"Linear" isn't the word I should have used since the story IS linear. I was thinking "chronological." As in The Phantom Menace was written first, and then Attack of the Clones, etc. But obviously they started with the original trilogy, and so the prequels (and The Clone Wars and the Obi-Wan show) had to fit and check certain boxes. The reasons given for things that happened in the original trilogy were made up after the fact, and while I think that most things make sense, I could see other things happening if that New Hope finish line wasn't carved in stone.
As an example, take Obi-Wan not training Luke (or even raising Luke and/or Leia). Since a New Hope they've done a whole lot of explaining as to why he didn't. (And I'm fine with the explanations and I think it works.) But would Obi-Wan not training Luke still have happened if New Hope wasn't the first story? I mean it could have, but I always think we'd have gotten a different original trilogy story (at least in some of the aspects) if the first movie in 1977 was The Phantom Menace.
