• @Sterile_Technique
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    31 year ago

    There’s a snip of Imperial March sounding music in Jar Jar’s actual themesong, at the 38 second mark.

    To me, this is some of the strongest supporting evidence there is - you can’t just write off two measures of an entire coordinated symphony as a continuity error; and SW is HUGE on the concept of leit motif. For example, young Anakin’s themesong also has little snippets of Imperial March - they do that as a way of foreshadowing.

    100% sold on the jar jar theory. It sounds so stupid, but there’s sooo much supporting evidence.

    • Bleeping Lobster
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      31 year ago

      WOW, fucking excellent spot!

      I write music for a living, mostly club music, a few years ago I had the idea that I’d learn to compose for video games and bought a very expensive textbook written by one of the industry bigwigs. TL;DR I probably won’t be composing for video games because while I’m good at writing music, melodies etc, I lack a lot of the skills needed to write orchestral music. But what I did learn, is how complex, time consuming and expensive scoring / orchestral work is… in terms of getting a written score ‘into a game’ or film.

      So there is no way that’s an accident. That’s deliberate, it’s a very quick switch to a different melody that doesn’t repeat. It’s not note-for-note the Imperial March, but it definitely features the drums, and it’s close enough. This imo is one of the most convincing pieces of evidences I’ve heard of so far, the others are a bit “Yeah I can see it but there could be another explanation”.

      • @Sterile_Technique
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        21 year ago

        Yea the musical evidence kinda blew my mind. I never studied music, but I saw a ‘music of Star Wars’ performance by the Virginia symphony - between each song, the composer basically gave a lecture on the themes that went into it and the concept of leitmotif. The Jar Jar song was one of the ones they played, and that little snip stood out like sore thumb, but I also hadn’t heard the Darth Jar Jar theory yet, so didn’t really think into it.

        Fast forward a couple years, I stumble across the theory. The music wasn’t in the original theory (might be in more recent iterations?), but the lightbulb fired off and I had myself a HOLY SHIT!! moment.

        Even without the music, it’s a solid theory, but you could pick any part of it and dismiss it as just a coincidence, continuity error, animation error etc. The music shows intent in a way none of the other examples can.

        Rewatching the prequels with the Jarth Jar Jar theory in the back of my head makes such a huge improvement to his character; replace all the unbelievable dumb luck with calculated malice disguised by a facade of stupidity… and I mean, look at RL politics - malicious people play the village-act ALL THE TIME cuz it works like a charm by discouraging people from holding them accountable – Darth Jar Jar is a believable character!