In the history of hated characters committed to the silver screen, Jar Jar Binks is most likely in everybody’s top five. The go-to worst thing about the Star Wars prequel trilogy, people’s hatred for the clumsy Gungan knows no bounds. Even his importance in the movies seemed diminished following his initial appearance in The Phantom Menace. Sure, he may have been the inadvertent driving force behind the Empire’s rise to power in Attack of the Clones, but by Revenge of the Sith, if you blinked you would have missed him. He hasn’t really been mentioned since the saga was restarted with The Force Awakens, but now we have a concrete answer to what became of him, thanks to the in canon Star Wars Aftermath: Empire’s End novel, due out on February 21st. The Star Wars Aftermath trilogy is something we recommend you crack open, as it drops some nice little tidbits of what took place in a galaxy far, far away between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, so if the book is on your to read list you can find the spoiler after the picture below.
So, in between the novel’s main story, author Chuck Wendig takes time out with ‘interlude’ chapters to see what is happening in other corners of the Star Wars universe. It’s in one of these that we are taken to the capital city of Naboo, and a young boy meets an old Gugan performing as a clown on the streets. While the children are delighted by his shenanigans, the adults view him with distain (kinda echoing audience’s reaction to the character as they grew up). The clown introduces himself to the boy as Jar Jar, and goes on to explain people’s reaction to him is the result of him ‘make some uh-oh mistakens’ in the past. Kind of an understatement when describing giving the future Emperor Palpatine the emergency powers that helped him form the Empire. Either way, it is something of a sad end for the character no matter how much you hate him. Here’s an excerpt of the chapter, detailing Jar Jar’s fate:
So, in between the novel’s main story, author Chuck Wendig takes time out with ‘interlude’ chapters to see what is happening in other corners of the Star Wars universe. It’s in one of these that we are taken to the capital city of Naboo, and a young boy meets an old Gugan performing as a clown on the streets. While the children are delighted by his shenanigans, the adults view him with distain (kinda echoing audience’s reaction to the character as they grew up). The clown introduces himself to the boy as Jar Jar, and goes on to explain people’s reaction to him is the result of him ‘make some uh-oh mistakens’ in the past. Kind of an understatement when describing giving the future Emperor Palpatine the emergency powers that helped him form the Empire. Either way, it is something of a sad end for the character no matter how much you hate him. Here’s an excerpt of the chapter, detailing Jar Jar’s fate:
Since children started coming in by the shipload as refugees, the Gungan has served them, performing for the kids once or twice a day. He does tricks. He juggles. He falls over and shakes his head as his eyes roll around inside their fleshy stalks. He makes goofy sounds and does strange little dances. Sometimes it’s the same performance, repeated. Sometimes the Gungan does different things, things you’ve never seen, thing’s you’ll never see again. Just a few days ago, he splashed into the fountain’s center, then pretended to have the streams shoot him way up in the air. He leapt straight up, then back down with a splash. And he leapt from compass point to compass point, back and forth, before finally conking his head on the edge and plopping down on his butt. Shaking his head. Tongue wagging. All the kids laughed. Then the Gungan laughed, too.
The clown, they called him “Bring the clown. We want to see the clown. We like it how he juggles glombo shells, or spits fish up in the air and catches them, or how he dances around and falls on his butt.”
The adults, though. They don’t say much about him. Or to him. And no other Gungans come to see him, either. Nobody even says his name.
