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Jar Jar Binks was a man who didn’t have a lot of friends. A lot of people seemed to hate him; it almost seemed as if people saw his clumsiness but saw nothing else. It was as if that was all people could see. It went so far that many people, after meeting him, went out of their way to avoid him.
But that didn’t stop Jar Jar from enjoying his life. He saw how much good there was in the galaxy, how much beauty and wonder. And no matter how people treated him, he didn’t let that bring him down.
When Queen Amidala had offered Jar Jar a place on her staff as a Gungan representative, Jar Jar had jumped at the chance to represent the Gungan people—to give them a voice. But when Padme had transitioned into galactic politics and had become the Senator for Naboo, she had requested Jar Jar come with her and represent his people on an even bigger scale.
But the new opportunity had given Jar Jar a bad feeling. And Jar Jar mostly tried to listen to those. Those feelings he got — deep in his gut — didn’t stop his clumsiness from getting in the way of relationships, but they did lead him down better life paths.
The day that Master Jinn had saved Jar Jar from those awful battle droids, he had had one of those feelings that had led him in Master Jinn’s direction. He wondered now if he maybe wouldn’t have survived the invasion if he hadn’t listened to that feeling.
So when the newly appointed Senator Padme Amidala had asked Jar Jar to accompany her to Coruscant, Jar Jar had instead recommended Roos Tarpals instead. Roos Tarpals, the formal General of the Gungan army, and the best friend of his late father would serve with a quicker wit than Jar Jar. It didn’t hurt that Ross had a much keener sense of deceit than Jar Jar ever would.
Jar Jar wasn’t ashamed that he saw the good in the galaxy, in people, far more than most other people did. Because his ability to see that good meant that even when he was lonely, he was happy.
Years passed. Jar Jar continued to enjoy his small role on Naboo’s planetary council. Queen Jamillia had asked Jar Jar to continue his role on the council when she had become elected. Jar Jar had immediately agreed, after all, he enjoyed the work.
One year, in late fall, Jar Jar prepared his home for the new festive celebration that had made its way to Naboo from Corellia: Hallows-Eve. It sounded like fun to Jar Jar, and many homes in Theed had recently decided to adopt this strange and joyous holiday for themselves.
This would be the first Hallows-Eve that Jar Jar would participate in and he was incredibly excited. He had even decorated his home in spooky decorations like fake Bane-Back Spider webs and hubba gourds that were carved to have spooky, wide, grinning faces.
He had a giant bowl of Naboo Caramel-Pears that he had dipped himself, ready by his front door to hand out to troom-and-treaters. At least, he thought they were called troom-and-treaters. All he knew was that Queen Jamillia had said that children dressed in costumes would come to his house and demand candy in exchange for showing him their costumes.
The ‘Troom’ must stand for Costume, he thought to himself agreeably as he had listened to Queen Jamillia explain the holiday during their last planetary council meeting.
Regardless, tonight his house looked perfectly spooky and his treat was ready; he couldn’t wait for the children to show up.
While he waited, Jar Jar got to cooking his favourite fish dish. It wasn’t until he was almost finished that heard his door chime go off and shouts asking for ‘treats’ in childish voices.
Sure enough, when he went to open the door two children stood in varying costumes, holding out tubs half filled with candy.
Jar Jar grinned at the children widely. “Oh, lookie lookie here! Messa spy such mag-nifff-icent costumes!” Jar Jar turned to get his wrapped Caramel-Pears, dropping one in each bin. “Here’s ya go! Made these specially messa-self!”
The one dressed as a fluffy tooka looked down at the plastiod-wrapped caramel-pear with distaste. “Aww, no candy? I don’t want that!”
The slightly taller one, dressed as a Colo claw fish, elbowed them in the side. “Be nice, Radmo, we’ll get lots more candy at other houses.” She turned her little face up to smile politely at Jar Jar, “thanks mister!”
Jar Jar felt his face smelt into a dopey soft smile. “Yousa welcome!”
Jar Jar closed the door as the pair walked away, intending on heading back to the kitchen and his cooking. But as he stepped away from the door, the chime rang again and more children’s voices called out, asking for treats.
Three more times this happened after that, but on the fifth one of the night, the child that stepped up to the door was unlike any child Jar Jar had ever seen.
The child was dressed as a carved gourd very much like the gourds he’d put on the steps leading up to his front door, but that was not the unusual thing about this child; after all, this was the third gourd costume he’d seen tonight. No, the unusual thing about them was that they were tiny and fuzzy and green! Jar Jar had never seen a small fuzzy green thing like this before. They also had large, pointed ears like the Naboo cave bat and huge dark eyes that Jar Jar could coo over for hours.
The tiny adorable being was being accompanied by a large Jedi with a very kind smile and beautiful brown eyes.
The tiny being baby babbled something to Jar Jar and held up a plastoid bin half full of candy that was almost as big as the tiny little one.
“He’s saying trick-or-treat,” the gorgeous Jedi grinned at Jar Jar from where he was standing just a couple steps behind the baby.
“Wow-sa,” Jar Jar exclaimed reverently, finding it very hard to keep his eyes off the middle aged human Jedi. Jar Jar shook his head, trying to focus on the tiny little one in front of him. “Oopsie-day, let me get you a Caramel-Pear!”
He was just dropping the plastoid-wrapped Caramel-Pear into the tiny gourd-baby’s bucket when the scent of smoke filled his nostrils.
“Is something burning?” The Jedi asked, concerned, in a beautiful rich baritone voice.
“Oh no!” Jar Jar cried, clasping his cheeks in dismay. “Mesa forgot to turn off the stove!”
Jar Jar raced through the house, not even thinking about the front door he’d left wide open.
He had forgotten to turn off the stove and his food had started on fire. The fire had started to spread to his synth-wood countertops.
Jar Jar stopped and stared at his burning kitchen in dismay, not sure of what to do, when suddenly the flames began to die down. It was as if someone was casting a magic spell on them! He turned around to find that the Jedi had followed him inside and had his hands outstretched, obviously using his force-magic to dampen the flames somehow!
When the flames were completely out, Jar Jar grabbed the man’s hand, shaking it with fierce reverence. “This is-a the second time a Jedi has saved mesa life! Mesa owe you a debt of gratitude!”
The Jedi blushed handsomely, his umber-brown cheeks darkening and his lips curling up in a flustered smile. “It was nothing! I saw someone in need of my help, that is all. That is what I do as a Jedi, I help people who need it,” the man babbled.
“What is you doing on Naboo of all places, Mistah Jedi?” Jar Jar asked curiously.
“We’re here on behalf of Queen Jamillia, she asked for an ambassador to help smooth some humanitarian aid talks with Ryloth. We got here a couple days early and I wanted Grogu here to experience Hallows-Eve for himself,” He grinned and motioned down to his gourd-dressed baby. “We don’t celebrate it on Coruscant. He is currently travelling with me and his father, Master Yoda, who is also here.”
Jar Jar had heard about the humanitarian aid that the Queen was trying to smooth over with Ryloth’s greedy senator, but he hadn’t realized that it would be a Jedi negotiating between the planets. “Well-sa, it is mesa lucky day that you were here.”
It was at that moment that Jar Jar realized he had not let go of the Jedi’s hand. And in fact, the Jedi seemed intent on clasping Jar Jar’s hand, his grip firm and warm. “It is I who was lucky enough to help such a handsome fellow,” the Jedi said back, dark eyes sparkling.
“No, mesa is the one—”
The baby, who was standing at the Jedi’s feet, began to pull on the man’s robe and whine softly.
“I’m sorry, I should get back out there with Grogu and distract him from eating his whole bin of candy,” the Jedi gestured toward the front door. “This little guy is obsessed with candy.”
Jar Jar suddenly realized that the baby’s little mouth was smeared in chocolate and candy bits that hadn’t been there before. “Of course, mesa understand.” Jar Jar watched sadly as the man that could have become the love of his life (he was sure of it) let himself be pulled away by a baby.
“Before I go,” the Jedi said, even as he was being pulled away by the cloak, “I would love to know your name and get your comm number. Maybe we could go out together one night when Grogu is with Master Yoda.”
“Oh!” Jar Jar said in startled understanding, his heart filling with hope. He quickly followed behind, grabbing his comm on the way to the door.
The Jedi stopped at the doorway, not letting the gourd-baby drag him any further.
The two of them were able to exchange comm numbers before the baby got too insistent and began tugging the Jedi again. The Jedi stumbled, as if he’d been hip-chucked by an unseen person. “Alright, alright, I get it, we’re going Grogu,” the Jedi soothed.
The man let himself be pulled down the steps and into the night.
“Wait! But mesa didn’t get your name!” Jar Jar cried down the steps. In his comm, the name section still blank.
“Oh! I’m sorry, I was so stunned by your beauty, I didn’t even think to tell you,” the man called back. “It’s Kelleran Beq, Jedi Master, at your service,” he bowed, even as the baby pulled him down another step. The baby was squawking madly and swinging his mostly-empty candy bin in front of them with an invisible hand.
“Kelleran Beq,” Jar Jar whispered to himself as the two disappeared around the bend, in the direction of the next house. “Mesa think mesa will enjoy getting to know you.”
Jar Jar closed his front door, shutting out the darkness of the night and keeping a bright hope in his heart.