What the heck is a Bombad General?

What does Jar Jar's position of "Bombad General" in the Gungan Grand Army actually entail? Who does he command, and does he answer to anyone? Captain Tarpals seems to outrank him and seems to be in command of the whole Gungan Grand Army, but if Gungan military ranks have any correlation to Earth military ranks, a general should outrank a captain.

My assumption is that Gungan ranks do roughly correspond to Earth ranks (otherwise, using the same words seems unnecessary and pointless complication on Lucas' part), but that Tarpals actually holds a rank much higher than captain, indeed probably that of commander in chief. "Captain Tarpals" may just be a nickname, rather than an official title, or maybe Jar Jar just screws up (which always has to be a possibility), since he is the only one to identify Tarpals as "Captain" in the movie. I realize my line of assumptions stretches the incontrovertible facts of TPM, somewhat, but in my opinion, interpreting Jar Jar as outranking Tarpals is also a stretch, and one that makes the movie less believable and enjoyable, so I prefer my point of view.

Another (probably fanciful) explanation for the puzzle might entail the oddities of Gungan speech. I'm not sure what "bombad" means. Is it merely an adjective, like "great," or is it part of Jar Jar's rank, marking him as a lieutenant general or something like that? Or is "Bombad" Jar Jar's actual rank and "general" the adjective, as in the position of "Postmaster General" or "Surgeon General"? Jar Jar apparently uses "bombad" as an adjective, seemingly in reference to defeated droids, but many words such as the word general itself can be used as both nouns and adjectives, depending on context. Maybe bombad is a past tense verb when Jar Jar applies it to the droids (meaning bombed, destroyed, wiped out?) and a noun when applied to Jar Jar (bomber, bombardier?). Fanciful speculation, I admit.

(I realize Jar Jar's rank has received some attention in other Jar Jar threads, but this specific question about how the Gungan army works seemed buried by and interrupted with a lot of other issues in those threads.)

 

Right here.

 

Captain Tarpals did much of the commanding, at least that part of the battle seen in the film. There was to be another general in the film, General Ceel, but he does not appear. He was at the battle though perhaps he was elsewhere, or taking an overview rather than being on the front lines.

Jar Jar was given the rank of Bombad General which may be higher than an ordinary general in the Gungan army. However, the rank was mainly ceremonial since Jar Jar obviously didn't have the first idea of how to command an army. He was not given many specific responsibilities either and that's why it seems that for all practical purposes, Tarpals is commanding the troops seen in the film.

 

I thought the 'Bombad' part of General was just Boss Nass's way of being snarky.

 

Bombad means most annoying disliked SW character ever hence the title was given to Jar Jar.

 

Ding ding ding, we have a winner!