Jar Jar Binks/Legends

"Mesa day startin' pretty okee-day with a brisky morning munchy, then BOOM! Gettin' very scared and grabbin' dat Jedi and POW! Mesa here! Mesa gettin' very, very scared!"

- Jar Jar Binks

Representative, later Senator, Jar Jar Binks was the first Gungan to represent his people in the Galactic Senate, first serving as a Junior Representative along with Senator Padmé Amidala, and then, after her death, serving as full Senator himself. Like most Gungans, Jar Jar was lanky and spoke Basic with a unique accent. Despite being naive and clumsy, Jar Jar Binks contributed greatly to the fate of the Galactic Republic, whether for good or for ill.

Early life


Born to George R. Binks and his wife in Otoh Gunga, Jar Jar was raised in his family traditions to be a great whaler as his ancestors had been for hundreds of years. Due to his clumsiness and ineptitude, however, Jar Jar was never able to become what his father had wanted him to be. Once, while on an expedition to hunt a whale in the southernmost seas of Naboo, George ordered his son to hold the wheel steady; Jar Jar, however, let go. This caused their ship to crash into the whale which resulted in the ship sinking to the bottom of the ocean.

A month later, George, his wife, and Jar Jar were all stranded on a desert island. This caused George to lament over what could have been; he called his son an imbecile and attempted to commit suicide. When Jar Jar offered to swim for help&mdash;a task which would have taken fifty years if it was possible at all&mdash;George first called him a fool, telling him that he would be eaten within a day, but then had a moment of clarity and told him that it was a good idea. Jar Jar was about to jump into the water when George's wife reprimanded him and stopped George from allowing him to do so.

Though it is unknown what happened to George and his wife, Jar Jar later found his way back to Otoh Gunga.

"You were banished because you were clumsy?"

- Obi-Wan Kenobi

Kicked out of all of Otoh Gunga's schools and not able to turn to his parents for guidance, Binks hopped between job after job throughout his youth. His clumsiness inevitably got him fired before sunset. Once Jar Jar was working as a streetside shudderup musician when a passerby paid him money to stop the music. That's when he was discovered by local lawbreaker Roos Tarpals.

Tarpals was the leader of a small band of young thieves. Jar Jar was given the job of distracting security patrols while Tarpals and his gang pulled off various scams. Unlike the other thieves, Tarpals treated Jar Jar like a valued team member and a friend. This friendship ended when Tarpals enlisted in the Gungan Grand Army. The band soon scattered and Jar Jar again began searching for his place in life.

Fortunately, Boss Rugor Nass, ruler of Otoh Gunga, arranged new employement for Jar Jar, partly out of respect for his parents, and partly on the request of now-captain Tarpals. When Jar Jar acidentally freed all of the animals in the Otoh Gunga zoo Nass sentenced Jar Jar to six months of hard labor in the Quarry penal colony.

Nass commuted the sentence when Jar Jar saved him from drowning in an out-of-control Bongo. Jar Jar also saved the life of Nass's niece, Major Fassa. Fassa pledged a life debt to Jar Jar who was embarrassed by her devotion, but excited about a chance at romance. He was both disappointed and relieved when Boss Nass revoked the life debt on a technicality.

Later, Boss Nass threw a lavish party at his mansion and gave Jar Jar a job in the kitchen. Pretty soon, Jar Jar destroyed the gasser oven. The explosion cracked the bubble wall and flooded the party. Jar Jar tried to save Boss Nass's luxury heyblibber, but ended up crashing it instead.

Boss Nass was outraged, and decided that he had had enough. In the Gungan Council Chamber of Judgement, Nass, along with his peers, enforced the Nocombackie Law, banishing Binks and preventing him from ever returning to Otoh Gunga upon pain of death. Jar Jar tried to hide in Otoh Gunga but Captain Tarpals found him in a restuarant scrounging for scraps. Tarpals escorted Jar Jar to the shores of the Lianorm Swamp.

