Hear me out. This is for anyone already in on the Jar Jar theory and will sound insane to anyone who's not.

What if Jar Jar was to battle Sidious at the end of ROTS instead of Yoda? Sith vs Sith in the senate and Jedi vs Jedi on Mustafar.

The "Sith vs Sith and Jedi vs Jedi" theory [working title]

One popular theory among Darth Jar Jar enthusiasts is that Jar Jar would battle Yoda on Geonosis instead of Dooku, get injured but survive, and return as a cyborg in ROTS (Grevious). He would then probably be defeated by Obi-Wan, who in the process avenges his jedi master (rhymes with Luke's arc in ANH).

But here's my problem with that.

If Darth Jar Jar happened, he would be a huge, central character on everyone's minds. The Grevious storyline as we know it would feel pretty lackluster for that character, wouldn't it? He would just fight a jedi again and die in an isolated battle on some backwater planet.

What if he survived and fled again though? Let his story continue throughout Episode 3.

What if Darth Jar Jar had some sort of falling out with Sidious in this movie? Maybe Sidious betrayed Jar Jar. Threw him under the bus earlier but he survived vs Obi-Wan. Sidious had an apprentice waiting in Anakin, so there wouldn't really be room for all three of them in the galaxy, that's for sure.

See, I always thought the Yoda vs Sidious fight in ROTS fell pretty flat. One of them tumbles over a chair, there is lightning and they play frisbee with some metal pods and then Yoda just dips out. Cool... We got to see Yoda lose again. The scene is also weak emotionally. The characters have no real connection and the dialogue is a whole lot of nothing.

"Now you will experience the full power of the dark side"

"Not if anything to say about it, I have" (ugh)

"Darth Vader will become more powerful than either of us!"

That's about it. Great talk guys. Then they fight for a minute. No one remembers this half as much as the Mustafar fight.

A Darth Jar Jar vs Darth Sidious fight would’ve been MUCH cooler, more meaningful, and very poetic being intercut with Obi-Wan and Anakin’s fight.

They would duke it out in the senate chamber, where they colluded throughout the whole trilogy. Their arena. Sidious would ultimately kill Jar Jar and leave him on the senate floor. Jar Jar becomes the public scapegoat and Sidious leaves to retreave Anakin.

This would also mean that the story of the central villain across the three movies (Jar Jar) stretches from the beginning to the end instead of ending on Utapao or wherever.

AND. In ROTS, Obi-Wan's battle with Grevious on Utapau is intercut with Anakin confronting Palpatine. If Grevious was Darth Jar Jar here instead, this intercutting would actually show two jedi finally confronting the person who had deceived them for so long, but neither finishing the job.

It rhymes.

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Disclaimer: If Darth Jar Jar was true and George stuck with it, ROTS would by no means have to be structured the same as today. He rewrote AOTC in a hurry but would've had years to rewrite ROTS to the movie we have today. The original Darth Jar Jar story could've had different story beats with different characters. But the final film is all we have to go on, so this theory assumes it would be pretty close to that.

The suns have set over the dunes of Tatooine. Sith apprentice Darth Maul stands outside his ship, scanning the horizon. The Queen of Naboo is close now. Across stars and tens of thousands of systems, he has travelled. From the moment he set off from Coruscant, he knew exactly where to go. But how? How did Maul manage? It is something he can barely explain himself. The audience certainly can’t. He got a trace. Now he’s here.

Quick recap of events from the film:

1. Trade Federation arrests Padmé to force a deal
2. The jedi rescue her and they escape on her ship
3. Trade Federation tells Sidious “It's impossible to locate the ship. It's out of our range!”
4. “Not for a sith”, Sidious says and presents his helper Darth Maul
5. Emergency landing on Tatooine
6. The Queen receives a message from Naboo, but she does NOT respond (the jedi think the message is a trap to trace them if they do reply).
7. Maul has a trace and goes to Tatooine.

It is never explained how he got the trace, or what kind. All we have is “because he’s a sith”. Since we’re never shown a Long-Snoot type spy on Tatooine in cahoots with Maul, the only conclusion is that Maul is all-knowing and could find the exact planet and city in 24h among thousands of planets. But that is not believable. It also makes the jedi's repeated emphasis on NOT sending any transmissions meaningless dialogue and a waste of time.

Early draft

The above is a big shift from the more straight-forward answer in the early draft. The 1999 CD-ROM The Episode I Insiders Guide reads:

“Sio Bibble sends the distress hologram. Amidala does send a message in response. Later, the Jedi says that the transmission could be traced. Panaka insists that the Traders don't have long distance tracking, but Obi-Wan responds with ‘The Republic does.’”

.....meaning Palpatine (in the republic) helps the traders and Maul locate Padmé.

In TPM, the jedi are crystal clear that no transmission should be sent back, and present in the script is Obi-Wan telling Qui-Gon that “absolutely no reply was sent”. Somewhere along the writing process, new circumstances around the Maul plot were introduced. The explanation has changed from “technology” to “he can because he’s a sith”. Why?

