Thread by @DarthInternous

Below is a complete discussion of how the SW Books timeline went from Legends to canon to the canon High Republic redesign with everything in between. Ethos, placement explanations, nonsense, omissions, redesign decisions, tidbits, more nonsense, and more. (1/TOO MANY)

To start, you need to understand two core design principles:
1) Primary use: New/lapsed/infrequent SW readers. Provide a high-level reminder of where in the saga a book takes place

2) Usable design that avoids clutter or becomes too busy and imposing

Remember them!

Why focus on less engaged readers instead of more engaged? Our assumption: more engaged readers have a broader knowledge base of the chronology/ are more likely to be engaging with other timeline resources (reference books, unofficial resources, etc) Not a value judgment!

Okay, onto the evolution. Once complete, the Legends timeline looked like this. Dense, impressive, imposing. As much as it says “a wealth of Star Wars story!” it also says “Here’s your homework. Have fun.” It’s also confused. Somewhere between an in-universe doc and reader tool.

For the canon timeline, we made a few key decisions based on core principles. No icons or era titles. Most noticeably no more in-universe timeline system. Why? Principle #1. Orientation to the Star Wars films is easier and simpler to understand/parse.

We did some surveys among office colleagues who are less engaged SW fans. Most of them, when we explained BBY/ABY just asked “so, why not just use A New Hope?” Good question.

With strict timelines gone, how do we arrange the books? The general rule: wherever we are on page one, regardless of how much time passed throughout the story (This is not a hard “rule” and would be broken in specific moments, we’ll get to that.)

Those timelines still exist, again, they just aren't reflected on this timeline and were never intended to be. Remember our core principles (I sound like a teacher, sorry)

Other media (tv shows in this case) were added as secondary eras, especially since we had two initial books that were directly connected to those shows. Separate hierarchies established, we were off!

The timeline debuted in April 2015 in LORDS OF THE SITH looking simple, but easy to use. It didn’t debut earlier, since having a few published books (and a few to look forward to) looked better. A timeline with just A New Dawn and Tarkin on it would have been *sad*.

You’ll notice Twilight Company is just called Battlefront here. It wasn’t named yet when the timeline was sent to print!

Now’s a good time to answer why this isn’t “complete” with all the other books, comics, etc? The answer is, it would be hopelessly outdated each time we published it. That’s best left to online timelines that can be more immediately/flexibly updated.

Anyway, the first big update comes in Dec 2015 with THE FORCE AWAKENS. Already the page is looking full with the other Aftermath titles and even an ebook original added. Battlefront has its full title too! Hooray.

You’ll notice Bloodline has a “New Republic” prefix. When first envisioned, we thought it was needed to highlight sequel era storytelling. That was dropped. Plus New Republic wasn’t a term appearing frequently in the widest SW conversations. So idk how helpful it would have been

Next update is July 2016 with LIFE DEBT, as we have the first appearance of ROGUE ONE and Catalyst. Catalyst would be the first break of our placement rule. Initially, keeping it closest to Rogue One would make it clear that it was a prequel. As you’ll see, this book migrates

Fun fact: there was thought of designing custom icons for Rogue One and any other non-saga films. (Rogue One would have been Death Star). That idea was quickly dropped for complexity. It would be a backslide to the Legends timeline clutter of the past.

CATALYST is next in Nov 2016. The ebook original is gone (early space-saving idea) and you can already see Catalyst migrating north. Ultimately the “A Rogue One Story” subtitle helped retain the connection. Plus given the scope of the book it felt "right" being earlier.

Not long after, in the ROGUE ONE novelization, Catalyst reaches its final home, and we’re about at the limit of what this timeline design can do on 1 page without resorting to some eye straining font size tweaks. At this moment, we knew that eventually a redesign was needed.

Two-page timeline arrives with THRAWN in Mar 2017. Inferno Squad debuts. The spacing gets better, but the design across two pages again told us redesign plans needed to begin. Starting here you’ll see it sometimes across a spread and sometimes separated. Just a production quirk.

