It’s been ages since I last saw ep 1 and, while looking for the despecialized original trilogy, I came across the prequel fan edits. “Eh, why not?”
Gotta say, I was expecting the pacing or the story to kinda fall flat, but this was a very enjoyable watch. There’s a lot that was cut, nearly all the “whimsy” was removed, also the whole underwater trip when the jedis first land on Naboo. This leads to the Gungan alliance being a “jar jar ex machina”, but it worked well enough in my opinion. Other than that, I think the movie works really well in every aspect.
The torrent I got also comes with a .docx that lists the whole movie script with all the stuff that was cut in red, and new additions (very few) in blue. A smaller list of changes can be read here - Besides removing a lot of jar jar’s antics and any references to midichlorians (I personally never cared about that), one notable change near the end was making Anakin blow up the command ship before Padme and her group capture the Viceroy, so it makes it seem that the droids being deactivated is what allowed them to complete their objective.
One thing that I noticed during the final battle was that the Trade Federation pretty much dropped the blockade, as they only left one command ship in orbit, compared to the dozens at the beginning of the movie. I guess that was because the land invasion worked, so there was no further need to keep the orbital blockade.
PS: I couldn’t stop laughing when Obi Wan fell because of that fucking meme
PPS: I always liked how Naboo looks, but this time I really paused to look a bit better at the architecture, and it has such a nice mix of mediterranean marble of yellowish tones and cyan roofs. With the current image quality and all, it was much easier to pick out “ancient CG” and in many places it looked like a “old last gen game”, but it had that late 90s charm that warms my hearth with nostalgia.
PPPS: The worst part about watching SW as an older person is seeing all those damn walkways without a single guardrail anywhere. Coruscant is even worse, that transport vehicle full of VIP heading to the senate is fully open without so much as seatbelts.
Why do you think it doesn’t make sense? I admit I’m not a Star Wars superfan or anything so I’m not familiar with the nuances of every scene and line but knowing the broad strokes of the story, the logic of the theory seems pretty solid in my mind.
I also initially got swept up in the Darth jar jar theory because of how non-specifically I understood Star wars, and I did look it up but that was years ago now.
Some of the main points are:
The actor that played him was there from the beginning, before they even knew what jar jar looked like or what his role was going to be and never heard a word about some hidden aspect of jar jar’s personality until the sith Lord hypothesis rolled around.
Literally the entirety of his character would have to be a comprehensive ruse, which doesn’t fit into literally any other character in Star wars. Occam’s razor says he’s a dummy, he comes across as a dummy, and we can only accept he’s a sith Lord, if literally everything he does is a trick rather than what it seems to be.
There’s only ever one sith Lord and their apprentice, so there really isn’t room for jar jar to be associated with the sith most of the movie with the other apprentices to the emperor.
Palpatine has to convince jar jar to support palpatine taking over the Senate, which wouldn’t be necessary at all. If jar jar was already in on it.
I remember finding a whole bunch of reasons why he doesn’t seem like a sith Lord and I do not mind looking More of them up if you’re interested.
I think the crux of the matter is there really isn’t a compelling argument for him being a sith Lord.
If you have something that convinces you though, I’m eager to watch a video or read something and go through it again.
I still like the fun idea of it, I just think it has a very weak basis as an actual theory.
I appreciate the writeup! I don’t have anything new to bring to the table, and I think you’re more familiar with not just the movies but also the theory than I am. What had me pretty convinced is that Lucas loves the “harmless creature by the roadside turning out to be supremely powerful” trope, in the way he used it with Yoda. Part of the theory goes that Lucas had started to set Jar Jar up as the “Dark Side” version of Yoda using this idea, which seems to track (taking only the events of the first movie into account) because the Gungans as a people actually do seem afraid of him. If he was just a well-meaning bungler, fear would not be a rational response - locking him up where he could be watched 24/7 and not allowed to fuck anything up would be the way to go. But, there was a tonne of backlash after the first movie, so much that it’s absolutely plausible it could have resulted in a rewrite.
As well, Dooku felt very shoehorned-in, but that could just as easily be my failure to follow the details of the story, or really poor writing.
I’m sure there was more, but unless I go back and revisit the theory and the movies I probably won’t remember it. I’m not sure I’d agree that there are more inconsistencies in the theory than there are in the canon lore. Ultimately though I guess I just prefer the narrative that Jar Jar was included as a foil to Yoda who ended up getting retconned into comic relief thanks to “fan” outrage, because it’s more fun than “the movies were bad”, so I’m willing to give the holes a bit more leeway.
I think your grasp of it is pretty good, haha, I only know what I know from podcasts and message boards, so feel free to take everything I’m saying with a grain of secondhand salt.
I don’t remember seeing any evidence of fear in the movies. I feel like Binks being locked up was used by the Binks sith theory as a supposition of gungan fear rather than any explicitly expressed fear in the movies. The rationale that binks keeps breaking things, they just want him to stop breaking things seems more plausible than actual fear from the gungans because there would be some sort of respect toward a character they fear. At least there usually is respect with feared Star wars characters, and I don’t think binks was treated respectfully at any point.
