Like so many Star Wars fans, when I suffered through the character development of Jar Jar Binks, I was angry. I actually took him personally. I mean, HIM, his very being was, as far as I was concerned, was an affront to my childhood memories. Seriously, I went back and looked at some of the older movies and really had to ask myself why in the name of all things Jedi George Lucas had inflicted the moronic-beyond-lovability Gungan on those of us who had spent decades waiting for the Star Wars prequels.
Then, the other day (no, I haven't been dwelling on it for years, it just sort of settled upon my brow as I was watching the Big Bang Theory last week), I realized that the exhaustive and exasperating development of Jar Jar as a laughable stooge was necessary. See, we had to see him as an idiot, as easily tricked and manipulated. This made it far more believable when he filled his brief role in the second of the three prequels in which he is duped into motioning that Chancellor Palpatine be given the emergency powers. That motion gave Palpatine the opening he needed that would eventually make his transition to Emperor logical, and thus allowing him to revive the Sith and its devotion to the Dark Side of the Force.
See, we had to see Jar Jar as an idiot, as a dolt. Good-natured and pure of heart, but a dolt. After we knew him to be a dolt, his actions that, quite literally, put the galaxy spiraling on a course of darkness and loss, were really not to be laid upon his shoulders. Honestly, a character more able to see reason and manipulation may well have sidestepped the disastrous manipulation that led to Jar Jar's suggestion that emergency powers be granted to the Supreme Chancerllor...but Jar Jar Binks was not such a character. Jar Jar Binks was a trusting soul and a foolish one, which is what Lucas needed. George Lucas created a character who almost single-handedly destroyed the Star Wars mythos...but that same character actually proved pivotal in the creation of The Star Wars inverse. The very lore to which he so nearly laid waste really came to its climactic "creation moment" because of him. That's a kind of insane genius, Mr. Lucas.
The Star Wars universe didn't just need Jar Jar Binks for some misguided comic relief, but also for its lynchpin; Jar Jar was the catalyst by which the universe was born. Don't get me wrong, I still can't stand to hear him speak, but this does lend a new perspective to things...and isn't that what Star Wars did for science fiction films as a genré anyway? Give SciFi a whole new perspective which it's still growing into? Kinda makes one's head spin.
The wagons rolls ever onward; thanks for riding shotgun; and, these aren't the droids you're looking for.
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