Why Jar Jar Binks Sucks
Oct. 2nd, 2008 10:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deird_lj...bit of a misleading title, really, because there are many thousands of reasons why Jar Jar Binks sucks. And I'm only going to mention one of them.
But here's one of the reasons Jar Jar sucks:
He owes Qui-Gon a lifedebt, and he's happy about it.
So, what we've basically got is a guy who runs around after the Jedi Knights, pathetically grateful to them for saving his life, and desperate to help them out in any way because they're just so awesome.
And really, when that's the character you're writing, pretty much your only option for making him entertaining is
a) to make him really clumsy
b) to make all his efforts to help go wrong
and
c) to make him cute and huggable
Clumsy and inept don't really work in Star Wars, unless you're an ewok. And "cute and huggable" is already R2-D2's job.
But what are the alternatives?
One version of The Phantom Edit had an alien-language-dubbed Jar Jar believing that Qui-Gon owed him a lifedebt - that he had saved Qui-Gon's life, and Qui-Gon needed to pay him back. And then he spent the rest of the movie following them around insisting that Qui-Gon become his loyal servant.
That worked.
Instantly, you eliminate the clumsy, inept, cute, and huggable aspects of Jar Jar, and replace them with a very snobby, greedy annoyance that is, really, much more fun to watch. You don't need him to be clumsy and cute - because he's really entertaining anyway.
Or...
Like I said, the premise of Jar Jar Binks in TPM is that he:
a) owes Qui-Gon a lifedebt
and
b) is really happy about it
What if, instead of that, he:
a) owed Qui-Gon a lifedebt
and
b) thought it really sucked
What if he thought that lifedebts should be repaid, and was utterly dedicated to repaying the debt in full, but was really annoyed about it?
After all, running around after someone you've just met, trying to figure out how to repay them for saving your life, has got to be a real pain.
What if a character was saved, heroically, from a certain death, and his first reaction was to look up and say "You saved my life! ...oh CRAP!"
Just a thought.
But here's one of the reasons Jar Jar sucks:
He owes Qui-Gon a lifedebt, and he's happy about it.
So, what we've basically got is a guy who runs around after the Jedi Knights, pathetically grateful to them for saving his life, and desperate to help them out in any way because they're just so awesome.
And really, when that's the character you're writing, pretty much your only option for making him entertaining is
a) to make him really clumsy
b) to make all his efforts to help go wrong
and
c) to make him cute and huggable
Clumsy and inept don't really work in Star Wars, unless you're an ewok. And "cute and huggable" is already R2-D2's job.
But what are the alternatives?
One version of The Phantom Edit had an alien-language-dubbed Jar Jar believing that Qui-Gon owed him a lifedebt - that he had saved Qui-Gon's life, and Qui-Gon needed to pay him back. And then he spent the rest of the movie following them around insisting that Qui-Gon become his loyal servant.
That worked.
Instantly, you eliminate the clumsy, inept, cute, and huggable aspects of Jar Jar, and replace them with a very snobby, greedy annoyance that is, really, much more fun to watch. You don't need him to be clumsy and cute - because he's really entertaining anyway.
Or...
Like I said, the premise of Jar Jar Binks in TPM is that he:
a) owes Qui-Gon a lifedebt
and
b) is really happy about it
What if, instead of that, he:
a) owed Qui-Gon a lifedebt
and
b) thought it really sucked
What if he thought that lifedebts should be repaid, and was utterly dedicated to repaying the debt in full, but was really annoyed about it?
After all, running around after someone you've just met, trying to figure out how to repay them for saving your life, has got to be a real pain.
What if a character was saved, heroically, from a certain death, and his first reaction was to look up and say "You saved my life! ...oh CRAP!"
Just a thought.
