The following is adapted from xhonzi's "Prequel Rewriters - Questions to think about" thread. Hopefully it'll give a clear view of where I'm going with my rewrite and provide some back story to the more nebulous aspects of the universe I'm creating.
And yes, I know, I should have written and posted this up before I started posting anything else. As they say, though, hindsight is always 20-20.
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The Setting
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ;-)
Are you focusing on the Clone Wars?
In the first two episodes, yes.
Who are the Clones?
The clones are the foot soldiers of the Kaminoans, the Republic, and various renegade factions within the Republic. They are grown from samples taken from many different individuals - both Force-sensitive and not - from many different species.
How does the war pertain to them?
Kaminoan clones: they are little more than drones, genetically modified and conditioned to serve their Kaminoan masters without question. They live and die only to serve the will of their creators.
Republic clones: grown to fight for the Republic against the Kaminoans and other enemy factions. Most of these clones aren’t as ruthlessly conditioned as Kaminoan clones, and therefore are more versatile and free-willed.
Renegade clones: Republic clones that were grown improperly and went insane, Republic clones that defected, or clones grown by rogue geneticists and black market biotech firms for disreputable individuals and organizations. The personalities, allegiances, and goals of these clones vary, but most tend to be enemies of the Republic.
How does Cloning become irrelevant by the start of Episode 4?
By the end of the Clone Wars cloning pretty much becomes illegal for the most part. Only later, once Palpatine comes into power, are clones grown again - for his own use, though.
How is cloning limited to the point that the whole story doesn’t get consumed by the idea of clones replacing major player?
This is a tough one. All I can say that the protagonists get lucky and never stumble into a situation where their genetic material falls into the hands of an enemy or where they can be replaced with a clone.
What is the "war" setting for your story?
In Ep. III the Clone Wars will be long over. The war will be between the Republic and the Separatists, like in the "canon" Eps. II & III.
Is the War ‘Symmetrical’ (i.e. WWII) or is it ‘Asymmetrical’ (i.e. Iraq War or the OT Empire vs Rebellion)
The Clone Wars (plural) are pretty much both, depending on the enemies involved; the Kaminoans and Mandalorians are both rather large factions, and rival the Republic in size, but there are also countless other factions that are much smaller in size and influence battling for independence or conquest.
The Separatist Conflict is pretty much symmetrical.
Does your story feature "soldiers"? Who are they? Are the main characters soldiers in the War? Leia’s and Ben’s comments seem to indicate that they were.
Yes, there are. Bail Organa and Ben both fight in the Clone Wars, with Ben sometimes serving Bail, and Ben becomes a general during the Separatist Conflict.
Who are the armies? Does the Republic have its own army, or do each of the independent planets have their own armies? Who is the enemy large enough that this is a full scale war?
The Republic does have its own army, consisting of clones and regular recruits both, though a number of planets and systems do have their own private armies. The Kaminoans and Mandalorians have their own armies which rival the Republic’s.
What are the objectives of both sides in the War? What are they fighting over?
The Clone Wars:
The Kaminoans have exhausted the resources of their home galaxy, and need the vast resources of the Star Wars galaxy to keep their civilization alive. Plus the Kaminoans are fanatical eugenicists obsessed with genetic purity and perfection, and want all sentient species to adopt their ways.
The Mandalorians just want power and worlds to rule over.
The Republic is fighting to keep their dominion in one piece.
The Separatist Conflict:
The Separatists want separation from an increasingly corrupt Republic.
The Republic doesn’t want any planets/systems to leave.
When did/does the War start?
The Clone Wars began in 60 BBY, twenty years before Ep. I
The Separatist Conflict begins in 21 BBY, almost three years before Ep. III
How does the War end?
The Clone Wars pretty much end with the pacification of the various dissonant factions, the defeat of the Mandalorians and the end of their culture, and the virtual extermination of the Kaminoans. Most of these events will not directly occur in any of the Episodes, though the last major battle with the Mandalorians will be shown briefly in Ep. II.
Do you show Obi-Wan receiving training from Yoda?
No, but it will be alluded to.
Do you show Anakin receiving training from Obi-Wan?
Some training, yes, but most of it will occur offscreen.
Are Obi-Wan and Anakin friends? When do they have the chance to establish this friendship
They are. Their friendship begins in Ep. I
How many years before Episode 4 does your story take place and how old are the main characters?
