head injury she takes during “Hostage Crisis” but spends the rest of the war basically acting like those memories have eventually returned to her (even though they haven’t), and ninthly Riyo Chuchi, as a good friend of Ahsoka Tano and (due to her relationship with Obi-Wan and Anakin) something of a shared mentee of Amidala, Bail Organa, and Mon Mothma, is a lot closer to the heart of all things political that would have ended up supporting the rebellion (in the canon and EU/Legends, anyway), if Palpatine weren’t eventually exposed as Sidious.
The Siege of Mandalore isn’t really mentioned in The Clone Wars, prior to the DISNEY revival, but instead is referenced in both the Legends young adult novel Ahsoka and the Rebels animated series (and of course the revival of The Clone Wars ends with this particular story arc, which, to me, seems more than a little different than is hinted at in Ahsoka and Rebels). While it obviously doesn’t and can’t happen in my main AU in the same way as DISNEY SW eventually laid it out (and, let’s be honest, the version referred to in Ahsoka is markedly different than what we got in the revived Clone Wars, already, anyway), since, again, Ahsoka has, by then, been returned to her first Master, Yrannia Tey, as I’ve already explained, something pretty close to it certainly does still occur, with Ahsoka and Rex and the partial battalion from Anakin (and Obi-Wan) and the clones she’s inherited command over from her Master (after Yrannia Tey’s death. There are a whole lot of trooper unit numbers that haven’t already been assigned elsewhere. I’m currently leaning towards calling them the 660th Siege Battalion, honestly, with the understanding that the vast majority of these clones are inferior Centax-2 Arkanian Microtechnologies clones that are much more heavily indoctrinated to be loyal first and foremost to Palpatine) all doing their best to help Bo-Katan’s forces quash what’s rapidly turning into essentially a full-blown civil war with way more than just two distinct sides (even if it was originally incited by the false/clone Maul, Savage Opress, the Shadow Collective, and the Death Watch), so that the planet can safely regain its neutrality, though things are still so chaotic that no one officially knows where Satine Kryze is or who’s really in charge on Mandalore, by the time Palpatine is revealed to be Sidious.
The timeline for the war as laid out by The Clone Wars is honestly kind of farkled when it comes to Mandalore - the Battle of Sundari is weirdly separated from both the Siege of Mandalore and everything associated with what Mother Talzin’s doing on Dathomir and elsewhere (specifically including Bardotta, though honestly she also could’ve been doing more of the same elsewhere), when logically those last two things should follow pretty closely after the first (even with Maul and Savage Opress basically just randomly travelling around the Outer Rim for a while, after Mother Talzin does the ritual to fix Maul up, being bad guys and killing innocents and robbing banks, before they ever even get to Mandalore) - but to be fair, in my AU, the three episode arc from season five that culminates with Mandalore in flames and Bo-Katan asking Obi-Wan to go and tell the Republic everything about what’s happened there, even if it means that the Republic will end up invading Mandalore, ultimately unfolds much differently than in TCW, and not just in regards to Satine. I’m not going to go into this here, because it would require several pages to try to explain, but briefly, the plan that the alliance of the Shadow Collective and the Death Watch have for retaking Mandalore starts going sideways pretty much immediately, since, even before the Death Watch and the so-called Sith Lord brothers can get to Mandalore, the cartels have decided to raid the prison above Sundari and free all the prisoners there, including Almec, who decides to take advantage of all the chaos to try seize power for himself again.
