Game of Thrones Showrunners on the Premiere’s Most Epic Moment

Warning: this article contains spoilers for the Game of Thrones Season 8 premiere! Make sure to read our review.

One of several pivotal moments in the Game of Thrones Season 8 premiere involves Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen taking a break from the hustle, bustle, and backstabbing in Winterfell and taking Dany's dragons for a ride. Aside from being the most thrilling and CG-heavy sequence of the episode, the dragon riding also allowed the premiere to highlight the growing bond between Jon and Dany and tease Jon's imminent discovery about his family heritage.

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Game of Thrones: What’s the Deal With THAT Weapon?

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the Game of Thrones Season 8 premiere - check out our review.

Game of Thrones' Season 8 premiere featured a number of long-awaited character reunions, and one of the most memorable scenes came as Arya finally came face-to-face with her old pal Gendry. But as viewers soon learned, Arya had more than simple gesture of friendship in mind. Arya wants Gendry to forge her a new weapon of some sort. Apparently, even two badass blades aren't enough for this trained killer.

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Game of Thrones Comparison: Season 8 to Season 1 Premiere

Spoilers for Game of Thrones' Season 8 premiere continue below! Be sure to check out IGN's review and watch our post-show breakdown, Dragons on the Wall.

Game of Thrones' final season premiere just aired, and it's fitting that the episode had so many parallels to the series premiere that aired way back in 2011.

HBO was open from the get-go that this episode was going to have a lot of callbacks and references to the Season 1 pilot, even teasing some of them in the trailer for the new season. But seeing all those moments play out on the small screen still made us emotional when it came time to think about how far the Starks have come in the past eight seasons.

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Game of Thrones’ Opening Credits Sequence Got a Season 8 Update

This post contains spoilers for the Game of Thrones Season 8 premiere. For more, check out our review of Season 8, episode 1.

It's obviously no spoiler to note that Game of Thrones' opening credits change with every episode - that's been a staple of the show since it debuted -  but the Season 8 premiere offers the most drastic update to the iconic title sequence to date, and it gives us a few clues as to what we can expect from the final season.

The sequence has always opened with a close-up of the spherical astrolabe that surrounds a "sun," its rings carved with pivotal moments from the history of Westeros - but the animation has been given an upgrade here with a darker, richer color palette than the bright golds and reds of the previous credits.

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Star Wars: Darth Maul Returns in Clone Wars Finale

Star Wars Celebration closed out the weekend with one more major panel, as director Dave Filoni and numerous members of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars cast took the stage to tease the animated series' upcoming seventh and final season. Filoni revealed that Clone Wars will go out on one of its most ambitious story arcs yet, as Darth Maul and Ahsoka Tano return in a conflict known as the Siege of Mandalore.

It appears that Season 7's 12 episodes will be divided among three major storylines. The first will focus on an elite Clonetrooper squadron called "Bad Batch." These clones have genetic abnormalities that give them more distinct personalities and appearances, as ell as making them even more deadly on the field of battle.

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Jon Favreau Confirms Exactly When The Mandalorian Takes Place

At Star Wars Celebration 2019, executive producers John Favreau and Dave Filoni took the stage and showed off some very cool new footage from their highly anticipated live-action bounty hunter series, The Mandalorian. Joining them were series regulars Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Gina Carano (Cara Dune), and Carl Weathers (Greef).

Favreau and Filoni showed gave us a detailed look at the world they've created - which seems every bit as cinematic as the Star Wars movies, judging by this first footage. Here are nine things we learned from the footage we saw at the panel, which has yet to be released officially online.

Who Is The Mandalorian?

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Star Wars: How The Rise of Skywalker Trailer References The Phantom Menace

The new teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker contains more surprises than just the Emperor’s spine-chilling cackle. It also has a pair of references to Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and we don’t mean a Jar Jar Binks cameo.

Keep scrolling to read this piece as an article or click through the slideshow to view it as a gallery.

Legendary Callbacks

The first reference comes in the form of the on-screen text, “Every generation has a legend.”

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Star Wars: Is The Rise of Skywalker Really a Retcon of The Last Jedi?

The first trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has already led to rampant speculation about how it will wrap up the sequel trilogy's storyline. Among the many topics under discussion is how the film will continue after the end of The Last Jedi, which left the galaxy in a turbulent state; The Resistance was almost completely crushed, the First Order has undergone a seismic power shift, and Luke became one with the Force. After so much change, some fans have seen the trailer as indication that JJ Abrams is reversing some of the plot elements of The Last Jedi. Even if Abrams hadn't explicitly stated on several occasions that he has no intention of doing so, a closer look at the previous film shows that The Last Jedi set the stage precisely for the story The Rise of Skywalker's trailer is telling.

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How to Watch Clone Wars in Chronological Order on Disney+

With Season 7 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars finally about to debut on Disney+, you may want to catch up before the series returns with those 12 new episodes. If so, you’ve got a bit of binging homework to do. Still, Star Wars homework is pretty much the best kind out there. So read on for our rundown of how best to watch the show in chronological episode order, or watch the video above (or below) that recaps The Clone Wars in 4 minutes! [ignvideo width=610 height=374 url=https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/17/star-wars-the-clone-wars-recapped-in-4-minutes]

