Think about it: Jar Jar Binks has been shunned by the people he once thought would always love him and now finds his sole purpose in life entertaining the only people that value his presence: children. It’s not just a sly meta comment on the character and the story. It’s a mirror placed in front of the fandom itself.
It’s nothing short of breathtaking.
Time changes perspectives and it calms down the inflamed passions of (most) fans. The epilogue of Jar Jar Binks is a fitting punctuation point to the journey of the character (assuming we don’t hear more) and it adds an unexpected depth, thankfully. Ahmed Best deserves this mature, layered look at the character he brought groundbreaking life to. Just like the character, Best, one of the trailblazers of performance capture, was on the receiving end of scorn and a fandom-sized shunning. In 2018, he openly spoke of the depression and suicidal struggle this brought to his life. This moment doesn’t necessarily heal that, but it beautifully and thoughtfully reminds us all to look again at Jar Jar Binks and his true value in the Star Wars saga.
And that is very much okie day.
85
Doctor Aphra and
the world of possibilities
Marvel’s Star Wars: Darth Vader: Book I, Issue III
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Salvador Larroca
In May 2015, Kieron Gillen’s Marvel Comics series Star Wars: Darth Vader had already begun to take the Dark Lord of the Sith on his own personal journey to discover the truth about the young Force-sensitive Rebel that blew up the Death Star. He was doing this on his own, hidden from the watchful gaze of his master, Emperor Palpatine, so he immediately formed alliances with some shady characters, old and new. Boba Fett was on board, as was disgraced Wookiee bounty hunter Black Krrsantan. However, in issue three, a seemingly innocuous meeting with a morally ambiguous archeologist launched the journey of a new fan favorite. Doctor Aphra had arrived.
Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra may have been introduced as a supporting character but her arrival left an impression. She was undeniably whip-smart and full of youthful energy and defiance. Vader had arrived to save her from some trouble, but Aphra was still cracking jokes with the Dark Lord. Taking him into a fresh, new line of conversation. It was as if Vader had met Ahsoka all over again, but the edges of this partnership were going to be darker. She was nervously respectful of Vader, a self-confessed fan even, but she wasn’t afraid to let her personality shine through. There was something more to what creator Kieron Gillen originally envisioned as an anti-Indiana Jones for Star Wars. Her appeal was initially unexplainable. Aphra just had, you know, that “it” quality to her.
Her adventures continued in the pages of the Vader series, but her fan base grew (as did that of her killer droid companions Triple Zero and Beetee-One). The walls of someone else’s story could no longer contain her and in December 2016 Marvel launched a Doctor Aphra centered comic line. It was no surprise why. As we learned more about Aphra, we learned more about her importance to this new Star Wars landscape and the fans that cherished her.
Though born twenty-four years before the Battle of Yavin on a peaceful planet that was on the outside of the Clone Wars strife in the Star Wars galaxy, her character design was what we Earth-bound folks call Asian and having had a past relationship with the equally unique Sana Starros, and later embattled Imperial officer Magna Tolvan, Aphra was also one of the first prominent LGBTQ characters in Star Wars. Representation in Star Wars had reached out and taken a front seat during the build-up to The Force Awakens, and Doctor Aphra had fought her way to the table. No one could make her leave.
The comic book series in which she leads has proven to be a wild, sometimes whacky, and unapologetically different kind of a Star Wars story. Thanks to her archeologist skillset, we’ve gotten to dive into some ancient histories and mysteries. Thanks to her conflicted moral center (she’s got no love for the Empire, but also no real love for the Rebels), we’ve gotten to go to some darker Star Wars underworlds and occasionally see a cute Tooka Cat or two used as a bomb. Thanks to her vibrantly stubborn independent streak, we’ve gotten to explore different kinds of family histories and romantic relationships. Star Wars romances are by nature sweeping and epic whereas Aphra’s are in flux and intriguingly more combustible. All this means is that the adventures of Doctor Aphra often run in their own lanes. There is a weird 1970’s sci-fi vibe amongst the backdrop of the more traditional Star Wars stories.
And it’s hard to turn away.
Doctor Aphra arrived in Star Wars on the move, in danger, and full of wisecracks. She hasn’t stopped running and she’s so much more. Fan fervor led to the creation of her action figures and she is often the number-one character people want to see jump off the page and onto the screen. Her stories are unique, new, and, yes, challenging, but at the center of it all, more than any specific moment, shines this wonderful character that represents so much to so many. Above all, Doctor Aphra represents possibilities.
84
The purpose and death of
a working man
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Writers: Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy
Director: Gareth Edwards
There is a key moment in Rogue One when Bodhi Rook, Imperial pilot turned Rebel, talks with Jyn Erso about her father Galen. Bodhi was entrusted by her father with the all-important message of how to destroy the still-in-construction Death Star. That is literally the weight of the galaxy on the shoulders of a “simple” cargo pilot for the Galactic Empire. Yet Bodhi Rook is no menacing agent of evil. He’s a working man, a blue-collar denizen of the galaxy, who joined the Empire because it was a way to stretch beyond his home world of Jedha, support his family, and find his place in the galaxy.
Though he aspired to be a fighter pilot (the “I wanna be a quarterback” of the Star Wars galaxy), Bodhi settled into his cargo pilot gig, seemingly unaware of the abominable intentions of the Empire, which is a notion that is not hard to believe. The Empire is truly “galactic” and if you’re serving it in a small corner of a larger picture, you might not have the chance to see the damage done. Some Imperials on the Death Star weren’t even sure what had happened when Alderaan was destroyed by the very space station they were working on. Bodhi Rook was truly just doing his job, for better or…as he started feeling…worse. Bodhi’s soul starts to waver and wander and that’s when Galen finds him. He was compromised in the best of ways.
So, Bodhi, still shaken by the effects of the mind-melding interrogation wrought on him by Saw Guerra’s Bor Gullet creature, mumbles to Jyn that her father entrusted him with the important message along with the words, “This would make things right.” Bodhi hadn’t directly brought evil to the galaxy, but he was a small cog in the Imperial wheel. The look in his eyes is that of man facing down his purpose and knowing it’s a hard road. A road he has to take. By this point, he had already taken the message and defected to the good guys. He truly did want to make things right and felt he was doing his part to bring peace and justice to the galaxy. The cost was his life.
Bodhi took this path for himself, for his family, and, yes, the galaxy, but you have to assume that, all along, Bodhi was feeling good about the actions he had taken. Oh, he probably wasn’t worried about the glory, but he was probably looking forward to the adulation after and knowing that, when he saw his family again, he’d be a hero to them. Not part of the fire fight raging around him on Scarif, Bodhi is suddenly tasked with the mission-saving action of manually connecting the ground crew to their Rebel saviors in the skies about them.
Bodhi steps out of his comfort zone, into the crossfire, and succeeds, directly communicating with the great Admiral Raddus and the Rebel fleet. The lowly cargo pilot