You might be interested to watch last night's Daily Show. Lucas is on there to promote some new book, but he briefly touches on Star Wars. His defense for it is that the older generation of fans have an incredible hatred for the new movies, while the younger generation loves them and the Clone Wars TV series. It's made me see him as less of an egocentric money-grubbing villain and more of a clueless guy with a good heart. It's like the public's reception of dumber movies makes him think that the way he made the prequels is actually intelligent.
I remember last year, when our history class had downtime and our teacher whipped out Episode II: The Clone Wars. "It's one of the only movies I own, and it's really good, I think." He popped it in, and an hour later he ripped the disc out and said "Sorry. I don't even remember where the hell I got this from, but it's going in the trash."

If he abandoned the notion of them being true Star Wars prequels and instead produced them as animations aimed directly at kids, then they might actually have been okay.
With a better script.
And no Jarjar.
Perhaps he should have remembered why he skipped the first three films in the first place.

no idea why people hate new trilogy that much.
I personally didn't like Revenge of the jedi. pretty crappy movie that was. Heck. New hope was that great either. (much better than sixth movie tough).
Empire strikes back was good tough. very nice flow, real feel.
Ep1 was shitty. nice fights but that's it. Third was great tough. Darth Emo was horrible but i just dig the bleakness of the situation.
Personally i like new trilogy more than older one. but ain't a big fan of SW. Just enjoy kotor games and jedi academy.

I am not a big Star Wars fan either but I enjoyed the new movies. And unlike the old ones, I didn't fall asleep watching them (don't get me wrong, I love them as well). Because of the special effects, it showed me what Jedi warriors are capable of. JarJar might be annoying to some people but I thought that C3PO was quite annoying too (the movies wouldn't be the same without him though). I like the 6 movies, lucky me... I guess.

He can never be forgiven for letting that horrid Holiday Special loose.

Well I really like all of them and the clone wars cartoon, guess I'm a bit weird

I figured that out awhile ago.

I still hate him either way. He ruined Indy and I will never forgive him for that.
Conan seems to find it funny.

My assessment of the Star Wars franchise:
Original Trilogy (Episodes 4-6): these movies were good at the time they were made. They seem kind of hackneyed now, though, because everything in them has been used and reused and reused, kind of like Seinfeld... and not just by Lucasfilms. Still valuable as "classics," and as education films for young filmmakers who want to learn about how special effects worked before CGI.
Prequel Trilogy (Episodes 1-3): My feelings are different for each film. The first movie, I thought, was pretty good. I am probably one of the few people who actually appreciated Jar Jar (albeit mainly for his status as a butt-monkey for sadistic comedy), and it made me want to know where the story was going. The second movie was alright, but I felt that special effects kind of overwhelmed the rest of the show, and the acting was not really all that impressive. The third movie took the trend of the second movie off the deep end, and I found myself laughing at a lot of the dramatic parts because the acting was so... hammy; prettiness was its only saving grace.
Future: There's a big freaking galaxy to explore in the Expanded Universe of Star Wars, with a very long history and an unfathomable amount of territory to cover. Personally, I'd like to see Lucasfilms and Lucasarts work more on stories that have little or nothing to do with the Trilogies, like the Old Republic stuff.

Shh... there are some things that just shouldn't be mentioned in polite company.

If I remember correctly, Lucas has said that his own vision for Star Wars really ended with the movies - his only story being that of Anakin's rise, fall, and final redemption.

what. the. fuck.
i just saw that last week and there are 20 MINUTES OF UNTRANSLATED WOOKIE TALK.

Where are the videogames about Darth Vader's apprentice coming from, then? And the clone wars stuff? I don't mean to imply that these products are necessarily bad, but does Lucas not control them?

I tried watching it a couple of years ago, but I turned it off after 10 minutes, feeling dirty. I'd heard about it before, but I never imagined it to be THAT bad. The Muppet Show Star Wars Special, however, is absolutely brilliant :-)

lol I got a copy of that holiday special for a friend...........
never seen a grown man cry like that before.