The truth about Jar Jar Binks, or, George as an evil genius

What, messa worry?

Geekdad Matt Blum has proof that George Lucas is an evil genius. It makes as much sense as anything else these days:

My kids are pretty smart — I don’t like to brag, it’s just the truth. …So why, then, are they so drawn to a character that causes near-universal revulsion in those past puberty? Yes, exactly: Because George Lucas cleverly designed Jar Jar Binks so that kids would love him but adults would hate him. Why would he do that? Because it’s part of an evil scheme to take over the world, of course.

Of course! It’s so obvious!

The fandom minute: Ponies, Artoo, and Jar Jar make one hell of a party

Eye Candy: Searching LIFE for Star Wars

LIFE: Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness and Mark Hamill @ ANH 10th anniversary party

A couple months ago, the LIFE photo archive went up in Google, fully searchable. Plenty has been done with them since then, but it didn’t occur to me to look for Star Wars until today. There isn’t a ton there – the bulk of images that come up are from The Phantom Menace premiere – but there are a few things of interest, like Time covers, some vintage toy pics and this shot of Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness and Mark Hamill at a party celebrating the tenth anniversary of A New Hope. You get about the same amount of shots searching for just George Lucas, and even more for Harrison Ford, but clearly Sir Alec wins. (Wait! Was it really a party for ANH? Now I doubt.) But perhaps most amusingly: Jar-Jar and Madeline Albright? Or Peter Cushing in Hamlet?

Off the fannish track, two of the more interesting uses I’ve seen around the web have been Jezebel’s The Way We Were features and Typophile’s book cover meme.

It’s Friday, must be The Clone Wars

Padme gets a B-team rescue in 'Bombad Jedi'

Prepare yourselves, Clone Wars fans: ‘Bombad Jedi’ airs tonight. But there is hope – it’s scripted by Kevin Rubio of Troops and Tag and Bink fame.

The Clone Wars: ‘Duel of the Droids’ postmortem

Reaction to ‘Duel of the Droids’ was a bit less frazzled than its predecessor, though not everyone is drinking the Kool-Aid. (I, for one, have ceased even trying.) Still, there’s plenty to bask in for fans of the series, including the obligatory video commentary. (Screencap above is from .)

The real question? Is all the goodwill that Clone has built up going to be blown with this Friday’s Jar-Jar episode? Yousa can tell meesa on Saturday.

And finally, in more general TCW ware, the ForceCast sits down with Skywalker Sound’s David Acord (Rotta the Huttlet) and Matthew Wood (General Grievous.)

The fandom minute: Please don’t bring me the head of Jar-Jar Binks (and other freakiness)

Rumor: Jar Jar in The Clone Wars?

Well, I suppose someone has hold down the fort on Coruscant if they’re going to give Padme an actual plot… Anyway, this is what io9 claims:

Sources tell io9 Jar Jar Binks will be back in the new Star Wars: Clone Wars animated movie and series. But you won’t see too much of him.

You can see the actual item here, but beware: It’s their ‘Morning Spoilers’ post, and also addresses stuff like X-Files 2, The Dark Knight, and Dr. Who.