How come Jar Jar is hated while Chewie is loved or at least tolerated?

[spikethebloody]

This makes no sense to me. Both are useless characters that babble. Granted you weren't supposed to understand Chewie but that schtick was done better with more comedic flare by R2-D2. Chewie sucks and I never liked the character. Yet somehow there is this big hoopla because ep 3 will have a bunch of Wookies. Who cares. Wookies suck.

Jar Jar serves much the same purpose in the prequels that Chewie served in the OT. He is failed comic relief. So why is one loved and one hated when they are exactly the same. Both are even negative stereotypes of black people. Jar Jar talks with "slang" and no one can understand him. Lucas just went deeper with the simile in Chewie because he looks like a monkey and no one can ever understand him.

Both are just stupid useless characters the hypocrisy in the love for Chewie is mind boggling.

[sgr818]

Jar Jar was clumsy and annoying. He was like a kid following around a big brother. He means well, but he was just a little too much annoying. Chewy was cool. He was not clumsy or annoying at all. We couldn't understand his language but by his actions you kind of knew what he was saying. I actually like both characters for different reasons. Chewy was much cooler though.

Shouldn't this be in the Star Wars forum?

[ZombieMan]

I personally liked them both alot. But I like Chewie a little better though I guess.

[flukeman]

Chewie is a negative stereotype of a black person? :confused:

The reason we don't understand him is because he is speaking a different language - it's not like he's mumbling ridiculous slang in English. But from his body language and how he plays off Han, we get the gist. I also never saw him as comic relief - that went to R2 and 3PO. He's not one of my favorite characters, but I have no problem with him.

I have a problem with Jar Jar because his voice was annoying, his style of comedy was annoying, and his animated movements were annoying.

[Dio]

I personally like Jar Jar Binks better than Chewie cause I like they way he looks and talks.

Me Sa Jar Jar Binks!

[krushgroove19]

i don't think chewie was meant for comic relief. plus, he actually does something. he kills stormtroopers and he is han solo's copilot and best friend. and he's a badass. jar jar just stumbles around with an annoying accent, and you can tell he's just there to please the kids. he really serves no purpose.

[gnarley]

Chewie reminds of a dog in a way, he's got the facial appearance of one plus he growls. He's also very loyal to his friends, his comic relief scenes are minimal and he's not as overtly awkward and clumsy like Jar-Jar is either. My main problem with Jar-Jar is that I can't understand him half the time, it's annoying. The reason Chewie is loved more is due to the actor's performance of the character, he's emotionally believable in the scenes where Han is in trouble on Hoth and Bespin in Empire. It comes across that he deeply cares for Han.

[ViRUs]

i actually like both of them as well, but i think Chewie is just more of a badass so that makes him cooler.

[Dio]

One of the reason's why people like Chewbacca better is the way he talks. And they try and impersonate that voice and think it's funny.

[neo5595]

Chewie is great! Jar Jar is O.K. , but can get annoying sometimes. I also like the Wookie species much better than the Gungan species. I like the idea that theres this big old creature with a short temper, but very technologically advanced. The Gungan species just inst as interesting IMO.

.....btw this belongs in the Star Wars forum.

[sniktawt]

I like both but Chewie is just cool.

Is he still dead in the EU ?

[teewee1432]

From the beginning I was a big jar jar fan I got his framed poster and everything. I never understood all the backlash that he got. To me he was one of my favorite characters who got alot of needless flack.

[Miasma]

Chewie is way better than Jar Jar. And he isn't "just for comic relief"-- he has more emotional depth than Padme has shown thus far, despite the fact that he's basically an ape (then again, R2 shows more emotional range than Padme.) Jar-Jar tries too hard to be funny and it often comes across as forced and out of place.

As for Chewie being a negative stereotype of black people-- for someone to even make that ridiculous connection, well, it says a lot about that person's views on black people.

[Sock-Man]

As has already been said, just because Chewie doesn't speak english, doesn't make him comic relief. He's not really an essential charcter but at least he actually does stuff. He fights, he's close friends with Han, he flies a ship, he fixes 3-po, he shows plenty of emotion for instance when Han is put into carbonite. Plus he's cool. He just looks cool and acts cool.

Jar Jar on the other hand IS purely for comic relief. And it is lame comic relief. Not sure which comedy genius said to George Lucas "You know what'd be really funny, theres this alien, and he falls over the time and breaks things, and he walks like a retarded clown, and he can have this really funny voice and he pronounces everything wrong. And hell, we'll even make him CGI so we can take slapstick to a whole new level. Trust me, it'll be hilarious. The world'll love him."
He's stupid and immature, not funny, shows no emotion whatsoever, not funny, he's a CGI mess, doesn't seem capable of standing still, has to bumble around or break something in a desperate attempt to make you laugh and he's not funny. Have you guessed I don't like him?

