Star Wars: The Clone Wars is an animated series which falls chronologically between Star Wars Episodes II & III. It began airing in 2008 and ended shortly before The Force Awakens was released, although a new season is available on Disney+. Clone Wars can be wonderful and surprising and it set the tone for some of the most interesting Star Wars content being produced right now. That said, it came out before the shift toward shorter, tighter TV seasons... and sometimes it shows. Early seasons can be rough for new viewers. With this in mind, we've put together an accelerated viewing order at about half the overall runtime. We've tried to feature as many highs, and as few lulls and lows as possible.
This list was created by Jane Ritt and Alessandra Morgan.
| Episode | Title | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|
| 1x02 | "Rising Malevolence" | An attack by a devastating new Separatist weapon – the powerful starship Malevolence – leaves Jedi Master Plo Koon and his clone troopers struggling to survive until Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan Ahsoka can find them. |
| 1x03 | "Shadow of Malevolence" | With the help of his Padawan Ahsoka and Jedi Master Plo Koon, Anakin utilizes new long-range Y-wing bombers to lead a bold strike on General Grievous's warship, the Malevolence, and its destructive weapon. |
| 1x05 | "Rookies" | Alone on a distant outpost, clone officers Rex and Cody must inspire their rookie unit to believe in themselves to stave off a droid commando invasion. |
| 1x06 | "Downfall of a Droid" | R2-D2 is lost during a fierce space battle – and Anakin must find him before the Separatists discover the Jedi military secrets locked in his memory banks. |
| 1x07 | "Duel of the Droids" | Anakin, Ahsoka, and replacement droid R3-S6 embark on a dual rescue/sabotage mission when they discover R2-D2 is being held at General Grievous's secret enemy listening post, Skytop Station. |
| 1x08 | "Bombad Jedi" | On a diplomatic mission to the planet Rodia, Padmé discovers that her old friend and fellow Republic senator Onaconda Farr has allied his planet with the Separatists. |
| 1x09 | "Cloak of Darkness" | Ahsoka and Jedi Master Luminara escort the captured notorious Separatist leader Nute Gunray to Coruscant so he can stand trial for his crimes. |
| 1x10 | "Lair of Grievous" | Jedi Master Kit Fisto and his former Padawan, the Mon Calamari Jedi Nahdar Vebb, track escaped prisoner Nute Gunray to a remote world. |
| 1x13 | "Jedi Crash" | Anakin and Ahsoka arrive at a pitched sky battle to help besieged Jedi General Aayla Secura. |
| 1x14 | "Defenders of the Peace" | The leader of the Lurmen, Tee Watt Kaa, refuses to shelter the Jedi from arriving Separatist forces, fearing that such an action would unnecessarily bring his neutral people into the war. |
| 1x15 | "Tresspass" | Arriving on the desolate ice world of Orto Plutonia, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi investigate the disappearance of a clone security force stationed on a remote outpost. |
| 1x19 | "Storm over Ryloth" | Ryloth, home world of the Twi'lek people, has been subjected to military occupation by the droid army of the Separatists, and surrounded by a blockade of Trade Federation battleships. |
| 1x20 | "Innocents of Ryloth" | With the space blockade around Ryloth destroyed, Obi-Wan Kenobi must lead a small clone force into a droid occupied town to sabotage their anti-aircraft guns. Obi-Wan's mission is complicated when he learns the town's inhabitants are being used as living shields. |
| 1x21 | "Liberty on Ryloth" | The battle for the Twi'lek homeworld of Ryloth rages as the Republic attempts to drive off the occupying droid army led by Separatist Leader, Wat Tambor. With his forces stretched thin, Mace Windu must convince Twi'lek freedom fighter, Cham Syndulla, to help him save the capital city from the droids' destruction. |
| Episode | Title | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|
| 2x01 | "Holocron Heist" | Obi-Wan and Anakin try to stop bounty hunter Cad Bane from stealing a holocron from the Jedi temple. |
| 2x02 | "Cargo of Doom" | Cad Bane moves to sell the stolen holocron to the Separatists while Anakin and Ahsoka try to retrieve it. |
| 2x03 | "Children of the Force" | Cad Bane uses the holocron to find and kidnap Force-sensitive younglings. Anakin and Ahsoka try to find them and take them home while Mace Windu and Obi-Wan track down the holocron. |
| 2x04 | "Senate Spy" | The Jedi suspect that Senator Rush Clovis is working for the Separatists, so they recruit Padme to spy on him. Anakin is upset to discover that Padme and Clovis have a romantic history. |
| 2x05 | "Landing at Point Rain" | Using the information stolen by from Senator Clovis, the badly outnumbered Jedi assault a massive droid factory. |
| 2x06 | "Weapons Factory" | Barriss Offee and Ahsoka sneak into the droid factory to destroy it while their masters, Luminara Unduli and Anakin, face new indestructible "Super Tanks". |
| 2x07 | "Legacy of Terror" | Luminara is captured while looking for Separatist leader Poggle the Lesser, and it's up to Anakin, Obi-Wan and Commander Cody to enter a colony of Geonosian zombies to find her. |
| 2x08 | "Brain Invaders" | Ahsoka and Barriss are to transport critical supplies to a medical station, but their clone troops are infected with mind-controlling Geonosian worms which try to kill the Jedi. |
| 2x17 | "Bounty Hunters" | When Anakin, Ahsoka and Obi-Wan crash on Felucia, they decide to help four bounty hunters protect local farmers from pirates intent on stealing their valuable crop. |
| 3x01* | "Clone Cadets" | 5 clone cadets of Domino Squad are at risk of washing out unless they pull their team together while trainers Bric, El-Les, and Jedi Master Shaak Ti debate their fate. |
| 2x09 | "Grievous Intrigue" | Jedi Master Eeth Koth is captured by General Grievous. While Jedi Master Adi Gallia and Anakin tries to rescue him, Obi-Wan plays bait to lure Grievous and capture him. |
| 2x10 | "The Deserter" | After escaping to the planet Saleucami, Grievous searches for a ship to get offworld. Obi-Wan, Commander Cody and Rex try to search for Grievous before he escapes the planet. Rex is wounded by a commando droid sniper while scouting ahead and meets a deserter at a farm where he takes shelter. |
| 2x12 | "The Mandalore Plot" | Obi-Wan is assigned to protect Duchess Satine of Mandalore from a terrorist organization called Death Watch. |
| 2x13 | "Voyage of Temptation" | As Satine heads to Coruscant protected by clones and two jedi, Anakin, R2 and the clones find assassin droids in the cargo while Obi-Wan tries to identify the traitor. |
| 2x14 | "Duchess of Mandalore" | On Coruscant, Satine disguises herself as a civilian to avoid assassins as she pleads for the Senate to leave her planet in peace. |
| Episode | Title | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|
| 3x02 | "ARC Troopers" | General Grievous and Ventress's Separatists forces launch a major attack on the Republic cloning facilities on Kamino. |
| 3x04 | "Sphere of Influence" | Chairman Papanoida's family is kidnapped and held for ransom. Ahsoka must team up with the Senator from Pantora, Riyo Chuchi, to aid the new chairman in recovering his family before the Trade Federation can unduly influence the future of his planet. |
| 3x05 | "Corruption" | Padmé, on a diplomatic mission to Mandalore, guarantees the pacifist planet the Republic's full protection, but she and Duchess Satine soon find something sinister lurking beneath the planet's serene facade. |
| 3x06 | "The Academy" | Ahsoka is assigned to teach a class at the cadet academy on Mandalore. Soon after she arrives, Duchess Satine's zealous nephew and his classmates uncover a nefarious plot. |
| 2x18* | "The Zillo Beast" | The Republic's newest droid-disrupting weapon awakens a monstrous, near-invincible Zillo Beast from its underground hibernation. |
| 2x19* | "The Zillo Beast Strikes Back" | When the Zillo Beast is brought back to Coruscant in hopes of learning the secret of its impenetrable armor, it instead breaks loose and rampages across the ecumenopolis. |
| 3x10 | "Heroes on Both Sides" | When the Senate begins debate on a bill that would eliminate government oversight of the Banking Clan's activities, Padmé and Ahsoka travel in secret to the capital of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, in an attempt to forge a peace agreement with the Separatists. |
| 3x11 | "Pursuit of Peace" | Senators Padmé Amidala, Bail Organa and Onaconda Farr push against a new bill in the Senate to buy new clones for the Republic. But someone does not like their opposition and tries to persuade them out of it. |
| 3x12 | "Nightsisters" | Darth Sidious, troubled by Ventress's growing progress with the dark side of the Force, commands Count Dooku to eliminate her. |
| 3x13 | "Monster" | Mother Talzin gives Dooku a new apprentice named Savage Opress, who is the clan brother of Darth Maul and secretly controlled by the Nightsisters. |
| 3x14 | "Witches of the Mist" | With Savage Opress connected to the Force he is sent out by Dooku to capture King Katuunko, where he meets Obi Wan and Anakin, sent by the jedi to search for Savage Opress as he murdered two Jedi. |
| 3x18 | "The Citadel | An elite team of Jedi attempts to free Master Even Piell, who is in possession of hyperdrive coordinates that could harm both Separatists and Jedi alike, from an impenetrable prison. |
| 3x19 | "Counter Attack" | With freed prisoners in their possession and brutal warden Osi Sobeck attempting desperately to thwart them, Obi-Wan and Anakin search for a way out of the Citadel and back to Coruscant. |
| 3x20 | "Citadel Rescue" | While finding their way out of the Citadel prison which is under the command of the Separatist Osi Sobeck, the elite team's ship was destroyed, forcing them to wait for the rescue by Republic fleet. |
| Episode | Title | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|
| 4x14 | "A Friend In Need" | A peace conference between Separatists and Republic delegates is interrupted by Lux Bonteri, the son of the late Separatist Senator, Mina Bonteri (3x10). Soon after, he involves Ahsoka in his dangerous search to find justice for his mother's death. |
| 4x7 | "Darkness on Umbara" | When Anakin is forced to temporarily turn over command of his clone troopers to a new commander, the Jedi Pong Krell, tensions begin to run high as the clones are assigned with a very deadly mission to take the capital of Umbara. |
| 4x8 | "The General" | General Krell orders Captain Rex and the clone troopers of the 501st Legion to conquer a heavily fortified Umbaran airbase, and will not accept anything less than victory. |
| 4x09 | "Plan of Dissent" | After the Republic conquers an Umbaran airbase, General Krell orders Rex and his men on towards the heavily fortified capital. Realizing there's a better plan, several clone troopers (Fives, Jesse and Hardcase) disobey orders to carry out a rogue, covert operation. |
| 4x10 | "Carnage of Krell" | With two of his men (Fives and Jesse) facing execution for disobeying orders, Captain Rex is forced to confront his overly aggressive commander, General Krell, in the conclusion to the action-packed battle for Umbara. Risking charges of mutiny, Rex must make a dark choice as the true face of the enemy emerges. |
| 3x21* | "Padawan Lost" | Ahsoka gets captured by Trandoshans during a battle on the planet Felucia. They drop her off on a planet where they intend to hunt her and others for sport. Ahsoka encounters three Jedi younglings named Kalifa, Jinx and O-mer, who she teams up with to survive. |
| 3x22* | "Wookiee Hunt" | As Ahsoka and her allies struggle to evade the Trandoshan hunters, their efforts receive an unexpected boost when a new captive arrives: Chewbacca the Wookiee. |
| 4x15 | "Deception" | Obi-Wan fakes his own death and goes undercover (as Rako Hardeen) in a Republic prison, in order to gather information on a plot to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine from a convict named Moralo Eval. |
| 4x16 | "Friends and Enemies" | Having escaped from prison, Obi-Wan, Cad Bane and Moralo Eval flee across the galaxy, pursued by Anakin and Ahsoka. Obi-Wan must devise a way to warn his fellow Jedi to halt their chase without blowing his cover. |
| 4x17 | "The Box" | Count Dooku invites some of the best bounty hunters in the galaxy, including Cad Bane and a still-disguised Obi-Wan, to compete in an obstacle course designed by Moralo Eval known as "The Box", with involvement in the plot to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine as the reward for survival. |
| 4x18 | "Crisis on Naboo" | Supreme Chancellor Palpatine goes to Naboo guarded by Jedi Knights. Meanwhile, Cad Bane, a still-disguised Obi-Wan and a pack of bounty hunters put their plan into action, but it fails when Obi-Wan alerts the Jedi and Dooku doesn't rendezvous with them to collect his quarry. |
| 6x05* | "An Old Friend" | While on a mercy mission to the planet Scipio, Padmé Amidala's old flame Rush Clovis gets in touch with her asking for help. |
| 6x06* | "The Rise of Clovis" | Back on Coruscant, Clovis strikes a dubious deal to become the leader of his clan, which is deeply mired in corruption. Anakin doesn't trust Clovis, causing tensions in his relationship to Padmé. |
| 6x07* | "Crisis at the Heart" | Clovis's deal with the Separatists backfires and brings war to Scipio, forcing the Republic to intervene. |
| 3x15* | "Overlords" | Obi-Wan, Anakin and Ahsoka become stranded on a mysterious planet where the Force is very strong. Three powerful entities called the Father, Son and Daughter live there. |
| 3x16* | "Altar of Mortis" | Before the Jedi can leave Mortis, the Son takes Ahsoka captive in an attempt to entice Anakin into joining him to use their combined strength to overpower his Father and Sister. |
| 3x17* | "Ghosts of Mortis" | The Jedi remain stranded on Mortis, and the Son aligned with the Dark Side of the Force renews his efforts to convert Anakin as the Jedi prepare for a decisive confrontation. |
| 4x19 | "Massacre" | After failing to kill Dooku or control Savage Opress, Asajj Ventress is advised by Mother Talzin to reject the ways of the Sith and rejoin the Nightsisters. |
| 4x20 | "Bounty" | An aimless Asajj Ventress joins a team of bounty hunters (including Bossk & Dengar) under the leadership of a pre-teen Boba Fett. |
