In Defence of Jar Jar Binks

- by Cherokee, 16 May 2015

I feel sorry for Jar Jar Binks, I really do. There hasn’t been a fictional character in the history of pop culture who has incited as much unfiltered hatred as that poor bastard. All the jokes and memes over the last 16 years have done nothing but keep alive feelings of outright loathing Star Wars fans have for him. But is his reputation unjust? Is Jar Jar really that bad? Does he honestly deserve his own beat-up game? 

I don’t think so. 

I know what I am about to do is Star Wars blasphemy, but I think it’s time. After spending years hiding my true feelings, I am coming out to say that Jar Jar isn’t as awful as you think he is. Yes, really. It’s time to put an end to the shaming of this Gungan.

Let’s get one thing out of the way first - I’m not denying that Jar Jar Binks is annoying. He is, without question. And comparing one annoying character to another doesn't magically erase the fact that both are painfully irritating, I get that. Any negative thought about Star Wars, though, for whatever reason, has been directed at Jar Jar and only Jar Jar, to the point that Anakin is probably more liked than him. He has taken on the weight of fan frustrations when there are so many other CGI aliens, robots and puppets who deserve far more ridicule. Enter C-3P-fucking-O. 

Ugh. It makes me shudder even typing out his name. Growing up, I assumed that people despised C-3PO just as much as I did. I never even considered Jar Jar in the same category. Oh, to be that young and Padawan-like again.  It wasn’t until I discovered internet forums and started talking about the series to people besides my brother, that I realised I was alone. So very alone.

Speaks almost 6 million languages, sounds annoying in all of them.

There was always a stick wedged up C-3PO’s robotic arse, he never wanted to have any fun, couldn’t really take a joke, and, no matter the mission, he treated R2-D2 like shit. R2 ran things, he was the badass robot no one in the galaxy could mess with. Then you had C-3PO tagging along, the Wallace to R2’s Gromit, putting R2 down to make himself feel so superior. Tosser.

At least Jar Jar didn’t have such a self-righteous attitude towards the people and the world around him. He may not have been a good translator like Threepio, but he wanted to learn about different planets and enjoyed exploring. His inquisitive nature unfortunately resigned him mostly to a bumbling idiot, making it even more absurd that, 10 years after The Phantom Menace, he became a Junior Representative of the Senate and Padme’s right hand Gungan. Blame the writing for that one. (More on this later.)

Don’t, just don’t. Who was the first one to say this on the internet and genuinely believe it? Can you honestly argue that the collapse of the entirety of Star Wars is because of Jar Jar? If we’re talking about The Phantom Menace - where he features most in - there are so many things to criticise that pinning it all on Jar Jar becomes irrelevant.

A part of my soul dies whenever I watch the scene where Anakin, seeing Padme for the first time, asks if she is an “angel”. Any scenes between Padme and Anakin fill me with such cringe and an uncomfortable awkwardness at seeing a child try to chat up a teenager. Their brief encounter set up a decade’s worth of a rather warped idea of love for Anakin. Isn’t that more of a concern? The whole Virgin Mary arc (like we didn’t need any more Jesus metaphors) is another. What about all the useless galactic politics? That is easily the most sleep-inducing thing about the prequels.

Be honest here. Were you thinking about Jar Jar when Darth Maul, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi were having one of the best lightsaber fights ever? Did he cross your mind when Obi-Wan and Jango Fett were throwing down in Attack of the Clones? Was he plaguing your thoughts in Revenge of the Sith, when the republic crumbled and Darth Vader was born? No, because he is a cog to the storyline machine, like many others. He isn’t so terrible that he had the capacity to ruin everything that was loved about the franchise.

Don’t believe me? Ask yourself this:

Would you rather watch all of Jar Jar Bink’s scenes combined, or Anakin and Padme rolling around in the fields of Naboo and having ‘intimate’ confessions of love in Attack of the Clones? There are worse things than Jar Jar cheering on Anakin in his podrace. 

Want to hate Jar Jar for something? This is a better place to start. 

Going back to the bad writing point - which is the real travesty of the series - Jar Jar’s Junior Representative role was the biggest surprise post-Phantom Menace. What a plot twist. Granted, it is set ten years later, and a lot happened during that time, but how in the hell did he get that post? It’s never properly established in the movies. Fan backlash to the character originally was so overwhelming, it resulted in George Lucas reportedly writing the character out of the prequels. In Revenge of the Sith, he had even less screen time than he did in Attack of the Clones (which was about 3 minutes, if that), which many were grateful for.

I wanted to see more of a subdued, yet assured Jar Jar. How did he evolve? What was his journey like? He was the first Gungan to represent the Galactic Senate, that’s a big thing. Regardless of there being a variety of cultures and lifeforms in the galaxy, there is a system of racial privilege in Star Wars, and the Gungan’s certainly aren’t at the top. Think about it - Jar Jar must’ve been something of an icon for his community.

As a Junior Representative, it was also in Jar Jar’s job description, if anything were to deter Senator Amidala from representing the Senate to take over her lead. Before the Clone Wars and after numerous attacks made on her life, Padme jets off with Anakin for jiggy times, as Jar Jar steps up. During her time in hiding, Jar Jar makes a bad decision. We all do that in our jobs, right? Sure, it may have subsequently brought on the Clone Wars, but it wasn’t entirely his doing. It’s like George Lucas wanted the audience to despise him more because, hey, they didn’t like him the first time round so give him a job title that doesn’t make any sense and line him up for further relegation.

Jar Jar’s weakness was in his kindness. He was a casualty of Chancellor Palpatine’s manipulation. Messed up as it is, he did think he was doing the right thing in giving emergency power to Palpatine, and he wouldn’t actively go out of his way to hand over control to a Sith Lord. Didn’t anyone bother to think about the safety of Jar Jar, and wonder if he’d be put in a comprising position, which he wasn’t equipped to handle? With Padme gone, no one really had his back.

That said, if the Jedi can’t even put two and two together, and see that pure evil is standing right in front of them, Jar Jar had no hope. 

You can be as infuriated and riled up about him as you want, but the thing is, though, Jar’s existence is primarily for exposition purposes. He gets the main characters from A to B, and is a core part of fulfilling the prophecy of the Chosen One. He is there at the right time to help Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan when they are trying to get in touch with Queen Amidala in The Phantom Menace, for one. Even his screw up in Attack of the Clones is a way for the origins of Star Wars to unfold. He served his duty and probably would have been tossed aside anyway, despite the fan response.

Cheering at the mention of JJ Abrams potentially killing him off in The Force Awakens is kind of lame. We get it, JJ, you want to seem like the ‘true’ fan and side with the consensus that the prequels suck and Jar Jar is the worst thing about them. By doing that, Jar Jar is given far more importance as a character than just a mere plot device, which he really is. If we started treating him in that way, I am sure there would be a lot less fan hate. (I won’t argue with the racism debate, because George Lucas is kind of stupid to have not even thought about it. But that’s Lucas for you!)

Hate the prequels all you want - just have a little more love for Jar Jar. He’s not all that bad, I mean, he’s only in three movies after all. Feel sorry for the few of us who have to withstand C-3PO in all six of them. 

 
If Jar Jar is considered the most annoying Star Wars character, then who is considered the second worst? Tell us in the comments, you nerf herders.

Tagged: movies & TV.

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