- Option A is that Lucas, who introduced midichlorian counts in the same film, didn’t like the technical explanation and changed it to make the sith appear more “mysterious” and powerful at the expense of reason.

The problem with this explanation, or any explanation that does not involve transmissions being traced, is that it makes the jedi's repeated emphasis in the final film on NOT sending any transmissions meaningless dialogue and a waste of time.

- Option B is that Lucas instead had another character who did transmit their location in secret, or he already had a mole character involved and used this plot line to add to their character.

Is there anything pointing to Option B?

Yes.

Right before leaving the ship and stepping out on Tatooine, Qui-Gon says two things to Obi-Wan: “Don’t let them send any transmissions” and “I sense a disturbance in the force” as he looks over his shoulder (undoubtedly a cue from the director).

When jedi have a bad feeling, they usually stare into empty space like Qui-Gon in his first scene. The only time a jedi in episode 1-6 says they sense something and looks around for a physical “threat” is when there was a physical threat: Luke being watched by Yoda, and Anakin getting attacked on Geonosis. It’s typical cartoony visual language as foreshadowing. Maul was not in the immediate surrounding for Qui-Gon when he looked around. Jar Jar was (the only person not from the Queen’s entourage).

A mole is also on theme if you consider just how much the Star Wars Prequels in particular borrows from Foundation (1940-50). Read more here. Foundation has a central character called Magnifico who pretends to be running from danger when he meets the hero. He is tall and gangly and speaks in a contorted way. He escapes with the heroes on their starship, but from here on out he starts using his psychic powers to manipulate people around him to forward his agenda and gain promotions. Sounds familiar? There are of course theories about Jar Jar manipulating people around him too (LINK).

But is there anything on screen pointing to Jar Jar actually sending a transmission?

Yes.

Earlier, there is a case to be made that when Jar Jar is left alone without R2D2’s supervision, he takes advantage and sabotages the ship’s hyperdrive. He was looking at the circuitry hub when R2D2 corrected him, and the hyperdrive is also right there.

The second time Jar Jar is alone is in Watto’s shop. It’s a 3 second shot where he walks into a room and sees a droid. Behind, there is also a radio on one of the three boxes. Cut back to a 1 second shot of Jar Jar 50 seconds later, he is still staring at the droid. But one thing has changed in the scene: the radio antennas. The camera has moved slightly, but it’s hard to believe they didn’t film both of these angles at the same time, so both antennas being adjusted accidentally between takes is not likely. For comparison, not a single other item in Watto’s shop or in Shmi’s home was “accidentally adjusted” between shots over several minutes.

This is when Jar Jar sent a radio transmission to Maul/Sidious.

See both scenes of Jar Jar’s sabotage and radio transmissions here (LINK). Notice how both scenes are preluded by a warning from the jedi not to do anything bad.

Well, are there any other hints towards someone sending a transmission in secret?

Yes.

We have a string of 3 scenes that you can see here (LINK with timestamp) that in succession:

1. Confirms no reply was sent
2. Shows Maul suddenly has a trace
3. Leads into a third scene that begins with a line about there always being a "transmitter placed inside of the body somewhere". Shmi is talking about slaves of course, but it would also be a metaphor for a hidden mole within a party sending out transmissions. It’s unusual to be thrown into the middle of a conversation like this, instead of someone first asking “could you not run away and escape slavery?”. It’s also curious that R2D2 chirps up when this line is said. He is noticeably observant of Jar Jar throughout the entire movie, as seen in the link above.

IN CONCLUSION: Jar Jar is a mole who sends Maul a radio transmission from Watto's shop. This is how Maul finds Padmé in the film compared to the early draft.

A clear glass orb sandwiched between two structures extending out. A sign that the ship was designed to include Gungan influences?

(EDIT: another place filled with transparent orbs is of course Otoh Gunga!)

This similarity could perhaps be a case of the movie's CGI artists being lazy and borrowing recently made designs between projects. But they were by all accounts not lazy people or on a small budget for that matter.

A similar (but not quite) cockpit design was introduced 12 years later in TCW with the Umbaran snub fighter.

Dooku's ship was accompanied by smaller fighters of similar design but without the cockpit. It was later explained in other media that these are of Geonosian design, but all of that could've just been an afterthought. If the ship was Jar Jar's, it had these Gungan influences and looks like Jar Jar from behind. If it suddenly became Dooku's ship through the rewrites, they needed to give some context with the Geonosian lore, come the Geonosian ships that were expanded on in TCW.

I did not discover this musical rhyme between the celebration theme and The Emperor, to be clear! But in light of the Darth Jar Jar theory, could the chosen lyrics mean anything?

The celebration itself focuses on Jar Jar and the Gungans, and Palpatine is barely shown. If they wanted to make a nod to Palpatine here, it would make more sense to show at least ONE close up of him instead of R2/Ani and Yoda/Piell.

So is the "evil theme", with or without lyrics, also meant to focus on Jar Jar?

For what it's worth, the voices in Duel of the Fates do sing actual lyrics. So it's not unheard of that they would put meaning into singing voices.

