It seemed as if the Republic had won a great victory at Geonosis. But as legions of clone troopers departed Coruscant for the front lines, Yoda was deeply troubled. The galaxy was at war, and the dark side of the Force was clouding the Jedi’s understanding of events.

With the Clone Wars pitting Republic troops against battle droids on countless planets, the Jedi were forced into the reluctant role of generals – and senators such as Padmé Amidala faced political battles and intrigues on Coruscant. After Jabba the Hutt’s son was kidnapped, Padmé visited the Coruscant club of Jabba’s uncle Ziro in an effort to convince the Hutts that the Jedi were trying to help.

Padmé discovered that the kidnapping was part of a conspiracy between Ziro and Count Dooku. She was captured, but managed to send a message to C-3PO, who contacted the elite Coruscant Guard. They rescued Padmé and captured Ziro, unraveling the kidnapping plot.

The war brought trouble to the Jedi as well. Darth Sidious hired the bounty hunter Cad Bane for a seemingly impossible job – breaking into the Jedi Temple’s vaults to steal an ancient holocron. Bane pulled off the task, with a shapeshifter named Cato Parasitti impersonating Jedi librarian Jocasta Nu while droid Todo 360 helped Bane penetrate the Jedi vault.

On Malastare, Republic forces discovered a massive creature below the planet’s crust. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine ordered the Zillo Beast brought to Coruscant for study in hopes that its tough scales might be used to create superior military hardware. But the Zillo Beast escaped captivity, rampaging across the cityscape and attacking Palpatine at the Senate building before being killed by Jedi and clone troopers.

The Republic prepared to invade the neutral planet Mandalore after receiving a message calling for aid. Mandalore’s leader, Duchess Satine Kryze, knew the message had been altered and traveled into Coruscant’s dangerous underlevels to meet with an informant who could prove the deception.

Satine’s contact was killed by a Death Watch assassin – and if not for Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Duchess might have met the same fate. She fled through the underlevels, pursued by Death Watch and Republic forces alike.

Satine made it to the Senate building, where she surrendered. That gave Obi-Wan time to slip inside and give the unaltered message to Padmé Amidala, who played it for the Senate, averting a dangerous expansion of the war.

In a high-profile breach of Coruscant security, the infamous Cad Bane and a band of hired bounty hunters infiltrated the Senate building, taking several senators hostage and threatening to kill them with explosives. Bane’s objective was to win the release of Ziro the Hutt, held in a Republic prison. Bane succeeded, fleeing the Republic capital with the former prisoner.

The prospect of an end to the Clone Wars arose when Count Dooku opened peace negotiations with the Republic. But the Separatist leader withdrew the proposal after the death of a Separatist senator, leading the Republic to seek funding for more clone troops.

Padmé sought to stop the funding bill and keep the chances of peace alive. But she was opposed by militaristic senators in the Republic government and pursued through Coruscant’s underlevels by thugs seeking to intimidate her and her fellow senators in the peace faction.

The Senate’s pro-military faction accused Padmé and allies Bail Organa and Mon Mothma of being unpatriotic. But the political dispute took a dark turn when Rodian Senator Onaconda Farr was poisoned. Suspicion focused on Kamino’s Senator Halle Burtoni, but the assassination turned out to be the work of Farr’s aide, Lolo Purs.

After a bomb ripped through the Jedi Temple, Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano investigated the crime amid talk that a Jedi had been responsible. The evidence led to Letta Turmond, the widow of a Temple maintenance worker. Anakin and Ahsoka captured Letta outside her Coruscant apartment, and she admitted feeding her husband deadly nano-droids, turning him into a living explosive. But had she acted alone?

Letta died in custody and Ahsoka was framed for her murder. A mysterious benefactor helped Ahsoka escape, but each act of assistance made her look more guilty. The frightened Padawan fled from the clone troopers, desperate to get away and baffled by the plot in which she found herself enmeshed.

Anakin begged Ahsoka to surrender, noting that she was just making herself look more guilty by trying to evade Republic justice. But Ahsoka knew no one would believe her story, and opted for a desperate plunge into Coruscant’s lawless underlevels.