Ep. I takes place 40 BBY (before the battle of Yavin, or before ANH); Obi-Wan is twenty years old, Anakin is fifteen, and Amidala is fourteen.
Ep. II takes place 35 BBY; Obi-Wan is twenty-five, Anakin is twenty, and Amidala is nineteen.
Ep. III takes place 19-18 BBY; Obi-Wan is forty-one, Anakin is thirty-six, and Amidala is thirty-five.
How will you handle the surprises in the OT? Will you set out to protect them from a chronological viewer? Or will you show them happen?
Few to none of the surprises in the OT are going to be preserved in my PT. Prequels are just sequels which take place before the original work instead of after, and sequels are always meant to be seen after the original. That’s my approach, anyway.
Will you show Yoda?
Yes. He won’t be wielding a lightsaber, though.
Will you show that Luke has a twin sister? Named Leia?
I will show Amidala giving birth to the twins. I don’t think it’s necessary to reveal their names or even their respective genders at this time, though.
Will you reveal that Anakin becomes Darth Vader?
Yes.
Will you have surprises in your new PT? Will it affect anything that we thought we already knew in the OT?
Yes, one. I won’t go into specific details, but I will say that Obi-Wan taking Luke to be raised by Owen and Beru on Tatooine was only Plan B.
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How does the Jedi/Dark Jedi/Sith conflict play into the back story of the War, if at all?
The origins of the Clone Wars have no roots in the Jedi/Dark Jedi/Sith conflict, though each of those factions get swept up and/or try to take advantage of the wars for their own benefits.
The Separatist Conflict is vaguely tied to the darksiders, though, as Palpatine is a Sith Lord and Dooku is a Dark Jedi.
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If it does, then how does the Galaxy allow for a Dark Jedi/Sith/Palpatine to be left in charge of the Empire when all is said and done?
Palpatine’s nature as a darksider isn’t common knowledge with the general populace. Even if it was, there isn’t much they could do about it.
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How many Jedi are we talking about here? A handful like the OT? Two-three handfuls like the GPT? Or a lot a lot?
There are about 140 billion Jedi spread throughout the Republic.
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How many Dark Jedi/Sith? Please say not 2 per movie.
There are countless Dark Jedi. As for the Sith, there are only three in Eps. I & II, and thirteen by Ep. III - fourteen, if you count Anakin.
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What kind of powers do the Jedi/Dark Jedi/Sith have beyond those seen in the OT?
Pretty much all the Force powers shown in the Tales of the Jedi and Dark Empire comics are available to the Jedi/darksiders, but I probably won’t be showing too many of them.
What is the Galaxy's general response to Jedi? Are they all assumed to be heroes? Or are people more like Han where they think that it's all religious nonsense?
It depends on where you go and whom you encounter. Some love the Jedi, others hate them, some others are indifferent, and even more are practically ignorant of their very existence.
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How do your Jedi dress? (Please say it's not in "I'm disguised as a hermit" robes.)
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How organized are the Jedi? Are they like a police force in space (like the Green Lantern Corps?) or are they more like wizards that are off doing their own thing and maybe have some form or correspondance or a council every now and then? Or something less than that?
The Jedi are pretty much like a police force, though they can go off and just wander from place to place if they wish.
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Where does the Empire come from? From within the crumbling Republic or without? If from within, are the forces that cause the crumbling also responsible for the War and are they manipulating to create an Empire as in George's PT?
The Empire is formed from the Republic. Palpatine used the chaos and corruption in the Senate that followed the Clone Wars to rise to a position where he could take over and proclaim himself Emperor.
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How do the droids fit in to your new story, if at all?
They receive cameos, nothing more.
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How is Anakin seduced by the Dark Side? What convinces him to serve the Emperor, the Empire and the Dark Side for 20+ years before allowing Luke to show him the error of his ways.
After fighting through the Clone Wars, Anakin wants nothing more than to see peace and order restored in the Republic, and believes Palpatine is the only politician with the vision to make it happen. With the Separatist Conflict rearing it’s ugly head, Anakin becomes completely fed up with the cycle of violence and destruction. So when Palpatine finally reveals his nature asa darksider to him, Anakin is firmly convinced that he can only see his dream achieved by embracing the dark side, and he does so.