PT The Jar Jar Binks Appreciation Thread

I agree christophero30
Jar Jar is one of my favorite elements of the movies

 

Thanks for making this thread! I thought I was literally the only person who appreciated Jar Jar...and I'm an older fan, almost 40, who grew up on the original trilogy and loves the prequels...we are a rare breed.

 

Meesa thinks a gungan works here

 

I was just thinking that there's a pretty strong opportunity to make a great Jar Jar Binks feature, following his antics between Revenge of the Sith and ending a bit after Return of the Jedi. We'd see him working his way across the universe in a style reminiscent of Chaplin in Modern Times or City Lights or a Tati film. He eventually joins the Rebellion and goes on several missions, which manage to be successful at times because of his clumsiness. He is always passed over for recognition for his deeds and his awards go to his partners. The movie should end with Jar Jar as an old Gungan, looking up sadly at a statue of Padme on Naboo. Some kids come around and begin to bully Jar Jar a bit, and they are stopped by the Queen, who instantly recognizes Jar Jar and addresses him by name and takes him to another monument, currently covered and set to be formally unveiled the next day. The statue, obviously, is a monument to Jar Jar, honoring him for the work he has done over the years to help Naboo and to restore the Republic.

 

I'm not gonna lie. I would watch this movie.

Moreover, a Jar Jar spinoff... now THAT would be a daring spinoff. Something genuinely way out, inspired and quizzical to a degree worthy and furthermore inherent of the very idea of a Star Wars spinoff: not an imperceptive attempt to fashion from some nook of the franchise yet another proportionately epic-scaled melodrama (thereby normalizing spinoffs and saga-line Episodes interchangeably) or to mine the backstory of what is already an iconic and fully arced main character, but to venture down some eccentric little back-trail with an altogether unassuming premise or character, treating such as its own little vignette that likely wouldn't require anything near a $200 million budget. Especially in the case of Jar Jar, it could prove the ultimate opportunity for Disney/Lucasfilm to exhibit some real storytelling moxie by according such a seemingly (and lexiconically) derided character with mainstream fandom; a kind of "We can do anything, even this!" show of talent.

 

I'm not a Binks apologist, but I have asked people, "what if Lucas created Jar Jar to be the most hated character of the Saga SO THAT he could be the one who hands Palpatine his Emergency Powers"?
If that were the purpose of Jar Jar, then George played his hand very well. Now, I suspect it all worked out the other way around..."man people hated Jar Jar, I'm going to make HIM the scapegoat of the PT".

 

I don't think either of your theories are correct. I think George created Jar Jar as a lovable character with a childlike innocence and planned all along for his arc to take him into the dark and cynical "adult" world of being a politician.

 

Jar Jar is always the listener. One of my favourite listening scenes is this one:

Padme: "Senator....this is your arena. "

Notice on the back left, a slightly blurred image of Jar Jar immediately latches on to Padme's sudden announcement. Panaka stands upright seemingly unfazed. But Jar Jar is intently focused to what Padme has to say.




Cheers!

MJ

 

He's curious. He's like the bumbling curiosity seeker. Running into things, clumsy, but like a sponge absorbing external stimuli. I like him in Episode One very much.

 

That actually makes a lot of sense...

 

Mod edit: No. This is an appreciation thread. If you'd like to discuss your grievances elsewhere, feel free to do so. But not appropriate for this thread

 

I love that in the very moment she hits upon the idea of uniting the two peoples of her planet against the Trade Federation, Amidala is visually positioned between a representative of the Gungans and a representative of the Naboo.

 

She's the bridge.

 

Crazy story fam.

So I walked into a Target and saw the jars of grape jelly in an aisle. I have a tendency to say what type of container the product is in so I was just saying "jar" as I walked pass them. As I got to the second jar and said "Jar, Jar," a GunGan crashed through the aisle, happily exclaiming, "Meesa Jar Jar Binks!"

Needless to say, we became good friends and now our roommates at the local Theed University.

