In 1999, The Phantom Menace was released to theaters and introduced long-time Star Wars fans to what has become one of the most infamous characters of the series - a goofy Gungan known as Jar Jar Binks, who accompanies the heroes and acts as comic relief throughout the film. Though he did have a small fanbase, the overwhelming majority of Star Wars fans came to despise him. The reasons for disliking Jar Jar varied. Some were annoyed by his high-pitched voice and strange way of talking. Others found his slapstick antics and overall clumsiness too out of place with the rest of the story.
Regardless of the reason many fans, including those who liked the prequels, felt Jar Jar was a problematic addition to the Star Wars universe. The backlash was so intense Jar Jar's actor was harassed by fans to the point of considering suicide. The character's role was greatly reduced in the following movies. Attack of the Clones gave him a small supporting role that had some significance but required less screentime, and he only has a non-speaking cameo in Revenge of the Sith.
Jar Jar has managed to gain some favor in the years since thanks in part to his portrayal in The Clone Wars and a popular fan theory that he is actually a Sith Lord. But the impact of his initial reception can still be felt today. What a lot of fans do not realize is that Jar Jar is actually a more complex character than one might initially think based on The Phantom Menace. He is certainly clumsy, but beneath his clownish appearance is the tragic story of a man pressured to meet impossible standards in a world that never gave him a chance to be anything but a fool.
3 The Truth Of His Clumsiness
Many fans are quick to dismiss Jar Jar because of his general incompetence. Throughout The Phantom Menace, he is getting into trouble, panicking about something, or getting caught up in seemingly irrelevant slapstick. The obvious effort to make him the comic relief was so poorly received by fans that the following movies drastically cut down his role. But there is a bit more depth to Jar Jar's apparent bumbling than meets the eye. It was the result of a difficult childhood growing up with a strict father who saw him as a disgrace to the Binks family name.
Jar Jar's father was a professional hunter who also owned a successful company. His specialty was hunting the Naboo Whale, which earned him a lot of respect from his fellow Gungans. He had hoped Jar Jar would go on to take over the company and become an expert whaler in his own right, but he made the mistake of trying to force this path on his son and holding him to an impossible standard. Jar Jar was not suited for a life of whaling, and his difficulty grasping his father's lessons eventually led to his family being stranded on an island. The problem was further compounded by the father blaming Jar Jar for disappointing him, which got so bad he even considered letting his son swim into the open ocean hoping he would get himself killed - and resorted to suicide when that failed.
Although his father was stopped from taking his own life, the experience left a mark on Jar Jar's psyche. This explains a lot of his behavior - he's spent most of his life getting shoehorned into positions where he does not belong and is judged by unreasonably high standards. He was set up to look like a fool from the beginning.
2 Why He Was Banished
Jar Jar's first appearance in The Phantom Menace has him running into the Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi while they are trying to evade detection by the Trade Federation's army. He brings up his hometown of Otah Gunga as a place that might offer some refuge, only to then point out he was banished. His explanation for why he was banished was...confusing, to say the least. In typical Jar Jar fashion, it was spoken in a fast-paced rambling manner that would only be remotely coherent to other Gungans. The short version, as he himself states, is because of his clumsiness. But it was one particular incident that led to Jar Jar being faced with the "Nocombackie Law."
The incident in question involved two accidents in quick succession, both of which personally affected Boss Nass and ruined a fancy party he was hosting. The first came while working in the kitchen, where Jar Jar managed to blow up a gas oven, which punctured the city's bubble walls and caused massive flooding. He then realized that the damage he caused had a chance of destroying the boss's luxury submarine. In a well-intentioned but poorly-planned move, Jar Jar attempted to move the submarine out of harm's way, only to crash it. Boss Nass was furious and decided to banish Jar Jar for it.
Knowing these details puts Jar Jar's interactions with Boss Nass in a new light. The hostility he displays on seeing Jar Jar back in Otah Gunga suddenly makes a lot more sense, as he holds an obvious personal grudge.
1 His Fate After The Clone Wars
Jar Jar's last on-screen appearance in the films is a non-speaking cameo at the end of Revenge of the Sith. He is not mentioned at any point in the original or sequel trilogies, leaving the obvious question of what could have happened to him once the Empire was in control. There have been fan theories about how he may have been discreetly killed off or was actually a Sith lord who planned everything from the start. The actual canonical story is a lot more tragic.
Jar Jar had an unwitting part in the Empire's rise to power when he granted Chancellor Palpatine "emergency powers" at the onset of the Clone Wars. In theory, it simply meant that the Chancellor would be temporarily given extra power so that he could more easily address the threat posed by the Separatists, with the expectation that he would rescind that power after the crisis ended. In actuality, the unchecked authority allowed Palpatine to push the Republic into becoming more authoritarian and militaristic, setting the groundwork for its eventual transformation into the Empire.
Jar Jar himself was only acting in what seemed to be the Republic's best interests at the time, and could not have known the disastrous consequences that would follow. Ultimately Palpatine was the one who was responsible, as he was intentionally producing a crisis with the goal of pushing the Republic to grant him emergency powers. But that was not how the rest of the galaxy saw it. Many came to resent Jar Jar and blamed him for the atrocities committed by the Empire.
By the Battle of Endor, Jar Jar had been shunned by nearly everyone and struggled to get by as a street performer. His clownish nature proved advantageous to this job, and he became quite popular with the children of Naboo. Unfortunately, he was still distrusted by adults and haunted by the knowledge of his part in their traumas.