Rotta the Hutt is actually the worst 'Star Wars' character ever

Spoiler alert! We're discussing major details about “The Mandalorian and Grogu” (in theaters now). Stop reading if you haven’t seen the movie yet and don’t want to know what happens.

Exsqueeze me, Jar Jar Binks. Meesa sorry for how wude I’ve been to you.

For the last quarter century, Jar Jar has been the resident punching bag of the “Star Wars” universe: an amphibious, mildly offensive Gungan who barrels into “The Phantom Menace,” yells a bunch of nonsense, and is effectively jettisoned to a mere cameo in George Lucas’ next two prequel movies.

But even this bumbling, bug-eyed idiot is no match for Rotta the Hutt, an oversized slug with the washboard abs of a Hemsworth brother and the brooding pout of a bargain-bin Brando.

Rotta, regrettably, plays a pivotal role in “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” which whisks Pedro Pascal’s phlegmatic bounty hunter into a dangerous mission with Baby Yoda to track down and safely return the prodigal worm child (voiced with angsty indifference by Jeremy Allen White).

But you see, this slimy slugger doesn’t want to be found. Rotta is, naturally, the testy son of the grotesque gangster Jabba the Hutt, whom we met in “A New Hope.” Rotta, meanwhile, was introduced as an infant cartoon character in the 2008 animated film "Star Wars: The Clone Wars."

After his father’s death, Rotta got mixed up with the wrong crowd and now owes a substantial debt to the galactic mafioso Janu (Jonny Coyne). To repay his sum, Janu has forced Rotta to do gladiator-style fights with a bevy of monsters – a challenge that the chiseled Rotta enjoys, if only because he’s made a name for himself outside of his crime-syndicate family.

When Mando sneaks into his prison cell and offers to spring him loose, Rotta firmly insists that he wishes to stay. After all, most of those cheering spectators have no idea he’s the spawn of Jabba.

“You don’t know how hard it is to be your own man when your father’s Jabba the Hutt,” Rotta sulkily declares, earning stifled chuckles throughout our screening of the movie.

Even after Mando saves him from the arena, Rotta's daddy issues constitute his entire personality. “I want to be nothing like my father,” Rotta confides, telling Mando that the innocent, green-skinned Grogu is lucky to have a papa figure like him. (Surprising no one, Jabba was a bit of an absent parent.)

And so, we watch as Rotta cloyingly plays with Grogu on a beach at sunset, and eventually stands up to his devious twin cousins, who are unsuccessful in their scheme to kill Jabba’s son and take up the mantle of the Hutt dynasty themselves. At movie’s end, Rotta sets off for a fresh start as a New Republic fighter pilot – but not before reminding Grogu that his dad, Mando, “is one of the good ones.”

Listen, we don’t blame White here. A paycheck is a paycheck, and there’s only so much you can do with such stilted, laughable dialogue about living in Jabba’s shadow. And to be fair, Rotta is hardly the first irksome character in a “Star Wars” film. (Remember Watto, L3-37 and General Grievous?)

But the difference here is, all of those were supporting players. If you got sick of Grievous’ wheezing cough, he was only onscreen for a few minutes at a time. By contrast, there is no escaping Rotta. He’s essentially the Princess Leia to Mando’s Han Solo, but without the fabulous hair and incisive one-liners.

When it comes to “Star Wars,” Disney has been obsessed with creating tenuous family connections that frankly, fans don’t really care about. (Palpatine is Rey’s grandpa? Really?) The Mouse House also seems dead set on retconning all of its best villains, with recent movies giving weepy sob stories to Cruella de Vil, Maleficent and Scar to explain away their cruelty.

But why can’t we just let bad guys be bad? Jabba literally drove around a floating party barge with half-naked ladies chained up to him while he fed his insubordinates to giant, teeth-gnashing creatures. It never once crossed my mind that his offspring might hopefully have some redeemable qualities.

What’s next? The Tusken Raiders are actually pretty cool once you get to know them? Sorry, Rotta, but we’re dropping you in the Sarlacc pit where you belong.