S02E12-14 - The first Mandalore Arc - Vital

Our first Vital episode other than Ahsoka’s intro, so we’re having this whether we like it or not.

Luckily, it’s meaty, and carries especially good weight if you’ve seen the Mandalorian show. It’s visually interesting, and has one of the show’s major developments for Obi-Wan. It also has some nice reflections on the Jedi in their new role as warriors as opposed to peacekeepers, and it’s a fun twist to have Palpatine revealed as part of what caused Mando culture to start to revert to its warlike ways.

As a bonus, it’s also our first major arc to explore more of coruscant, with some designs which are Ralph McQuarrie art from the original trilogy back when the Republic capital was known only as Imperial Center.

I might trim the part where Obi-Wan is caught in a factory, if possible, though this might need some tricky cuts. The second and third could probably be tightened a bit too.

You could also split this into two episodes, since the third doesn’t immediately follow the second.

Ahsoka does not appear in this arc.

I think this episode belongs early in our new ordering, for a couple of reasons:

Within the context of the real world in which peoole are choosing to pick up the Clone Wars because they enjoy other elements of the franchise, it’ll tell viewers of the show who are coming into this that they’re going to get content relevant to the Mandalorian and/or the popular finale of the show
Within the context just of this show, introducing third parties early generates some interest that this isn’t just going to be battles between clones and droids with no real jeopardy. Each third party introduces a new wild card.

The only real negative here is that following the opening episode with this one would mean relatively little Ahsoka.