About the "Great Schism" that now exists among Star Wars fans:

I was thinking about this a little more, and what I thought of first as a throwaway line really works! Okay, first a brief recap for the historically challenged - the Great Schism between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches occurred in 1054, the primary cause of which was the increasingly authoritarian tendencies of the Bishop of Rome (aka the Pope) with respect to the other Bishops of the Christian world. That and a string of theological "innovations" promulgated by the Papacy that were never recognized by the rest of the Church made a showdown inevitable, and after a string of four off-again, on-again separations between East and West, the final break was made almost a thousand years ago.

Back to Star Wars. Let's assume that there was once an undivided body of Star Wars faithful, or at least one that was not nearly as polarized as it is now. The Old Trilogy is in the can, and the New Trilogy still just a gleam in the Creator's eye. Enter the so-called "Special Editions" of the original movies, marketed as a digital clean-up of the old prints, but suspiciously stuffed with "innovations", such as enhanced special effects, CGI embellishments, and entirely new scenes. The majority of the fans line up happily for this altered trilogy and are satisfied, but a small yet vocal group of purists decries what is seen as an adulteration of the original masterpieces. At the time this argument seemed a trifle overblown, but in retrospect was just the tip of the iceberg. Fast forward to the debut of The Phantom Menace, the much-hyped first installation in George Lucas' new Star Wars trilogy. Again, a certain segment of the faithful accept it without criticism, but this time an almost equal amount of fans blast it as being an unworthy successor-predecessor to Episodes IV, V, and VI. Massive flame-wars erupt on the Internet, and the first hints of irreconcilable differences among fans become apparent. Still, many write off this movie as a warm-up for Lucas, who hadn't directed a movie for decades, and express their faith that Episode II will be a vast improvement and save the New Trilogy.

That was then, this is now. Attack Of The Clones is out, and the reviews once again are mixed. This time, however, there is a remarkable absence of "wait and see" fence sitters, as there was after The Phantom Menace. With the second movie of this trilogy done and finished, few detractors of Lucas' latter-day works are willing to hold out hope for any last-minute miracles that will redeem what they now see as fundamentally flawed movies. The still-loyal fans, on the other hand, have only increased their strident support of the new additions, and taken the extreme step of branding anyone criticizing them as not being "true" Star Wars fans at all. What was once a philosophical disagreement among peers has now turned into an ideological conflict between two opposing camps - the Orthodox, who maintain that the Original Trilogy had a magic whose essence has been diminished by George Lucas' revisions and his New Trilogy; and the Papists, for whom George Lucas and the denizens of Skywalker Ranch can do no wrong.

And consider this: it has been rumored on such websites as Ain't It Cool News that George Lucas is withholding the release of the Original Trilogy on DVD until he is done with the New Trilogy, so that he may add even more footage and innovation to Episodes IV, V, and VI, including scenes using actors from Episodes I, II, and III. Now it's no secret that George has consistently referred to the Star Wars movies as "works in progress", and no one can fault directors for wanting to perfect what they see as flaws in their own work, provided that they allow their fans access to their original work, and give them the capacity to decide which is better on their own. In light of the fact that there are no known plans for the release of the Original Trilogy in its original, unaltered form, forgive me for being a little more cynical about Rome's motives on this one. For just as the Catholic Church, having broken with the rest of Christendom, then set itself to the task of rewriting Christian history to make the Pope's primacy and infallibility both inevitable and irrefutable, so too has George Lucas, having heard the voices of dissent, apparently opted to squash his critics by erasing the very foundation of their protest.