Dooku was shoehorned in, but there’s two important considerations there . 1) I think he does have a really cool lore in the books or something, he used to be a Jedi and 2) they probably just had to get him on screen because Christopher Lee agreed to play him and lee’s one of the most compelling actors in the freaking history of Cinema.
With Yoda, I’m not sure how Yoda was ever a helpless creature by the roadside. In the movies he’s already a Jedi Master, he just doesn’t explicitly tell Luke he’s a Jedi Master for like 2 minutes, but there’s no deceit involved and reveals himself after a couple questions.
If they were setting up a similar reveal for jar jar, his setup has no winks to the audience like Yoda’s does, few parallels to Yoda’s, and is a much longer setup before a theorized reveal.
I love the theory, I want to see an animatic of jar jar being a sith Lord, and even sith Lord battles with him in them, but so far the Canon explanation for jar jar makes way more sense to me with what we know about the behind the scenes production and what’s on screen.
I also love talking about it though, haha, so thanks for taking the time to write up your side.
I actually found the scene where he first gets back to the city with Qui-Gon and Anakin! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7xKCK1Ojuo
Watch how the citizens react, and the guards too. I dunno, having watched it again it still reads like fear to me. Maybe more “severe consternation”, but still - “I was clumsy” doesn’t warrant all that.
As to the helpless creature by the roadside, the original theory that got posted to the orange site never provided a source for that, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to find the documentary interview where Lucas said that’s what Yoda was meant to be.
Anyhoo, it was fun revisiting this, and I ended up finding a truly impressive collection of links to “evidence” for the theory in my travels. Cheers!
PART 1 of 5
Oh, man, I got so excited when you sent this. I remember this is the sort of list I went through before, so that’s it, I’m diving in!
Disclaimer: I love the Darth Binks theory, looked into it years ago, and was disappointed to discover how flimsy the evidence for it is. But this is my first write-up directly refuting the “evidence”
My reasoning is below.
The list of Darth Jar Jar potential evidence: https://www.reddit.com/r/DarthJarJar/comments/3swo3l/possible_smoking_gun_early_ep2_script_leak_with/
I’m going to ignore the very important fact that Star Wars does not deal in tiny hints and clues as much of this list suggests but primarily depends on Manichean forces and grand reveals, and focus on addressing the logical consistencies and inconsistencies of each argument on the list based on the movies and words from creators themselves.
I’ll start with the Gungan “fear” of Binks since it is commonly repeated:
----- The Gungans fear Binks
Argument: The Gungans fear Binks because Binks is a Sith
Counter: There is only one 2 second shot where you cannot see any direct evidence of fear, but it could be implied. Following the camera zooming in, you can see that none of the Gungans in that initial wide shot show any fear, and even shrug, scold and attack Binks without concern.
Binks, an exile, enters the heart of the city with two unknown aliens. In a wide shot, Gungans briefly back away from the group upon their entrance. You can’t see the city Gungans’ faces, but you can see their body language. Relaxed, not running. This colective step backward is the only possible interpretation of fear, which is dispelled immediately afterward.
This relaxation becomes more obvious as the camera zooms in. Nobody is screaming or pulling anyone else away frantically. The crowd turns around, facing their back to Binks, an exile, and slowly saunters off to presumably tell the Gungan guards the exile has invaded the city.
Guards show up soon after.
The camera shifts to two Gungans regarding Binks. They hold out their hands in a confused manner, but not in what could be called fearful; their hands are palm up and they shrug at each other, not hands held up to ward off Binks.
Turning your back, slowly walking away, and shrugging are not fearful reactions.
Then a single Gungan, Tarpals, walks up and scolds Binks, who casts his eyes down in shame.
Then a guard walks up casually and zaps him with a lightning spear officiously and without a hint of fear. He doesn’t approach cautiously, he walks up and zaps him like you would any other pest, prisoner or figure of derision. Binks looks bummed out again.
In the next scene, when the Jedi and Binks are surrounded by the Gungans and in front of the chief soon after, none of the crowd pays attention to Binks and many are standing very close to Binks, ignoring Binks and watching the Jedi, so the proximal Gungan crowd doesn’t show any fear of Binks.
The chief says they’ll punish Binks and Binks looks sad again.
There is no evidence here of Jar Jar being feared.
—– Jar Jar was the first new ep. 1 character created
Argument: Since Jar Jar was the first new ep. 1 character created, he had to be very important in some way. Maybe he was a Sith.
Counter: There’s no evidence that jar jar was the first new ep. 1 character created, and the creation of a character wouldn’t indicate whether Jar Jar was good, evil, or anything at all. This is an unsubstantiated rumor that doesn’t have any bearing on the character if it were true.
A song of Ice and Fire was originally conceived around the character Daemon Targaryan, who became less and less important as Ice and Fire was conceived.
The original concept for LOTR grew out of a poem about Beren and Luthien
Earthsea started centered around Festin, but later developed its main characters and a much larger world around the main character Ged.
