Thinking About Jar Jar Binks

Last year, Disney bought Lucas films and gained the Star Wars franchise.  Talks began immediately for a Star Wars episode seven movie.  I think we’re all excited about this and the possibility of seeing what transpires a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

One of the characters most of us are not hoping to see in the future Star Wars episodes will be the one character who was most responsible for the destruction of the Republic and the establishment of the Empire.  That character is Jar Jar Binks.  I think without a doubt Binks is perhaps the most hated character in the Star Wars franchise -ahead of the emperor and certainly Darth Vader.  Practically everything about the character of Jar Jar Binks is offensive to someone in one way or another.  His dialect and his shuffle are racially stereotypical of drugged out, dreadlocked Jamaicans.  Binks is a buffoon and in fact when we first meet him, he has been exiled by his own people because he was too clumsy.  Personally, I thought he was the Willie Best of the Star Wars franchise and that is probably an insult to Willie Best.

But Jar Jar Binks was also a technical masterpiece, far ahead of its time.  He was a completely computer animated character who interacted with live actors and laid the groundwork for the rendering techniques used by the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers character, Gollum.  That said,  Jar Jar Binks has very few supporters as a character.  Yet, he is the person who while representing Naboo in the Galactic Senate, makes the motion that grants absolute power to supreme Chancellor Palpatine.  This single act legally turns Palpatine into the emperor and the true villain of the Star War stories.

There’s no doubt that future Star Wars movies will make reference to Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke and Leia Skywalker and Han Solo.  But I seriously doubt that future episodes will spend much time discussing and reminiscing about Jar Jar Binks and his contribution to the rise of the empire. And I, for one, will be okay with that.