However, due to the fact that Bo-Katan has previously overheard part of an argument between the supposed Sith brothers and Pre Vizsla that she wasn’t meant to, in which the Maul clone and Savage Opress make it brutally clear that they intend to murder her sister just to hurt Obi-Wan Kenobi (when all Bo-Katan has ever really wanted was for Satine to have to give up her pacifist ways - or at least learn to bend a little - and/or step down as the leader of Mandalore, and for Pre Vizsla to notice her and return her love) and Pre Vizsla has basically said that he would let them do it (in spite of the fact that he’d previously sworn to Bo-Katan that he has no intention of ever physically hurting Satine and eventually planned to betray the supposed Sith brothers and take control of Mandalore himself), she’s contacted Obi-Wan and openly warned him about what’s happening and just who’s going to be coming to Mandalore after Satine. So Obi-Wan (with a highly dedicated protective clone detail, courtesy of Anakin, who has such a bad feeling about it all that he ultimately decides to follow them, with Ahsoka tagging along, too, since she also has a vested interest in both Mandalore and Obi-Wan’s continued safety/well-being/happiness/peace of mind) is already there with Satine, by the time that the Maul clone, Savage Opress, and Pre Vizsla arrive and are welcomed by Almec as liberators of Mandalore.
There’s already been a lot of robbery and opening of prisons and rapine and property damage and whatnot, from the Shadow Collective and Death Watch, and Satine has reportedly gone into hiding, so all four of them (the Maul clone, Savage Opress, Pre Vizsla, and Almec) basically march on the palace, thinking that they’ll just move right in and get on with things. Only Satine and Obi-Wan and the clones are there and Bo-Katan and her Nite Owls join them and, in the resulting battle, Anakin shows up at a crucial moment with Ahsoka and Rex and more clones, which distracts everyone, giving Satine time to pull a stiletto from her hair and knife Maul when he attempts to go after her, after which Bo-Katan shoots most of one of his legs off while Ahsoka is covering her, and Obi-Wan engages him a duel and ends up decapitating him (after removing most of his fighting arm and his legs above the knee, first, kind of like what canonically happens to Anakin in RotS, only with the addition of a final coup de grâce to definitely end him), while Anakin’s fighting Savage Opress. Pre Vizsla ends up having a (sort of) change of heart, because the supposed Sith brothers were going after the Kryze girls, and helps keep them safe, but gets shot more than once during the melee, including in the back by Almec (he kills Almec before he dies, though, because the idiot’s stopped to gloat about how he’ll be made Prime Minister again when the people hear about how the Duchess has killed Pre Vizsla with the help of her Jedi allies), and dies of his wounds. Savage Opress is also wounded but ultimately escapes, and, by then, the chaos overtaking Mandalore is unfortunately spiraling utterly out of control.
Obi-Wan still returns to Coruscant shortly after saving Satine’s life by slaying the mad Maul clone, with Anakin and Ahsoka going with him (mostly because Satine and Bo-Katan both argue strenuously against Jedi/Republic help in reconsolidating their power/rule on Mandalore. They basically say that the Mandalorians swayed by the Death Watch would never accept Satine as their Duchess again if she couldn’t be seen to fight for Mandalore herself, separate from both the Republic and the Jedi. Allowing some of the clones to remain and fight is a sort of compromise, accepted mainly because those specific clones are essentially Mandalorian at heart, anyway. Also, in my main AU series, due to Obi-Wan’s long and fairly close friendship with Satine, all of his men and Anakin’s men and even Ahsoka’s men are technically considered members of Clan Kryze anyway, since Obi-Wan is and therefore all of his acknowledged “brothers” and “sisters” - and children - automatically become Clan members, too, through their connection to Obi-Wan), basically right just before the Temple bombing is going to be happening, though, again, that also happens much differently in my main AU than it does in The Clone Wars, since Ahsoka and Barriss almost manage to keep it from happening at all and Barriss, with Ahsoka’s help, has resisted the lure of the Dark Side. The other High Council Masters aren’t really happy with any of them, on their return from Mandalore, even though the Maul clone has been successfully dealt with and, hopefully, that means that the Shadow Collective will be weakened enough to splinter (or to otherwise deal with), and this almost certainly feeds in at least somewhat to the decision to support Yrannia Tey, when she demands that Ahsoka be returned to her, in the wake of the not quite thwarted Temple bombing (and for the record, seven Jedi - including Ahsoka and Barriss - are injured in what escapes attempts to use the Force to shield/contain the bomb blasts, but none of them die, though there are eventually ten casualties among the clones and Temple workers).