Being the first new character in a series doesn’t have to mean anything other than being a way into conceiving a story that has little to do with said original character, a position Binks doesn’t hold anyway.
–— Jar Jar acts fearful when coming across a destroyed Gungan city in a deleted scene
Argument: Lucas cut this scene because “Darth Jar Jar would not be stunned in amazement in fear”.
Counter: Assumptions top to bottom(Lucas’, every PA, Jar-Jar) and the house of cards only balances if you 1) assume Jar-Jar is a Sith and 2) Lucas forgot that Sith lords as normally not fearful.
Unlikely.
This is a scene in which Jar-Jar, who is terrified of all things violent, is portrayed as scared at the signs of weapons violence scarring the walls of an abandoned city. Binks acts the same way around signs of violence consistently through the movies.
—– Jar Jar is in a lot of scenes, which is very costly, why would you invest so much in a non-essential character?
Argument: Since so much time and money were spent on Jar-Jar, he must be important. If he is important, maybe he is a Sith.
First, let’s recognize that “being a major character in Star Wars” does not itself necessitate the good or evil in a character. There are plenty of characters who are onscreen at great cost to production that are simply there to fill the frame.
The entire scene with R2-D2 and C-3PO running through the lava factory was inserted in post at immense cost and production time right before Attack of the Clones was released because Lucas thought they needed a laugh break.
Lucas invests literal fortunes into computer generation and new digital production techniques because he is personally interested in creating digital worlds and creatures. He explicitly prefers to render things digitally no matter the cost. He was adamant about creating entire scenes in every movie digitally for no other reason than that he wanted to expand digital cinematic production.
It is not strange at all that Lucas would commit time and expense to digitally rendering Jar-Jar when he rendered entire worlds and countless other creatures the same way for 30 years. Once his team had concocted a way of rendering the character, of course he’s going to paste in and use that character at every opportunity.
Now that Lucas went through the trouble and cost of creating Binks, he can easily put him in any scene he wants to. He can paste Binks anywhere and anywhen he wants at any point of the production process, which he could not do with live actors at the time.
Binks is in the movie a lot because he’s a main character. He is a bumbling self-concerned character serving as comic relief who occasionally pulls off an unlikely deus ex, as C3PO was in the OT.
-----Jar Jar executes a Force Jump perfectly
Argument: only force-users can jump that high”
Counter: Ahmed Best, VA and mocap actor, said when the character was described to him, he understood the Jar Jar to be an “orange frog”.
Frogs jump.
Force jumps in the films are exclusively used to achieve a purpose. Jumping out of the way. Jumping back up to a fight. Jumping onto a ledge to interact with circuitry.
Jar Jar, a frog-person, jumps about ten feet up, shorter than many other Force Jumps in the movies, and dives into the lake he, Kenobi and Jinn are walking into. There’s no reason to perform a Force Jump, especially in Kenobi and Jinn. If he were a Sith, why expose a supposedly hidden Force ability directly in front of two Jedi? Two strong and one experienced Jedi, who sense nothing is wrong or out of the ordinary when Binks jumps into the lake.
–— Kenobi senses Jar-Jar, so we are supposed to assume it is because the Force is strong in Jar-Jar
Argument: Kenobi senses something elusive. That elusive thing could be Jar Jar. If it is Jar Jar, Kenobi is sensing Jar Jar because the Force is strong with him. If the Force is strong in Binks, then maybe he is a Sith.
Counter: This point relies on Kenobi sensing something “elusive” and assumes Kenobi means Binks.
By “something elusive”, Kenobi could mean anyone or anything, anywhere, with a strong Force power or not.
For instance, Jedi can sense rocks. That’s how Luke balances a cairn on Dagobah, because Jedi can sense literally everything in the galaxy because everything is connected to the Force. A Jedi sensing rocks is not evidence of Sith pebbles or Sith boulders.
–— Jar Jar’s Theme Music is Sith-y
Argument: Jar Jar’s music sounds similar to the Imperial March because the third beat of part of the beginning of “The Adventures of Jar-Jar” is heavier than the surrounding notes, like the third note of the Imperial March.
Counter: taking a single beat out of a four-minute theme as evidence for Jar Jar’s Sith involvement throughout Star Wars is as inconsequential as taking a single word out of a song to fully explain every part of every song on an album.
John Williams famously recycles his tunes between characters and between movies, and has done so for “The Adventures of Jar-Jar” by describing Jar Jar’s role in The Phantom Menace(TPM)
Jar Jar travels with two Jedi, travels with Anakin and has an entire third act arc about fighting droids
John Williams composed a theme song for Jar-Jar that includes parts of “The Boys Continue”, part of “Anakin’s Theme” and part of the “Droid Invasion theme”, as well as a phrase from Williams’ “The Flight to Neverland” from Hook(1991).
It is spot on for Jar-Jar’s music to include traveling music, some of Anakin’s(not Vader’s) theme and the Droid Invasion Theme since Jar-Jar travels with the Jedi, is with Anakin most of the movie and has a huge part to play in the Droid Invasion. Plus, he also has “The Flight to Neverland” in there, which is not very Sith-like.