[Andy_R]

Chewie was not funny, but he didn't try to be. That's the difference.
Jar Jar tries to be funny, and he fails miserably.

Chewbacca was charming in his own way. You didn't understand what he said, but you still felt emotion from him. And he was not annoying in the least.

I honestly don't understand why anybody likes Jar Jar at all.
Name one scene -or just one piece of dialogue- where he made you genuinely laugh.
I could go on and on, but Jar Jar bashing has been beat to death. Plus, it's too easy ;)

[Mat]

Chewbacca is a terrible name for a character. It encourages kids to chew tobacco. Plus he growls a lot and has an ill temperment. Kids get enough of that **** from their abusive, alcoholic fathers.

Jar Jar on the other hand is a positive influence. He shows that even the most dim-witted and clumsy can make it in politics.

[Warren]

Chewie is there to help out, the "muscle" of the team, if you will. And he's not annoying.

Jar Jar contributed in no way except for attempted comic relief. He just came off as annoying and loud.

[adt100]

Chewie was never one of my favourite characters of SW, but in comparison to Jar Jar there's just no contest. Jar is and always will be a complete and utter waste of time. An abomination that should never have been allowed off the drawing board!

[HellaGood]

Was that first post supposed to be racist? Because it was bordering on it.

[cerealkiller182]

Chewie is a dog. You cant understand him but you know what hes saying. At the same time he is loyal especially to Han.

Jar Jar just plain sucks. Annoying, stupid looking, clumsy, etc.

[joe_h]

Jar Jar serves much the same purpose in the prequels that Chewie served in the OT. He is failed comic relief.

I don't even know where you get this. Chewbacca is not comic relief, and they most certainly don't serve the same purpose. Chewy doesn't interject himself in every scene with silly, over the top humor that isn't funny. Only once did I laugh at Jar-Jar.

I know Lucas put Jar-Jar in TPM to appeal to the young kid, but even he realized he went to far with him. If you watch the doc on TPM DVD, after a screening of the film, Lucas looks at McCallum as says "I think I went too far in places." But considering the film was finished, it was basically too late to do a complete redo of those parts.

[spikethebloody]

Was that first post supposed to be racist? Because it was bordering on it.


Bordering on it? Are you the PC police? Jesus Christ. I am simply stating that the stereotype used by racists to demean blacks can be juxtaposed to Chewie. It has nothing to do with my feelings on the issue at all.

[todd philip]

Jar jar was very childish, and didnt fit in well with, atleast the original trilogy! The original trilogy did not rely on poop and fart jokes, unlike Jar jar character does. People thought star wars as something classy and mythical, jar jars character ie neither, unlike chewie!

[Sparta*]

Chewie is just so cool! haha definatley cooler then Jar Jar, and not annoying like Jar Jar.

[SQueek]

gugans dont rip peoples arms off

[Boro]

arent you the guy who made all of those useless "matrix vs every other movie" threads?

[spikethebloody]

arent you the guy who made all of those useless "matrix vs every other movie" threads?


Useless is entirely subjective.

[FVD]

I've actually come to get used to Jar Jar over time. He doesn't bother me anymore. But he still cannot touch Chewie. I was upset that he died in the EU.

FVD.

[Sparta*]

how did chewie die in the EU??

[neo5595]

how did chewie die in the EU??
Thats exactly what I was wondering.

[Miasma]

Chewie died when a moon crashed into the planet he was on (Serpendil, I think). I can't remember all the details, but somehow a moon was out of orbit and was on a collision course for the planet. Chewie could have made it into the Falcon in time to escape, but he stayed to help Han's son Anakin get into the ship. So Anakin was saved, but Chewie was killed.

[neo5595]

Heres how it happened(straight from the EU section)-

At the start of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, Han Solo and Chewbacca were on the planet of Sernpidal when it became a target of the alien menace. Using massive gravity-altering creatures called dovin basals, the Yuuzhan Vong began to drag Serpidal's moon of Dobido from its orbit to the planet's surface. Han Solo, his son Anakin, and Chewbacca began organizing a desperate evacuation, cramming as many escapees aboard the Falcon as they could. Solo and Chewbacca have had many close calls in the past, and have executed countless last-second escapes. Sernpidal was not to be one of them. As the moon rushed closer to the surface, Chewbacca was cut off from the Falcon. Anakin was faced with a terrible decision. The Falcon could not wait any longer. Rather than endanger everyone aboard, Anakin piloted the ship away, leaving Chewbacca behind. Chewbacca stood his ground, howling defiantly at the immense moon as it crashed into Sernpidal's surface, killing the mighty Wookiee instantly.

[Drizzt240]

What is EU?

