For the better part of two years now i have been working on a book, which i have since titled "The Secret History of Star Wars." Its something that should be of interest to everyone in this forum and i think would benefit everyone to read it. It explores the writing and creation of the series, beginning before Lucas even wrote his first treatment in 1973 and tracing how that document came into existance, showing how the film was developed draft by draft and year by year. It explores how Darth Vader was merged with Luke Skywalker's father in 1978, forever altering the course of the series, how Darth Vader was turned into a sympathetic character in 1981 and then redeemed, and how the prequel stories came to be and shifted the franchise into a new six-film series, and basically charts the evolution of the series, shattering many myths and presenting some very seldom known facts. I also added a bunch of appendices to address other tangential issues, one of the more interesting ones being an uncovering of what the mysterious "Journal of the Whills" actually is.

There has never really been something as ambituous and far-reaching as this ever done in the fan community, which takes all the x-factors and disconnected little bits of knowledge and finally puts them all together in a cohesive "answer." In a way, that is what i hope this is--a sort of answer, a way for people to finally understand "ah, so that is how that happened." It explains the how, when and why of the Star Wars story itself.

It would be impossible to post this in the thread as some people do with their essays--it clocks in at over 400 pages--but i built a website for it. The book is available for download in PDF format and is just under 4 MB in size. A hefty read? I suppose so. But i guarantee that it will be worth it.

http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com

Also, to put an OT.com spin on it, although the book deals with the overall saga, and most people here will definitly enjoy the first six chapters on the origninal trilogy, the remaining four on the creation of the PT may be of interest--it may shed some light on "where the films went wrong." You can see how, where and why Lucas slowly began changing elements in the universe, and how the first draft of TPM was more along the lines of what we wanted to see--and see why and how he changed it into the TPM that we ended up with and how this affected the following two films. Its also very interesting to see how drastically ROTS was changed--the most major changes occuring after the film was even shot!
I don't have a "fan preservation" video to add to the community so in a way this is my fan preservation--it collects all the information and quotes that are seldom heard and are in danger of being swallowed up by time (ie Lucas original quotes on planning twelve films, Marcia Lucas' thoughts on the divorce, etc.).

enjoy!

http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com