Did he seriously refer to Disney as "the white slavers who take these things and [trails off, chuckles mirthlessly]"?
What an unfathomable piece of garbage. Four billion dollars richer, and playing the martyr.
He was clearly joking.
I’ve been feeling bad for him too because for a couple years I was very much in the bashing Lucas camp. That’s not to say that I don’t still have a bone to pick with him over the missing OOT and his prequel decisions, but lately I’ve been getting some more perspectives on him outside of the hardcore fandom and sites like Save Star Wars (nothing against them). People I’ve come across online who have worked with Lucas have described him as nothing less than a kindhearted, although stubborn man who was very pleasant to work with. Someone who has for years frequented the "stevehoffman.tv" forums had worked for Lucasfilm briefly on the DVDs from 2004 and has described him as such. He also isn’t the monster who wants to physically go out and destroy unaltered copies of Star Wars that many fans think of him as either; hell, he never took action against fan edits or preservations. The same man who worked with Lucasfilm has said that the unaltered film footage is still existing, and duplicates and digital copies are still preserved, it’s just that with all the changes and Special Edition crap Lucas was doing he truly didn’t have the time or desire to restore the original versions. As much as I wish that were not his attitude, it doesn’t make him a bad man or even necessarily an unethical man. Yes he has done many petty and very nonsensical things, but we shouldn’t judge him any longer now that there is nothing left for him to do. He’s out of the picture, he can’t ‘right his wrongs’ or do anything else with the franchise, so I say let him be.