PART 4 of 5
-----Kenobi says “there’s no such thing as luck”, Jinn says “nothing happens by accident”.
Argument. If nothing happens by accident, then Binks is a Sith Lord.
Counter: Besides the lack of logical determination, if nothing happens by accident, then Binks never being definitively revealed as a Sith Lord happened on purpose because Binks isn’t a Sith Lord.
-----Jar Jar controls a guard.
Argument: Just in case this one guard acts up, Jar Jar performs the never before seen move of freezing a guard by tapping its helmet.
Counter: The guard is already not moving. None of them are moving. Why would he only choose one guard to make sure doesn’t move with a secret move that there is no evidence for?
And again, openly perform some kind of Sith trick while around Jedi, who could sense him while he is supposed to want to stay hidden.
Oh, and lots of things happen in this movie by accident. Robots being in different positions than they were in a previous scene, hair lengths, hairstyles, there are tons of accidents in this and every film.
-----Jinn says “there’s something else behind all this”
Argument: Binks is standing behind them, and by something, Jinn means someone, and he means Binks because actually Jinn knows he’s a Sith.
Counter: there are lots of people behind them, all of Amidala’s handmaidens are behind them, and Jinn could literally be talking about anything else besides Binks. Any thing else.
-----JJB is the only Gungan who can jump ten feet in the air
Argument: he’s a special jumper, so he’s probably a Sith Lord.
Counter:
Binks jumps into water. We don’t have the opportunity to see any other Gungans jump into bodies of water and find out if jumping into water is atypical.
Binks jumped and did several flips and twists. Best was known as an extremely acrobatic actor and did lots of flips and twists for Binks. Shame to waste all the flips and twists.
Ten feet seems much more frog-acrobatic derived than Force-derived, which can be much higher.
He performs the jump in front of two Jedi watching him because he’s trying to stay hidden?
Nah.
-----Jar Jar drops his accent sometimes and uses standard words like “my” “you” “your” instead of “meesa”, “yousa”
Argument: because Binks sometimes says you and sometimes you-sa, his entire speech is a ruse and he actually can speak standard well. Hiding his skill at standard language is evidence he’s a Sith.
Counter:
Other Gungans, including the chief, alternate between saying “you” and “yousa”, “de” and “the” or “with” and “wit”. If using Gungan and standard accents interchangeably makes you a secret Sith, then we have Darth Nass and Darth Darth Binks. Oh, and Tarpals has a very strong Gungan accent in the city but begins speaking very cleanly on the battlefield. So Darth Tarpals.
Binks speaks native Gungan, and is speaking standard words as at least a second language. Sometimes you get the words and grammar right, sometimes you don’t.
-----The droid in front of Binks is the only one whose head falls off
The argument: Binks used the force to slide the head off the droid. If he did use the force, he’s a Sith.
Counter: The droid was already inert and Binks using the force in front of everyone staring at him seems like a pretty unstealthy thing to do. The gradual slide also doesn’t look like a force removal so much as an object sliding off its mounting bolts.
-----The Telegraph claims anecdotally that Binks was a conniving mercenary before he became a goofball
Claim: If Binks had a different character arc before the final draft of TPM, he may have also been a Sith Lord originally.
Counter:
No evidence for this mercenary character
A mercenary is not a Sith, and there are tons of mercs in Star Wars.
Many characters have rewritten identities and arcs, Lucas rewrote every movie many, many times with tons of contributing ideas and alternate stories before deciding on the canon story for the character.
If being rewritten makes you a Sith, then we have Sith Luke, Sith Leia, Sith EverySingleCharacterandObject
-----After the Rule of Two is introduced by Yoda in TPM, Jar Jar and Palpatine are on screen shortly after
Argument: Because they are the two characters shown after Yoda introduces the rule of two, Jar Jar and Palpatine are the subjects of the “rule of two”.
Counter:
After the “rule of two” line Windu asks “but which one was destroyed?”, indicating that there are no longer two, but one remaining Sith. After saying the number one, the camera pans over several characters(anakin, kenobi, amidala), blurs them out and focuses on the single Palpatine for several seconds.
This shot is followed by a completely separate parade scene that is thematically and temporally divergent from the previous scene of intimate conversation with thousands of characters the night before. Jar Jar and another Gungan are in shot for a second as featured foreguards of Boss Nass among hundreds of other Gungans.
-----Because Anakin and Obi-Wan are in focus during the parade scene, there’s a parallel of the Sith rule of two between Anakin/Kenobi and Palpatine/Binks
The camera does not hold on Kenobi and Anakin as a pair as the camera held on Palpatine alone earlier(with Anakin out of focus in the background PTM 128:25), but pans past Kenobi to hold on R2 and Anakin together. Sith2D2.
Since Anakin is in the background of the shot of Palpatine but out of focus and Anakin is not yet a Sith, that could be foreshadowing of an eventual new pairing conforming to the Rule of Two. Jar Jar is not present in that scene.
