It’s been an unwritten rule since 1999 that you can’t talk about the Star Wars prequels without mentioning Jar Jar Binks, and there would be no point doing a series of posts about Episodes I-III that didn’t take on this particularly contentious issue many people have with the movies.

So where do you start with the much-maligned Gungan? Probably the best place to begin is with Jar Jar’s character, and how he fits into the much more serious world of Star Wars.

Firstly, what was Jar Jar Binks’s purpose in the prequels? He was really intended as comic relief, and that’s nothing new, George Lucas has always had characters with comedic talents, such as R2-D2 and C-3PO, so it’s reasonable that he wanted to try and keep that going for the prequels. He couldn’t just bring back the droid double act, and he couldn’t replace them with identical characters, so he took the bold step of including a brand new character who was intended purely for comic effect, and this created one of Jar Jar’s biggest faults. Unlike the droids, he doesn’t really have much to do, except trip over and break things; most of his important actions are done by accident, and on balance, he often puts his companions in danger rather than being an asset to them.

Having a role alongside some of the strongest and most important characters in the saga really makes Jar Jar a fish (or Gungan) out of water: he simply doesn’t know what to do when placed in such a heavy situation. Much of this isn’t actually a criticism of Jar Jar, though, more the people around him. Qui Gon saved him from Boss Nass out of kindness, but he never put much trust in the Gungan to do anything important. More critisism should be aimed at Boss Nass for making him a general, when he clearly couldn’t be trusted to go anywhere near a booma. Likewise, though some might blame Jar Jar for allowing Palpatine to build his Grand Army of the Republic, it was Padme who left him in the Senate as her representative; this was a task he was never suited to, and who could have expected him to understand the machinations of Palpatine and his plans to start a galaxy-wide war.

In spite of his divisive nature, Jar Jar isn’t the first alien in Star Wars to upset fans. Many people were unsure of how to view the Ewoks when they made their first appearance in Return of the Jedi; the small, furry creatures divided people over whether they really belonged in Star Wars, and whether such small and unadvanced beings would be able to defeat Stormtroopers and AT-ST walkers using rocks and logs.

It seems that Jar Jar was probably a good idea when he was first thought up, but that the final realisation of him onscreen was just too much to deal with.

There are many characters in cinema who are mostly there for comedic effect, and Jar Jar would fit in much better if he wasn’t so unsuited to the environment around him. The intercutting of the tense Qui Gon/Obi Wan vs Darth Maul lightsaber fight with the slapstick way Jar Jar careens around the Gungan battlefield doesn’t really do either scene any favours. If he’d been kept purely as a background character, Jar Jar might just have got by, but making him central to the story at that crucial point really destroys the credibility of the battle and the genuine struggle for the Naboo and Gungan civilisations.

Finally, there’s the point of how Jar Jar was presented onscreen; it seems as though he looked like a good idea when first imagined, but the final realisation of him was just too much to deal with.

The computer technology that was used to bring him to life was pretty new in 1999, and had never really been used to make a character like Jar Jar, who needed to act and emote in a sentient way, interacting with his surroundings and other characters. The temptation for a lot of new technology is to push it far as you can and show your audience something they’ve never seen before; it’s also easy to get too involved with the project you’re working on, and not see its effects in the bigger picture until it’s too late.

Whatever else he might have been, Jar Jar was certainly something unique in the Star Wars universe. He was really just a long-necked, big-eared, orange alien who was out of his depth. While he might not be a hero or even that relatable a character, he’s just trying to do the best he can in a world that’s far too big for him, and that’s at least worth some respect.