There is, I fear, a nasty rumor circulating. This rumor has bits of truth clinging to it, like any gossip worth its salt should; nevertheless, it is a nasty one.

The Rumor: Star Wars is Dead. Well, if Star Wars is Dead, then why won't it just lie down?

Because, my friends, Star Wars is not dead. It is, however, in great peril, for it is wounded -- and Lucas must stop the flow of blood or all is lost. This wound is our shaken belief in the story; another blow and it will fail. It will take much to restore this faith -- but it can yet be done.

True, the marketing of Star Wars has been overblown, like a frightened Puffer fish. But is it the desire to make as much money as possible before the masses lose their interest and look elsewhere? Or is there something else at work here, a strange conspiracy -- or even simple laziness? Does Lucas himself feel that his new films are bad enough to adopt the phrase 'take the money and run'?

No. It's just that the cost of technology has risen. Talented people make up Lucasfilm, and Lucasfilm will cease to be Number One in its industry if its talented people aren't paid accordingly. Talented people cost money, and Lucas wants to turn a profit for himself, too. Thus, the explosion of toys, games, models, books and videos means that much money is to be had, and Lucas must take advantage of it to go forward with his expensive technology.

And there are many other factors involved as well, and to explain the decreased interest in Star Wars we should look at them.

First of all, the Star Wars films are primarily for children, and that means anyone under the age of sixteen. And children enjoy Star Wars now as much as they ever have; there are toys to be played with, and books to read, as well as coloring, painting, modeling, etc. On top of all this there are rainy weekends where they can lose themselves into the films for two to six hours or more, depending. Let us not forget this.

For adults it is a different story. As far as postings on Echostation.com, Corona Productions, and The Force.Net goes, there are many serious things happening in the Western world today, and to be blunt, Star Wars is not a priority. Reality is taking precedence above all other discussion, and people are concerned about the future of the Real World above all else. Star Wars is but a pleasure, a hobby, and a distraction for the worries and affairs of the real world that we, as adult fans, must realize. Many -- indeed, most -- of us are swept away by the imagination, the story, and the emotion of the saga -- but it's just a movie. We'd all like to think we could apply the basic precepts (especially in such troubled times) of the Star Wars films to our everyday lives -- virtues like Honor, Sacrifice, Loyalty, Courage, and Righteousness, but unfortunately life really isn't that simple. When we vehemently attempt to apply these virtues (that is, without a catalyst), we come off as foolishly intense and dramatically overblown individuals. For adults, even as fans, everything should be in moderation, particularly our love of good films. Those same extreme fans have argued that ever since Lucas tinkered with his creation and renamed it the "Special Edition," their lives have been miserable -- their childhoods have been wrecked.

On these same message boards, there also have been comparisons between Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, with some fans arguing that Fellowship of the Ring 'beat' Episode II decisively, and that Lord of the Rings will take the place of the Original Trilogy, since it is a better story. True, Lord of the Rings has been around for a long time, since the late fifties (ever since the mid-thirties if you count The Hobbit) but people tend to forget that Tolkien revised The Hobbit to fit in with his new vision of Middle-Earth, to fit in with his new story of the One Ring. He rewrote The Hobbit to reflect this, changing dialogue to set up his new story. Lucas likewise did this with Star Wars in the Special Edition. Lucas has even been charged with stealing ideas from Tolkien -- glowing swords and what-not. Tolkien was not roasted for "borrowing" ideas, yet Lucas is. Why so? It must be remembered that Tolkien got his ideas for Orcs and Goblins from a little story called The Princess and the Goblin.

So what's wrong with that? Artists do it all the time. Even the Mona Lisa was painted over at least once, and Tolkien himself admitted to getting his inspiration from other writers. Even as recently as 1978, Lord of the Rings was unveiled as an animated movie by Ralph Bakshi, who effectively turned it into a stunning hippie, trippy, LSD-induced failure and, in the process, buried it. Was Lord of the Rings considered "dead" in Nineteen-seventy eight? You bet it was.

Episode III is coming. It will be the last film of the Star Wars Saga. Lucas has begun to move, but the pressure is on him. He will need put on his mettle, to muster every once of strength and creativity he has to keep the saga from going the way of The Godfather Part III and Star Trek V. It can be done. But it will need spectacular duels, awesome space battles, serious dialogue, guilt-ridden angst, passionate desire, vast hatred, sacrificial lambs, and emotion worthy of The Empire Strikes Back. We, as adults (and not as fans), will need to truly care about the destruction of the Republic and the death of the Jedi Order. It's not enough for the audience to know what is going to happen, but rather how ... .and why. That is where the real drama lies. We know that Rome collapsed and fell into desperate ruin, but this fact does not make The Fall of the Roman Empire any less dramatic.

The success of the Star Wars Saga demands emphasis on such drama, and not the pressure to make more money on peripheral things, nor the urge to 'beat' the next popular film that shows up.

Tolkien himself gave seminars about the construction of a different Art, the art of creating an alternate world; that its reality exists when people willfully suspend disbelief. The Art fails, he said, when people no longer believe it. Lucas can yet restore our belief in Star Wars. If he does, the Saga -- Our Saga -- will never die and will never be forgotten. It will sail off into the twilight, towards the shores of Avalon.

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(Gregory Ellis believes in the Philosophical Virtues: Temperance, Courage, Wisdom, and Justice, and believes that The Star Wars Saga is a prime example of these virtues.)