 

I don't fully understand why everyone puts the full blame on Jar Jar. Padme was similarly fooled when she put forth the vote of "no Confidence" against Chancellor Valorum, with the result of Valorum being removed from office and Palpatine getting in on a sympathy vote. And even though Jar Jar put forth the proposal, Mace Windu and Yoda were in the room when it was suggested that Jar Jar possibly put forth the vote, and they didn't say anything, even off the record, and the rest of the Senate had to vote for it for it to go through, so there's a lot of shared blame.

 

Agreed. It was what everyone wanted, they just didn't want to take on the political risk that came with making the initial proposal. Jar Jar was the only one with the courage to do what he thought was the right thing.

 

Look, in the context of the time and perceived danger, what would you do? What would anyone do? A massive separatist movement is underway and they have massive droid armies. The Republic has NO Army. Jar Jar's actions under the threat of annihilation or disintegration of the republic. The CIS was already aggressive and assertive in secession.

There is no blame. In hindsight, of course. But Jar Jar and no one else had the benefit of hindsight. Under the circumstances, it was entirely appropriate for Jar Jar to take the action he took to protect and defend the republic.

 

I think there's plenty of blame. Reflexive authoritarian action in the face of fear and uncertainty may be an understandably human reaction, but that doesn't mean it's something we should just handwave away as being "appropriate" at the time.

No, everyone should have displayed more principle and backbone, and Jar Jar should have been less naive. Doesn't mean they're all irredeemably bad people, but bad choices are bad choices and should be called out as such.

 

Not in the context of an emergency, which is what this was. They faced an existential threat to the entire republic. Having an army to provide for the defense of the republic is common sense, not "authoritarian".

 

Then the Senate should have acted collectively in the best interests of the Republic, rather than granting dictatorial "emergency powers" to the Chancellor. The idea that you should never trade away essential freedoms, even in the name of security, is part of the foundational ethos of liberal democracy. If you can't figure out a way of saving the democracy without betraying the democracy in the process, then the democracy is irreparably broken and the Separatists are right.

Your rationale is the same one used in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in America to justify the trading away of all sorts of freedoms to the executive branch of the government. I don't care if it does help prevent terrorist attacks, I still don't think it's right for the government to have wide-ranging power to monitor American citizens' communications without a warrant (things have changed in many ways since then, both for good and for bad, so I don't want to get bogged down in an argument about government surveillance policies).

 

It may well be that Star Wars is a meditation on American democracy and American expansionism (drawing on earlier examples to add aesthetic or intellectual "force" to Lucas' thesis; to infuse the particular with the general --> "Bombad General").

This aspect of the prequels, in my mind, is heightened by the fact that Lucas wrote in his first draft (or attendant notes) of the original film that "The Empire is America ten years from now"; and Lucas has admitted that much of what he wanted to say about the Vietnam War found its way into Star Wars.

Source: pages 8 and 16, "The Making of Star Wars" by J.W. Rinzler
http://boards.theforce.net/threads/the-empire-as-an-allegory.50021885/#post-51708381

Upon the release of ROTS, Lucas also said the following: "The parallels between what we did in Vietnam and what we're doing in Iraq now are unbelievable."

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/05/16/cannes.starwars/

There is also Palpatine's delicious-meretricious line to Amidala; which prompts Yoda to give him the stink eye:

"I realize all too well that additional security might be disruptive for you."


So it's hardly inconceivable that Lucas was thinking of (or at least, through his awareness of history, recontextualizing) the wisdom of the Founding Fathers:

 

Also....

On the nature of "emergencies":

 

That is my rationale. I believe there should be some social order and government should have some power over and beyond individualism. But I also can't fault Jar Jar going in, knowing what he knew, calling for emergency powers to create a common defense, when the republic was not going to do so otherwise. It was the only option other than destruction of the republic through secession.

I'm not saying there weren't consequences to that. Of course there were. But sometimes there are no really good choices but just awful and less awful ones.

Looking at his decision as an unfolding one moving forward in time, not in hindsight, it was the best of the worst.

 

I just found this picture and thought it was incredibly badass, so I simply had to post it here. Don't mess with Mr. Binks, or he'll make bantha poodoo out of you:

 

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/co...glish-terms-you-should-start-using-again.html

Interesting words including:
Jargogle

This is a perfect word that should never have left our vocabulary, it means to confuse or jumble.