PT Was Jar Jar Binks really that bad?

I actually love Jar Jar! One of the most funniest characters in the franchise and very iconic to Episode I, he doesn't deserve all the hate he gets and I wish we saw more of him in AOTC & ROTS.

 

It's Jar Jar supposed to have some sort of life debt to Qui-Gon and essentially he's Qui-Gon's servant from that point on?

 

I think he took Jar Jar along to blend in more with the surrounding population -- Tatooine (or its spaceports) being a place where humans are enslaved and eclecticism is the norm.

 

Either that or let Obi-Wan magically lose him somewhere.

 

Jar Jar has a habit -- quite literally -- of springing back.

 

I can understand the hate on him in TPM. He felt.. out of place. TPM felt like it a "super serious" story, but having Jar Jar there made the movie more fun for the kids to watch. I like him. He's enjoyable in Ep. II and is actually a pretty decent character in TCW. No need for hate.

 

No, he wasn't that bad. The hateboys just overhyped Jar Jar.

 

Was Jar Jar Binks really that bad?
Worse, actually.

 

I have warmed up to him a little but still think he was over the top.

The thing I hate more than him now is how people use him as the reason to hate the entire PT

 

There is a Jar Jar appreciation thread so ya.

 

To be honest I did't even know people hated him before I found the internet. He never really bothered me, though I certainly see why some people find him annoying.

 

There are a lot of things in the PT worst than Jar Jar:

- Romance between Anakin and Padme;
- Yoda fighting;
- Bad acting (Hayden and Nathalie in the first place!);
- Palpatine with a lightsaber;
- CGI's clonetroopers;
- Bad directing;
- Bad writing;
- Anakin too young in TPM.

 

^^
you forgot
- Yoda with a lightsaber
- The Force=midichlorians
- bad extras (2nd guy on the left during the TPM parade was picking his nose)
- bad plot
- bad story
- bad concept art
- bad storyboards
- bad eye blinking
- bad ending credits
- pointless & unrealistic lightsaber fights
- politics don't belong in star WARS
- they made too much money at the box-office
- Ki-Adi-Mundi had a terrible bald head-bulge
- Padme=jailbate in TPM
- no aluminum falcon except in ROTS
- the black guy didn't have a moustache
- too much cgi
- Qui-Gon too hairy
- The Smith were never mentioned in the OT


***
Jar Jar is a but that's just fine!

 

I have seen people where thats there only reason to hate the PT and it pisses me off.

 

The "humor" that Jar Jar was involved in was too juvenile, and that hurt the film. He was really little more than a series of gags, and they weren't even funny. The only time I think he worked was when he said he'd rather be dead at the city than at the core of the planet. Lucas said he was created for children, but the best things work on multiple levels and Jar Jar just didn't.

I saw a video where the editor replaced his dialog with an alien tongue and modified the dialog to have him be more arrogant and sarcastic and it worked better.

 

I think he's dreadful in the film, but he's actually an interesting and worthwhile character in the TPM novelisation, where his comedic characterisations are far more subdued (apparently making him such a slapstick clown was something added to the film character considerably late in the game).

Point being, the character of Jar-Jar is quite important, but taking the comical aspect to such an extent distracted from the point of it. His role in the story is of the innocent, almost the Holy Fool, whereas in the finished product he's just a damn fool.

 

Yes he was that bad, purely for the unfunny slapstick comic relief that was out of place in the majority of scenes he was in. If he hadn't been written for laughs the film would have been so much better for me.

 

Yes, he was that bad.

 

I think all that comes across in the film, and I've never read the novelization.

What makes him so hateful to you in the film as opposed to the novel, specifically?

 

I like jar jar, his stupidity gets me everytime, he is one of the main reasons for emperor palpatine, suggesting emergency power to him

 

He was funny when I was 7, then he got annoying as I got older. But his appearances in subsequent media is too insignificant and restrained for me to actually hate him. Lots of characters in TCW *cough* Ahsoka *cough* tick me off a whole lot more, and they go on and on for six years of consistent screentime.

 

He would have been fine in smaller doses. There were scenes where he was alright but others he was very unnecessary and distracted from the story. I also dislike that Jar Jar was the means in which Palpatine was voted emergency powers. Jake Lloyd's Anakin was far worse in my opinion than Jar Jar ever was. I do like that he was reduced to an extra in ROTS. The tone of that movie was too serious for Jar Jar.

 

Was Jar Jar really that bad?

For narrative and structural reasons, he was worse.

Consider this: how many times does Obi-Wan speak to Anakin in TPM? Twice? This crucial relationship is totally underdeveloped in favour of Jar Jar silliness. Jar Jar has more lines in TPM than Obi-Wan.

How many times does Obi-Wan speak to Padme in TPM? None, really. They have no one-on-one scenes, and their characters barely interact. They appear on screen simultaneously, but they don't develop any actual personal relationship. Ewan and Natalie are hugely talented actors, and perfect for their roles - choosing to focus on the shrieking Gungan rather than developing meaningful on-screen connections between human cast members was a mistake in my opinion.

Consider how well the big 3 get to know each other in ANH. They all get one-on-one interactions and plenty of memorable dialogue together. We know how these people feel about each other by the award ceremony on Yavin, and their bonds are firmly established, even though the three of them don't share all that much screen time in the following two movies.

In contrast, Obi-Wan barely speaks to the other two members of the PT's big 3 in TPM, leaving the character relationships still very underdeveloped by the time AOTC begins.

This is all because so much screen time was wasted on Jar Jar. His presence in the movie weakens the dramatic structure of the prequel trilogy.

Consider the Order 66 montage. It's moving and sad, because John Williams is a genius, and because we see Yoda feeling the pain of his friend's deaths, but it could have been so much more, if not for Jar Jar. Honestly, I'm serious.

Of the Jedi characters we see getting whacked during the Order 66 montage, only Ki-Adi-Mundi is a speaking role, and a barely significant one at that. None of the characters killed are known to the audience by name if they've watched the films without supplemental material. The audience may be vaguely familiar with them on a visual basis, but we aren't emotionally connected to them, and we certainly haven't been given any reason to love them.

It's a tragic scene, but the tragedy would have been much greater if the characters killed weren't no-name non-speaking characters. Say, for example, if Jar Jar had been scrubbed from TPM and his screen time spent on developing the Jedi characters who would die in Order 66, thus strengthening the narrative arc of the trilogy and giving ROTS, and by extension the Star Wars saga, even greater emotional punch.

So yes, I do think Jar Jar was that bad. I'm glad other people enjoy watching him, though. To each his or her own.

 

I like him, especially in the Clone Wars