Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) arcs

A big project that took up most of September ’22 and was a bit of a pain to re-consolidate now, but hey ho. I took it upon myself to take all of the dedicated two-, three- and four-episode stories and knit them all together into larger stories sans the newsreel style opening for all but the first episodes – with one five-episode ‘mega-arc’ of sorts. (This will be a long post).
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Like my edits of “Andor” and “Tales of The Jedi”, I always found that having every deliberate story arc self-contained as its own thing makes the story much easier to digest. I’ve also found it makes things much smoother when it’s from episodes that belong together but come from different seasons of the show.
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I’ve got the names of the arcs from this source here: (https://clonewars.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Star_Wars:_The_Clone_Wars_arcs) and kept most of them, but did use my own names for some of them, namely the ones centred on giant battles. Also, I put it in the sequence dictated here, which also explains the gaps between the arcs where the standalone episodes lie: (https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline_of_canon_media?so=search#js). Thirdly, because of my tendency to be ridiculously thorough, I’ve included placeholder images and story reels from the “Clone Wars Legacy” project that details what story arcs we missed out on with Lucasfilm being bought by Disney and the ‘Clone Wars’ being subsequently cancelled. The reels themselves are usually very short and the animation’s topology is typically very ‘rough and ready’ as you’d expect, but it does give us some idea on what we could have got in the show’s complete 8 season plan (https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/The_Clone_Wars_Legacy).
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ARC 01. “CW’03 Canon Edit part 1 – Volumes of Chaos” – 1hr 19mins, these 720p source videos are from the YouTuber “Star Wars Jibaro” in 2017, where they edited the original 2003 “Clone Wars” series mini-sodes together in a way that I think works very well with the 2008 one. With this, I actually took the first 2 episodes they did and knitted them together – but I put in a large segue in the middle, like the famous Mace Windu on Dantooine episodes and the ones on Ilum to give more characters more things to do like Padmé and Yoda and Luminara etc.
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ARC 02a. “Capture of Christophsis” – 43 mins, episodes: 2x16 “Cat and Mouse” & 1x16 “The Hidden Enemy” and then the Star Wars the Clone Wars Movie – 1hr 38mins, which I called “The New Padawan” here, after the original episode the first quarter of the film is based on/made from.
ARC 02b. “Capture of Christophsis [Extended] – 1hr 6mins, episodes: 2x16 “Cat and Mouse”, 1x16 “The Hidden Enemy”, the first ¼ of the Clone Wars movie, minus the Jabba’s son portions so it’s all a self-contained story on the battle itself. And then the “Castle of Treachery” arc, which I actually invented and am pretty proud of, from the remaining ¾ of the movie – 1hr 16mins - based on the planned episodes “Castle of Deception”, “Castle of Doom” & “Castle of Salvation”, with the portions from earlier now edited in seamlessly here instead, so it’s all a self-contained story about Jabba’s son.
(.) Because everything from “Cat and Mouse” to the end of the film is essentially one long unbroken chain of events, having it all together kind of crossed my mind, but pulling it off seems quite difficult. The Jabba’s son exposition at the start of the film seems too important not to include and frame the story but having it and then 40 minutes of Christophsis build-up first will probably be far too much of a drag. But if you have the C&M exposition at the start like you normally would, the movie’s story feels a little jarringly put in and transitions over a little clumsily so it doesn’t really work either. But I have two solutions for you, so just download whichever you like and think works better for you.
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ARC 03. “New Alliances” arc – 44 mins, episodes: 3x03 “Supply Lines” & 1x01: “Ambush”.
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ARC 04. “The Malevolence” arc – 1hr 8mins, episodes: 1x02-04 “Rising”, “Shadow of” and “Destroy” Malevolence.
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ARC 05. “R3-S6” arc – 43 mins, episodes: 1x06 “Downfall of a Droid” & 1x07 “Duel of the Droids”.
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ARC 06. “Nute Gunray” arc – 1hr 6mins, episodes 1x08 “Bombad Jedi”, 1x09 “Cloak of Darkness” and 1x10 “Lair of Grievous”.
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ARC 07. “Trouble on Florrum” arc – 44 mins, episodes: 1x11 “Dooku Captured” & 1x12 “The Gungan General”.