(In regards to Barriss Offee and the two very different versions of her in cut scenes and unused footage from AotC and RotS and in the early EU, and in the much later Star Wars: The Clone Wars series and its associated EU/Legends materials, I’ve always been of a mind either to compromise on the apparent age difference between the two versions of her character or else make her basically as young as possible given her year of birth as it’s been given in the early EU but to otherwise keep everything about her from AotC/RotS and the early EU in regards to her background and basic character, meaning that she’s a highly gifted Jedi Healer not quite halfway between the ages of Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano [if she’s born towards the very end of 40 BBY, she would be around seventeen and a half when the Clone Wars begins on Geonosis. If she’s halfway between Anakin and Ahsoka in age, that would make her more like sixteen and a half to sixteen and two-thirds or so when the war begins. I think I’m going to say she’s recently turned seventeen and just leave it at that]. In other words, in my AU, the mission to Ansion, as recounted in The Approaching Storm, set just prior to AotC and the start of the war, happens essentially as it’s written, only Barriss is an extremely mentally and physically mature not quite seventeen to Anakin’s probably just barely twenty [his birthday is ~16 Telona 42 BBY - he turns ten essentially at the end of the Naboo Crisis, before Obi-Wan takes him as his Padawan and they return together to Coruscant - and I imagine the mission to Ansion, which I seem to recall lasting around a full month, would’ve likely been just afterwards into Nelona, with the events of AotC taking up the rest of that month and the war beginning with the First Battle of Geonosis on Productivity Day, between Nelona and the sixth month] when the mission begins [and Ahsoka Tano, meanwhile, is a small but growing twelve going on thirteen who’s likely just been picked as a Padawan by her first Master, Yrannia Tey, since, again, The Approaching Storm is set essentially immediately before AotC, with Obi-Wan and Anakin actually returning from the Ansion mission at the beginning of the novelization for AotC], meaning Barriss is likely just seventeen when the war officially begins and ends up being Knighted just a little bit less than twenty-eight months into the war, making her not quite twenty when she’s Knighted and sent to Rimsoo 7 at Drongar. Master Luminara Unduli and Padawan Offee end up working with Obi-Wan and/or Anakin and/or Ahsoka multiple times during the war, as they have already proven to make an effective team, prior to Ahsoka being assigned to Obi-Wan and Anakin, and the High Council assumes that the trend will continue even with Ahsoka added to the mix, which is precisely what happens. Canon generally doesn’t assign ages to Jedi who aren’t considered main/major characters or potential major supporting characters, but since Luminara is sometimes said to have grey hair instead of black and since she is such a skilled Jedi, I have always thought that she is more likely nearer to the ages of Adi Gallia [who’s appointed to the High Council circa 44 BBY and a close colleague of Qui-Gon Jinn, who’s born in 92 BBY, suggesting that Adi is near to his age] and Mace Windu [who’s born circa 72 BBY and appointed to the High Council at an extremely young age, where his former Padawan, Depa Billaba, ends up joining him in 33 BBY. Interestingly, this would seem to suggest that Mace is probably only as much older than Depa as Dooku is Qui-Gon - a difference of about a decade - which in turn would mean that Depa’s likely only five or six years or so older than Obi-Wan’s supposed to be] than she is to, say, Obi-Wan Kenobi or Quinlan Vos, who are canonically approximately the same age. Honestly, I also tend to lump Kit Fisto and Shaak Ti in with Luminara, Adi, and Mace, since Master Fisto not only continues to train one of Obi-Wan’s age-mates