"So why is Jar Jar Binks so reviled?" Topic

I never had a problem with the Jar Jar Binks character in the prequel films, and actually thought he was a fun character in Star Wars: The Clone wars (Esp episodes like 'The Dissapeared' and in this episode YouTube link ('The Gungan General')

So why is he so seemingly universally reviled, could, possibly, a lot of it be simply because a lot of other people say they hate him?

I personally do not care for his character but I still am going to use him as a force wielding bad boy Sith Lord in a Star wars scenario.

When I watched the movie for the first time I never heard of him. I found him to be a foolish and irritating character from the beginning. They way he talks, the way he walks, the way he looks, and the things he did all irritated me, a lot. Hated the character.

Later I found out others did not like him. Did not care for Ewoks, hated Jar Jar.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
bunkermeister.blogspot.com

I'm with Bunkermeister on this one. No one had to teach to dislike characters whose foolishness is supposed to be adorable or amusing.

But I'll have to part company with him on Ewoks. Even at Star Wars figure prices, I'd love to have a band of maybe a dozen distinct Ewoks to scale with the West End Games Storm Troopers, just for games in which low-tech wasn't the same as "stupid but numerous." Sadly, just as Star Wars never repeats a scale, they have sworn never to produce more than two Ewok figures in any one scale.

Ibid.

I like Jar Jar just fine…

He's delicious pan fried, roasted, bar-b-qued and all that!

+1 bunkermeister

Never had a problem with the character. Never had a problem with Ewoks either. I just figured it was grumpy old men who took their space fantasy too serious.

meesa not understans why yousa not like JJ

"nuff said"

To me his voice just went straight to my "A 30.06, 40 acres and a back hoe on a moonlight night" place.
It was intensely annoying. Like a really bad 1940's caricature but I had no idea what the root was supposed to be? A Doped out Jamaican bum? I had no idea but that same fractured English, in almost any other accent, doesn't bother me, so it has to be the tone. High, almost screeching… where's my 30.06?

JJ was designed to sell toys. I've heard that someone did a fan version of the first JJ movie where, instead of sounding like a fool, he sounds normal, and it was fantastically better. They were made to take it down.

No problem wif' JJ or Ewoks…

It's Episode 1.
Instead of being a touchstone, he's Steppin Fetchit comic relief.
But it's not like he is everything wrong with Episode 1. Far from it.

Bunkermeister +2

Lamest character in the Star Wars universe and almost any other movie I can think of.

The good news is he is dead.

3….2….1….

I was playing Lego Star Wars with my sisters kids recently and with hindsight when the worst thing about Star Wars was that it had Jar Jar in it were far better times.

Surprised so many people as upset and care.

Robert Piepenbrink – might the ZombieSmith Maioi do as substitutes for Ewoks? link

Thank you, Sleepydragon. But I'm hoping for the full Ewokian tactical range, if you will--spears, bows, bola--perhaps a shaman figure, and maybe even someone operating a trap. Amazes me that with as much Star Wars junk as they try to palm off on miniature wargamers, you can't get the toys to play one of their classic battles.

A character with no redeeming qualities is pretty easy to despise. C3PO played the same role as Jar Jar in the original films, the comic relief. The difference is that C3PO WAS talented and useful when in a situation "he" was designed for (communications) but was often WAY out of his element. Jar Jar on the other hand is competent at absolutely nothing, even when among his own people he is an idiot.

I disliked the Jar-Jar character, but he was really just one part of the whole mess the prequels became. The absurdly young Anakin winning pod races and blowing up enemy flagships, etc. etc. He was just part of the general dumbing down of the saga. If the rest of the movies had been great then I could have tolerated Jar-Jar (much as I tolerated C3PO), but since it wasn't, I didn't.

In this excellent Star Wars movies transferred into a RPG campaign comics you see a perfectly plausible reason for the existence of Jar Jar.

link

link

Dynaman8789 I TOTALLY disagree with everything you said regarding Jar Jar Binks.

For myself Jar Jar Binks was one of the best things that came out of Star Wars and he is and forever will be my FAVORITE Star Wars characters of ALL TIME.

Captain Gideon – If you can name something that Jar Jar was competent at I would love to hear it.

Giving Sith politicians unlimited power?

Jar Jar? A quick blaster bolt to the back of his head would have cured his 'annoyance factor'. The Ewoks? Planetary bombardments would seem to be satisfying but some could still survive. Follow it up with a species specific plague.
Or two, just to be sure.

Thanks,

Pat

Because he was a comic relief character who wasn't funny in the slightest.

Jar Jar must die.

I can't stand Luke Skywalker and the young Anakin….

Because the power of the Schwartz was strong in Jar Jar.

As far as the whole Sith lord thing – I have it on good sources that Jar Jar is actual "Outlet Maul".

I think people hate Jar Jar because they saw him in the movie. If someone never saw the movie I can imagine they might not have a problem, provided they didn't read any of the comics. Or novels.

