So Much Is now Clear

George Lucas says that if he could be any character from his Star Wars movies, he would be Jar-Jar Binks.

I am suspicious of this statement. On the one hand, Mr. Lucas knows the near-universal hatred of Jar-Jar and is massively trolling us all. He knows his prequels were widely despised, he knows his decisions to continuously tweak his original movies to meet his current sensibilities (Han shot first!) have been dismissed as hackery, and he knows that many if not most of the people who love the movies now realize how heavily others influenced the story he's claimed was solely his vision. So why not say you would be Jar-Jar, in order to cause all of these people to Force-choke themselves into unconsciousness in their own rage?

On the other hand, Jar-Jar Binks is an unavoidable aspect of the Star Wars universe. Yes, his presence is a painful reminder of the series' worst moments. Yes, he is deeply intertwined with memories of painfully bad dialogue ("Hold me, Ani!") and bad acting (Hayden Christensen). Yes, we cannot see him without remembering the eruptions of wish-fulfillment hackery that dominate the prequel movies (midichlorians, the pod race, Trade Federations, Darth Maul, Jango Fett...) But we can't truly be rid of him or completely divorce him from the story we have in front of us.

So in a real sense, George Lucas is already Jar-Jar Binks. And he always will be.