Later that year, in PHASMA we see it as a spread, which looks nice but wasn’t always possible. Battlefront II is now added to Inferno Squad to create that connection without adding the game itself. I think we initially left the BF II moniker off to align with game announcements.

Moving into 2018, with LAST SHOT - Solo now appears, breaking up that post-prequel era a bit. We opted to keep Thrawn near A New Dawn and Rebels because of the character’s connection to the show. Last Shot also appears, but you’ll notice has no “A Solo Story” subtitle.

Why? Well, the book is as much the post-ROTJ original story as it is a “Solo” era tie-in. So it was left off, and (I think) rightfully so. But there’s not always a perfect answer to this stuff!

MASTER & APPRENTICE puts M&A on the timeline for the first time, floating up there above TPM. I’ll admit that looks a tad odd. Treason now joins Alliances and Thrawn. At this point we 100% knew a new design was coming, and begin to plot when it should launch.

The placement of the two additional Thrawn novels took into account that a lot of readers were experiencing Thrawn for the first time via Rebels. So even though they’re broken up a bit, keeping them related to the show was key for us.

To address “Where’s SW RESISTANCE!?” Again, core principles. No books related to the show, and the sequel movies do the work of contextualizing the timeline. Adding it would have created clutter on a full timeline. NOT a value judgment on the show (it’s cool, go watch it).

I worry this is getting tedious, so let's skip ahead just a tad, shall we?

THRAWN: TREASON, in July 2019, Dooku: Jedi Lost joins the party, in the “era-less” area above TPM. Why? We considered the most important elements of the book to take place in that less-traveled era. It “felt” correct being there.

Also never considered "audio original" note

A good reminder, that this isn’t an in-universe document. So again referring to our 2 core principles, how do we make a helpful timeline AND respect chronology? So that’s why it’s up there instead of more solidly in the Clone Wars era-ish. (M&A also enjoys the company)

Finally we have the last iteration of this canon timeline from Chaos Rising. So many books!

Of note is Alphabet Squadron / Aftermath. Yes the trilogies overlap, but it was more helpful to keep the trilogies intact. We solve that overlapping problem in a moment…

WE MADE IT! New design, debuted Jan 2020 in LIGHT OF THE JEDI. If it looks like a proto Legends timeline, that wasn’t intentional, but certainly, the similarities are there. So what happened here? Again it goes back to our two principles. Simple/high level tool.

We needed to make sure the redesign saved space/reduced clutter or else we’d just be redesigning it *again* real soon. So we pared back info we thought redundant. For example, AOTC/ROTS orient you in the saga, so CLONE WARS doesn’t need to be there.

But adding “a Clone Wars novel” to Dark Disciple and “a Rebels novel” to A New Dawn maintains connections, like Catalyst’s subtitle established so long ago. And I’d expect us to use that principle going forward if there are books about other media that don’t have their own era.

This design can grow but remain accessible. It will get full, but not overwhelming. And as more markers (films etc) are needed, we’ll add them. It’s a living doc. What works today, can evolve tomorrow - as we've clearly seen these last 700 (est) tweets.

There’s an argument to be made that Mandalorian is establishing a distinct enough era between ROTJ/TFA that it should be there now. You may be right. Again, no perfect answers.

The only current exception is of course The High Republic era itself. But since it isn’t redundant info and provides its own clear value, it makes perfect sense. A “new era of Star Wars storytelling” isn't just a keen selling term. It's the truth.

One last observation: Reducing trilogies to a single line solves our overlap issue and saves space. It’s likely that in progress series will be consolidated after completion. So expect Ascendancy: Greater Good to appear below Chaos Rising, for now and be followed by Book 3.

You’ll notice we didn’t consolidate the other three “Thrawn” books, and that’s because they aren’t a formal trilogy. They were created as three standalones. So they remain as such on the timeline. (Yes, you can call them a trilogy, it’s all fake and in space anyway)

That’s it! Hope this was even mildly interesting.

And if you made it all the way here, thanks for reading. You're wonderful. Drink some water, take care of yourself and others. Send someone a msg and tell them you care. #MTFBWY

(/fin)