There's the racism theory. There's the annoyance theory. There's the problem of why they keep bringing someone along who's quite definitely more trouble than help. More subtly there's the issue of a comic-relief character who does not harmonize with the rest of the film. You can maybe pull off this kind of dopey humor in a rom com, you can certainly do it in a kid's movie. But the comic relief character in an action movie has to be a drier humor, and in a drama the comic relief has to be further separated from characters we have to take seriously – think of how Shakespeare juxtaposed his broad humor characters in Midsummer Night's Dream or As You Like It. In Hamlet our title character has a comic interlude with the gravedigger, but the humor is dry, Hamlet doesn't decide to take the dude with him into the throne room, and let us all be thankful the gravedigger does not advance the story. Neither do the goofy characters in Shakespeare's other plays. But we're supposed to accept that offensively stupid Jar Jar is constantly advancing the plot. Our main characters are noble, so noble, so they can't just make use of Jar Jar and then shove him aside, oh no, they have to befriend him. And then that unpleasant loser ends up being made a general and senator. While not growing as a person in anyway, even though everyone else does because it's supposed to be a drama, right?

I apologize if I got details wrong, needless to say I didn't see any of the sequels more than once. But I'll stand by my premise, Jar Jar is just wrong. It's not a preference thing, it's not just the racial thing, he's chocolate on top of steak. He's the wrong ingredient, and there's way too much.

On the other hand, you can't say Jar Jar single-handedly ruined the prequels, there's too much competition.

Dynaman8789 I think getting the Gungans and Naboo to work together for the first time was pretty competent for Jar Jar Binks.

I also think he was a decent Senator just look at some of the Clone Wars episodes he did while being Senator.

VCarter you clearly have no idea what you're talking about the sith thing it TOTAL BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But I saw it on the internet… It's got to be true!!!!

link

Or even better, this:

YouTube link

He turned me off the the Star wars series

"Outlet Maul"
I think you may have missed the joke Captain Gideon.
I am genuinely baffled that he could be your, or anyone's, FAVOURITE character from the entire franchise.

14Bore if Jar Jar wasn't in the Star Wars Universe then that gold-plated droid would've turned me off to Star Wars.

VCarter do you believe everything on the internet?

fantasque if there was a joke I missed it.

And why should you be baffled that Jar Jar Binks is my FAVOURITE Star Wars character?

I have my reasons why I like Jar Jar and I've told my friends and some others those reasons,and they fully understand why I like Jar Jar and I truly doubt that anyone hear would understand my reasons.

So my reasons are my own and that's that.

I would listen to reasons to like Jar Jar with an open mind. New perspectives are good for the mind, and learning you were wrong gives you a chance to rearrange a lot of other pieces.

I don't hate Jar Jar. I just really don't have any interest in him. I watched the animated series and he was not the buffoon he was in the prequels. But not much better. Tastes vary. If that's your favorite character that's fine. I just wouldn't be surprised that he's not for the majority of folks. He was panned at the time the movies were released. His popularity has only dropped from then.

I'd say Anakin would fall into the same category in the prequels. However, the animated series let us know WHY he was such a hero of the Republic. He was fleshed out much more in those episodes. His fall was much more understandable.

Thanks,

John

A clown for the entertainment of children now or the pied piper luring them to the Dark Side of the Force waiting for his moment.

imgur.com/gallery/1ShMluP

+3 bunkermeister

A joke explained is no longer a joke, but here goes.
I took the joke to be "Outlet Maul" = "Outlet Mall" = a play on George Lucas's famous success with merchandising Star Wars + a refererence to the silly Sith theory. Not a very funny joke I'd agree. Just a bad double pun.

You are, of course, perfectly entitled not to explain all your reasons for thinking that JJB is your favourite character in the franchise. I can understand that you like him, though I don't. What genuinely mystified me was that you think he is the best character in any of the films. I'm OK with being baffled. Mysteries and surprises are good for your thinking IMO.

I see Cyrus has taken a more direct approach – oh dear

Re: Ewoks. Back in the day Galoob had a pack of Ewoks and a playset with Ewoks that scaled with the West End Star Wars.

There was also one with a bolo and flying a bamboo & skin glider.

"Outlet Maul" also from Spaceballs: The Animated Series

link

Once StarWars was a success it slowly turned to the Downside as a tool to sell merchandise to children.

fantasque I never said that Jar Jar Binks was the best character in any of the films,I said he was my favorite SW character there is a difference.

@gisbygeo,
Those Galoob sets flew under my radar screen. I see they made Jawas in addition to the Ewoks. Both would be great for my Jawa, Ewok war!

> I also think he was a decent Senator

You had me going for a while there. I actually thought you might be serious…

There is so much controversy over this topic, here is a picture chart to help explain it.

Dynaman8789 I was serious when I said that Jar Jar made a decent Senator,when I say something I mean it.

Bashytubits I have no clue where you're going with this so I'll stop there.

Terrible character in poorly written sci-fy. Made a weak story worse.

When I started this thread, I was expecting many of the responses I got.
I, too, thought JJB was a bit silly at first, but mellowed towards him over the years.
I found him actually amusing in the Clone Wars, more than C3PO, who became ridiculous to me!
I was, also, rather confused at the complaints about his accent being insulting to Caribbeans as supposedly mocking their accent. Star Wars has always used 'Ethnic' accents for different races:
Ryloth: French
Heroes/Empire: English/American English
Lurmen: Scottish
Bardottans: Indian

Etc Etc.

Never mind!