ARC 08. “Injured in Action” arc – 44 mins, episodes: 1x13 “Jedi Crash” & 1x14 “Defenders of Peace”.
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ARC 09. “Blue Shadow Virus” arc – 44 mins, episodes: 1x17 “Blue Shadow Virus” & 1x18 “Mystery of a Thousand Moons”.
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ARC 10. “The War for Ryloth” – 1hr 10mins, episodes: 1x19-21 “Storm over”, “Innocents of” & “Liberty on” Ryloth.
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ARC 11. “Magic of The Holocron” arc – 1hr 5mins, episodes 2x01-03 “Holocron Heist”, “Cargo of Doom” & “Children of the Force”. Because the opening of CoTF actually goes back a minute from the ending of CoD and they kind of play off of each other – so I essentially took the beginning of the former, ending of the latter, and created my own bridge between the two episodes to make it work that way.
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ARC 12. “Attack of The Zillo Beast” arc – 44 mins, episodes 2x18 “The Zillo Beast” & 2x19 “The Zillo Beast Strikes Back”.
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ARC 13. The Second Battle of Geonosis – 1hr 47mins, the single mega-arc, episodes: 2x04-08 “Senate Spy”, “Landing at Point Rain”, “Weapons Factory”, “Legacy of Terror” & “Brain Invaders”.
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ARC 14. “Saleucami” arc – 44 mins, episodes: 2x09 “Grievous Intrigue” & 2x10 “The Deserter”.
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ARC 15. “The Death Watch” arc – 1hr 5mins, episodes: 2x12-14 “The Mandalore Plot”, Voyage of Temptation” & “Duchess of Mandalore”.
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ARC 16. “Boba’s Revenge” arc – 1hr 5mins, episodes: 2x20-22 “Death Trap”, “R2 Come Home” & “Lethal Trackdown”.
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ARC 17. “Return to Mandalore” arc – 44 mins, episodes: 3x05 “Corruption” & 3x06 “The Academy”.
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ARC 18. “Hutts and The Underworld” arc – 1hr 3mins, episodes 3x08 “Evil Plans”, 1x22 “Hostage Crisis” & 3x09 “Hunt for Ziro”.
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ARC 19a. “CW’03 Canon Edit part 2 – The Final Trial” – 23 mins, the work of YouTuber “Star Wars Jibaro” again and this time left unaltered as it fits perfectly well with everything canon.
ARC 19b. Tales of The Jedi – “Practice makes Perfect” – 11mins, a cutout from my previous edit and because it goes from Phase 1 clones to Phase 2 to the Clone Wars finale, it feels like having it as a kind of transition episode works very well, especially when it comes to Anakin & Ahsoka’s outfits before and after the Season 3 animation boom.
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ARC 20. “Padmé Amidala” arc – 44 mins, episodes: 3x10 “Heroes on Both Sides” & 3x11 “Pursuit of Peace”.
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ARC 21. “Witches and Monsters” arc – 1hr 5mins, episodes: 3x12 “Nightsisters”, 3x13 “Monster” & 3x14 “Witches of the Mist”.
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ARC 22. “Secrets of Mortis” arc – 1hr 4mins, episodes: 3x15-17 “Overlords”, “Altar of” & “Ghosts of” Mortis.
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ARC 23. “Rescue at The Citadel” arc – 1hr 4mins, episodes: 3x18-20 “The Citadel”, “Counterattack” & “Citadel Rescue”.
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ARC 24. “The Lost Apprentice” arc – 44 mins, episodes: 3x21 “Padawan Lost” & “Wookiee Hunt”.
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ARC 25. The Attack on Mon Calamari - 1hr 4mins, episodes: 4x01-03 “Water War”, “Gungan Attack” & “Prisoners”.
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ARC 26. “Droids’ Detour” arc – 44 mins, episodes: 4x05 “Mercy Mission” & 4x06 “Nomad Droids”.
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ARC 27. The Umbaran Campaign – 1hr 26mins, episodes: 4x07-10 “Darkness on Umbara”, “The General”, “Plan of Dissent” & “Carnage of Krell”.
