Nathan -- I really appreciate you taking the time to write all that and defend Mr. Chee; I totally agree with you. Although there have been a lot of materials that will be contradictory for the new clone wars releases, the fact remains that George Lucas created ALL of this. Had he not created SW, we would not be talking here. We would not have all of the great novels and stories that we can enjoy now. Its GL's call, and if he wants to rearrange some timeline points, that's his right. I read the new KT novelization and found absolutely no problem with it. Still a GREAT story and GREAT writing. Let's just be happy with what we've got instead of going crazy thinking of how they're going to revamp a timeline. Leland--- I greatly appreciate all you are doing, and wish you the best of luck with reworking the timline.

Well, you did have a good point. It probably would be easier to just retcon the dates of the new Clone Wars film/tv stories rather than the previous material. I just mean to break down the discussion for a little more clarity and, to be honest, a bit more fairness toward Leland.

4. The compression idea is actually NOT as bad as it sounds. I've taken the time to look through my own SWT-G for the years between AOTC and ROTS. We need to keep in mind a few things:

A. A lot of these stories do not involve Anakin and Obi-Wan. There's a huge number of stories that focus upon either clone forces, other Jedi, or the saga of Quinlan Vos.

B. In MOST of the stories, time frames are not extremely important. Often, we are given dates in various comics and such that are not so much important in and of themselves, but simply there because it lets us know when certain stories take place relative to each other. If Secret of the Jedi is 29 months after AOTC, and Jedi Trial is 30 months after AOTC, is that month between important? Not really. Is that number of months after AOTC that important? Not really. Is the fact that Jedi Trial comes shortly after Secrets of the Jedi important? Absolutely. Compressing is different from rearranging. Compressing the material we have seen would keep it solid, just make it a shorter time span.

C. For those who think compressing is a bad idea because we can't fit that many stories into a few months, I would point you to the INSANE amount of materials that exist between ANH and the evacuation of Yavin IV about 6 months later, and the overall INSANE amount of materials that exist between ANH and ESB, some of which is still being printed to this day (Rebellion, for example). Compressed, chock-full time periods are nothing new to SW.

D. Most of the birth dates and such that would be tweaked by this change are not major issues. For example, Hero of Cartao tells us that Jafer Torles is born 94 BBY. Uhm . . . okay. What would it matter if that were changed? Most of these "random" events that we can trace back to the Clone Wars materials are somewhat self-contained references, and there simply has not been enough materials released since the Clone Wars publishing venture that rely on the Clone Wars dates (except perhaps, say, In the Shadow of Their Fathers) to have it really matter. It's a lot of work changing things for a fandom timeline creator like me, but it's not the end of the world, and the events would still retain their integrity regardless.

5. We cannot expect the timing choices of Lucas for the film and series to be shuffled around for the purposes of the EU. As much as that might make things easier, rather than compressing several years of other publishing materials, remember that it is Lucas' sandbox. He gets to make that call.

So . . . it might be a pain in the butt to rearrange and update things like the SWT-G or Wookieepedia, but that's the nature of this sort of thing. Roll with the punches, keep enjoying the materials. Apparently there is a solution in the works, that solution that is in the works is coming soon, presumably, so we will come to understand how things have been compressed. That's a lot more than we had been told for the last several months of people asking about it, so that's a big step in the right direction.

Tasty, with all due respect, is reworking the timeline really a good idea? I mean, sure, some issues can be easily fixed with a retcon or two, but we're talking about years being compressed into months. I have faith that all will work out in the end, but I find myself asking, is it really worth it? I realize I'm new to the forums, and I don't want to sound like a know-it-all only to be kicked out. But I think it'd be a lot easier to simply retcon the events in The Clone Wars books, movie, and TV series as occuring later on, rather than enacting a major overhaul of the Clone Wars timeline and subsequent events.

And while we're on the subject, after everything's all said and done, will the Clone Wars still have taken place in the timeframe of 22 BBY-19 BBY, or is an additional year or two being added in there?

Again, I apologize if I sounded rude, but I feel that this could all be a lot simpler.

Compressing the whole timeline will throw just about every source since Episode II out of line, surely. And that'll cause continuity errors everywhere, from the major and obvious ones, to smaller ones like births, marriages and deaths.
Trust me, it's not a decision we're taking lightly. And at some point, we'll rework the official timeline so you can see how everything fits. But until the latter portions of the series become more solidified, we won't publish anything official.

*Um, Tasty, and what is that "minimal retconning" supposed to be? I DO hope it doesn't mean that every novel and comic that includes Anakin, Obi-Wan and some time reference will be moved to N-canon... *
Everything's staying C-canon. As we've always done, any specific inconsistencies will be dealt with case-by-case as needed.

• It just occurred to me that I should probably make it clear that I was joking about the assassination thing; I know there are some mental fans out there. I'm just a frustrated and disappointed one. *

Surely this has been considered and worked out already.

I'll start with Dave Filoni's quote from Comic-Con: "Every now and then you run into a Boba Fett scenario, where we didn't know he was a clone, and the Jaster Mereel, and now he's not, and now he's a clone. And then we call Leland Chee and it's his problem."

Since early in the development of the series, Licensing has worked with Animation in targeting any potential continuity discrepencies with existing Clone Wars EU and so far, any seemingly major issues have been dealt with by using what I see as minimal retconning.

Throughout the history of the EU, our authors have overcome numerous seemingly unsurmountable discrepencies with ingenious explanations. Jan Dodonna dead? No he was an Imperial prisoner. Hobbie and Jansen dead? Hobbie just crashes alot but manages to survive and Jansen? That's just a story he and Wedge like to tell. Stormtroopers are clones? Well, not all of them. Jedi can't marry? Well this is the new Jedi Order or that was the ancient Jedi Order or Ki-Adi-Mundi's species has special circumstances. And Jaster Mereel? That's actually part of Jango's backstory.

And to paraphrase from my comments at The Clone Wars books panel at Comic-Con, Star Wars continuity doesn't reboot.

So . . . having now read The Clone Wars (both Traviss' and West's versions), it seems like, despite references to Anakin as twenty and "months" having passed since the forbidden wedding, these stories would fit in very easily in that six-month gap between Jedi Trial / Dreadnaughts of Rendili / Dark Rendezvous and Siege at Saleucami / Labyrinth of Evil / Clone Wars Micro-Series.

The only sticking point would be the appearance of Ventress, since she'll be gone by the time of Obsession, but push Obsession back just a bit, and you can slide The Clone Wars, it seems, right on in there (barring some Anakin haircut issues, but even the scar would be there correctly).

Is there any chance/hope that this barely-filled era will be when the series is finally worked into continuity?

Or, barring that, will we be seeing everything before when Anakin became a knight somehow compressed into a matter of a few months, rather than 2.5 years?

Or, worse, is there any possibility at this point that we continuity buffs should be preparing for the worst: a huge chunk of Clone Wars novel/comic continuity being flat-out chopped out of continuity altogether?

I know this has been asked before, plenty, mostly during the long absence of most of the VIPs from the boards. Now that the Clone Wars novelization and other products are out, I do think it's the right time to finally start getting some concrete information on this before some of us go batty.

Surely this has been considered and worked out already. This can't be something that's a surprise behind the scenes at this point.

Hey, what exactly is the IG-88 in Renegade Squadron? I'd think all of the models except A were destroyed by the time the distraction on Sullust happened.

Question 3 Reply: I figured as much... I just always wondered if George Lucas and the Canon supported what the fans already surmised. There is much about the Force (especially the dark side) that has not been explained. It seems in the upcoming Clone Wars feature we do see Dooku/Darth Tyranus with those eyes. The Force is said to bind the galaxy together in the films... so it makes sense that it's use (or abuse) would affect the physical body as well.