When ‘The Phantom Menace’ was released, all was jubilation among the fandom – ‘Star Wars’ was back, if it ever left! Soon after, and as much as some want to rewrite history, people were throwing pests about this prequel to the point that its actor, Jake Lloyd, had to quit acting and entered psychiatric treatment. However, it wasn’t Lloyd who received the biggest flak for the film, but a new, all-digital character created to appeal to kids and who brought despair to everyone: Jar Jar Binks.
Misa thinks Tusa won’t put up with me
It took Ahmed Best years to recover from the insults received by a character that the saga later treated more or less well, but that he also had no problem to throw over the cliff when he saw the general feeling. And for proof, a comic that symbolizes very well the public sentiment towards the character in June 2004. It was that month when issue 20 of ‘Star Wars Tales’ was published, a comic book that featured different stories by various authors who navigated the impassable line between canon and joke.
Legends such as Peter Bagge or James Kolchalka participated in this issue, and almost all of them focused on Jar Jar’s clumsy goody-goody. The author of ‘Hatred’, for example, created 7 pages in which he showed his power of leadership before Darth Sidious himself, and that of ‘American Elf’ another 4 about Boba Fett’s son, Melvin, trying to hunt him down (and catching a commemorative glass instead). But, undoubtedly, the one that went down in history was the one created by Tony Millionaire and that opened the magazine: ‘George R. Binks’.
In this small ten-page comic we met the story of Jar Jar’s father, a gungan named George as he tries to catch a whale, in the best ‘Moby Dick’ style. However, because of his useless son they end up stranded on a desert island. After a month of putting up with his son, he decides there is only one solution: he takes out a gun, aims it at his head and his wife’s reminder (“Think of your son!”) makes him shoot himself for good.
That’s right: he still lives long enough to remember his true love, whom he left because she was infertile. Just before he dies, he discovers that his memory was actually Jar Jar with an octopus on his face. The famous gungan’s life didn’t end much better: in the novel ‘Star Wars: Aftermath: Empire’s End’ he is seen working as a clown in the streets of Theed, being popular with the children but not with the parents (take meta-reference).
And no matter how much heroic work he did in the Clone Wars, in the end it will always be remembered more for the bad: his vital role in the growth of the Empire, which only increased the hatred of the fans towards him. How long do you think it will be before they give him a series on Disney+ doing him some justice? Misa thinks it’s about time.