These scenes are not very close or paralleled in any way, and are set up completely differently.
Yoda and Windu have agreed that the problem is no longer two, but one. At the moment, there is one remaining Sith master, with his future apprentice out of focus opposite him in line.
-----Yoda doesn’t trust Jar Jar
argument: because he’s a Sith.
Counterargument
Nobody likes jar jar because he’s an incompetent idiot who breaks things.
-----The back of TPM movie cover says “In the shadows lurks an evil force waiting for the right moment to strike” next to a picture of Jar Jar hiding behind a doorframe.
Binks is very brightly lit, there are no shadows on him.
Darth Maul is color-edited in another picture on the movie cover so that his silhouette is completely black, like a shadow.
“waiting for the right moment to strike” – Maul is fending off attacks by Jinn and Kenobi in his picture, literally waiting for his moment to strike, which he does successfully pull off in the movie.
In our introduction to Maul, he is waiting with his head bowed in a cloak, shadows pouring over his face before he strikes.
There are three other lines specifically referring to Palpatine, Jinn, Kenobi, and Palpatine as close or closer to Binks’ picture than the quote about Maul.
This line clearly references Maul or the Sith together.
-----Jar Jar is in or the cause of every scene in TPM
Argument: if you first believe Jar Jar is Sith, then his presence in the movie can be attributed to his Sith nature.
Counter:
If you assume Amidala is Sith, then her presence in the movie can be attributed to Sith machinations.
If you assume Jinn is Sith, then his presence in the movie can be attributed to Sith machinations.
If you assume Kenobi is Sith, then…
A main character being in a movie is not evidence of them being Sith, any more than R2 or Chewie were Sith.
Haha, awwwesome. Okay, it’s deep dive time.
I can’t get to it right now, but I’m saving this comment and I will be working on it and then I’m going to address all of the points in that list and at some point you’re going to wake up to a horrifying wall of text hahahaha.
Don’t feel compelled to read it, it’ll be detailed and pedantic and boring to most people, but I want this to live on floating on the lemmyverse.
Oh man if you actually do that and think I won’t read every word, you’re sorely mistaken! Pedantic and detailed is my favourite kind of text wall 😂 I’ll keep an eye out for it, and I’ll make an effort to visit each link in the list (some are broken, I know - like the link for “The Gungans fear Jar-Jar” goes to an archived Reddit post that you need an undeleter to see) beforehand so I’m properly refreshed.
PART 2 of 5
-----Gungans fear Jar-Jar
Quick recap, the Gungans shrug when they see Binks, individually scold him, individually zap him, stand next to him, walk past him without looking at him in close quarters, and decide to punish him. Not fearful acts.
He is not feared by the Gungans. He is treated as an uninvited exile.
-----Jar-Jar mind-tricks Qui-Gon
Argument: “Jar-Jar says, “Any help here would be hot,” while waving his hand. Qui-Qon immediately stops, turns, blinks a couple times, and then reconsiders taking Jar-Jar.””
Counter: The direct quote of this reasoning is important, because it is inaccurate and not similar to other Jedi mind-tricks
When Jar-Jar says “Any help here would be hot”, Jinn pauses, turns, crosses the hall to Jar-Jar, listens to Kenobi and then replies to Kenobi, not to Jar Jar, saying “We’ll need a navigator to get us through the planet’s core, this Gungan may be of help.” A long delay in response, different words, different recipient, different length of phrase, unlike a mind-trick repetition. There is no indication that Jinn is in a dazed state or responding to Jar Jar directly.
“while waving his hand” – Mind-tricks in Star Wars are performed with a wave of some few fingers from a single hand from left to right. In contrast, Jar Jar raises both hands directly up vertically, briefly unfurls all of his fingers on both hands in a gesture of supplication, and then puts them both back down vertically. There is no similarity of Binks’ gesture to any mind-trick gesture in Star Wars.
“Qui-Gon immediately stops, turns, blinks a couple times,” Jinn does not immediately stop because Binks’ plays a mind-trick on him, he is already stopped, turned away from Binks and standing in front of Boss Nass. Then Qui-Gon turns, begins talking, blinks once while talking, and takes steps toward Binks while responding to Kenobi, not Binks.
“and then reconsiders taking Jar-Jar.” Jinn hasn’t decided to take Jar-Jar or not yet, so this is a first consideration. Jar-Jar suggests they could use help and should take him with them out of a bad situation. Jinn considers his plea and agrees as he has with Anakin and Padme.
Offering aid is a known, demonstrated personality trait of Jinn; Jinn ultimately decides to help characters in need when they directly appeal to him.
–— Binks gives Jinn directions
Argument: There’s no stated argument either, just a gif of Jinn, Kenobi and Binks sitting together.
I assume that when Binks wakes up and says Hulullulull” and shakes his head(as gungans are wont to do), one can equivocate his mumbling with the phrase Jinn says next: “Head for that outcropping”.
Each utterance is about 1.5 seconds long and begins with “h”. That’s about where the similarities end.
