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=== RESPOT RESTOP REPOST ===
From: [email]spog@jwgh.org[/email] (Jacob W. Haller)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.kibology
Subject: Re: Lucas on Jar Jar
Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 18:13:28 -0400
David Bromage <dbromage@omni.com.au> wrote:
[. . .]
> Still on topic, where do I sign up to join the "People's Popular Front
> for the Promotion of Jar-Jar Binks Suffering a Spectacular Death in
> Episode 3"?
One of my many correspondents writes:
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Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 04:22:40 -0400
From: C*** M********** <c***@W***.C**>
Subject: The redemption of Jar Jar
To: GAS-LOVERS@H***.E***.L****.C**
At 10:30 AM 4/20/00 -0400, you wrote:
>> Thank you for listening. Say, did I ever tell you my ideas for the
>> redemption of Jar Jar Binks?
>
>Jar Jar died for your sins!
Well, that's what we're all hoping, of course. But it's not enough.
First he has to be made to suffer. And I say this, not just because I
dislike Jar Jar, but because it would deepen the character. Jar Jar has
to die at exactly the moment when we no longer want him to, for that
alone would give his earlier purposeless and annoying behavior some kind
of meaning.
(Side note: Jar Jar reminds me of the Wogglebug from the Oz books. The
Wogglebug didn't have any pourpose in the story other than to stand
around making lame puns. He was fairly unique for his utter uselessness
and irrelevance; everyone else in a typical Oz story has some particular
skill or property that proves essential to the quest at hand.)
Anyway, here's my plan for Jar Jar's redemption:
First of all, Jar Jar has to become Naboo's representative to the
Galactic Senate. It makes sense when you think about it: the planet is
now under Gungan rule, so naturally Boss Nass wants to put a Gungan in
the position. From his point of view, it also neatly solves the problem
of what to do with Jar Jar. Nass knows that Jar Jar is an idiot and a
liability to everyone around him - I imagine that he was sent to the
front in Ep. 1 in the hopes that he'd never return - but he's also a war
hero now, and well-liked among the other Gungans (most of whom have
never met him). An ambassadorial position is a perfect solution: it
satisfies everyone (including Jar Jar, the idiot) that he's being
rewarded for his services, and at the same time keeps him far away from
the day-to-day running of the Gungan state.
So Jar Jar is in the Senate. He's a few years older now, and is
beginning to fill out - he doesn't look like Boss Nass yet, but he's
definitely on that road. He's become extremely self-conscious. He's
trying his best to conform, but his ignorance of custom combines with
his natural awkwardness to defeat him at every turn. He visibly
struggles to control his accent when speaking to other representatives.
He makes outlandish faux pas and looks genuinely mortified afterwards.
(Can you imagine Jar Jar looking mortified? I'm not talking about a
sheepish smile, I'm talking a real "Oh my god, what have I done" look,
like Woody in Toy Story when he knocked Buzz out the window. That alone
makes the entire scheme worth it.) Jar Jar has only one friend in the
whole Senate: the former Naboo representative who did so much to help
Jar Jar's friends in the past, Chancellor Palpatine.
Palpatine, of course, realizes that the inordinate trust Jar Jar places
in him makes him easily manipulable, and so he preserves the conditions
that make him Jar Jar's only friend. He realizes that Jar Jar would be
better off flaunting his ethnicity (think of Ben Franklin in France,
winning support by playing the rustic American) rather than trying and
failing to be like everyone else, so he encourages him to try to be like
everyone else. When Jar Jar points out the respect and even awe
accorded to the Wookiee senator (an old, white-furred specimen,
resplendent in traditional Wookiee ceremonial garb), Palpatine claims
that it's only because Wookiees have been in the senate for a long time
that their eccentricities are tolerated. Jar Jar, incedentally, is
wearing an old-fashioned three-piece suit that makes him look even more
froglike and grotesque than he already does.
On the senate floor, whenever someone subtly mocks or insults Jar Jar,
Palpatine sticks up for him. This makes Palpatine look like a hero, and
at the same time makes people resent Jar Jar's favored position. How
can Jar Jar be anything but grateful?
Palpatine assures Jar Jar that his efforts to fit in are working, and
that people are starting to warm to him. Jar Jar is well aware that
he's derided and reviled behind his back, but he trusts Palpatine's
words more than he trusts his own perceptions. At night, he cries
himself to sleep. He could really use a friendly ear to pour out his
troubles to, but he thinks he already has one in Palpatine, who's really
good at belittling his problems without seeming to.
Eventually, the scales fall from Jar Jar's eyes. I don't know how;
perhaps he walks in on Palpatine in his sith robes or something. It's a
dazzling revelation to Jar Jar. In an instant, he sees what a fool he's
been, and how he's been betrayed. He is enraged. We've never seen an
enraged Gungan, but I'm willing to bet that they're an impressive sight
(and perhaps even change color). The overall design of the Gungans is
fairly monstrous, when you come right down to it, with those enormous
hands and alien eyes. The only reason Jar Jar isn't scary is that he
usually seems so ineffective. Jar Jar is enraged. He charges into
Palpatine's quarters, babbling in Gungan, an alien monster on a rampage.
There's a confrontation; Palpatine gets Jar Jar to calm down, tells him
it's not the way it seems. This works for a little while, but Palpatine
underestimates the change that has been wrought in Jar Jar's soul. He
has seen the truth, and will not so easily believe lies again.
Palpatine, unprepared to actually argue intelligently with his former
puppet, gets caught in his own words. The freshly enraged alien monster
lacks his hands around the chancellor's throat...
When Jar Jar's body is found, covered with lightsabre wounds, Palpatine
gives a stirring oration. The Jedi have gone too far, they're not
accountable to anyone, something like this was bound to happen
eventually, etc. The only defense we can possibly have against
atrocities like this is to (a) raise a Senate-controlled army of
stormtroopers for the defense of all the people and (b) arrest all the
Jedi in the galaxy. And so it goes.
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