It sounds like nonsense. Jar Jar Binks, the evil mastermind behind the formation of the Empire? Superior to (or at least in league with) Chancellor Palpatine?
But after you read the full text of this wild theory, originally posted on Reddit, it's surprisingly hard to discount. With meticulous detail, Redditor "Lumpawarroo" walks readers through one piece of evidence after another that supports his outlandish theory. And the craziest part of all is how much sense it makes.
The crux of the argument boils down to this. The original Star Wars trilogy was built around a major dramatic twist — the reveal of Darth Vader being Luke Skywalker's father. It was even filmed in secret to keep it from leaking. Luke finding out the truth about his lineage is the pivotal moment of the entire trilogy, and it worked because it was this huge secret that no one saw coming.
Lumpawarroo argues that George Lucas tried to outdo himself with another surprise twist in the prequels. But how do you create a more shocking twist than "I am your father"? By creating a buffoonish, over-the-top character who's supposedly there for comic relief, but who's actually something far more sinister hiding in plain sight.
"As we know, the Jedi themselves are inspired by Shaolin Monks," says Lumpawarroo in his Reddit post, "and there's a particular kung fu discipline that Jar Jar's physicality is purposefully modeled upon which allows him to appear goofy and uncoordinated even as he lays waste to his enemies; namely, Zui Quan, or Drunken Fist wushu."
He follows this proposal with evidence comparing shots of Jar Jar's movements in The Phantom Menace with footage of an actual Drunken Fist master. The similarities are remarkable. There's much, much more, such as the fact that Palpatine and Jar Jar are both from the same planet (Naboo) and subtle ways that Jar Jar manipulated Anakin. But he argues that not only is Jar Jar an evil Sith Lord, he's a master of Force mind control. Nowhere is this more evident than in Attack of the Clones, when he casually waves his hands at the entire Senate and they erupt into applause at his proposal of granting emergency powers to Palpatine — a move that paves the way for the Empire.
So if this was the plan, why was it never paid off? Lumpawarroo has a theory on this as well.
"I think that Jar Jar was initially intended to be the prequel (and Dark Side) equivalent of Yoda. Just as Yoda has his 'big reveal' when we learn that his tottering, geriatric goofball persona is just a mask, Jar Jar was intended to have a big reveal in Episode II or III where we learn that he's not really a naive dope, but rather a master puppeteer Sith in league with (or perhaps in charge of) Palpatine. However, [Lucas] chickened out. The fan reaction to Jar Jar was so vitriolic that this aspect of the trilogy was abandoned."
There's so much more to this theory and Star Wars fans owe it to themselves to read the entire thing — not to mention the countless replies that supply the theory with even more evidence. Lumpawarroo even goes so far as to suggest that Jar Jar could turn up as Supreme Leader Snoke in Disney's new Star Wars trilogy!
Since posting his theory just 48 hours ago, already fans have put together a website to support it, and a new Sub-Reddit has been created to expand on it.
What do you think? Might Jar Jar have been the most manipulative character in the prequels? And could he show up again someday?
What would his Sith "Darth" name be?
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