and closest friends, Bant Eerin, after her Master [an age-mate of Qui-Gon Jinn’s by the name of Tahl] has been killed, he also successfully trains another Padawan to Knighthood before the end of the war, and what canon apparently has chosen as Shaak Ti’s birthdate [59 BBY] is logically impossible, given that she has two different apprentices, both of whom die not long after being Knighted, prior to her becoming a member of the High Council sometime in 25 BBY, after the death of Master Yaddle, which would, at minimum, make her at least fifty years old or so, if not more, when the war begins [meaning 95 BBY or 86 BBY would honestly make more sense]. I think that Adi Gallia and probably also Shaak Ti are closer to Qui-Gon’s age, while Luminara and Kit Fisto are perhaps closer to Mace Windu’s age [though, alternatively, they might be in between Mace’s age and Depa Billaba’s or Sar Labooda’s age]. I also think that Stass Allie, who is Adi Gallia’s cousin, trains as a Jedi Consular, earns a seat on the Circle of Jedi Healers before the war begins, and eventually is called on to take the seat of her deceased cousin on the High Council, is most likely in the age range that contains Luminara, Kit, and Mace [and/or Depa], too. I mention all of this not only for clarity’s sake, to help expand the chronology of events associated with the war and those who fight in it, but also because I firmly believe that Barriss’ inherent nature, as a naturally highly gifted Jedi Healer, almost certainly means that she is suffering immensely, due to the constant violence and suffering and death surrounding her, throughout the war, and yet also helps to anchor her more strongly in the Light, which is why she ultimately can’t justify going along with the actions of an extremist like Letta Turmond, who would only inflict yet more death and violence and suffering on the galaxy).
(Off the top of my head, for now, let’s say Adi Gallia is born in 89 BBY, Shaak Ti in 84 BBY, Mace is born at the very beginning of 72 BBY [almost the end of 73 BBY], Depa either at the end of 63 BBY or the beginning of 62 BBY and her sister Sar is born late in 67 BBY, Luminara Unduli is born late in 75 BBY, and Kit Fisto is born in 69 BBY. For reference, Obi-Wan is born in early 56 BBY [not 57 BBY, as the Temple Healers assume that he’s been born], Quinlan Vos in 59 BBY, Anakin in early-ish 42 BBY [~16 Telona of that year] since he turns ten at the end of TPM, Ahsoka in the first half of 35 BBY since she’s a very young 13 when the war starts [on Productivity Day 22 BBY], and Barriss Offee is likely born near the middle of 39 BBY since she’s just seventeen when the war starts. Also, Sifo-Dyas [who is perhaps three months younger than Dooku] is likely born quite late in 102 BBY, Jocasta Nu in 101 BBY, Eno Cordova and Tholme both around 99 BBY, Agen Kolar around 94 BBY, Yrannia Tey in late 90 BBY, Sora Bulq around 87 BBY, Feemor Taiqobos towards the beginning of 82 BBY, Eeth Koth around 80 BBY, Taron Malicos probably around 78 BBY, Stass Allie around 67 BBY, Cin Drallig around 63 BBY, Shylar Dairivka around 58 BBY, Shadday Potkin around the end of 55 BBY/beginning of 54 BBY, Suanne Tephee [the orphaned Commenorian Padawan Luminara Unduli takes on, after her Humbarine Jedi Master, Chi-Kai Yung, dies of old age] near the beginning of 54 BBY, Aayla Secura in mid/late 48 BBY, and Finn Ertay around the end of 43 BBY/beginning of 42 BBY. Keeping in mind that in my AU the war lasts literally until 19 BBY is going to turn to 18 BBY and that this is longer than in canon by at least a few months to allow for a peace treaty and etc., Kalifa and the other two Jedi younglings from the Trandoshan hunters’ moon will be around fourteen and a half when the war officially ends. Cal Kestis is still twelve when Order 66 would’ve happened in canon, so he’s probably born very late in 32 BBY/very early 31 BBY [depending on how one looks at the calendar, regarding Winter Fete], several months after Caleb Dume, who’s born pretty