Francisco Goya painted this extremely disturbing painting in 1819. It depicts the Titan monster Chronos devouring his children, afraid of their power. It’s always affected me viscerally for two reasons. First, the facial expression is a striking image of insatiable madness. And second… it has always reminded me of George Lucas.

Once upon a time George Lucas was a young genius with a vision. His vision was epic in every sense of the word: it was meant to reach across space and time and tell the tale of an archetypal hero in an adventurous world. He came to the task of Star Wars with a clarity and ingenuity that made magic out of puppets, miniatures, and flashing lights. The result was an unforgettable trilogy of films that changed all of our expectations of what a movie can be. Then, like Chronos, he lost his mind. His insecurity ate away at him and his masterpiece wasn’t good enough. He edited and re-edited. He made awful, fundamental changes. He made three new films that dragged us down the rabbit hole of his lost youth and lack of confidence. Then he turned his raging impotence on Indiana Jones. We fell in love with his children, and then we watched him eat them. They were beautiful, godlike, and perfect. All that’s left now are the scraps.

Along with our perfect childhood memories of Luke and Han and Indy, we have other heroes. Our heroes rode horses, slayed dragons, and saved princesses. They defended China and flew magic carpets out of poverty and dethroned Prince John the phony king of England. When the bad giant starts eating his babies, these were the heroes we could count on!

Disney acquired Lucasfilm on October 30^th for a tidy wad of billions. This sent some tremors through the industry as we all wondered how things would go. Fans have reacted with everything from disbelief to utter ecstasy. Bloggers and pundits have been quick to point out that Disney has done a great deal to engender our trust. They’ve made their mistakes.

But they’ve also allowed existing writers to do what they do best, to help the industry vault forward, and to make children’s movies watchable. They could screw this up, but after watching Chronos eat his children, the fans are prepared to accept almost anything.

The best thing that could have happened to Lucasfilm is to get George Lucas out of it. The Lucas we all loved and lauded checked out a long time ago. It’s time to imprison this Titan in Tartarus and turn our attention back to the Olympians. They will return to us in the form on Star Wars Episode VII, in 2015.

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