Counter: If this is supposed to be a mind-trick, Jinn does several complex movements during being mind-tricked that he does not copy from Binks, speaks to Kenobi directly rather than blindly repeating an unspoken phrase back to the caster, and with the audio isolated and slowed down, Binks is very clearing saying “hululululul” and not a sped up or distorted version of “head for that outcropping”. In every other mind-trick, a phrase is clearly spoken and the target repeats it or follows orders. No mind-trick here.
Another important point is that Jinn is a very strong Jedi and it’s silly to assume he could be completely directly controlled without Kenobi or himself noticing.
----- The Fish are metaphors
Argument: Maul is the big fish, Sidious is the bigger fish, and Binks is the biggest fish, being a Sith master more powerful than Sidious. No evidence is offered.
Counter: Since we can look at any three rocks in this movie and make the same very loose comparison that because there are three fish, maybe there are three Sith. There are three rocks by the roadside. Maybe those three rocks are actually Darth Pebble, Darth Stone and Darth Boulder.
You might be thinking, but the Sith: There are always two, a Master and his apprentice.
The argument used against the Rule of Two is that by Jinn saying “There’s always a bigger fish”, he’s alluding that there’s one more Sith in addition to there always being two Sith.
There’s no evidence that Jinn is talking about Sith, that there is a Rule of Three rather than the explicitly mentioned and agreed upon Rule of Two, while there is ample evidence that Jinn, mentioning that there’s always a bigger fish, is referencing the large fish behind them.
— Jar Jar is mind-tricking the biggest fish.
Argument: Jar Jar is mind-controlling the biggest fish to eat the bigger fish that almost ate the three of them in the Gungan transport.
Counter: The problem here is that small animals, let alone large animals, cannot be mind-tricked, or at least have not been in any media we’ve seen. Luke can’t even mind-trick a Wompa, so there’s no basis for the theory that a Sith Master could delicately control a knock-off Godzilla.
In the new canon that Disney is creating, Jedi can influence animals with the force, but this trilogy was created by Lucas before any examples of force-controlling animals occurred, and certainly not on Godzilla-scales, even though that ability would have come in handy a dozen times and the Jedi had the opportunity to use it. Send the bats away, stop the rancor, stop these fish from chasing them, stop the gladiator animals; animals attack people a lot in Star Wars. But as far as these movies are concerned, animals cannot be controlled by the force exerted by Jedi/Sith.
There’s zero evidence Binks is controlling the biggest fish.
----- Jar Jar broke the hyperdrive – the argument being that because Jar jar is a “great mechanic” and was standing in front of a patch of circuitry, he disconnected the hyperdrive through panel circuitry and that’s why R2 bumped into him.
Way too many assumptions and inaccuracies for this:
The hyperdrive is first said to be leaking by a pilot, but Kenobi discovers that “the hyperdrive generator is gone”, not broken or lacking power.
The area in which Jar Jar is alleged to have been disabling or sabotaging the circuitry that leads to the hyperdrive is in a distant, separate compartment, the droid bay, and disabling the circuitry wouldn’t make a difference if the hyperdrive generator is already missing. Binks also doesn’t touch any circuitry in that distant droid bay; he is standing away from the wall.
argument: Binks is a “great mechanic” because he quickly fixes Anakin’s pod after checking to make sure nobody is looking, and then immediately afterward Anakin’s pod racer begins working.
Counter: This does not happen.
What actually happens is that Binks is working on the engine with a screwdriver while R2 is watching him, in broad daylight surrounded by other people, and anyone could see Binks. In fact, Anakin definitely sees him working because a moment later Anakin looks at Binks tells Binks to be careful near the energy beam.
There was no sneaky “fixing”.
What happens in the film: After Binks stops working on Anakin’s pod, we can see both Anakin and R2 working on the pod. We know both R2 and Anakin are verified mechanical and software geniuses, which is demonstrated over and over again on screen canonically, while Binks is mostly hopeless with machinery and delicate maneuvers in general.
After Jar Jar, both Anakin and R2 are shown doing something or having done something to the pod, and then the podracer starts up properly.
Incidentally, the only action Jar Jar can be seen doing is rudimentary use of a screwdriver in front of anyone else.
There’s zero supporting evidence and a pile of contrary evidence to Binks secretly fixing the podracer.
This “clue” has too many inherent self-contradictions with zero definitive supporting evidence.
I do like that there is a circuitry panel nearby Binks according to a ship diagram, although the panel is not within reaching distance, Binks isn’t making any gestures toward the circuitry and the circuitry is not available or visible.
PART 5 of 5
-----In Shakespeare’s TPM, a parody of TPM, Jar Jar’s “devious” nature is written about as similar to a Sith lord.
Argument: Binks has ulterior motives to his actions the parody, so in the real movies he is a Sith.
Counter:
Jar Jar is explicitly described in the cast list of STPM as “a Gungan clown”. Palpatine is listed as “Senator Palpatine/Darth Sidious”. If Binks had a second personality, it would be listed here. It is not.