[flukeman]

Drizzt - Expanded Universe. The stories that take place in the novels that were written after the films ended.

[Moridin]

Well, that's a stupid way to kill off a great character.

[FVD]

And from what I know Han seems to not want anything to do with his son due to what happened to Chewie his best friend.

[jasonlives]

I want to concur first with the sentiments of a number of previous respondents, to the effect that Chewbacca clearly embodied more than comic relief. There are many characters in the Star Wars universe who converse in what we would consider to be an unintelligible tongue, so the level of intelligibility alone does not suggest the substantiality of a specific character to the overall drama. In other words, a character may be more than mere comic relief, even though he speaks unintelligibly. Conversely, a character speaking an unamusing, indeed distracting, dialect of English may lack substantial merit to the larger drama - even though on some debased level we are able to "understand" what he is saying. What matters is how that character interacts with his surroundings, what level of emotional complexity he exhibits, and how his decisions affect the drama. Between Chewbacca and Jar Jar Binks, there is no serious question about which is more substantial and thus meriting serious interest by the fans.

First, on the issue of interacting with surroundings, Jar Jar Binks, as another respondent said, is a CGI mess. His overly animated movements, especially in the Phantom Menace, are "too animated" to look real. He looks like a phony cartoon superimposed on the film, rather than a real, third dimensional being maintaining a real space of his own in the universe. I admit that I am biased, as I consider CGI all too often to be less realistic on film than the clunkier, old fashioned models that science fiction/fantasy filmmakers used to use. Just a cursory look at the Enterprise in the earlier Star Trek movies - which looked three dimensional - as compared to the Enterprise of "The Next Generation" series - which looked too "thin" at certain places and had a very cartoonish effect overall - suggests my point. But returning to Star Wars, while Jar Jar Binks looks like a cartoon and has no "realistic" interaction with the other characters, an actor in a Wookie outfit looks far more third dimenional and thus appears to have a much more real interaction with his surroundings.

Secondly, on the issue of emotional complexity, Jar Jar Binks has none. He is a one-dimensional being obviously offered forth as a marketing ploy for very unsophisticated, twelve year old boys. He exists only to sell action figures bearing his likeness. He does not exhibit any real love for his compatriots - or any real anger or resentment toward the enemies of his race. There is no real sense that he cares one iota for Princess Amidala - certainly his mannerisms and speech do not suggest any sincere interest. Defenders of Jar Jar Binks of course will claim that he is meant to be only comic relief and thus need not exhibit these other qualities. But good comic relief is found in complex, more lovable - and loving - characters. C3PO and R2D2 obviously are meant to be the comic reliefs of the first series. But they are also characters that truly care for one another, even while they are playfully denouncing one another - much like droid forms of Laurel and Hardy. C3PO and R2D2 also exhibit many behavioral traits beyond merely comic relief, including fear (C3PO), bravery (R2D2), compassion (both). Chewbacca is not really meant to be comic relief per se, which is why it is actually better to compare Jar Jar Binks with the duo of C3PO and R2D2. But since this thread compares Jar Jar Binks with the Wookie, it is worth mentioning that in contrast to the cartoonish Binks, the Wookie exhibits obvious affection for Han Solo. He is a "heavy" - but also a "heavy" with a large heart. Consider Chewbacca's mournful cry when it is announced in The Empire Strikes Back that the doors to the rebel base on Hoth must be closed for the night, thus leaving Han Solo outdoors for the duration. That scene alone exhibits more real emotion than anything even imaginable from Jar Jar Binks.

Finally, concerning how his decisions affect the overall drama, it is true that Jar Jar Binks makes a motion in the Senate to convey emergency powers on Chancellor Palpatine, thus giving Palpatine his first step toward a dictatorial reign. That is an important decision. But it is also the wrong decision, and making a wrong decision with disastrous consequences does not warrant being "loved or at least tolerated." Chewbacca never does anything nearly as momentous, but his consistent loyalty to Han Solo allows him to be a force for good in the long run - even though he and Han started out in Episode 4 as unprincipled mercenaries.

The fact of the matter is that the jury is already out. Anyone with more than a fourth grade sophistication should know that Jar Jar Binks is nothing more than a symbol of what is wrong with CGI - and a symbol of how Lucas lost his touch decades ago when he morphed from a filmmaking visionary to a mere (albeit extremely successful) marketer.

[Drizzt240]

Because Chewy can kick Jar Jar's ass.

[onelegasy]

Well said Jasonlives.

I can't really add anything to that.

From the moment Jar Jar spoke, he was forever hated.

[Lothenon]

Axctually, I found Chewies 'Voice' more annoying than everything Jar-Jar did or said.
And I can't say I like the character of Jar-Jar. Not at all. But the Sounds Chewie makes.. gyaarh. :rolleyes: