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The New Star Wars: Aftermath Novel Reveals the Pitiful Fate of Jar Jar Binks
- Thread starter Dalek
- Start date
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The old EU that took place before the movies is largely pretty good. The stuff that happens AFTER the movies?. Mostly prettttty bad and just got worse and worse as they went. I pray that they take zero influence from the NJO and Fate of the Jedi. I actually really like the base concept of the SGCW from Legacy of the Force more than the Resistance-FO conflict but the execution was bad.
Stallion Dan
Member
It says the books are good then I read that shit.
KeyBladerXIII
Member
So Jar Jar atones by getting refugee kids to smile? Yeah, ok. Better ending than I'd come up with for him.
I'm just waiting on when the new canon stuff is going to start exploring the eras before the movies, as well. The KOTOR and Tales of the Jedi comics were my jams, and I'd like to think that era is ripe for new storytelling.
All the more reason I'm hoping stuff like Stig and Respawn's upcoming Jedi/Sith action game takes place in such an era.
Glass Shark
Banned
I really thought I was going to get into the rebooted Star Wars canon
Well, guess I don't have to worry about that now
Well, guess I don't have to worry about that now
WadiumArcadium
Member
Because of an interlude about Jar Jar in one book? Haha.
You're missing out on some good books - Bloodline, Lost Stars etc.
Hades Hotgun
Banned
Having a basic reason for your terrible actions does not make you a hero. That wasn't the intention or the execution.
ClayKavalier
Banned
Does Chris Christie like Star Wars? Must be neat to see your life story used as a character arc in such a popular franchise.
Walter White Walker
Member
"I wonder what happened to Jar Jar" is not a question that's ever even remotely occurred to me.
LookAtMeGo
Member
They should just kill him off in a gory fashion already.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
Nah. Having him be a street performer people mostly ignore is fine. Kids think he's funny. He thinks he's sad. Everyone else would rather pretend he doesn't exist.
Yeah it's on the nose but it's also an "interlude" to a much larger story. It's no more important than the one or two pages it's printed on.
Which I think is kinda the point.
Plus I like the general feeling of abandonment and disrepair that goes along with this little anecdote. Makes the universe feel sorta lived in. It ain't just the spaceships that get scuffed up and dinged.
Yeah it's on the nose but it's also an "interlude" to a much larger story. It's no more important than the one or two pages it's printed on.
Which I think is kinda the point.
Plus I like the general feeling of abandonment and disrepair that goes along with this little anecdote. Makes the universe feel sorta lived in. It ain't just the spaceships that get scuffed up and dinged.
GuitarAtomik
Member
I'm totally ok with this.
Pretty damn meta lol.
QuantumBro
Banned
Well we all know he didn't die.
Maintenance
Member
It would be even better if he started drinking and became an alcoholic, but I'm not sure if that is even possible since he's not human.
Secret Fawful
Member
It's just like how the EU was a gateway for writers to write about characters lives in a broader way, but the problem was it became overindulgent. In twenty years, the new canon will have just as many stupid stories as the EU did.
We've already learned
Leia communicated with Kylo when he was in the womb using the Force, which feels like just the kind of polarizing idea people didn't like in the EU.
Episodes 10 through 12 are going to be all about the Yuuzhan Vong invasion.
Nothing about the novel seems to contradict any of this. That could have been how he was received, only to eventually becomes useless, then go back to Naboo to get banished and devolve into the street garbage that he always was.
thecouncil
Banned
Meta would be describing how adults can't stop talking about him.
molnizzle
Member
Anyone else think this is shlocky and clichéd? The fate given to him reads exactly how you would expect someone who loathes Jar Jar to write it. It's as if the writer is gleefully waiting for a round of applause and nods of approval from PT/Jar Jar haters.
This is coming from someone who dislikes the PT but wouldn't want things to transpire neatly and predictably for my personal satisfaction.
This is coming from someone who dislikes the PT but wouldn't want things to transpire neatly and predictably for my personal satisfaction.
PHOENIXZERO
Member
What a flaming shit heap of a character, what drugs where they on when they created him
George Lucas created that borderline minstrel show for the kids.
thecouncil
Banned
Yeah, its pretty lame.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
That's not at all how I would imagine some weirdo still frothing about Jar Jar's lameness to write his fate in a canon novel.
"Sad clown making amends in his own quiet way" is not how most people who "loathe" Jar Jar would wind that particular story up, I don't think.
And again: The book isn't particularly focused on this at all. It's an aside. His fate (such as it is) is more or less a parenthetical. It's the storytelling equivalent of rushing along a busy street and looking over your shoulder at something happening in the alley for a couple seconds.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
This is the worst kind of fanservice.
Might as well put a "Jorge Lucasio" alien in a book and have him be a "holovid" maker who constant edits the same film over and over again.
Might as well put a "Jorge Lucasio" alien in a book and have him be a "holovid" maker who constant edits the same film over and over again.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
molnizzle
Member
And then have a crowd of people who can't shut up about how he destroyed something they loved.
thecouncil
Banned
But it's complete insignificance to the storyline is why it comes off as, "Look where this piece of shit we all hate ended up: He's a street clown now. Anyway!..."
firehawk12
Subete no aware
The "confirmation bias" type.
Everyone hates Jar Jar, so let's shit on him because everyone will get off on it!
It's the cheapest of pops, like a Muslim/Russian/foreign wrestler saying he hates America at a WWE event. lol
This. When people say the old EU had more bad then go I would agree if we're talking about the New Jedi Order and some of the books that came after that. I really don't understand what the hell was going on there with many of the decisions they made. However between Return of the Jedi to the New Jedi Order I feel there is far more good then bad and even the bad isn't horrible but perhaps bland or weird. Yes how much one likes some trilogies over others will vary but I always felt the stories were a more natural progression of how events would naturally play out. There is just so much of the New Jedi Order that it tips the scales unfairly. I normally don't have a problem with the Vong. I have a problem with how that storyline was largely planned and thew writing of a number of authors and that plans seemed to change mid-story and some stuff simply didn't get written.
I've tried reading some of the newer stuff and it's just not working for a number of reasons. That said there is plenty of "Legends" books I can go back to reading and there is a number of Clone Wars stuff I've yet to read so it's not like I'm lacking in Star Wars content. I'm just glad that content is still there. The only saving grace I have with the new content is that so far there is no Mara Jade that exist to marry Luke. That was something I hated about about the old EU as I just couldn't stand the character for some reason.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
"Twilek child star Yakke Loyt couldn't handle the infamy of being in Jorge Lucasio's last holodvid fiasco, trying his best to distance himself from his past as the star of one of the biggest, but most hated holovids of all time. It's no surprise he joined the dark side."
Bobby Roberts
Banned
All three books are filled with this shit though - which is one of my bigger complaints (they get in the way of the story Wendig is telling, honestly. Bogs shit down). It only comes off that way if you take it completely out of context of the larger story being told across all three books, or hell, the single book it's in by itself.
The first book had one of these but it involved Han & Chewie, for example. There was also one concerning Boba Fetts' armor (I think?). It's not like Jar Jar alone got an interlude.
A lot of the complaints I'm reading seem to come from the standpoint that this is some major focus, and that because of that focus, there's some sort of nefarious intent embedded within the interlude or something. For example:
I don't think that's what's happening here? It's certainly not how it reads. It reads as sad. Not schadenfreudish.
fredrancour
Member
it kind feels like a logical outcome to me honestly. blundered into gov't in the first place. His powerful friends are all long-passed.would've felt strange and cheesy to reuse the jokes by having him blunder into a position of power someplace new, or more mean-spirited than this to off him. Something quiet and out-of-the-way seems like it was the only thing that fit tonally. And family life doesn't seem like a likely outcome when his own people kind of hate him so his fate was gonna be a lonely one.
Rebels has veered incredibly close to re-canonizing the events of KOTOR and KOTOR 2, and they very seriously considered featuring Revan's story in new canon material recently but held off. Lucasfilm likes Revan and his surrounding narrative, and I would not at all be surprised to see KOTOR adapted into a Star Wars Story movie down the line.
Agree with this. It's a fitting cap on the character that makes sense in the context of the universe without being cruel to the character for the sake of pleasing the fanbase.
thecouncil
Banned
Ah, ok. I mean, I guess it makes sense that Jar Jar be exiled for starting the Empire, at least. Haha.
Hey, are these books good, ultimately? I'd be interested in reading them if they are.
LegendofJoe
Member
I feel like it's an indictment against my character that I kinda want to read this.
I don't know if I'd go as far as "good," but they're far better than 95% of the novels written in the old EU. For whatever that's worth.
WadiumArcadium
Member
The first was lots of setup but the second was good. Bloodline and Lost Stars are the best of the new canon books though.
They're okay, Aftermath was decent enough, but I'm enjoying the second book in the series alot more.
Lost Stars and Bloodline are the two best new cannon books.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
Yeah. The Wendig books are quick reads but they don't stick too long, for me.
Claudia Gray is the MVP so far.
PixelatedBookake
Junior Member
My headcanon was that he was on Alderran when it blew the fuck up. It helped me sleep at night.
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