late in 33 BBY, since he’s not quite eleven when the war starts and Depa initially speaks for him, after a chance meeting in the Halls of Healing when she’s stopped by to check up on her wounded sister after Geonosis. Renegade Master Djinn Altis - who’s described as having “white hair” in The Clone Wars: No Prisoners but physically is in much better shape than Dooku is during the war, since he hasn’t been using/used by the Dark Side - is probably born around 106 BBY. Master Yaddle was born near the beginning of 509 BBY and her Master, Polvin Kut, was born around 280 BBY. Neti Jedi Master T’ra Saa, Master to both Polvin Kut and Tyvokka, was likely born ~2,100 BBY [she lived through the Fourth Great Schism and the so-called New Sith Wars, unlike Yoda]. Wookiee Master Tyvokka’s probably born sometime around 505 BBY, Murhaas T’un around 450 BBY, Plo Koon around 385 BBY [since I’m going with the EU regarding his age. For clarity’s sake, Jedi Kel Dor and Baran Do Sages typically can live up to a third again as long as other Kel Dor generally do and Master Plo probably has at least a good two hundred more years in him] and his niece, Sha Koon, around 275 BBY, Thame Cerulian [Dooku’s original Master, who dies of old age in approximately late 83 BBY, when Dooku is around nineteen. Please keep in mind that, in the EU, human norms could easily live up to ~200 standard years, if Force-sensitive, and that not all apparent “humans” in the GFFA are actually genetically human norms, meaning that they could very well live even longer than that, especially if they’ve lived in a time without a lot of continuous open warfare] around 326 BBY, Chi-Kai Yung around 244 BBY, Jaro Tapal around 145 BBY, Cere Junda early in 71 BBY, Zalihna Rulón in the first third of 47 BBY, Trilla Suduri very late in 35 BBY/early 34 BBY, and Satiya Rineb in early 33 BBY.)
(A Padawan who’s Master dies or is slain before that apprentice is ready for the Trials has claim upon the lineages of both the original Master and the Master who steps in to finish training that apprentice for the Trials of Knighthood. Ahsoka, having been originally chosen by Yrannia Tey before being assigned jointly to Obi-Wan and Anakin, ordered back to Master Tey by the High Council only for said Master to die quite soon after reaching Mandalore, and then chosen again by Taria Damsin technically can lay claim to three separate lineages, though by that time Master Damsin’s own Master, Shadow Master Pavica Maxton-Udanos, is deceased. Taria Damsin [born in early 57 BBY. Taria’s Master, Pavica Maxton-Udanos, was unfortunately killed mid-mission when she was only 45, meaning she was born either very late in 103 or very early in 102 BBY] might very well have apprentices after Ahsoka, who would be considered her younger siblings in that lineage. Feemor, having been taken on by Qui-Gon Jinn after the death of his first Master, considers himself Ahsoka’s uncle in that lineage, as he and Xanatos and Obi-Wan and, to some extent, Anakin are all former apprentices of Qui-Gon Jinn. In regards to Yrannia Tey, who is seventy going on seventy-one at the time of her death [and whose own Master, Donila Geeta, died in her early forties shortly after Tey became a Knight, meaning she was born sometime in 108 BBY], she has seen two others, both Togruta females, successfully through to Knighting, prior to apprenticing Ahsoka. Charissa Bya, born near the end of 63 BBY, has also seen an apprentice - another female Togruta, Saidura Wielu, born near the end of 39 BBY - Knighted, probably shortly before [or shortly after] the Clone Wars officially ended. Karunya Talra, born in early 47 BBY, who worked for the Shadows during the war, has since taken on an apprentice who was orphaned by the fighting, Rodinzia Kolda, a Twi’lek-Tholothian hybrid born in late 34 BBY. Ahsoka is technically the “aunt” by lineage of both Saidura Wielu and Rodinzia Kolda, since she’s the younger “sister” by lineage of their Masters, Charissa Bya and Karunya Talra.)
