The latest Star Wars animated TV show, Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld, brings fan-favorite character Asajj Ventress back to the small screen - but it has also unwittingly messed with the Star Wars timeline yet again. Ventress' story in the last year alone has messed somewhat with Star Wars canon, as it was revealed in the trailer for Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 3 that the character had, in fact, not died in the 2015 canon novel Dark Disciple by Christie Golden.

Rather than rewriting that story completely, however, Tales of the Underworld has done the work to explain how Ventress came back to life. While this story maintains its own throughline, the connective tissue between Tales of the Underworld and Ventress' return in The Bad Batch season 3 makes even less sense after the debut of the former. This has everything to do with the timeline, which has had its fair share of struggles in various recent Star Wars properties.

Asajj Ventress' Tales Of The Underworld Story Takes Place 3 Years After Order 66

Which Is One To Two Years After The Bad Batch Season 3

Context clues in the dialogue of Tales of the Underworld reveal that Ventress' storyline takes place three years after the events of Order 66, which is reinforced by the appearance of stormtroopers whose armor is a closer match to that which is seen in the original Star Wars trilogy. Adversely, The Bad Batch season 3 continued to depict an early prototype of stormtrooper armor, which stayed in line with its own timeline roughly a year or two after Order 66.

In the context of Tales of the Underworld, this isn't a problem. This would allow a reasonable amount of time for Quinlan Vos to establish The Hidden Path, which helps Imperial Inquisitors, such as the one seen in episode 1, a chance to become more plentiful in numbers and greater in strength. In a broader context, however, this timeline makes little sense.

This Ventress Storyline Makes No Sense After The Bad Batch Season 3

Tales Of The Underworld Makes Her Purpose Less Clear

When we first see Ventress in Tales of the Underworld after her resurrection, she's working security in a random transport office, shortly before she comes to the aid of the Jedi runaway Lyco Strata and learns about Vos' Path. With this story supposedly taking place three years after Order 66, and thus a year or so after The Bad Batch season 3, it's hard to believe that Ventress didn't know about the Path prior to her appearance in The Bad Batch.

In the latter, Ventress is ed by Fennec Shand specifically as Hunter, Wrecker, and Crosshair seek information on M-counts to understand why the Empire wants Omega. Ventress, at this point, is clearly not bounty hunting the way she used to; it can be assumed that she abandoned this lifestyle after her resurrection. It stands to reason that she would have only been using bounty hunting as a cover to find M-count bounties and help them escape within the Path.

Without the Path, she would think Jedi training to be impossible, or useless.

After Tales of the Underworld, however, this can no longer be a possibility. Ventress wouldn't have known about the Path in The Bad Batch season 3, which poses the question yet again of why Ventress would have cared about M-count bounties, and why she would have helped Omega. This is especially confusing with Ventress warning Hunter and Crosshair that Omega would potentially need Jedi training if she had a high M-count; without the Path, she would think Jedi training to be impossible, or useless.

Tales Of The Underworld Really Should Take Place BEFORE Bad Batch Season 3

It Would Give Her Proper Motivation For Helping Omega

To help Ventress' storyline in The Bad Batch season 3 make sense, Tales of the Underworld really should take place first. Ventress' discovery of the Path, and her relationship with Lyco, would be convincing motives for why she cares enough to try to help Omega discover more about her own M-count and Force potential in The Bad Batch season 3. Otherwise, there's no good explanation for what Ventress was even doing at that point in time.

Ventress' own appearance s this theory, too. In The Bad Batch season 3, she has her shoulder pauldron, but it's missing in Tales of the Underworld. It would seem more likely that she would start without it, unless something notable enough happened to make her abandon it between the two shows. Either way, Ventress' story in Tales of the Underworld would only truly work with The Bad Batch season 3 if it happened first, and that's unfortunately not the case - leading to another confusing timeline.