15 Huge Controversies That Rocked Star Wars

10. Jar Jar Binks

There's a bit of a fallacy that suggests that Jar Jar Binks is an unjust whipping boy for the Prequel Trilogy: it's a fallacy, because Jar Jar Binks deserves absolutely every critical word he gets. He is easily the worst character in the entire Star Wars canon, and his inclusion in The Phantom Menace makes a good film look like garbage.

He will likely forever be considered the most loathed Star Wars character, but more importantly, his creation inspired at least two strands of controversial thinking. Firstly, one school of thought suggests he was included solely to appeal to immature, younger audiences and sell more toys. Star Wars fans reacted with great disdain to the cynical excessive commercialisation, missing the fact that Lucas always said the films were for kids.

More problematically, Binks was also lambasted as a racial stereotype - or several in fact (taking in barbs aimed at Rastafarianism, Caribbean and Asian identities and blackface minstrels) - and while Lucas denied the allegations, they're the kind that tend to stick.