In any case, afterwards, Ahsoka is taken back from Obi-Wan and Anakin by Master Tey and then Obi-Wan and Anakin are sent to help with the Outer Rim Sieges, which eventually includes Cato Neimoidia (again. I know Anakin and Ahsoka, at least, are supposed to have been fighting on Cato Neimoidia before their recall, due to the Temple bombing - and it seems logical that Obi-Wan canonically wouldn’t be with them because he’s on Mandalore, saving Satine - but since I have Ahsoka at the Temple, helping Barriss Offee try to thwart the bombing, since the timeline of things on Mandalore occurs a little faster than in canon, the fact is that the deployment to Cato Neimoidia simply hasn’t become necessary yet and so has not yet occurred. Because the events surrounding the Temple bombing are more stretched out than in canon, though, Anakin and Ahsoka and their men aren’t the ones who’re originally sent to Cato Neimoidia, to try to keep it from falling to the Separatists, which is the main reason why Cato Neimoidia is actually being held by the Separatists - even if Viceroy Gunray and his people are mostly just trying to retrieve their private stores from that world, before it falls to the Republic - at the beginning of Labyrinth of Evil). While the Outer Rim Sieges are ongoing, things really spin out of control on Mandalore (the various cartels of the Shadow Collective just don’t want to give up that planet. They’ve lost a lot of people/resources/creds because of Maul and Opress and they’re determined to recoup at least part of those losses by taking that planet and squeezing it for every last cred possible. Plus, there’s still all of those Death Watch members who’ve survived Pre Vizsla, some of whom have gone over to the cartels entirely and others who are willing to fight with/for Savage Opress, as long as he helps them remove Satine from power and lets them take over Mandalore. Instead of the former Prime Minister Almec, for example, it’s one of his toadies, the replacement for the previously murdered Deputy Minister Jerec - who I am arbitrarily making a cousin of Pre Vizsla named Marlec - who is still in prison and speaks to Ahsoka about how Opress had been hoping that Obi-Wan and Anakin would show up, instead of her and Master Tey), which is why Ahsoka eventually ends up on Mandalore with the remaining clones from her (by that point) deceased Master’s command during what’s known at the Siege of Mandalore, since Obi-Wan and Anakin aren’t really available to come try to help on Mandalore, by that point (being tied up with the Outer Rim Sieges, especially events in Labyrinth of Evil and the beginning of RotS).
I initially began my main AU series so long ago that Labyrinth of Evil was still basically a new hardback, and I started writing literally with the end of that James Luceno novel and then the beginning of Matthew Stover’s novelization of Revenge of the Sith in mind. The attempts to try to track that captured mechno-chair and crack its holotransceiver - and so ultimately track down the Sith and discover the true identity of the mysterious Lord Sidious - and the subsequent mission to Tythe, to try to capture (or otherwise permanently deal with) Count Dooku, as well as Dooku’s movements (and thoughts) throughout that entire EU novel, leading up to his presence on the Invisible Hand, during the staged battle over Coruscant, come up a lot in my Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith trio, especially the first book. I am keeping Labyrinth of Evil as the immediate precursor to what would’ve been Revenge of the Sith, from Obi-Wan and Anakin’s point of view, since a lot of what goes on in that EU novel is indispensable for explaining what’s going on with not only Dooku and Grievous in my AU but also with Bail, Mon Mothma, and Padmé (and why/how it is that their accident happens, during the Separatist attack on Coruscant that allows Palpatine’s kidnapping). I’ve enjoyed enough of the later Star Wars materials around the Clone Wars that, odds are, I will end up altering/adding to my Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith trio as it was originally completed (to make more room for Ahsoka and to make more room for characters like Senior Senator Riyo Chuchi and Junior Senator Chi Eekway Papanoida of Pantora and the Sujimis sector, Jedi Initiate Katooni and co., Padawan Kalifa, Master Cere Junda and Padawan Trilla Suduri and their lineage, Padawan Cal Kestis and his lineage, Lux Bonteri and Steela Gerrera, the whole mess of factions - Haat Mando’ade/True Mandalorians, Evaar Mando’ade/New Mandalorians, Kyr’tsad/Death Watch, the remaining old Mandalorian Clans, and the Journeymen Protectors, among others - on/around Mandalore, and etc.), but I’m not about to change the fact that the main point of divergence for this whole AU is centered around the end of Labyrinth of Evil and how a slight change there impacts/alters what would have happened in Revenge of the Sith (hence, the fact that it’s the Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith trio!).
