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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Saga Has time changed your opinion of Jar-Jar Binks?

Discussion in 'Star Wars Saga In-Depth' started by Singing Yoda, Jan 1, 2017.

  1. Darth Droid

    Darth Droid Jedi Master star 2

    Registered:
    Jul 4, 2013
    Honestly the Darth Jar Jar theory is just genius and I would still be absolutely game for the Snoke/Jar Jar reveal.
     
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  2. Force Smuggler

    Force Smuggler Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    I've read a fac-fic where Jar Jar was a Dark Side assassin or something for Palpatine but had his memory wiped.
    Rey, Finn and Poe got sent back in time to TPM, things changed and Sidious brought Jar Jar back into the fold.
     
  3. Darth_Articulate

    Darth_Articulate Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2012
    No, it hasn't.
     
  4. Erkan12

    Erkan12 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 27, 2013
    I never hate him and I never liked him, I was in the middle.
     
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  5. Abherrant Form

    Abherrant Form Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Feb 9, 2017
    When I first watched TPM, i neither liked nor disliked Jar Jar. I barely paid him attention (which is ironic to me) because I was too infatuated with literally everything else in the movie (pod racing, bunch of jedi, Qui Gon/Obi Wan vs Maul). I knew Jar Jar was overly goofy and had some seriously lame lines, but I really couldn't care less about that. Now days, Im a fan of the Darth Jar Jar theory, and I actually love his character, or at least, what I believe to be the intended character.
     
  6. Lowly Gungan

    Lowly Gungan Jedi Padawan star 1

    Registered:
    Aug 11, 2022
    I was born in 2005, which might affect my opinion of Jar Jar. Still, I liked him as long as I remember. I honestly think he does better as a comic sidekick than Threepio as I would say he is usually more useful and also has an occasional serious moment so that I care about the character. There are a few really good Clone Wars episodes with him in my opinion.
     
  7. Kenneth Morgan

    Kenneth Morgan Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    May 27, 1999
    No, because I never had a problem with him. He was the standard goofy idiot sidekick who, nonetheless, was of help to the good guys in the end. Yes, some of the humor was out-of-place, and some moments were funnier than others, but he was OK. The character, and, more importantly, Ahmed Best, in no way deserved the over-the-top hatred and abuse a few loudmouths indulged in.
    And, hey, there are far, far more annoying characters around in far, far worse movies. And better movies, too.
     
  8. A Chorus of Disapproval

    A Chorus of Disapproval Head Admin & TV Screaming Service star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Aug 19, 2003
    Apart from Star Wars, my other lifelong cinematic love affair has been with Universal's Monsters. The comedic, cloyingly annoying on purpose, exaggeratedly animated role Una O'Connor constantly played in offsetting the otherwise monotone drama in those films prepared me years in advance for Jar Jar.

    [​IMG]
     
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  9. Bazinga'd

    Bazinga'd Saga / WNU Manager - Knights of LAJ star 7 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2012
    So what your saying is that you loved Jar Jar? [face_rofl]
     
  10. A Chorus of Disapproval

    A Chorus of Disapproval Head Admin & TV Screaming Service star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Aug 19, 2003
    I'll phrase it as "Slightly more than 50% liked".
     
  11. Master Jedi Fixxxer

    Master Jedi Fixxxer Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 20, 2018
    There are far more annoying characters in many Star Wars movies IMO.

    He never bothered me. I always ignored the parts where he is a little awkward.
    The presence of Jar Jar Binks could have never ruined or even slightly affected my opinion about any of the prequels.
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2022
  12. lookameatbag

    lookameatbag Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 15, 2014
    As someone who grew up in the 90s I actually liked the character, then I noticed more critical comments of the character when I got older, assuming they were right but looking back, I don't mind Jar Jar at the end of the day. He was pretty much the Prequel Trilogy's answer to 3PO and R2, a witty sidekick who added a sense of fun to the movie.
     
  13. Darth Megatronus

    Darth Megatronus Jedi Knight star 3

    Registered:
    May 17, 2020
    No. I didn’t like him when I saw it in theaters at age 13, I still don’t like him. I’ve warmed up to other aspects of TPM and AOTC over the years but I still don’t like Jar Jar.
     
  14. Nehru_Amidala

    Nehru_Amidala Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2016
    I liked Jar-Jar actually, and I was almost 15 when TPM came out and thought it was nice to have a comic character.
     
  15. DARTH_BELO

    DARTH_BELO Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 25, 2003
    I would'nt say my opinion of Jar Jar has changed. Aside from his excessive slapstick gags in TPM, I actually didn't mind him as a character. I understood GL's intentions with him then and I still do-in fact my own kids (grade school age) love him! I also thought the CG rendering for his character was great, especially for 1999.

    I will say that TCW series kind of expanded on him abit, in a good way IMO.
     
  16. Vezner

    Vezner Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Dec 29, 2001
    I never hated Jar Jar. He was annoying in TPM at times, sure, but it wasn't a detriment to the movie IMO. I think part of the problem with the character is it became cool to hate him. If you dared defend the character, you were likely mocked. Sometimes I wish people would just let well enough alone without the need to hate on anything or anyone that's different.

    An interesting comparison (to me, anyway) that I just realized is that I consider the lack of chemistry and poor writing for the Padme/Anakin romance in AOTC to be a much greater detriment to the PT than anything Jar Jar did, by far.
     
    Last edited: Oct 17, 2022
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  17. wreath

    wreath Jedi Padawan star 2

    Registered:
    Aug 21, 2021
    Hes fine thats all i have to say
     
  18. Nom von Anor

    Nom von Anor Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 7, 2012
    I never hated him or even disliked him. But then, I have been a TPM fan from the start.
     
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  19. Mystery Roach

    Mystery Roach Chosen One star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 10, 2004
    No I still find him grating in some scenes and endearing in others. I never had a problem with him though.
     
  20. Dagobahsystem

    Dagobahsystem Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 25, 2015
    Time has changed my opinion of Jar-Jar, but perhaps in a way that might be unpopular, as it were.

    When I first saw TPM in theaters (4 times), I didn't mind him at all, he just seemed like another side character and I was too enthralled with the main plot points surrounding the Jedi and Sith and the politics. And I really like the underwater Gungan city and Boss Nass, to this day.

    But as the years have passed, it is more apparent that Jar-Jar has too much of a presence in Phantom Menace and distracts and dominates way too many scenes at the expense of say, Darth Maul for only one example.

    Keep in mind, this has been going on slowly for many years of rewatches of TPM on VHS, DVD, and blu ray, but it has almost gotten to the point now, for me personally, in present day, that I am reluctant to revisit TPM because of how prevalent and in your face the Jar-Jar scenes are, like a Goofy cartoon as GL intended, and how it is impractical to try and skip his scenes, like one might do with the annoying Rathtar sequence in TFA.

    Jar-Jar is just everywhere in TPM.

    I don't hate the character and I have respect and sympathy for Ahmed Best and feel badly he had such a tough time with all the backlash to the Jar-Jar character.

    But I must say, everytime I think, oh, let's rewatch TPM, I am deterred slightly by the thought of having to rewatch those scenes where Jar-Jar is featured so dominantly for the umpteenth time.
    It's not funny anymore, but rather cloying and obnoxious, sorry to say.

    Wish it weren't so. No hate intended here. I'm just not a fan of the character I reckon.

    I am a fan of TPM though.
     
  21. gezvader28

    gezvader28 Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Mar 22, 2003
    nah, it's all round awful from the design to the voice and movements .

    TPM hasn't improved with age either.
     
  22. Dagobahsystem

    Dagobahsystem Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 25, 2015
    Off topic, but none of the SW films have improved with age aside from the Original Trilogy.

    The Empire Strikes Back gets better and better by the minute, but that is a fluke or an abnormality.
     
  23. obi1jedinite

    obi1jedinite Jedi Grand Master star 2

    Registered:
    Oct 20, 2002
    When TPM came out I thought Jar Jar was kind of annoying, but I didn't despise him and I thought the film had many issues that were more detrimental than him. 23 years later, I feel the exact same way.
     
  24. Mira Grau

    Mira Grau Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    May 11, 2016
    To me Jar Jar always fell in the "so bad its fun" cathegory. Maybe it helps that in the german version the accent isn´t nearly as extreme and he thus comes off less as a racist carricature. Like I laugh not because he is clumsy or whatever, I laugh because I think "oh my god they actually did this!". In general watching Episode 1 for me is like watching a fun trash movie.
     
  25. BlackRanger

    BlackRanger Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 14, 2018
    Yes. For the worse.

    I didn't know when the film came out that the TPM rough draft didn't have Jar-Jar speaking in pidgin English, but rather quite normally - and also made clear that Naboo humans were racist against Gungans in a way that uncomfortably resembled prejudice against African-Americans in the US (eg, talking about how they smell bad, and forcing Jar-Jar to ride in the cargo hold of Padme's ship), something they would have to overcome in order to gain the Gungans' help in the finale.

    When he revised the script, Lucas got rid of most of the overt instances of the Naboo humans behaving badly toward Gungans... and also decided Jar-Jar should speak with a pidgin English accent. Draw your own conclusions.

    Oh - I forgot to mention that the sources for Jar-Jar's name probably include King Ja-Ja (or Jaja) of Opobo (now part of Nigeria) in 19th century Africa, who was deposed and exiled by the British colonial government, and the poem "Municipal", by Rudyard Kipling, extolling the virtues of enlightened British civil servants in the Raj in India, in the person of a character called "Binks of Hezabad".
     
    Last edited: Nov 23, 2022