The “ulterior motives” alluded to in this theory refer to the Shakespearean tendency to speak all of their thoughts aloud. The connotation does not necessitate evil or harmful intent, but rather as a clear explanation of a character’s actions.
The first “ulterior motive” of Jar Jar is to act foolishly in front of Jinn so that Jinn will be inserted into the Gungan tragedy and help the Gungans and Naboo eventually unite. Binks’ first “ulterior motive” is explicitly altruistic and harmonious, and he mentions that the Jedi can specifically help Binks achieve this dream of saving the Gungans as he cannot do so himself:
“Belike this man[Jinn] brings aid unto Naboo
Such as will help my people and my land.
Mayhap this is the chance I have desir’d!”
STPM follows the Shakespearean convention of the fool(the Gungan clown) always understanding the world better than those deemed better than themselves, so this ulterior motive of wanting to unite the Gungan and Naboo is immediately obvious to the Shakespearean fool, and then the other, more respectable main characters will come to realize its significance later.
This is a LucasFilms sanctioned retelling of the Phantom Menace, so it’s the first time we can see directly inside Binks’ thought process in a work connected directly to LucasFilms. What we see is exactly what he appears to be. A bumbling fool with noble intentions.
This argument is mischaracterizing altruistic exposition as “ulterior motives” that are explicitly pure, altruistic and respectful of Jedi in this retelling and expansion of SPTM.
No Sith-ness here
-----Jar Jar uses force jump again.
Argument: Jar jar drops down from a different place than where he climbed over a wall.
Counterargument: there’s no force jump here. Binks could have easily swung over to where he drops down so that the droid guard aiming at him misses where he was hanging off the wall.
Taken altogether, most of this evidence is a non-starter. Rickety mountains of tenuous assumptions or circular logic. There is scrutiny of a word or behavior that does not actually occur in a referenced scene or example. Of the “clues” we can examine, none of it offers a more compelling reason for the actions of Jar Jar Binks, and much of it contradicts itself.
Most of these Binks behaviors people attempt to describe as Sith talents indicating Binks’ force ability are performed publicly by Binks without compulsion, contradicting the idea of a hidden Sith.
I’m well aware these are not all the arguments for Darth Binks, and am ready and willing to go into the rest.
Thanks, this was fun.
PART 3 of 5
— Binks is lip-syncing Panaka
This is the piece of evidence that got me looking into Darth Darth Binks in the first place, but has several possible explanations that fit better than Binks manipulating anything behind the scenes as a Sith.
The argument: Binks mouth opens several times, in several scenes, while other people are talking. Perhaps he is directly puppeteering other characters by speaking through them.
Counter: It’s funny, but he isn’t lip-syncing at all, Binks’ lips part and close during Panaka’s speaking parts for the 3 seconds or so that Panaka’s/Padme’s/Jinn’s is, but not for any individual words. This type of direct instantaneous force-puppeteering never occurs at any point in Star Wars.
As for the lips opening and closing, Binks also opens and closes his lips in the Gungan city and in the ship while other people are talking, so this isn’t an isolated event.
This movement looks like an animation tied to audio activation so that his mouth opens and all they have to do is adjust his lip movements whenever Best was giving voice to Jar Jar.
I know the argument “he’s digital, so everything was intentional,” but there are countless production errors concerned with this movie, so whoever was responsible for syncing audio and Jar Jar Binks’ mouth movements during Tatooine scenes could easily have forgotten to untick a box. Nobody noticed for almost twenty years.
Important to note that if Binks was controlling speech directly, the theoretical force-controlling statements contradict each other, so Binks would be needlessly arguing with himself if he were really forcing out these statements.
----- Binks controls Jinn again
Argument: I think they mean to say controls Amidala here, because Binks’ mouth opens during one of Amidala’s words while she is talking to Jinn, although that’s something she’s already said in previously without Binks and again, contradicts itself if this control were happening.
If Binks is controlling people, earlier Binks convinces Jinn to take Anakin, and here, Binks would be convincing Jinn to leave Anakin behind.
----- Binks mouth is open again
Same argument, Binks is controlling Anakin because his mouth is open during part of Anakin’s line.
Same contradiction, why would he try to get Jinn to take Anakin in one scene and try to get Jinn to leave Anakin behind the next?
----- Binks knows the word for “gold” in Huttese and can at least understand numbers in Huttese.
The argument: if he knows the words for “gold” and “numbers” in Huttese, he is a Sith.
Counter. No connection there. No evidence that Huttese is exclusively Sith knowledge or exclusive to anyone, since lots of non-Hutts speak Huttese. Plenty of evidence of polyglots all over Star Wars who can translate between species with ease and easily understand foreign languages.
----- Binks smiles when Anakin is rude
Argument: In AOTC(I guess they put this in the wrong list), when Anakin disagrees with Kenobi, Binks smiles, meaning he’s happy about them arguing and is therefore a Sith.
Counter:
In her reaction scene to their argument, Amidala uncomfortably shifts her eyes camera left to Anakin, then right to Kenobi.
