Wow...I go to work for a few hours and a whole page moves on without me.
I agree with Octorox for the familial relationships. Let's not make any more people related than we need. It makes the whole galaxy too small. I was blown away by the idea of Owen as brother-in-law because it was SO simple but it never occured to me and opens up many story telling possibilities. I think if Owen and Obiwan were brother's it would have come up at SOME point in the OT. Obiwan would have at LEAST been distraught at Owen's death. Let's just keep it simple (with a twist).
ChainsawAsh about diving into Ep1, be careful that we don't jump the gun either. We need to define MANY things about the structure and charcter archs before we start ANY script. Otherwise we'll end up in the same hole I think Lucas got himself into. I think he started kind of where we are...All kinds of ideas! Then he built his SAGA one movie at a time, BUT he made the mistake of saying it was a trilogy so he had to wrap up his ideas in ROTJ, which I thought was really rushed. Think of how cool it would have been if Luke had killed Vader in Ep6 and then "the other" that Yoda spoke of could have helped redeem him in Ep7. Wouldn't it have heen cool if that "other" were not some SURPRISE sister but the one person who never believed in the force anyway...Han. I always felt that they never knew what to do with him in ROTJ anyway. He wasn't really a scoudrel so they tried to play up him being jealous about Luke and Liea's new found closeness. So years later, Lucas decides to create the prequels, and they suddenly turn the SAGA from the adventures of Luke Skywalker into the fall and redemption of Vader. I wonder if he originally intended the fall to be Luke but lost his chance because he ran out of time in the OT. So lets not rush anything. We've only been at this for about a week. The Ep1 can still be stand alone, but we need to know where he are headed, lest we write ourselves into a corner and run out of time as well.
How about we step away from specific characters for a bit and look the Wars themselves. What are the Clone Wars? Who is fighting who? Why? Should the Jedi support clones? If the force is energy from all living things, how does artifically created life affect it? Are clones a "hole" in the nature of the force? Why are we talking about TWO wars? Is the Republic the good side in CWI but maybe the bad side in CWII because of the Emperor taking control (but before it is declared an Empire)?
Let the ideas flow!