- "There's a war coming, and our benefactor wants to make sure the right side gets a headstart. Our target is the Chancellor himself—Palpatine… And no one on Coruscant can stop us!"
- ―Kelsara Llenkch
At some point before 13:2:28 GRS, the newly founded Confederacy of Independent Systems led by the self-defrocked Jedi Master Dooku plotted to assassinate Palpatine, then Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. In order to do so, the Confederacy fomented a mission involving a group of five mercenaries, including the famed assassin Kelsara Llenkch. The Separatist-aligned agents were supposed to murder the Chancellor inside the Naboo Embassy on Coruscant, which the Chancellor was to visit. However, their mission failed when Jar Jar Binks, a Gungan who acted as the Security Advisor to Captain Gregar Typho, intervened and unwittingly knocked the assassins out. As a consequence, Binks was made Junior Representative for Naboo in the Galactic Senate, effectively becoming a political ally of Palpatine.
Background[]
Sidious and Dooku were the architects of a conflict in gestation.
- "The Republic cannot be fixed, M'Lady. It is time to start over."
- ―Count Dooku, to Padmé Amidala
Shortly after the Subjugation of Naboo in 32 BBY,[8] the Jedi Master Dooku, Count of Serenno, chose to leave the Jedi Order.[9] In 24 BBY, after years of secret plotting with his new master, the Dark Lord of the Sith known as Darth Sidious, Dooku declared his intentions to form the Confederacy of Independent Systems, a group of disenfranchised organizations and governments the goal of which was to secede from the dominant Galactic Republic.[8] Unbeknownst to the immense majority of the galactic community, both sides were led by the same person, as Sidious was none other than Palpatine, then Supreme Chancellor of the Republic.[10] During the next two years, tension kept mounting between the Republic and the Separatists, and the imminence of an armed conflict was becoming more evident.[5]
The assassination attempt[]
- "Get that control terminal off him before he gets us all killed!"
- ―Kelsara Llenkch
Jar Jar Binks accidentally saved Gregar Typho's life.
In 23 BBY, about one year after the foundation of their movement,[6] the Separatists decided to murder the Supreme Chancellor in order to weaken the Republic and start out with an advantage in case of war. For that delicate mission, the Confederacy recruited a group of five mercenaries: the dreaded assassin Kelsara Llenkch, two Humans named Maash and Vela, a member of the Yuzzem species, and another Human. Their plan was to infiltrate the Naboo Embassy on Coruscant, capital world of the Republic, which the Chancellor was meant to visit on the occasion of a grand banquet.[5]
The mercenaries easily made their way throughout the critically important Senate District, escaping the vigilance of the blue-clad Coruscant Guards,[11] and met in the vicinity of the embassy, where Llenkch informed her associates of the identity of their target. The would-be assassins then stormed the embassy's kitchen and killed the staff. The Separatists killers, all dressed as chefs, with the exception of Llenkch herself and the Yuzzem, in a manner as to go undetected. However, the Gungan hero Jar Jar Binks—who worked as the embassy's Security Advisor under the command of Captain Gregar Typho—overheard a conversation between Maash and Vela, who were staying in the kitchen waiting for orders.[5]
Binks immediately ran to the Grand Hall, where he bumped into Captain Typho, knocking him unconscious and unwittingly saving him from a sniper shot. With Typho incapictated, Binks seized a controlling box that allowed to summon sentinel droids. Although the droids gave him a temporary advantage, Binks could not control them correctly, and he soon found himself under the threat of a blaster. When he was ordered to hand over the controlling box, Binks accidentally dropped it, prompting the sentinel droids to fall on his assailants' heads. Fortuitously, the clumsiness of the Security Advisor had knocked the Separatist assassins unconscious and saved the day. Palpatine, whom the would-be assassins had not even been able to reach, later showed up to thank the Gungan for his bravery and "unique abilities."[5]
Aftermath[]
Jar Jar Binks was appointed Junior Representative for Naboo as a reward.
- "At the time of writing, Binks was reportedly punching the air with joy and shouting, "Tanken yous berry much!""
- ―Tho-Masfran Ciss
Llenkch and her accomplices were arrested and put in the custody of the Royal Naboo Security Forces. The events of the assassination attempt were recounted by Tho-Masfran Ciss, Senior Coruscant Correspondent for The Coruscant Holo Net, who taxed the Coruscant Guards with incompetence for not stopping the assassin before they reached the embassy.[11] Knowing that the Gungan had developed a naive fascination for politics and had already served as the Gungan Ambassador to the city of Theed,[12] Palpatine nominated Security Advisor Binks to the position of Junior Representative for Naboo in the Galactic Senate as a reward for the role he played in foiling the assassination attempt.[5] That nomination was later found to be instrumental to Palpatine's rise to unlimited power. A few months later, Palpatine convinced the Gungan of the necessity to create a Grand Army of the Republic to defend the Republic against the Separatists. When Binks was asked to act in the stead of his senior senator, Padmé Amidala, he suggested that the Senate give Palpatine the emergency powers required to create that army. Shortly after, the Clone Wars broke out on Geonosis.[13]
Appearances[]
- "Too Many Cooks" — Star Wars Comic 4 (First appearance)
Sources[]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ Jedi Quest: The False Peace
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Essential Reader's Companion
- ↑ Jedi Quest: The Final Showdown
- ↑
Gotal Guerillas Hijack Commuter Hopper, Take Hostages — HoloNet News Vol. 531 #52 (content now obsolete; backup link)
- ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 5.15 5.16 5.17 5.18 5.19 5.20 5.21 5.22 5.23 5.24 5.25 5.26 5.27 "Too Many Cooks" — Star Wars Comic 4
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 The story of Too Many Cooks depicts the events that led to the appointment of Jar Jar Binks as Junior Representative for Naboo. From the Vol. 531 #45 of the HoloNet News website, it is known that Binks already occupied that position as of 13:2:28 (23 BBY).
- ↑ Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones novelization
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 The New Essential Chronology
- ↑ Darth Plagueis
- ↑
Darth Sidious in the Encyclopedia (content now obsolete; backup link)
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "The Coruscant Holo Net: Chancellor Safe" — Star Wars Comic 4
- ↑ The Official Star Wars Fact File 54 (JAR9-10, Jar Jar Binks)
- ↑ Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones