When does ‘Tales of the Jedi’ take place? Answered and Explained

Tales of the Jedi is an animated Star Wars anthology series and one of the first animated pieces of Star Wars canon that will partially predate The Phantom Menace. This series will go from the time when Qui-Gon Jinn was still Dooku’s apprentice to after the prequels, with Ahsoka evading the Empire. The stories are also told in non-chronological order, meaning they will jump backward and forward in time.

The term I will use to mark specific years is BBY (or Before the Battle of Yavin). As such, the dates will resemble BCE and go in reverse order. Everything before 32 BBY is before The Phantom Menace, everything between 22 BBY and 19 BBY is Clone Wars era, and everything after 19 BBY is after Revenge of the Sith. Also, for the sake of simplicity, I will be going over the episodes in chronological order within the Star Wars universe and referring to the Tales of the Jedi episodes as episodes and the movies by their titles.

Spoiler Warning for Tales of the Jedi and parts of The Clone Wars!

60 BBY (28 years before The Phantom Menace)

We don’t know when exactly episode 2, “Justice,” takes place, but we can assume Qui-Gon is an older padawan, roughly the same age as Obi-Wan in The Phantom Menace. Therefore, I estimate it takes place in 60 BBY, when Qui-Gon was about 20 years old.

Episode 3, “Choices,” presumably takes place sometime after Qui-Gon has been knighted, as Masters Windu and Dooku seek to solve the mystery of a Jedi’s death without their padawans.

36-35 BBY (4-3 years before The Phantom Menace)

The first episode, “Life and Death,” begins with the birth of Ahsoka Tano, before quickly time-skipping to a year later, when Ahsoka is taken on her first hunt by her mother and reveals her Force Sensitivity. It would be another year before she would be taken to the Jedi Temple by Plo Koon and begin her Jedi Path.

32 BBY (during The Phantom Menace)

Episode 4, “The Sith Lord,” actually takes place during the events of The Phantom Menace, with Dooku and Qui-Gon having a discussion about Qui-Gon’s encounter with Darth Maul. It also features the fallout from his death, with Dooku solidifying his turn to the Dark Side and cementing himself as Sidious’ new apprentice.

21 BBY-19 BBY (between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, the Clone Wars era)

Episode 5, “Practice makes Perfect,” appears to take place during the Clone Wars time-skip that divides the first half of the show (Season 1 through the first half of Season 3) and the second half (the second half of Season 3 through Season 7), as Ahsoka is wearing a hybrid version of the outfit she wears as both a younger and an older padawan and is shown training with Master Sinube, whom she met in Season 2. This is also the first episode with multiple time-skips, at first skipping to when Ahsoka is an older padawan (sometime between Seasons 3.5 through 5), then to moments before she and Rex face the brainwashed clones in the Season 7 finale, which places it during the events of Revenge of the Sith.

19 BBY, after Revenge of the Sith

Episode 6, “Resolve,” starts out at the end of Revenge of the Sith with Ahsoka attending Padme’s funeral and receiving “confirmation” that Anakin is dead. It then skips to a few years later with Ahsoka attempting to live a normal life as a farm hand, only to accidentally out herself and then be forced back into the fray. This is possibly a partial adaptation of the events of the Ahsoka novel, much like how Bad Batch adapted the Kanan comics.

Have you seen the miniseries yet? What was your favorite episode? What era would you like to see explored next? Comment below!

(featured image: Lucasfilm)