I don’t get this talk about “prequelization.” The entire point of the SE was George attempting to “update” the originals to better tie into the imminent prequel trilogy in terms of visual effects, story, overall tone. There would have probably not been any SEs if there were no prequels, as he only made them to fit with his constantly changing “vision.” In 97, the prequel trilogy was not only planned, it was already in production. The fact that it wasn’t released yet is completely irrelevant. The SEs have been inseparably tied to the prequels from the very beginning. Someone already mentioned the ghost Anakin, that and the Emperor hologram for the 2004 DVDs were both done during the actual production of ROTS. The fact that ROTS was not released yet has zero relevance to the fact that George was clearly thinking ahead to after it would be released and was thus tying it into the rest of the trilogy.