The Clone Wars Chronological Episode Order

There is a bit of context, however, that might help you along your journey. Perhaps the biggest point of confusion is that if you watch the series from Season 1, Episode 1, all the way to Season 6, Episode 13, you are not watching the story in chronological order. In fact, there are some key jumps in the timeline throughout. For the most part, the episodes are fairly sequential, save a few gaps. But, why did Lucasfilm craft the narrative this way? Wouldn’t it make more sense to take things from beginning to end? Not necessarily. When Clone Wars was first conceived it was designed as more of an organic method of storytelling, more anthology based, as opposed to sequentially. The series was originally intended to focus on the overarching story, giving ancillary characters a chance to be showcased as well. In essence, it would world-build to an unprecedented extent in Star Wars canon. However, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano were too compelling to take a back seat, so the stories ultimately ended up boomeranging back to them the most. Clone-Wars-Movie-or-Series-First-Chronological-OrderFurthermore, this is one of the biggest wars in the history of this fictional universe; a lot goes on in a three-year period. Ahsoka matures from a padawan calling her master “Skyguy” to a show-stopping tour de force in the Jedi Order. Anakin and Obi-Wan’s relationship continues to progress as the Master and Padawan grow beyond a mentor/mentee dynamic into one more akin to brothers. The Jedi Order slowly is undermined from within Coruscant, courtesy of the Machiavellian Palpatine, and we get to know more and more about why the Clones are so much more than the sum of their parts. And, since this is a war, it is not wrapped up in a nice, neat package. Multiple storylines are running parallel to one another. For instance, while Anakin and Obi-Wan are on Mortis, the Republic has its own problems dispatching Jedi to other corners of the galaxy. The Clone Wars, as designed by Chancellor Palpatine, were created to thin the Jedi herd, so a lot of storylines of equal importance are going on at the same time. But it’s fair to say that for the casual observer, you may not even be aware of time gaps. The order listed above is how you should watch them if you want to get the best overall idea of where things fit structurally (and it does give more context for later episodes), but, like the Clone Wars’ impact on the galaxy, there is no clear path. When you think about it that way, it’s a nice meta-commentary. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-upcoming-star-wars-movie&captions=true"]

Clone Wars Movie or Series First?

Here is the official order of things (as per StarWars.com), including where the movie fits in. If you want to watch in chronological order, use the first number. If you want to watch in the order the episodes originally aired, use the “air” number!  
Air # Title
1 216 Cat and Mouse
2 116 Hidden Enemy
T The Clone Wars theatrical release
3 301 Clone Cadets
4 303 Supply Lines
5 101 Ambush
6 102 Rising Malevolence
7 103 Shadow of Malevolence
8 104 Destroy Malevolence
9 105 Rookies
10 106 Downfall of a Droid
11 107 Duel of the Droids
12 108 Bombad Jedi
13 109 Cloak of Darkness
14 110 Lair of Grievous
15 111 Dooku Captured
16 112 The Gungan General
17 113 Jedi Crash
18 114 Defenders of Peace
19 115 Trespass
20 117 Blue Shadow Virus
21 118 Mystery of a Thousand Moons
22 119 Storm over Ryloth
23 120 Innocents of Ryloth
24 121 Liberty on Ryloth
25 201 Holocron Heist
26 202 Cargo of Doom
27 203 Children of the Force
28 217 Bounty Hunters
29 218 The Zillo Beast
30 219 The Zillo Beast Strikes Back
31 204 Senate Spy
32 205 Landing at Point Rain
33 206 Weapons Factory
34 207 Legacy of Terror
35 208 Brain Invaders
36 209 Grievous Intrigue
37 210 The Deserter
38 211 Lightsaber Lost
39 212 The Mandalore Plot
40 213 Voyage of Temptation
41 214 Duchess of Mandalore
42 220 Death Trap
43 221 R2 Come Home
44 222 Lethal Trackdown
45 305 Corruption
46 306 The Academy
47 307 Assassin
48 302 ARC Troopers
49 304 Sphere of Influence
50 308 Evil Plans
51 122 Hostage Crisis
52 309 Hunt for Ziro
53 310 Heroes on Both Side
54 311 Pursuit of Peace
55 215 Senate Murders
56 312 Nightsisters
57 313 Monster
58 314 Witches of the Mist
59 315 Overlords
60 316 Altar of Mortis
61 317 Ghosts of Mortis
62 318 The Citadel
63 319 Counter Attack
64 320 Citadel Rescue
65 321 Padawan Lost
66 322 Wookiee Hunt
67 401 Water War
68 402 Gungan Attack
69 403 Prisoners
70 404 Shadow Warrior
71 405 Mercy Mission
72 406 Nomad Droids
73 407 Darkness on Umbara
74 408 The General
75 409 Plan of Dissent
76 410 Carnage of Krell
77 411 Kidnapped
78 412 Slaves of the Republic
79 413 Escape from Kadavo
80 414 A Friend In Need
81 415 Deception
82 416 Friends and Enemies
83 417 The Box
84 418 Crisis on Naboo
85 419 Massacre
86 420 Bounty
87 421 Brothers
88 422 Revenge
89 502 A War on Two Fronts
90 503 Front Runners
91 504 The Soft War
92 505 Tipping Points
93 506 The Gathering
94 507 A Test of Strength
95 508 Bound for Rescue
96 509 A Necessary Bond
97 510 Secret Weapons
98 511 A Sunny Day in the Void
99 512 Missing in Action
100 513 Point of No Return
101 501 Revival
102 514 Eminence
103 515 Shades of Reason
104 516 The Lawless
105 517 Sabotage
106 518 The Jedi Who Knew Too Much
107 519 To Catch a Jedi
108 520 The Wrong Jedi
109 601 The Unknown
110 602 Conspiracy
111 603 Fugitive
112 604 Orders
113 605 An Old Friend
114 606 The Rise of Clovis
115 607 Crisis at the Heart
116 608 The Disappeared
117 609 The Disappeared: Pt. II
118 610 The Lost One
119 611 Voices
120 612 Destiny
121 613 Sacrifice
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