A couple weeks ago, I discussed the twisted subtext of Cartoon Network’s Clone Wars. But there’s another, even darker aspect of the series: the way George Lucas is pushing it at the expense of the original Star Wars movies. Like all Sith plots, this one is hard to see, even as it unfolds in plain sight.

Last summer, my son informed me that he wanted to have a Star Wars: A New Hope party for his fourth birthday. This was among the proudest moments of my life. Definitely prouder than the day he was born. (Think about it: everyone gets born. Not everyone appreciates Star Wars before he turns four.)

Nope.

So it was with great relish that I went online to buy a full spectrum of party stuff from a galaxy far, far away. I wanted plates that looked like Death Stars, cups that each showed a different member of Red Squardron (I was gonna keep Wedge for myself), and a tablecloth that reproduced that original poster where Luke’s shirt is open.

What I found was page after page of Clone Wars stuff. Nothing that showed Luke, Han, or Leia. There was a lot of Vader, but I’m sure it was because he was in Episode III. Yoda was only depicted holding a lightsaber—his Clone Wars incarnation. There are 42 items listed in EZ Party Zone’s Clone Wars category. In the “Star Wars” category, there are only four items, all of which are Vader-related. I scoured the internet, and I couldn’t find a single kids’ birthday party item that was definitively original trilogy. This was a problem for me, because I am carefully shielding my child from all knowledge of the prequel trilogy for as long as I can. If he finds out Santa isn’t real, that’s alright. The day he hears about Jar-Jar, I’m going to cry.

[While Mlawski's analysis of Battlestar Galactica is on indefinite hiatus, another Overthinker is surging into the gap, with another series of posts on a geek-friendly science fiction franchise.]

Cowboy Bebop and I have something of a troubled past.  I had been hearing great things about the show pretty much since it came out (and I mean, like, freaking rapturous things), but I somehow managed to avoid watching it until the summer of 2008.  Even then, all that I saw was the credits sequence.  But what a credits sequence it is:

Judging from that credits sequence, Coyboy Bebop was some kind of hundred-year-storm combination of things I think are awesome.  Jazz!  Kung Fu! Animation! Spaceships! Pop Art! -- and while I prefer an interesting female character to a pin-up any day of the week, I am not immune to the attractions of -- Cheesecake! My appetite was whetted.  Scratch that:  my appetite was honed down to razor sharp keenness in one of those Williams-Sonoma electric home knife sharpener dealies, to the point where I could use it to do all the fancy tricks like chopping a can of tomatoes in half or slicing really thin and perfect slices of bread.  Based on the strength of the credits alone, I was damn near ready to buy the DVD box set one day when I came across it on sale.  But since I don’t have a lot of disposable income (buy a shirt, dammit!), I just decided to Netflix it, one DVD at a time.  And at first, I was glad I did, because when I started watching the series, I was distinctly underwhelmed.

Mark Lee hosts with Matt Belinkie and Peter Fenzel to overthink Patrick Swayze (one last time) and this year’s Emmy awards show.

Tell us what you think! Leave a comment, use the contact form, email us or call 20-EAT-LOG-01—that’s (203) 285-6401.

Download Episode 64 (MP3)

(reference materials after the jump…)

Eyes front, you maggots!

In this special Memorial Day Weekend Think Tank, Overthinking It takes a moment to honor the fictional sacrifices that fictional soldiers have made to defend our fictional country against its fictional foes.

But these noble heroes could not have made the sacrifices they did without a firm hand to guide them. Someone who was cruel to be kind. Someone who bitched them out like a New Orleans pimp but loved them like a father.

We’re talking about the king of the non-commissioned officers: the sergeant.

This week’s Think Tank: who is the best movie, TV, video game, cartoon, music or comic book sergeant?

Twenty Four is in full swing (I’ve spelled out the number to comply with Overthinking It’s copious style guidelines), which means it’s time for the annual spring tradition – going rogue.

For the uninitiated, “going rogue” is the process by which defense, intelligence, counterintelligence and law enforcement professionals begin a shift of active duty. It is the third step in the standard U.S. government four-step defense, intelligence, counterintelligence and law enforcement operating procedure (or S.U.S. FSICCLEO).

What is S.U.S. FSICCLEO, and what does it tell us about what we think about order?

#10. Doc Brown, Back to the Future

We’ve seen a lot of discussion this week as to whether Marty McFly’s time travel was a good or a bad thing, the degree to which it was plausible, or what it might mean, and how it might work. Much seems obscured or inconsistent. There is plenty about the Flux Capacitor and its attendant DeLorean that is exotic and mysterious.

What is not exotic or mysterious is the method of its conception. Whilst changing a light bulb in the bathroom, Dr. Emmett Brown fell and struck his head upon the toilet. And then he saw it. The Flux Capacitor. Time travel.

A brilliant step forward in human progress, all made possible by what a great thing it seems to be to hit somebody on the head.

What nine other head injuries could possibly confer greater benefit to an individual or to humanity?

Head injuries are often wonderful things in the world of fiction, so there are a lot of choices. But the real top 9 are after the jump…

It’s Saturday. Keep your PJs on, grab a bowl of sugary cereal, plop yourself on the floor 9 inches from the TV, and commence mouthbreathing. [via Big Contrarian]

[We are delighted to welcome our newest writer, Shana Mlawski, to the blog. As new media moguls, we decided to abuse our awesome power to haze the new girl (mmm…girls…me rikey!) and, in so doing make her introduce herself to you. This post is the first part of the result. Oh, and the picture is not of her. –Ed.]

Hi. I’m new here.

In their wisdom, the founders of this weblog have set to hazing their new members with all manner of strange and intriguing questions so readers get to know us. To wit:

1. What’s the first album you ever bought for yourself? and how do you feel about that music today? (Do you still listen to it?)
2. What show did you mourn the most when it was cancelled, and what does it say about our society that it couldn’t find an audience?
3. What video game are you/were you the best at, and what was your greatest acheivement? Why are you more proud of this achievement than any other?
4. What movie will you always watch all the way through whenever it’s on TV, and why?
5. Under what circumstances did you first see “Akira”? Where, when, with whom, on what format? What does this tell us about you?

And a special bonus question on account of my va-jay-jay:

What are your thoughts on joining a blog that was, until you signed up, a sausage party?

Before I publish my first official post, then, I must endeavor to answer these questions for the Internet masses and my potential employers/Internet stalkers. Let’s start with question two.

[Extremely well-drawn and hie-larious comix post le jump. –Ed.]

Does this mean…? Could it be…?

There’s a new McDonalds ad that kind of weirds me out. Sadly I haven’t located the video online – post a link in the comments if you can find it.

Anyway, this is the latest in their campaign based on the idea that the food items on the dollar menu sit around all day having meetings that revolve around who is eligible for membership in the dollar menu. Generally these ads are stupid, but inoffensive. The new one, well… here’s a rough transcript.