| 4x21 | "Brothers" | With a magical amulet from Mother Talzin, Savage Opress lands on a junk planet in the Outer Rim, and searches for his lost brother. With the help of the snake-like Morley, Savage finds his brother. |
| 4x22 | "Revenge" | Fueled by hatred, Darth Maul and his brother Savage Opress set out to take revenge on the Jedi who had sliced him in half on Naboo over ten years earlier. Maul sends a message to Obi-Wan Kenobi to confront him alone. |
| Episode | Title | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|
| 5x01 | "Revival" | Darth Maul and Savage Opress steal a fortune of republic credits, and bribe a squad of pirates to take down a pirate stronghold run by Hondo. |
| 5x02 | "A War on Two Fronts" | On the Separatist world of Onderon, a group of rebels call for the assistance of the Jedi. Ahsoka, Anakin and Obi-Wan go to train the rebels to fight, and see that former Separatist / Death Watch terrorist Bonteri is among them. |
| 5x03 | "Front Runners" | Ahsoka Tano, now leading the rebels on Onderon, but forbidden to fight, puts their training to use by having them hi-jack an AAT and blow up the main power supply of the Battle Droids. |
| 5x04 | "The Soft War" | The former King of Onderon is kidnapped from the Rebels and is going to be executed by the Droid General and the current king of Onderon. |
| 5x05 | "Tipping Points" | The rebels on Onderon struggle to reclaim their home planet because a new Separatist droid general sent by Dooku turns out to be a better strategist than the current Onderonian King. After the Republic and the Jedi High Council refuse to give Ahsoka Tano and the rebels assistance Anakin Skywalker persuades Hondo Ohnaka, Crime Boss of Florrum to supply illegal rocket launchers to the rebels to combat the Separatist's new gunships. |
| 6x01* | "The Unknown" | Clone Trooper Tup is suffering from a severe neurological disorder that causes the death of a Jedi Master. Trying to find the motives for the assassination, Anakin escorts Tup back to Kamino for examination, but then they are attacked by the Separatists. |
| 6x02* | "Conspiracy" | Clone Trooper Tup is undergoing a medical examination in the sterile laboratories of Kamino to find the motives for his shocking attack on the Jedi Master. |
| 6x03* | "Fugitive" | Clone Trooper Tup is transported back to Coruscant, where his body is to be examined by the Chancellor’s personal physician. ARC Trooper Fives is also investigating the matter and discovers that a modified code has been hidden in the minds of all the clones. |
| 6x04* | "Orders" | In an effort to find more answers about the assassination, Fives attempts to speak with Chancellor Palpatine personally, only to find himself on the run, and he is eventually executed for treason. |
| 5x14 | "Eminence" | Darth Maul and Savage Opress form an alliance with the Mandalorian terrorist group Death Watch and several crime syndicates, including Black Sun, the Pyke Syndicate, and the Hutt Cartel, in order to destroy all of their common enemies. |
| 5x15 | "Shades of Reason" | Maul's alliance helps the Death Watch and their leader, Pre Vizsla, conquer Mandalore and imprison Duchess Satine, but, when Vizsla's ambitions surface, how long will the alliance last? |
| 5x16 | "The Lawless" | Having assumed control over a majority of the Death Watch after killing Vizsla in a duel, Maul proceeds to lure Obi-Wan Kenobi to Mandalore with news of Satine's capture. |
| 5x17 | "Sabotage" | After Ahsoka manages to rescue Anakin from certain peril on Cato Neimoidia, the two are called back to Coruscant from the front lines to investigate a terrorist bombing at the Jedi Temple. |
| 5x18 | "The Jedi Who Knew Too Much" | Ahsoka Tano is blamed for the murder of Letta Turmond, a key suspect in the bombing, and is detained by Admiral Tarkin. Despite Anakin's best efforts to exonerate her, she is forced to escape the military prison where she is interred and flee into the Coruscant underworld to find the actual perpetrator and prove her innocence. |
| 5x19 | "To Catch a Jedi" | While on the run in the underworld of Coruscant, pursued by Republic authorities, Ahsoka makes a deal with Asajj Ventress to find out who the actual murderer of Letta Turmond really is, leading the two to come to terms with each other in spite of their antagonistic pasts. |
| 5x20 | "The Wrong Jedi" | Prosecution begins for Ahsoka in the High Courts after the Jedi Council expels her from the Jedi Order. As Padmé fights to prove Ahsoka's innocence, Anakin searches for information hoping to relieve Ahsoka of her charges and find the truth behind the crimes against the Jedi Order and the Republic. |
Watchlist by Jane Ritt and Alessandra Morgan. Page elements from getskeleton.com and getflywheel.com. Episode synopses courtesy of Wookiepedia.