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ARC 28. “The Slaves of Zygerria” arc – 1hr 4mins, episodes: 4x11-13 “Kidnapped”, “Slaves of the Republic” & “Escape from Kadavo”.
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ARC 29. “Obi-Wan Undercover” arc – 1hr 25mins, episodes: 4x15-18 “Deception”, Friends and Enemies”, “The Box” & “Crisis on Naboo”.
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ARC 30. “Darth Maul Returns” arc – 1hr 25mins, episodes: 4x19-22 “Massacre”, “Bounty”, “Brothers” & “Revenge”.
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ARC 31. Civil War on Onderon – 1hr 25mins, episodes: 5x02-05 “A War on Two Fronts”, “Front Runners”, “The Soft War”, “Tipping Points”.
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ARC 32. The Invasion of Scipio – 1hr 4mins, these episodes appeared in the trailer for Season 5, and the continuity states it was supposed to start at episode 5 of season 5, so putting it after Onderon feels like a good fit as it is (https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/An_Old_Friend#Continuity). Episodes: “An Old Friend”, “The Rise of Clovis”, “Crisis at the Heart”.
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ARC 33. “Young Jedi” arc – 1hr 26mins, episodes: 5x06-09 “The Gathering”, “A Test of Strength”, “Bound for Rescue”, “A Necessary Bond”.
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ARC 34. “D-Squad” arc – 1hr 25mins, episodes: 5x10-13 “Secret Weapons”, “A Sunny Day in the Void”, “Missing in Action”, “Point of No Return”.
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ARC 35. “The Shadow Collective” arc – 1hr 26mins, episodes: 5x01 “Revival”, 5x14-16 “Eminence”, “Shades of Reason” & “The Lawless”.
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ARC 36. “Rogue Jedi” arc – 1hr 25mins, episodes: 5x17-20 “Sabotage”, “The Jedi Who Knew Too Much”, “To Catch a Jedi” & “The Wrong Jedi”.
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ARC 37. “Clone Protocol 66” arc – 1hr 25mins, a story arc from the sixth season but the production codes give the impression it might have been intended to be in the middle of the original Season 6 plan, not the start as we got it. Episodes: “The Unknown”, “Conspiracy”, “Fugitive” & “Orders”.
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ARC 38. “The Disappeared” arc – 41 mins, production codes indicate it also belongs to the original Season 6 and takes place after ‘Clone Protocol 66’ like the released season. Episodes; “The Disappeared, Parts 1&2”.
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ARC 39. “Yoda and The Voices” arc – 1hr 25mins, production codes indicate it takes place right after ‘The Disappeared’. Episodes: “The Lost One”, “Voices”, “Destiny” & “Sacrifice”.
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ARC 40. “Crystal Crisis on Utapau” arc – 1hr 27mins, the 4 unfinished episodes that I simply stitched together just like the rest of the story arcs here with the same Iris Circle transition for the original episodes going into the credits, with the same number of frames as the transitions I’ve put between the episodes. Episodes are: “A Death on Utapau”, “In Search of the Crystal”, “Crystal Crisis” & “The Big Bang”.
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The Order from here-on gets a little messy, but between the order as it’s laid out in at the source here (https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/The_Clone_Wars_Legacy#Unfinished_episodes) and with other details like confirmation what season it was supposed to air in, or the production codes giving clues to where they would go in relation to other episodes, there’s a fair idea of what might go where.
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ARC 41. “Bounty Hunter” arc story reels – 4 mins reels, supposed to be a four episode arc that would have centred on Boba Fett and Cad Bane – Jango would have been a prominent figure in the story through Bane’s old working relationship with him and Boba acquiring and repainting his armour – ending with a gunslinging standoff that resulted in Boba acquiring the trademark dent on his helmet from Bane.
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ARC 42. “Ahsoka’s Walkabout” arc – 8 mins reels & 1hr 26mins episodes, the (probably) final arc of the show’s planned sixth season. The original story reel of the first episode shows Ahsoka’s original post-temple outfit and the character of Nyx Okami who was supposed to own the garage she crashed into with her busted speeder bike. The released arc with the Martez sisters is made of the episodes: “Gone with a Trace”, “Deal No Deal”, “Dangerous Debt” & “Together Again”.
