Star Wars is an epic story with epic heroes and villains, but it’s also a story of everyday people wrapped up in extraordinary situations. We spend a lot of time talking about the extraordinary heroes, Anakin, Luke, Obi-wan, Rey, Kylo, etc, but it’s important to recognize the everyday heroes, the ones without special abilities. Each movie in the saga has its own set of average people, none of which has garnered as much attention as Jar Jar Binks.
Jar Jar is one of my favorite characters in Star Wars.
To look at Jar Jar, you have to look at his introduction and The Phantom Menace. It’s very easy for people to make Jar Jar the focal point for everything they did not like about the film. The Phantom Menace is a heavy movie about the taxation of trade routes, corrupt politicians, corporate influence, genocide, concentration camps, and the rise of the Sith. If you remove Jar Jar from this story, it’s a very serious movie.
Now, some might say that this is preferred, but then it’s not a Star Wars film. A major factor of Star Wars is humour. Every movie has humour and comedy blended into the story. Jar Jar is one of the few rays of light in an otherwise very dark movie. He is the comedic relief in the story but is representative of a larger role in the saga.
First and foremost, Jar Jar is important to the plot of The Phantom Menace. Without Jar Jar the Jedi never make it to Theed in time to save Queen Amidala, nor does the Queen have a way to get the Gungan army to fight for the planet’s liberation. The Gungans also represent the recurring theme of a symbiotic circle. The Naboo and the Gungans share the planet and they need to work together in order to save it. In the larger saga, the Gungans represent another technologically inferior species standing up against a superior foe, much like the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi fighting against the Empire.
Jar Jar is the light in a dark tale of corruption, and representative of the symbiotic circle, but even more than that he is just a normal person. It’s easy to forget but in A New Hope when we first meet Luke Skywalker, he is nothing more than a simple farm boy who bought some droids. In The Phantom Menace and most of the prequel trilogy, our heroes are a Queen, Jedi, and the Chosen One with powers beyond a normal human. None of them would we call average or normal. Jar Jar is us. He speaks for and is the avatar for the audience. As the saga progresses, he is manipulated by Palpatine and his attempt at doing the right thing is twisted into becoming one of the major foundations for the rise of the Empire.
After the fall of the Empire, Jar Jar makes an appearance in the novel Aftermath: Empire’s End. It’s a tragic but touching scene for someone who once was among the galaxy’s most powerful and has returned to his humble roots on Naboo and is trying to bring smiles and laughter back to the galaxy. He has come full circle, once again being the light of laughter and goodness in the darkness.
Throughout it all, Jar Jar remains good and pure. He has seen the best and the worst in the galaxy, but stays true to himself, never giving into the corruption that was all around him. Jar Jar is the heart and soul of Star Wars, the ideal that we should all strive for, the classic archetype of the everyman pulled into the fantastical adventure. We could all use more Jar Jar Binks in our life.
Author: Paul Depaola
Born in the desert, raised on the beach and now residing in the mountains. An obsessive, compulsive geek with a tendency to bring everything back to Star Wars. In his spare time he is TK-5990, a proud member of the 501st Legion. Paul is also the host of his own podcast, Fanboys Talking.