The real reason Jar Jar Binks sucks as a character

[koputusx]

I think the massive reaction against this character was because, actually, he was the only thing in that movie RESEMBLING something memorable. It's annoying, but that's pretty much the only thing that has some kind of enduring value in TPM. The rest of the characters are boring, underdeveloped or plain stupid. Jar Jar, annoying as he is, it's the nearest thing in TPM to make a real impact in the movie: the racist comic relief. That's why the first reaction against this movie is to ramble against Jar Jar.

What is so racist about Jar Jar?

[The Asiduo]

What is so racist about Jar Jar?

I've heard many times that Jar Jar is a caricature of jamaicans or black people from the slavery times in the US. It has similar attitudes and figures of speech ("meesa", "yousa"). I read in "The Secret History of Star Wars" that Lucas perhaps put this character as some kind of subconscious link with slapstick figures of the movies in the 30s, such as Stepin Fetchit, which is the material Lucas was emulating in Star Wars to begin with (In Flash Gordon, the evil character is a chinese spacedude called "Ming"). I personally don't think Lucas was intentionally racist in the design, but in a movie where the evil coward aliens talk in broken english, and the greedy slave owner who only cares about money talk with Middle Eastern accent, at least it raises some eyebrows.

I think Lucas used somewhat racist images because the source material he was emulating had, indeed, racist overtones to begin with. Perhaps the subject could have been dealt with more caution. And, the reason all people began to nitpick about this was because, again, the story and the characters were so dull, that Jar Jar, the slapstick comic relief, is the only character that is recognizable, and it's slapstick is somewhat "inspired" in racist stereotypes of the movies in the 30s. Again, the dullness of the rest of the characters highlights the annoying traits of Jar Jar.

[Simon_Jester]

He is at least as significant as Anakin was, who never was given anything significant to do other than the podrace.

Not really. Anakin blew up the droid ship even though it was completely contrived thus saving the Gungans who had lost

Oh, so what you accidentally do, makes you significant. Thanks for just invalidating your whole argument.

It depends on the degree of the accident. In Anakin's case, he was guided by a mixture of intent and dumb luck; on the one hand he didn't mean to destroy the control ship, on the other hand he certainly saw the Trade Federation as the enemy and did his best to oppose them. His best happened to be better than he or anyone else would have had a right to expect, but the intent to contribute remains.

And the Gungans weren't supposed to fucking win. Jeezus, if you are going to go on diatribes like this, please at least pay attention to the movie.

The Gungans were just a distraction to get the focus away from the pilots so they could get to their ships. It was the job of the fighter pilots to save the Gungan's asses by destroying the control ship.

And saying Anakin blew up the droid ship is great, but it does nothing to back up your point of 'significance'. He did that on accident, after being told specifically NOT to do anything of significance "Stay in that cockpit!". Like I said, your argument doesn't hold any water.

Characters who accomplish great things without fully intending to do so are still contributing. What makes a character lame is passivity, not achieving better things than they'd hoped for by luck.

Anakin is active; he consciously hopes to make the heroes' plans work and doing concrete, useful things to make it happen, even if he only achieves so much by a combination of luck and miracles.

Jar-Jar is passive; he projects a sense that he's just along for the ride, and his attempts to help usually backfire.

Now, you can argue about how well, as a character, he was represented; however, those are really simple themes you can pull out of the story line about Jar Jar Binks. To say he did nothing in the story is silly. Again, you can argue how well he pulled those roles and themes off, or how well he was written, or how well the actor did with the material, but the character did have an important 'part' in the story line. He really is the 'common' narrator of the story that R2D2 and CP3O were in the first trilogy. I don't think he was as well done as the droids originally were, but that's different than saying he served no purpose.

I think this is fair- as with a lot of stuff in the prequels, the basic elements to make Jar-Jar a good character are there, but the details and implementation don't live up to the potential of the character. Too much comic relief, not enough emphasis on his being a basically decent and normal person caught up in grand events.

For an example of how this can be done right, look at Sam in the Lord of the Rings movies. Sam is earthy comic relief, but he's also a very solid, respectable person in his own way: sort of a personification of loyal service, in the sense that Gandalf is a personification of wisdom or Aragorn is a personification of nobility.

My complaint with Jar Jar's usage was that he didn't get killed by Anakin. In the fall of the hero, the way Lucas does it, that should have been a key moment in his turn to the Dark Side. The hero in his fall, kills his best friend. Jar Jar should have and could have easily been shown to have aged and matured and along with Palpatine, remained one of Anakin's confidants. This is the one time when Lucas listened to the whiners and of course, it backfired. Had he not listened, and followed the true heroes path with Anakin, Jar Jar haters would have been far more satisfied with his death, then just with him barely being in ROTS. We also may have ended up with a far more sympathetic character in Jar Jar, instead of one that was just swept to the side.

That... could have worked. Shit, that is a weird idea, but in an equally weird way, it could have worked.

Again, though, wasted potential. I'm not sure Jar-Jar as implemented by Lucas could ever have filled that role, not unless Lucas held to a higher standard of quality than he showed in the prequels overall.

I used to hate Jar-Jar, and now I just kinda think it's sad. He was meant for so much more, yet because he was cast so poorly in the first movie, it came back to haunt the character.

I don't think it was so much the casting as the script, the style of the character's speech, and the way he was portrayed (again, the ratio of slapstick humor to actual plot-relevant activity). Jar-Jar would have to be re-written and re-imagined (in terms of his involvement in CGI scenes even where he says nothing) before he could really fill the role people are describing for him.

My complaint with Jar Jar's usage was that he didn't get killed by Anakin. In the fall of the hero, the way Lucas does it, that should have been a key moment in his turn to the Dark Side. The hero in his fall, kills his best friend. Jar Jar should have and could have easily been shown to have aged and matured and along with Palpatine, remained one of Anakin's confidants.

Something like that would have worked better than the whole "kill the younglings" thing. Unfortunately, given how awful Jar-Jar was, this would have come across more like an act of redemption instead.

Anakin: Look, I flirted with the Dark Side and killed a bunch of people. On the other hand, I also killed Jar Jar.
Yoda: A wash that is.
Obi-Wan: All is forgiven.
Padme: Now I feel safe letting you see the babies.

Heh. Well, to make it work you'd have to write Jar-Jar as the "sensible commoner friend," not the "hapless but well-meaning idiot." To the point where it would be, to use my earlier analogy, like Frodo claiming the Ring for himself and killing Sam: an act that shows he's permanently severed himself from his past life, by destroying someone who was valuable and loyal to him in that past life.

[Havok]

You don't need to rewrite Jar Jar in TPM, but he needs to be changed in AOTC and given a part in ROTS to make what I suggest possible.
He should be the one that suggests that Palpatine be given the emergency powers, not how it was fed to him by Palpatine. He should be a proponent of the Clone army because of his own experience on Naboo with his people almost being defeated. Basically, he should be a polar opposite of Padme and a representative of the Gungans, who take a more aggressive stance on things than the Naboo do.

Then in ROTS you can have a scene where Anakin confides in him and Jar Jar can give him the correct advice, showing his own maturity. He can be the one friend that Anakin willing tells about his relationship with Padme, something that neither Yoda, Obi-Wan or even Palpatine (although he figures it out) are privy too. You have a scene where he is holding court with some other senators and they are listening to what he says. He can be one of the 2000. He can be Anakin's last chance for hope and reason and finally, he can be the last remaining tie to his life as Anakin Skywalker, before his final confrontation with Obi-Wan.

Jar Jar, even in TPM isn't stupid. He knows that he is a screw up. He realizes that the Gungans need to fight the Trade Federation along side the Naboo. He knows that it is going to cost many of his people's lives. He knows it is better to take a shot going through the core, which may kill him, than staying in Otha Gunga, which will definitely kill him. It just takes him a little longer to get there than others.

[Simon_Jester]

You don't need to rewrite Jar Jar in TPM, but he needs to be changed in AOTC and given a part in ROTS to make what I suggest possible.
He should be the one that suggests that Palpatine be given the emergency powers, not how it was fed to him by Palpatine. He should be a proponent of the Clone army because of his own experience on Naboo with his people almost being defeated. Basically, he should be a polar opposite of Padme and a representative of the Gungans, who take a more aggressive stance on things than the Naboo do.

Then in ROTS you can have a scene where Anakin confides in him and Jar Jar can give him the correct advice, showing his own maturity. He can be the one friend that Anakin willing tells about his relationship with Padme, something that neither Yoda, Obi-Wan or even Palpatine (although he figures it out) are privy too. You have a scene where he is holding court with some other senators and they are listening to what he says. He can be one of the 2000. He can be Anakin's last chance for hope and reason and finally, he can be the last remaining tie to his life as Anakin Skywalker, before his final confrontation with Obi-Wan.

Jar Jar, even in TPM isn't stupid. He knows that he is a screw up. He realizes that the Gungans need to fight the Trade Federation along side the Naboo. He knows that it is going to cost many of his people's lives. He knows it is better to take a shot going through the core, which may kill him, than staying in Otha Gunga, which will definitely kill him. It just takes him a little longer to get there than others.

Hmm. That's pretty cool now that I think about it.

What you'd really need to change is just the details- the trappings of idiocy and haplessness that make Jar-Jar's actions into a farce, even when he's engaged in honorable and logical activities. Tone down the weird dialect, remove a few of the "oh my god I stuck my tongue into the lightning and now it's stuck!" scenes that make him look like he's got the approximate brainpower of a chimp, that sort of thing.

[Havok]

The thing is, Jar Jar is the one thing that you can change in the movies, because he is all digital. Some creative editing and maybe even some digital actors (Schwarzenegger looked pretty sweet in Terminator: Salvation) and you can change the whole dynamic of his character in the second two movies. Like I said though, go ahead and leave him the way he is in TPM. It would serve as a nice parallel to have side by side with Anakin's progression (regression). Jar Jar goes from making decisions in a very haphazard way to a well respected and sought out Senator, while Anakin goes from a pretty smart and well adjusted kid to a Jedi making horrible decisions and dooming the galaxy.

[Simon_Jester]

The thing is, Jar Jar is the one thing that you can change in the movies, because he is all digital. Some creative editing and maybe even some digital actors (Schwarzenegger looked pretty sweet in Terminator: Salvation) and you can change the whole dynamic of his character in the second two movies. Like I said though, go ahead and leave him the way he is in TPM. It would serve as a nice parallel to have side by side with Anakin's progression (regression). Jar Jar goes from making decisions in a very haphazard way to a well respected and sought out Senator, while Anakin goes from a pretty smart and well adjusted kid to a Jedi making horrible decisions and dooming the galaxy.

Well, I think you'd have needed to make Jar Jar start out a little less stupid and wacky, just so you wouldn't have people going into Attack of the Clones and going "what the hell, when did he grow a brain?"

You'd want to play up "Jar Jar the commoner" and play down "Jar Jar the hapless retarded guy" a bit. But that would be easy to do, even in TPM.

You wouldn't be eliminating his role as comic clown-figure entirely, just toning it down a little so that people can see past the clown face to look at the underlying character better.