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ARC 43. The Battle for Anaxes – 1hr 25mins, the originally planned opening for the show’s seventh season. Episodes; “The Bad Batch”, “A Distant Echo”, “On the Wings of Keeradaks” & “Unfinished Business”.
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ARC 44. “Dark Disciple” part 1 story reels – 2 mins, based on the first half of the 8-episode arc. The production codes are across two seasons, which makes sense because 8 episodes in a single go feels like it might drag like hell. The reels here are probably based on an episode scene from either “Lethal Alliance”, “The Mission”, “Conspirators” or “Dark Disciple”.
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ARC 45. “Return to the Jedi Temple” arc – merely a placeholding patterned image, no reels exist that I’ve ever seen.
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ARC 46. “Son of Dathomir” arc motion comic – 41 mins, available on the YouTube channel “The Lore Master” – and is assumedly their work because it’s not mine. The motion comic is based on the four-part comic book series, that was in turn based on the animated episodes “The Enemy of My Enemy”, “A Tale of Two Apprentices”, “Proxy War” & “Showdown on Dathomir”.
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ARC 47. “R2 and Rex ‘Top Gun’” arc – merely a placeholding patterned image, no reels exist that I’ve ever seen.
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ARC 48. “Dark Disciple” part 2 story reels – 1 min, based on one of the episodes from the second half of this giant story: “Saving Vos Part I”, “Saving Vos Part II”, “Traitor” or “The Path”. Production codes are the earliest for the final season, indicating this might have been the opening arc for the originally planned season 8.
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ARC 49. “Yuuzhan Vong ‘X-Files’” arc – merely a placeholding patterned image, no reels exist that I’ve ever seen.
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ARC 50. “Bad Batch arc 2: Kashyyyk” story reels – 2 mins, sort of a prelude to the “Bad Batch” episode ‘Tribe’ and featuring Yoda to give credence to his line in RoTS about having good relations with the Wookiees.
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ARC 51. “Return to Mon Cala” arc – merely a placeholding patterned image, no reels exist that I’ve ever seen.
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ARC 52a. “CW’03 Canon Edit part 3 – The Labyrinth of Evil” – 26 mins, the epilogue of “Star Wars Jibaro”’s work. Because these edits from them are from 2017, they obviously pre-date the released final season of The Clone Wars in 2020, so I did make changes to this one as well as the first two – in the original 2003 episodes, Anakin and Obi-Wan learn of the attack on Coruscant together and head off, but now in the new Canon, Obi-Wan learns on his own while Anakin is speaking with Ahsoka. So I took the former scene out of the original series, to maintain consistency with the ‘Siege of Mandalore’ arc.
ARC 52b. The Siege of Mandalore – 1hr 34mins, the final arc of the Clone Wars’ planned eighth season, and the series at large, with the production codes 7.21-7.24. Based on the episodes “Old Friends Not Forgotten”, “The Phantom Apprentice”, “Shattered” & “Victory and Death”. This omits the Darth Vader sequence, poignant as it is, since separating it keeps things self-contained in the timeline. Also, I kept it consistent with the other arcs by using the intro from the season 4 episode ‘Deception’: “All warfare is based on deception” at the beginning. It feels very apt with Palpatine starting the war from both sides, setting Dooku up to fail and die so Anakin could take his place, having the Clones be sleeper agents against the Jedi and old regime which no one but him and Tyranus knew about, having his plans for The Empire already in motion for years and the Death Star plans since Geonosis in AoTC, etc.
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Epilogue – “Darkness in The Snow” – 3 mins, something separated to maybe tack onto the season 3 finale of ‘The Bad Batch’ if it’s appropriate and fits well, like if there are Imperial Stormtroopers officially shown on screen.
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That was very long, as I lead with, sorry about that.
It’s a Mega link like everything else.
Footnote: I am in no capacity a professional editor or VFX artist, so some areas are visibly mostly good as I have to be realistic with the footage in front of me and what I can do with it. If you do have any particular notes and feedback, feel free to give me your thoughts, but please be constructive and don’t be an ass about it.