This means that the struggle on Mandalore and at least threat of further open fighting probably will have been ongoing, off and on, for something like nearly six standard months by the time Ahsoka and the men she’s basically inherited from Master Tey are reinforced by Rex and the other clones (who are not Coruscant/Centax-2-grown clones, as the majority of the clones under Master Tey are) sent by Anakin (and Obi-Wan) and, because the fighting honestly has less to do with the actual Clone Wars than it does a nasty ongoing power struggle between Satine’s New Mandalorians and the peaceful citizens and Savage Opress and the Death Watch and the Shadow Collective (or whatever is left of it at this point, anyway) and basically the mostly traditionalist Mandalorians (some of whom are loyal adherents of or even actual surviving members of Jaster Mereel’s Haat Mando’ade) wanting to find a middle way but still retain their honor (partially led by Bo-Katan and her Nite Owls, though she doesn’t originally mean to end up in charge of this camp and there are factions within it allied with and mostly answering to others, including Kal Skirata’s faction as well as Fenn Shysa and Spar - born as Alpha-Ø2, an Alpha-class Advanced Recon Commando, who somehow has “memories” of Jango Fett and so goes rogue before the Clone Wars even begins - former leaders of the “Mandalorian Protectors” supercommandos who fought on the Separatist side against the Republic until Sidious’ betrayal saw them all but wiped out, except for Shysa and his best friend, Tobbi Dala, as well as Spar), hostilities there won’t just magically stop when Ahsoka and the clones are eventually recalled to the Coruscanti Temple preparatory to the official proclamation of the end of the Clone Wars.
Things on Mandalore are going to be ugly and confusing and, for a good long while, no one is going to officially know if Satine is dead or alive or captured or what, exactly, until after the war ends. A lot of the information released by galactic media following the discovery that Palpatine is Sidious - especially involving his plans to consolidate power, as Emperor, and the many ways in which he and the Sith as a whole have continually used Mandalorians as their pawns - will be absolutely critical to eventually getting things straightened out there enough for peace between (most of) the factions to be at all possible, but it will be well after the Clone Wars actually officially ends. I’m not nearly as familiar with Star Wars: Rebels as I am with Star Wars: The Clone Wars (and I will freely admit that it has a lot to do with the animation having basically done a DISNEY pretty princess makeover on more than one of the major female characters - Ahsoka Tano and Bo-Katan especially - and the fact that, so far, I honestly just am not nearly as impressed with the way that DISNEY SW has written/portrayed Thrawn as I am with Timothy Zahn’s original take on the character [though I will admit that I’ve really enjoyed Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising]. Plus, I think that it’s blatantly sexist of DISNEY to keep Thrawn’s character while axing Mara Jade and this hacks me off in a major way), but I do like Sabine Wren so, whenever I get around to writing more about Mandalore, I will be keeping her backstory in mind (even though obviously a lot of it is going to be very different, given that Sidious doesn’t win, the Jedi Order survives the war by adapting and becoming the New Jedi Bendu Order, and the Republic does likewise by becoming the New Alliance of the Republic).
Also, it should be kept in mind that probably most of the events I’m saying will have occurred during the version of the Clone Wars in my main AU series are (unless they end up being part of a side story following another character) basically just going to be accepted as having happened, not necessarily written about thoroughly. Events from “Hostage Crisis,” the various episodes involving Rush Clovis, and the (obviously somewhat altered) Onderon storyline may be thought about or touched on briefly (just like the altered events with the Temple hangar bombing and the somewhat altered events from the story arc beginning with “Padawan Lost,” since Kalifa lives), as other events unfold, but they’re not necessarily going to be exhaustively described (or at least I’m not planning on them being thoroughly/fully written about, anyway). In other words, Padmé will brood about Rush Clovis and the fact that he didn’t have to die, since Anakin should have been able to use the Force to pull them both up (since she knows that Ahsoka managed to do something similar on Onderon, as a target under fire, saving the lives of both Steela Gerrera and Lux Bonteri by using the Force to largely deflect the shot from that gunship when Lux leaps in between her and the gunship as well as catch Lux when he’s then thrown forward so she could drag him back to solid ground with her while she also used the Force to float Steela back over the crumbling cliff to safety), and that’s how it’ll be established that Steela Gerrera is still alive. Similarly, multiple characters from the Clone Wars Gambit duology will be showing up at some point, since they were relocated to Naboo or retreated to Naboo following the major events of those two books, but I’m not going to be trying to rewrite the entirety of the two novels (just saving Taria Damsin’s life and doing a lot more with Greti and Sufi and biochemist genius Tryn Netzl of Alderaan - who is largely responsible for saving Taria’s life, with some help from Greti and Sufi regarding the Lanteeban medicine for greensickness/damotite poisoning that Dr. Netzl used to fashion a cure/vaccine for the damotite-based Separatist bioweapon created by Bant’ena Fhernan and the way that this cure/vaccine puts Taria’s supposedly incurable Borotavi syndrome into remission - is all).
Katooni and the other Jedi Initiates from the story arc starting with “The Gathering” and pretty much ending (except for a glimpse them during events surrounding the Temple hangar bombing) with “A Necessary Bond” (as well as several members of their individual Initiate Clans and some orphaned Padawans, too, both from canon and the EU and as created by me, since I tend to think that there should be a whole lot more of them than are mentioned in canon, EU/Legends materials, and/or DISNEY SW) are now background/supporting characters in my Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith trio, since Katooni coincidentally is the one who’s tasked with telling Obi-Wan that a (possibly injured) female Senator has come to the Temple to speak with him (since Padmé dying words will have a confused and grieving and frankly horrified and furious Mon Mothma panicking over what it could mean and the damage it could easily do, both to the Jedi Order and the Republic, not to mention his and Amidala’s reputations, if Obi-Wan Kenobi were the father of Padmé’s unborn child, though of course Mon is panicking over the wrong Jedi and the situation, both with Padmé’s pregnancy and Padmé’s relationships with both Anakin and Obi-Wan, will turn out loads differently than it does in the canon and EU/Legends), and Katooni and her friends/allies as well as some other like-minded younglings all happen to think that, if something bad has happened or is going to happen or threatening to happen because of the attack on Coruscant (and that’s why this particular Senator has such an important message specifically for Master Kenobi), then maybe they need a plan and some way of quickly communicating with one another, if Master Kenobi winds up needing some help or if the Temple ends up needing to be defended against another attack. This doesn’t mean that their backgrounds or story arcs from canon or the EU/Legends (Scout may be an EU/Legends character, but Whie Malreaux and Bene are both canonically present in RotS, and Zett Jukassa/Warpoc Skamini is canonically present in both AotC and RotS. Similarly, while Caleb Dume has been made canon by Rebels, since I’m keeping Shatterpoint, while he starts out as Depa Billaba’s Padawan, her sister, Sar Labooda - who I am writing as having been badly wounded but nevertheless surviving the First Battle of Geonosis, so that she can essentially take the place of Depa Billaba for basically everything that the later EU/Legends and DISNEY SW has Depa supposedly doing, after Shatterpoint and her coma - has long since assumed responsibility for his continued training, by the time the war’s winding to its close) are going to be exhaustively described, though.
Note: More nattering continued in next post, https://polgarawolf.livejournal.com/262420.html since apparently I just can't shut up about all this.