Theory: 10 Details That Prove Jar Jar Is Actually A Sith Lord

Arguably one of the best things to come from the Star Wars universe over the last four decades is the amount of fan theories people have come up with. They range from the plausible to downright bonkers, with some actually having a fair amount of evidence to back to back them up. Easily the most well known and impressive theory is that of Jar Jar Binks being a secret Sith Lord, and actually the one who was really behind everything. Now, depending on who you speak to, this is one theory which can fall in either category mentioned above. Today we are going to share ten details which pointed to Jar Jar not being on the side of good throughout his time in the saga.

Number 10 - He Infiltrated The Galactic Senate

Everyone remembered Jar Jar's introduction in The Phantom Menace. He was portrayed as an incredibly clumsy and seemingly dim-witted side character. However, in Attack of the Clones Jar Jar had become a representative in the Senate. How? This alone surely proved that he had some level of intelligence not seen in the previous film. On the other hand, I am sure there have been worse real-life politicians, right?

During the events of The Clone Wars series, Jar Jar was still portrayed close to his first appearance, but he had been entrusted to carry out fairly important missions on behalf of the Senate. He always seemed to come out unscathed in the end. Could this all be a facade, and he had actually manipulated events to get himself into the Senate? Who would do such a thing?

Number 9 - He Gave Power to Palpatine

During the events of Attack of the Clones, the Republic found itself locked in battle with the Confederacy of Independant Star Systems. While the Senate did what politicians did best, Obi-Wan Kenobi discovered a clone army is being built on the planet Kamino. However, in order to approve its use, the Senate must grant Chancellor Palpatine emergency powers. Guess who happened to be there to lend a hand— Jar Jar. As a junior representative of Naboo, Jar Jar took Padme's place in her absence and was the one who convinced the Senate to give Palpatine exactly what he wanted, unlimited power. It was also worth mentioning, the particular legislation that Palpatine required the emergency powers to overrule was one Padme had been working very closely to pass in the Senate. For Jar Jar to do what he did, he basically went against Padme's wishes. As she was the person he was representing, why would he do this? Because he was a Sith Lord! When one examined the overall story of the prequels, this one moment was easily the beginning of Palpatine's reign and it was all thanks to Representative Binks.

Number 8 - Could He Use The Force?

So this one was a little bit of a stretch, but it did make a compelling argument. It had widely been suggested that Jar Jar Binks could use the Force. There were even some examples of it in the films, depending on how you look at it.

Firstly, during the Phantom Menace, a scene took place where Qui-Gion Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi dropped from a balcony in order to rescue Queen Amidala. In the shot of them dropping, Jar Jar appeared to mess up his leap and grabbed the ledge on the right hand side. However, in the following scene, with the camera focusing on each character's landing, Jar Jar fell to the left. What was even more compelling was that a droid was seen firing towards his original position. While this was likely a continuity error, an argument could be made that he used the Force to change the path of his fall.

Secondly, when taking the two Jedi to his hidden underwater home city, he performed a twenty-foot jump while spinning. Throughout the Star Wars universe, we had really only seen Jedi, Sith, or other Force-sensitive beings accomplish those kind of flips.

Lastly, in the scene mentioned in Number 9, Jar Jar made many motions with his hands while suggesting that the Senate granted emergency powers to Chancellor Palpatine. Jedi have been shown to move their hands in such a way when attempting the Jedi Mind Trick. Yes, it was usually a more subtle motion such as a delicate hand wave or moving of fingers, but there were more than a few Senators there. Two hands would definitely be necessary to trick that many minds. Even more compelling was the fact the Senate seem automatically agree without question. You could literally hear roars of acceptance from the floor following the suggestion. As this basically allowed Palpatine to declare an all-out war, there should have been some sort of a discussion, correct? Therefore, Jar Jar must have used a mind trick on all the Senators.

Number 7 - He Was Not As Silly Or Clumsy As He Appeared

One of the traits of a Sith was their ability to manipulate, especially when you look at the likes of Palpatine. Sith operated in the shadows for thousands of years without the Jedi knowing, allowing them to amass power. They knew a thing or two about lying and hiding in plain sight.

Jar Jar was portrayed as extremely clumsy and downright idiotic during most of his time onscreen. Perhaps he was being used as a poor attempt at comedy relief, but these acts seem to work in his favor. During the events of The Phantom Menace, Jar Jar got himself in a few sticky situations, but managed to escape unscathed. This was most prevalent during the Battle of Naboo.

The Gungans were shown to be fairly good in a fight, despite them probably never having attempted something on this scale before, so it was safe to assume their warriors would some degree of battle knowledge. When Jar Jar ended up on the battle field, his "clumsiness" appeared to help him an awful lot. Not only was he able to take out several battle droids, he was also able to destroy several tanks after "accidentally" releasing a bunch of huge Boomas. So, we put it to you that this was all an act. He knew exactly what he was doing. Before Clone Wars came out, his appearances in the following two films severely lacked any sign of his being a simpleton in contrast with how he had been portrayed previously, especially in social settings. If it was not all an act then he was the luckiest being in the galaxy. As Obi-Wan said, "In my experience, there's no such thing as luck".

