The memories are flooding back after reading this beguiling thread. Awesome work SoBS and everyone. It has inspired me to go and buy a copy of the X Wing game for the PC again, just to get a copy of “The Farlander Papers”!
for the "A list of assorted ‘pre-PT era’ claims to check: claims on reddit by CharlieTheStrawman:
A screenshot from the wookieepedia page for Obi Wan Kenobi on his birth place:
^ From this and the two sources provided: 1st edition of ‘The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook’ and ‘Star Wars Screen Entertainment’, in pre-PT era lore, Obi Wan was born on Tatooine.
I saw this in another thread, but thought it could appeal to many in here:
Literally any fan speculation about the Clone Wars is likely to be cooler than what Lucas actually came up with in 2002.
Like everyone else, I imagined some awesome galactic conflict with massive clone armies controlled by distant alien factions trying to overthrow the Republic, along with clone-based subterfuge and political intrigue (cloning of Senators or Jedi - with some darker elements like cloned Jedi going insane).
I did not imagine that the clones were boring CGI Stormtroopers created under bullshit circumstances for the Republic to use at the last minute to fight some equally boring CGI robots as part of an under-explained civil war, and that every single clone was actually Boba Fett’s dad.
Anyway, pre-Prequel ideas about the Clone Wars always fascinated me because while many of these ideas are traceable to pre-1999 EU publications, some of these ideas are actually examples of pre-Internet “memes”. These were orally-communicated “memes” whose origin is forever lost to time, yet are somehow consistently known by many people of a certain age group across multiple regions/countries. These memes were spread on playgrounds, fan gatherings, and mail-based fan publications, in a way similar to how stories and myths were spread in pre-literate cultures. Similar to childhood songs that somehow every kid of a certain age knew (“Jingle Bells, Batman Smells”), the idea that Obi Wan Kenobi was actually OB-1 the clone is a pre-Internet meme that was remarkably wide-spread before the Internet, and remains well known to this day. Every Star Wars fan in the 80s and 90s somehow “knew a guy” that told them about this theory. (Of course it turned out to be false, and I’m glad, because it’s stupid.)
Below are some articles on this fan theory from at that time, something I always found kinda interesting: the fan theory from before the Prequels, and the web, that Obi Wan was a clone:
OB-1 = ‘Original Body 1’
• Obi-Wan Kenobi is a Clone - at The Movie Blog
• Obi-Wan Kenobi is Actually OB1 Kenobi - at CBR
• Excuse me Mr. Kenobi, but was that Obi-Wan or OB1? - at Trailer Addict
• Star Wars’ Weirdest Fan Theory Concerned… Obi-Wan’s Name? - at CBR
• Star Wars Fan Theories Explained: Obi-Wan & Anakin Are Really Clones 0B-1 & NKN - at Looper
• Where did the ideas of Obi-Wan being a clone named OB-1 originate from? - reddit/RewritingThePrequels