Broken Frontier

With a title like “The Gungan General,” it’s little surprise that the latest episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars features the saga’s resident klutz Jar Jar Binks rather prominently. The character last took center stage in “Bombad Jedi”—widely considered the series’ weakest installment—and he returns once again to save the day completely by accident and send shivers up more than a few spines.

Oddly enough, Ahmed Best does not return to lend his voice to the character despite reprising the role for Jar Jar’s last Clone Wars appearance. Instead, Jar Jar is voiced by BJ Hughes this time around, who never manages to properly mimic Best’s distinctive intonation. Jar Jar’s voice may be intentionally annoying but it’s a central part of the character, and Hughes’ performance misses the mark completely.

At the end of the previous episode, “Dooku Captured,” Anakin and Obi-Wan narrowly avoided being poisoned by a gang of Weequay space pirates, with whom they had just negotiated a deal to bring Dooku into Republic custody. Evidently, however, the Jedi were drugged, and wake up in a prison cell shackled to the Sith Lord. With three hostages valuable to the Republic, pirate leader Hondo Ohnaka aims to triple his profits. Now, Anakin and Obi-Wan must cooperate with Dooku in an effort to escape their surprisingly formidable captors.

Watching heroes and villains become reluctant allies is always amusing, and the episode’s writer, Julie Siege (Supernatural), makes the best of that situation with some genuinely funny moments between the three. At one point, when Anakin makes fun of Dooku for slowing them down by remarking that he’s an “elderly gentleman, and doesn’t move like he used to,” Dooku dryly replies, “I would kill you both right now if I did not have to drag your bodies.”

In stark contrast to this episode’s phenomenally understated comedy is Jar Jar’s groan-inducing slapstick which, much like the Gungan himself, often falls flat on its face.  Not knowing that Anakin and Obi-Wan have also been captured, the Republic sends Jar Jar and Senator Kharrus to the pirate stronghold on Florrum to deliver the ransom and make contact with the Jedi. Unfortunately, a rogue group of Weequay pirates—led by Ohnaka’s lacky Turk Falso—shoots down the Republic transport in an effort to steal the ransom for themselves. With Kharrus dead and only a small band of clone troopers surviving the crash, it’s up to Jar Jar to take on the pirates and reclaim the ransom. He does, and in the process he knocks out the pirates’ power lines and frees the Jedi and Dooku, who escapes the pirates and kills a few of them on the way out. Of course, the Jedi affirm that they never really needed rescuing, but we know better. We wish we didn’t, but we know.

"The Gungan General" is an episode that could have probably benefited from a complete abandonment of the Jar Jar storyline but, as is, it’s a fairly entertaining installment in the series. It would be interesting to see if fans eventually warmed up to Jar Jar if his accidental heroism and overall eccentricities were toned down a bit in future episodes of The Clone Wars, but it’s unlikely that will happen anytime soon.