In his subsequent reaction two shots later, Binks looks camera left to Anakin, gulps, then right to Kenobi.
They cut to Typho for a third reaction shot two more shots later; Typho looks uncomfortably at the two arguing as Amidala and Binks did.
These are mirrored discomfited reaction shots to an awkward argument. Binks is not clearly smiling, but very clearly acts nervous. There’s no evidence here that Binks is enjoying the argument.
----- Binks mind-controls Sebulba to stop Sebulba from choking him
Argument: When Sebulba grabs Binks, Binks raises a hand to ward off further blows. This is the supposed mind-control to make Sebulba let go.
Counter. He’s still holding on to Binks neck and is distracted by Anakin. Anakin interrupts before Binks waves his hand and Sebulba redirects his attention to Anakin without letting go of Binks’ neck after Binks’ wave is completed. Then after Sebulba and Anakin talk, Sebulba lets Binks go, hits Binks again, and walks away.
Either Binks mind-control doesn’t work, Binks told Sebulba not to let go of his neck and then punch him, or we follow the logical, definitive sequence of events shown on screen: Anakin distracts Sebulba from hurting Binks, and Sebulba grows frustrated and storms off.
There’s also the claim that Sebulba recognizes Binks, but all he says is “is this yours” after Binks spits a frog into Sebulba’s bowl. Reasonable question, reasonable anger. No indication of a previous relationship.
-----Jar jar uses the force to create a distraction by making a worker droid jump.
Jar-jar is constantly tripping around all the worker droids on Tatooine and bumbling around things that serve no narrative purpose or ulterior motive even according to the Darth Darth Binks theory. This particular accident is no different.
-----Jar Jar has good balance
Jar Jar has good balance, and catches several cans conspicuously in a pile.
This is an example of good balance that could be explained if Binks had acrobatic training. Lots of creatures in Star Wars have good balance, and while Binks is clumsy, he does become a performing clown after his Star Wars adventures, so he canonically does have enough balance to juggle and catch a series of fish he spits out.
Another obstacle to his balance indicating Binks is a Sith is that he performs this particular acrobatic balancing act very conspicuously, which a hidden Sith wouldn’t do.
-----Jinn says “your focus determines your reality”
Argument: since Jar Jar is often out of focus, what Jinn is telling Amidala in this scene is that Jar-jar is the reality. And he is the reality. Which means “main character”. Even though he is already a main character. And he is also in focus much of the movie. And many, many characters are out of focus throughout every movie.
Counter: you have to assume several leaps of logic and afterwards assume that when Jinn says “something else” he is referring to not a thing at all, but a particular person behind them out of the half dozen standing behind them, and obliquely outing the impostor in front of the impostor and everyone else to no effect.
Not much here.
----- jar jar uses the force to fix anakin’s untethered pods.
Argument: Binks uses the force to fix anakin’s spinning pod by gasping and making a hand gesture at 64:23. The argument is that 10 seconds after Binks makes this hand gesture, Anakin’s pod racer slows down and then stops spinning.
Counter: Jinn doesn’t notice any force wave and it takes a relatively long amount of time following Binks’ brief back wave from a very far distance for the pod to stop spinning, while the pod begins to slow and stops spinning immediately following Anakin flipping a switch in reaction to beginning to spin.
The pod stabilization is much more likely a direct result of Anakin’s mechanical understanding, that he demonstrates again a few seconds later by reconnecting his engine tether to his pod to fully pair and reinitialize both pod engines.
What is on screen is that in the stands, Binks is concerned, like Anakin’s mother and Jinn, but of course Anakin knows how to fix his podracer(he built it) and he fixes it.
-----Kenobi asks if they’re picking up another “useless” life form.
The argument is that since Kenobi can’t sense Anakin’s powerful force-presence, maybe he’s missing Jar Jar too.
Kenobi says “pathetic”, not useless. He’s referring to Jinn’s tendency to help those who can’t help themselves.
Kenobi already knows how powerful Anakin is because he does the midichlorian count on Anakin the previous night.
Kenobi also says this before Jinn tells him they’ll be taking Anakin with them. Jinn says that the boy will be joining them at 71:40 and after Kenobi realizes that the strong-with-the-force Anakin will be coming with them, he acquiesces without further joke or protest.
Kenobi doesn’t think Anakin is useless, which the argument reads as weak; Kenobi thinks of Anakin, someone with the highest midichlorian count ever, as another wild card needy case that Jinn is deciding to support, but is not misreading the situation.
-----Jar Jar moves his mouth while Jinn is talking
The argument: Jar Jar is making Jinn turn down Anakin’s offer to podrace for the parts they need.
The counterargument if he’s Darth Darth Binks: He wants Jinn to accept Anakin’s offer, not discourage it.
Jinn doesn’t accept until several lines later when Anakin’s mother convinces them to accept the deal with no evidence that she is being controlled(natural movements, identical natural speech).
All the evidence points to this being what it looks like. Jinn reluctantly accepting the help of some slaves.