The Blockade of Naboo


During the Blockade of Naboo, the Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi arrived on the Naboo, ending up in the swamps rather than the capital as intended. Qui-Gon inadvertently saved Jar Jar's life. In a Gungan life debt, Jar Jar was obligated to stay by Qui-Gon's side until his death. Jar Jar acted as guide for the two Jedi, eventually accompanying them and Queen Amidala as they escaped to Tatooine and continued to Coruscant. He also took part in the Battle of Naboo, playing a key role as a Bombad General in the Gungan Grand Army. In his clumsiness, Jar Jar sent a cascading wave of energy balls into a bunch of B-1 battle droids which, luckily, decreased the Trade Federation army's numbers drastically.

Clone Wars
Following the Battle of Naboo, the new alliance between the Naboo and Gungans expanded to include a Gungan Representative to support the Senator for Naboo in the Galactic Senate. Jar Jar served as Gungan Representative in 22 BBY before the outbreak of the Clone Wars. When Senator Amidala was forced to go into hiding following a series of assassination attempts, Representative Binks stood in for her in the Senate. As the spokesbeing for Naboo, he was responsible for making the motion which first granted Chancellor Palpatine emergency powers and formed the Army of the Republic, setting the stage for the Clone Wars. This was a reversal of the previous Naboo position, as Senator Amidala had been one of the leading Senators in favor of negotiation to quell the Separatist crisis and against the Military Creation Act. Jar Jar had been manipulated, and his innocence had betrayed him as he inadvertently helped set in motion the replacement of the Old Republic with the Galactic Empire.



Jar Jar Binks continued to represent the Gungans in Naboo's senatorial delegation throughout the Clone Wars, though his accomplishments in politics were never as significant as his vote on the Military Creation Act. After the death of his friend and colleague Padmé Amidala, he was one of the chief mourners at her funeral on Naboo.

Galactic Empire
Jar Jar went back to Coruscant, to serve in the Imperial Senate, succeeding the late Amidala as Senator of Naboo. He was considered an ally of the new Emperor, and an Imperial Holovision report shortly after the end of the Clone Wars mentioned that the Emperor had personally sent Senator Binks to an undisclosed location.

Behind the scenes
Jar Jar Binks was an entirely computer-generated character, voiced by Ahmed Best. During the filming of the prequel trilogy, Best appeared on set in costume to provide a reference point for the other actors. Jar Jar's name came from Jett Lucas, son of George Lucas.

The character's silly nature, even during tense battle scenes or when talking to Jedi and other more dignified characters, earned him the ire of many Star Wars fans. Jar Jar's mannerisms and "regional accent" also offended some viewers, who found them reminiscent of "Stepin Fetchit" characters, Minstrel show characters, and other outdated and offensive stereotypes of black people. Many fans pinned their disappointments with The Phantom Menace on Jar Jar. Possibly as a result to fan hostility, Jar Jar's role in Attack of the Clones made him a pivotal part of the story, as the one who inadvertently helped Palpatine lay the foundations of the Galactic Empire, while minimizing his screen time. However, it should be noted that without the help of Jar Jar, the clones would have never gone to Geonosis and the Jedi there would have been killed. His role in Revenge of the Sith was further reduced to two scenes and only one line, although Ahmed Best was still prominently placed in the end credits.

Jar Jar has become one of the most hated characters in all of Star Wars, prompting the creation of fan films such as "Jar Jar's Walking Papers", which depicts the much desired death of Jar Jar.

The Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (game) says that Jar Jar was imprisoned upon his return to Otoh Gunga and Obi-Wan Kenobi rescued him before leaving together for Theed. This plot was invented to give an additional action in the Otoh Gunga mission, but the movie doesn't show that this event occured, so this event is non-canon.

He has also appeared as frozen in carbonite at least one of the Star Wars conventions. In spite of this fact, there are many fans who still love him.

Jar Jar Binks was created, in part, by a graduate of Texas A & M University, whose alumni, known as Aggies, are historically caricatured similarly to Jar Jar, despite achievements made by Aggies. As one of the university's school signs is a "thumbs up," that may explain the thumbs up given by Jar Jar in Episode I while "helping" to fix Anakin's Podracer.

