Anyway,

My flights of fancy began in '77, when watching the film and reading the extra info in the novelization. I wanted to see more and understand how things came to be. I couldn't wait for the sequel. When it came, much was uncovered. I wanted to discover even more.

I wanted the PT for the exposition. "Exposition dump", while maintaining pace, tension and coherence for the newbies, is incredibly difficult. 'Matrix' is an outstanding example of dumping philosophical, technological, and spiritual concepts "on-the-fly." The genius of the OT was the way it could maintain itself with minimal expo. It created a sense of magic and unknown and made us wish for more.

The SWU needed to be in a state of techno-stasis. It was very important to my speculation and the eventual conclusion (I am going to tie all this together *shock*.)

In my conception, hyperdrive was the central factor. The clones were a consequence. From the foundation of The Republic, the "PAX JEDIACA" was based upon the Jedi Order's guarantee that the systems could not develope hyperdrive capable warships ('Dune' and pre-'14.) The systems could only maintain local (non-hyperspace capable), defensive warships and ion cannon "Coastal Artillery" (these defenses were why the empire could not establish complete control.)

I thought the X-wings could be very special as the only fighters with hyper-drive (before ROTJ.) They were commissioned for exclusive use by the Jedi. When things started falling apart, the aero-space corporation started making them in the thousands for systems that wanted a more robust defense.