Clone troopers captured Ahsoka in the underlevels, and she was put on trial for treason in a massive court building. With his Padawan in peril, Anakin pursued a trail of clues in hopes of finding the real traitor.

Anakin discovered that Barriss Offee was behind the bombing and had framed Ahsoka. Barriss confessed her crimes, warning that the Jedi had lost their way, and the Jedi Council welcomed Ahsoka back to the order’s ranks. But to Anakin’s shock she refused reinstatement, walking away from the Jedi Temple and into an uncertain future.

After the ARC trooper Fives discovered every clone trooper had been implanted with a mysterious bio-chip, he brought his findings to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. But Fives had stumbled across a dangerous conspiracy involving the Kaminoan cloners and the Sith. To protect the Sith secret, he was framed for attacking Palpatine and gunned down by his fellow clones.

The Republic’s massive economic power eventually pushed the Separatists into the Outer Rim, and an exhausted Republic eagerly waited the end of the Clone Wars. But the Separatist warlord General Grievous attacked Coruscant itself with a task force, leading to a terrifying battle in the capital world’s upper atmosphere.

In a daring raid, Grievous kidnapped Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and took the Republic leader to his flagship Invisible Hand. Grievous fled as Obi-Wan and Anakin rescued Palpatine, but the Invisible Hand was crippled and plunged into Coruscant’s atmosphere.

In an astonishing display of piloting skills, Anakin managed to land the ruined Separatist ship. A delegation of senators, Jedi and aides welcomed the Supreme Chancellor’s safe return and saluted the heroic Jedi who’d saved him.

Palpatine asked for Anakin to join the Jedi Council as his personal representative – an appointment the Jedi reluctantly accepted, while refusing to grant Anakin the title of Jedi Master. Frustrated and angry, Anakin was drawn deeper into Palpatine’s web, lured by hints of secret lore that could save his wife Padmé Amidala from the fate he’d foreseen for her.

Palpatine eventually revealed his greatest secret to Anakin – he was Darth Sidious, the hidden Sith Lord and mastermind behind the Clone Wars. A conflicted Anakin returned to the Jedi Temple and told Mace Windu this shocking news. Mace then headed for Palpatine’s office to arrest the Supreme Chancellor.

As Anakin rushed to Palpatine’s office, Sidious killed the Jedi accompanying Mace. Anakin arrived as Mace disarmed Sidious and raised his lightsaber to strike the Sith Lord down. Fearing the knowledge of how to save Padmé would die with Sidious, Anakin ignited his own saber and severed Mace’s hand, after which Sidious blasted the Jedi champion with Sith lightning. Anakin pledged himself to Sidious and was given the Sith title Darth Vader.

As Sidious sent word for the clones to execute Order 66 and turn on their Jedi generals, Anakin traveled to the Jedi Temple, where he massacred his former friends, leaving the iconic structure in flames.

At a special session of the Senate, a disfigured Palpatine declared that the Republic had become the Galactic Empire, with himself as its Emperor. As Padmé and Bail Organa looked on in despair, the Senate applauded this momentous change.

Not all of the Jedi had been slain, however. Yoda escaped Order 66 and returned to Coruscant in an effort to stop Sidious. The Jedi Master and the Sith Lord dueled in the Senate chamber, but Sidious was too strong for Yoda to defeat. The ancient Jedi was forced to flee, going into exile deep in the Outer Rim.

On Sidious’s orders, Anakin went to Mustafar and killed the Separatist leaders. There, he was confronted by Obi-Wan Kenobi and left for dead on the shores of a lava river. Sidious found his apprentice near death and brought him back to Coruscant, where grim medical procedures transformed Anakin into the armored Darth Vader, greatest servant of the Emperor.

Two decades later, the Rebel Alliance’s struggle to restore the Republic culminated in the destruction of the second Death Star at Endor and Sidious’s demise at the hands of Anakin Skywalker. Crowds on Coruscant joined in the giddy celebration as word spread of this new birth of freedom.