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 Jar Jar Binks (52 BBY&mdash;) was the first Gungan to represent his people in the Galactic Senate. Like most Gungans, Jar Jar was lanky and spoke Basic with a unique accent. Despite being naïve and clumsy, Jar Jar Binks contributed greatly to the fate of the Galactic Republic, whether for good or for ill.

Biography
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 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 a romance. He was both dissapointed 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. He banished Jar Jar to the swamps, never to return, 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.

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 Padmé 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.



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.

Jar Jar was believed to be present at the Naboo celebration after the Battle of Endor, and may have been standing on a building shouting, "Wesa free!".

Behind the scenes
According to a non-canon Tales story, Jar Jar's father was a proud whaler named George R.

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.

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 many 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. 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.

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 I 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. In fact, Jar Jar Binks' ultimate fate has not yet been revealed in any Expanded Universe sources.

Edit: This theory was supported by a comment by George Lucas on the Star Wars Episode III DVD.

On that part, the Liberation of Coruscant mission of the Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns game, feature 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 superficial indication that Jar Jar was alive and current, and specifically on Coruscant, during the New Republic era. More probably though, it's only an easter egg like the many the game features, without any canonicity value. Examples include the sprites of C-3PO and R2-D2 near a crashed escape pod on Tatooine, only that they are seen in a mission that occurs during the Clone Wars.

He has also appeared as frozen in carbonite at least one of the Star Wars conventions.

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. In spite of this fact there are many fans who still love him.

Appearances

 * George R. Binks (non-canon)
 * The Death of Captain Tarpals
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
 * HoloNet News Vol. 531 #45
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith