What Happened To Jar Jar Binks After 'Revenge Of The Sith'
Image Source: AWN
In the long decades of Star Wars content, there probably hasn’t been a character as nearly universally reviled as the Gungan Jar Jar Binks. First seen in The Phantom Menace, Jar Jar was met with instant criticism for being unfunny, childish, maybe a touch racist, and overall tonally out of place character. For a movie that was already considered bad in some circles, it didn’t need that handicap as well. Lucas realized his mistake pretty quickly, and he had a lot less screen time in Attack of the Clones, and almost none in Revenge of the Sith. Lucas was banking on Jar Jar being a funny character to add levity, and he couldn’t have failed harder if he tried.
Even though he got less time in the second film, he still had a huge impact on the universe, being the senator who proposed giving Sheev Palpatine the emergency powers to fight the separatists during the Clone Wars that he would ultimately leverage into becoming the tyrannical ruler of the entire galaxy.
Oopsie.
RELATED:
But what about after that? Once Palpatine rose to power and the Empire took full control of the galaxy, what happened to everybody’s least favorite Gungan?
Well, it’s quite simple. It’s been known for quite some time that Jar Jar was a powerful Sith Lord, and he used his force powers during the battle of Endor to… Okay, maybe not that.
Instead, he took a much sadder path. Instead of joining the rebellion to fight the Empire and help make up for his mistakes, he ended up… forgotten. He was banished from the Gungan city once again, and indeed, there wasn’t anyone who wanted to take him in. Why would they? He gave powers to the evil emperor that would ultimately never be relinquished. Right or wrong, he took a ton of the blame for what happened, even though Palpatine had been playing both sides for years. Jar Jar was ultimately another pawn in the game.
But somebody had to take the fall, and the Empire certainly isn’t going to care if it’s some dumb Gungan that was played like a fiddle.
With nothing else, Jar Jar ended back up on Naboo, making a meager living as a silly clown.
Image Source: Cactus Hugs
So like this, but Jar Jar(?)
In a way, it’s a bitter irony. His character was designed by Lucas to be silly and over-the-top, so to know that he ended up as a sad clown after everything he was tricked into doing is… kind of depressing, and an unfair fate even though he’s hated. Yoda was tricked by Palpatine. What chance did Jar Jar have? He suffered a similar fate in the Star Wars universe as he did in our world: everyone hates him and sees him as a big reason everything went wrong.
To top it off, he lived the rest of his days knowing the implications of what he had done. The largest source for what happened to him comes from the book Aftermath: Empire’s End. In it, we see that Jar Jar does have a few small positives in his life. While most adults hate him, he manages to make the small children who see him laugh.
Again, he has the same lot in the films as in real life, doesn’t he?
But he still knows that he played a large part in the suffering. During an interaction with an orphan boy named Mapo, Jar Jar says “Jar Jar makin some uh-oh mistakens. Desa hisen Naboo tink I help the uh-oh Empire.”
But the story does have a shimmer of hope in it. Jar Jar develops a relationship with the aforementioned Mapo, who is scarred from an Imperial bombing of his home and is an outcast just like Jar Jar. The two bond over their shared misfortunes, and in the end, Jar Jar agrees to take Mapo under his wing and learn the art of being a clown.
And the Sith Rule of Two LOL.
READ NEXT:
Source: Vulture