I met an original trilogy fan the other day who seems to hate the prequels. I found myself trying to defend Jar Jar, but not really succeeding. I have to admit I like Jar Jar. Thinking back, when we left the cinema in 99 after watching EP1 we bought a Jar Jar soft toy on the way out. Yeah sometimes hes a bit over the top, but some of hes lines are funny "all sinking and no power, when yousa thinking weasa in trouble". I like the look of the gungans and Jar Jar's a very life like CGI character. I expect he is also a popular character with children.

Do you think he would have been more popular if he had a Han Solo type character?

Whats your thoughts on Jar Jar and have your views on him changed over the years?

 "What you think you're some kinda Jedi, waving your hand around like that?"

 "I'm a Toydarian. Mind tricks don'ta work on me-only money. No money, no parts! No deal!" 

Also I think there is a whole back story to him and his ilk.....

Plus he is a pivotal character in AOTC as he gets manipulated, whereas I think any of the other characters filling that role would not have been so believable.

“(Obi-Wan) "That boy is our last hope." (Yoda) "No, there is another."”

"(Yoda) "Yamaro his name is.""

Since then however, he's grown on me and I actually find a number of his lines quite amusing ("Ooooh, maxibig..."da Force", "Steady, Steady").  I don't think the same will ever be said about the head-swapping idiocy of AOTC, but since I've made my feelings about that perfectly clear on another post, I'm not going to repeat myself here.

I also agree with Watto, that as a CGI character, Jar Jar is very lifelike, and let's not forget that there wouldn't have been a chihuahua Binks were it not for him!

So, Jar Jar's OK in my book; I wonder whether Tim from Spaced would have changed his opinion....(warning - contains some 'fruity' language)

"People say football is a matter of life and death" , " I believe it is much more important than that"

"Spider Pig, Spider Pig, does whatever a Spider Pig does, Can he swing from a web? No he can't, he's a pig..."

 I forgot tho say that "how wude" was a common saying by my wife after the release of EP1 (not so common now!).

 I think its a shame Jar Jar takes a lot of criticism, I think it scares manufactures off making EP1 products too. I'd love Gentle Giant to make a Jar Jar Binks Statue ( Or a Watto, Sebulbla, Qui Gon or Battle droid for that matter!), but I doubt they will as they would probably see it as quite a gamble whether they would sell or not.

 "What you think you're some kinda Jedi, waving your hand around like that?"

 "I'm a Toydarian. Mind tricks don'ta work on me-only money. No money, no parts! No deal!" 

 "What you think you're some kinda Jedi, waving your hand around like that?"

 "I'm a Toydarian. Mind tricks don'ta work on me-only money. No money, no parts! No deal!"