Criticism
Jar Jar Binks's character has been criticized arguably more than any other character or element of the Star Wars films, and has become one of the primary reasons that fans of the original trilogy disapprove of The Phantom Menace. Jar Jar is a common subject in Lucas bashing. Some have gone to such extremes as to edit pictures of the character and add gory articulation, and/or add hateful captions (i.e. "mesa like a good beating"). Jar Jar non-fans have also spawned web sites dedicated to disparaging the character.

One of the main criticisms regarding Jar Jar Binks revolves around the character being a marketing tool. George Lucas is often accused of using "cute" characters such as Jar Jar and the Ewoks to better market his movies toward children.

Alleged racism
Another common criticism regards Jar Jar as a racist black stereotype. This criticism typically draws connections between Jar Jar's broken English and Jamaican English. Gungans have also been compared to Jamaicans and Rastafarians for various reasons, including their self-proclamation as "warriors," their hatred of the Naboo (similar to the Rastas' rebellion against Caucasians), and Jar Jar's pronunciation of his name, which draws parallels to Jah (or "Jah Jah"), which is a common name among Rastas for their god Haile Selassie I. (The name "Jah" has also become a popular name for the Judeo-Christian God among Jamaican Christians.) Lucas has denied any connection between Jar Jar Binks and black people, stating that "Jar Jar was not drawn from a Jamaican, from any stretch of the imagination."

Despite this, Jar Jar's dialect is similar to many pidgin dialects. Pidgin Engilsh is used all over the world, especially in Insular Asia. For example, his combination of words is similar to Papua New Guinean English where the phrase "hittendemroad" means "wander the streets." For this reason, it is unreasonable to assume Jar Jar is a racial stereotype of Jamaicans; bad English is universal to all English-speaking nations - including America.

Since Jar Jar was portrayed by a black man, it is reasonable to expect that Jar Jar would sound like a black man. Furthermore, it is important to note that Ahmed Best greatly enjoyed playing Jar Jar Binks and put his heart into the performance.

Possible family
According to an ambiguously-canon Star Wars Tales comic, George R. Binks, Jar Jar's father was a proud whaler named George R. Binks. Jar Jar's father, in contrast to his son, is shown in this story to be a dignified, intelligent character, who despairs at Jar Jar's foolish antics.

Jar Jar's fate
Recently, many fans have developed an erroneous belief that Jar Jar moved to Alderaan after the events of Revenge of the Sith, and was killed when the Death Star destroyed that planet. It is not clear where this bit of fanon came from, though it probably came from wishful thinking on the part of fans who wanted Jar Jar to be killed in a violent fashion. Rumors prior to the release of Episode III said that he was going to commit suicide in response to the Emperors formation of the Empire, which was indirectly caused by his motion to give Palpatine emergency powers. In fact, Jar Jar Binks's ultimate fate has not yet been revealed in any Expanded Universe stories.

The Liberation of Coruscant mission of the Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns game, features a sprite identified as Jar Jar among the skyscrapers of Coruscant, seen only if the player decides to explore the whole game map with an air unit. This is a superficially canonical indication that Jar Jar was alive and well, and living on Coruscant, during the New Republic era. It may also be only an "easter egg" like many featured in the game, and thus dubiously canonical. (For example, Clone Campaigns features sprites of C-3PO and R2-D2 appear near a crashed escape pod on Tatooine during a Clone Wars-era mission.)

Appearances

 * The Death of Captain Tarpals
 * Episode I Adventures 9: Rescue in the Core
 * Episode I Adventures 10: Festival of Warriors
 * Episode I Adventures 11: Pirates from Beyond the Sea
 * Episode I Adventures 12: The Bongo Rally
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
 * Episode I: Queen Amidala
 * Deep Spoilers


 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Evasive Action: Prey
 * Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
 * Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns

Non-canon appearances

 * George R. Binks
 * Force Fiction
 * Failing Up With Jar Jar Binks
 * Melvin Fett
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game