Number 6 - He And Palpatine Could Have Met Before The Films

In spite of its constant presence throughout the prequel trilogy, the planet Naboo had become somewhat forgotten. Fans know which famous characters came from there, but a potential link was missing. Padme, Palpatine, and Jar Jar all came from Naboo. Was it too much of a stretch to consider the possibility that Palpatine and Jar Jar met before the events of The Phantom Menace? You might argue that the reclusive Gungans lived in an underwater city and preferred to avoid the people above, you would be correct. However remember that Jar Jar was banished from the hidden city when we first met him. He had been wandering the land above. He was also able to lead Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan straight to Theed, the planets capital. As the seat of Naboo government Palpatine would have to visit Theed in his official position as senator. Thus, it was very plausible that he and Jar Jar could have met.

Number 5 - Palpatine Helped Jar Jar Help Him

One of the points Palpatine continued to make throughout the entire saga was that he was in control of everything. In the original trilogy he told Darth Vader that everything was going according to plan, and explained to Luke that everything was unfolding according to his design. This then suggested that Jar Jar's mishaps were probably no accident at all.

Palpatine manipulated events to send Anakin and Padme away from Coruscant at a very important time, especially with Padme being his biggest obstacle in achieving absolute power. However, it was highly unlikely that he himself suggested Jar Jar as a suitable representative for her. The selection could not happened at random either as there must have been way more suitable candidates to take Padme's place. A more realistic scenario would have been for he and Jar Jar to have already discussed the plan prior to this. Jar Jar would continue to remain close to Padme after the events of The Phantom Menace, giving him prime opportunity to swoop in, and aid Palpatine at the right moment.

Number 4 - He Seemed To Be Accidentally Involved In Various Major Plot Points

Jar Jar seemed to be involved in many important plot points. He suggested that Obi-Wan and Qui-Gonn travel through the Naboo planet core, placing himself in prime position to be their guide to accompany them. He caused a scene on Tatooine which resulted in Anakin having to step in, and be put in Qui-Gonn's path again. On top of this, he also consistently made mocking gestures towards the Jedi in front of Anakin, teaching the young boy major disrespect. He also mentioned to Anakin that the Queen was "pretty hot," cementing his feelings of desire towards her. These and the others mentioned previously seemed to happen far too often and cause bigger implications for the overall plot for it to be purely coincidental.

Number 3 - He Was Around Far Longer Than He Should Be

During Revenge of the Sith, Jar Jar was pretty much non-existent. However, he appeared in one scene that raises some particularly interesting questions. When Obi-Wan and Anakin rescued Chancellor Palpatine and arrived on Coruscant, Jar Jar was part of the entourage who greeted them. Considering most of the other characters in this scene were big players, it seemed really out of place for Jar Jar to be there, suggesting he played a larger role in the Senate than we first thought. Also, based on the characters history of being a bumbling oaf, why would Palpatine want him there and not even question it?

Number 2 - Darth Sidious And Darth Plagueis Did Not Follow The Rule Of Two

Star Wars fans know, when it comes to the Sith there can only be two, as laid out by Darth Bane a thousand year before the events of the Skywalker Saga. This is one of the main obstacles standing in the way of the Darth Jar Jar theory as, technically, no one should have been able to train him. However, Darth Plageuis showed nothing but contempt for this rule, which he instilled in Darth Sidious. By the time the Sith appear in the prequel trilogy, most of them actually ignored the Rule of Two. If we go by Legends, Sidious took Maul as his apprentice while still apprentice to Plagueis. Dooku took Asajj Ventress as his apprentice, while still with Sidious. Even Vader had been shown to take an apprentice in other media. Darth Sidious could have easily trained Jar Jar at the same time as Maul or even before taking on Dooku. Likewise, Plagueis could have trained Jar Jar at the same time as Sidious.

Number 1 - He Almost Mirrored Yoda

Now we come to our final point on the list and it is one I personally find the most compelling. When George Lucas spoke of Yoda from the original trilogy, he stated the character was meant to mimic a tradition from fairy-tale folklore: a seemingly insignificant creature the heroes come across on their travels, who actually happens to be an extremely important player in the story, and is more powerful than anyone realizes. When we first met Yoda in Empire Strikes Back, his characteristics were very similar to that of Jar Jar. He appeared to be a crazy, bumbling, old hermit at first, but was later revealed to be the long lost Jedi Grandmaster, and one of the most powerful beings in existence. The character of Jar Jar fit Lucas's description above. He was an insignificant creature randomly found by the heroes. As Lucas always said that the prequel trilogy was meant to mirror the original trilogy, Jar Jar seemed to be Yoda's counterpart in these films. This suggested that he was meant to play a much bigger part than he did.

While Count Dooku was a great character, played by the late great Sir Christopher Lee, his role in Attack of the Clones did seem a bit rushed and out of place, leading many fans to believe Jar Jar was meant to play the part of the next villain. Sadly, due to a tremendous amount of backlash, the character was put on the back burner and instead we got Dooku, not that I am really complaining. On the other hand, it would have been pretty awesome to see Yoda fight Jar Jar instead of Count Dooku. Based on Lucas's comments, it seemed like this would have made the most sense in terms of his plans for the overall story.

As it stands at the moment, it is extremely likely Darth Jar Jar will forever remain just a theory. You have to admit there is a very plausible argument to be made that he was meant for something more. With a ton of new Star Wars projects in the pipeline, could it be eventually explored in the future?

What do you think? Do you agree Jar Jar is secretly the ultimate big bad of Star Wars? Do you think the theory holds no weight? Be sure to let us know.

Until next time!

Written By Jordan McGlinchey

Source(s): Reddit, Screen Rant

Syndicated From Culture Slate

Join The Team