Okay Episode II is still necessary imo because we should know about Anakin and Padme and how they fell in love, but it does makes for a weird ending for AOTC.
The more I think about it, the more it works out, though. I could say in the crawl that Separatists have been an increasing threat, and the Republic has been using the army to counter them more and more- and the whole “ten years ago” makes more sense in AOTC since Palpatine had created the army ten years prior
Not trying to gloat but you’re realizing my concepts from 2015 lol wait for my edit
I literally stole this idea from you
And you better get on that buddy boi I might beat you to it 😤