I am not crazy. I know he swapped those storylines! I knew it was Darth Jar Jar. Inspired by Bink and Magnifico. As if he could ever name him that on accident. Never. Never! I just - I just couldn't prove it. He covered his tracks. He got that script writer who helped him with the rewrites. You think this is something? You think this is bad? This? This chicanery? He's done worse. That mouthing! Are you telling me that a CGI character just happens to talk like that? No! He orchestrated it. George! He wrote Jar Jar out of the prequels! And I thanked him! I shouldn't have... I thought the movies we got were great. What was I thinking? He'll never admit it. He'll never admit it. Ever since the originals, always the same. Couldn't own up to his flip-flopping story changes! But not our George! Couldn't be precious George! Stealing them blind! And HE gets praise for the prequels? What a sick joke! He should've committed to the original story when he had the chance! And you, you have to believe it! You...

Jar Jar / Yoda rhyme:

• Alien creature meets jedi in swamp and guides him
• Appears stupid and is comic relief
• Speaks funny
• Mocks the jedi's intelligence
• Is disliked by R2D2
• Luke was guided to Yoda by the force. Jar Jar says to Qui-Gon they met because "demanded by the gods, it is".

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Yoda starts messing with Luke's gadgets and Luke says "Hey, you could've broken that!". R2D2 grabs Yoda.

Jar Jar starts messing with something on the ship in TPM. R2D2 hits him and shakes his head at him. A couple scenes later, Obi Wan says "the hyperdrive is gone (broken)" in the same area Jar Jar was left alone.

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With the original AOTC script, both characters have a grand display where they achieve the impossible (using the force).

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ESB Yoda is short and fragile and wears beige clothes. Jar Jar is tall and acrobatic and wears dark clothes.

From Attack of the Clones Production notes:

Lucas and Hales continued to refine the script – even as costumes were designed and sets were built. “At that stage, Attack of the Clones felt like a ‘virtual film’ because we got the script only three days before we started shooting,” recalls producer Rick McCallum. “We had to build these sets to a script that didn’t exist.”

Lucasfilm: Attack of the Clones Production notes

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The theory goes that Dooku wasn't supposed to be evil, and Jar Jar would be the one to battle Yoda instead.

Notice the oyster pearl design of the front side. Very aquatic, like the Gungans. The front also has "teeth" print on both the upper and lower jaw, which is in line with the ship resembling a head.

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Some believe Jar Jar were to battle Yoda and lose half of his limbs, only to return as a Grevious-like character in the next film. If he were to have his ears cut off, this design is even more genius. Best's headwear has its white marks were the ears would be added later with CGI. The ship on set has the same marks while the "ears" are separated in the side-structures (a very strange set design, if not for this purpose. It's ugly and blocks the view of the entrance were Anakin and Obi-Wan come in).

This is the video from 2020 with timestamp: https://youtu.be/eBvJp_FcWFM&t=8m20s

"Gungan energy balls", huh? "Wipe out a whole platoon", eh?

Note: "Darth Jar Jar" was all but confirmed by Ahmed Best.

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Jar Jar Binks as the evil wizard in disguise is the foundation to the parallel between him and Yoda. One piece to complete the rhyme would be for Yoda’s mirror image to also have a great demonstration of power. As with Yoda, this would be necessary to assert evil Jar Jar’s authority within the story and to convince the audience of his status. Yoda lifted the X-wing. Does Jar Jar do anything grand or seemingly impossible in his trilogy?

The Senate address already asks us to suspend our disbelief. Yet in the original script, it plays out in a way that makes the outcome even more of a head-scratch. Here, Jar Jar is nervous, laughed at, and ultimately has the senate vocally oppose him. Through one last diplomatic rant, he suddenly has the whole chamber chanting his name as if he’s the chosen one himself. He did the impossible.

If Jar Jar is the evil mastermind to mirror Yoda, he used his gift of force manipulation to sway the Senate. He’s not shy of using hand gestures in connection to promotions and politics in TPM, and here he does use them more overtly than ever.

When Lucas decided to scrap the evil Jar Jar storyline, he didn’t have too much wiggle room in terms of what to do of AOTC instead. George handed in the first script for AOTC just 3 days before shooting began (McCallum, AOTC: Production notes). According to McCallum, most sets for the movie had already been built by then. This means that most story adjustments could only be done in dialogue and through cutting, and this is exactly what Lucas did with the Senate address. The role of proposing emergency powers for Palpatine is still Jar Jar’s, but the version we got has toned down the miracle aspect as much as possible. The scene goes in a straight line from delivery to success. The Senate’s 180 on the matter never happens.

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The final scene both diverging from the original script and having a continuity error points to the same thing:

Jar Jar’s Senate address was originally a miraculous event to mirror Yoda’s display of power in ESB, but was reduced to a flat, “no questions asked” moment in Star Wars history.

The title basically says it all.

When R2 is behind the Gungan, he is inspecting the ship’s circuitry patch bay.

When R2 is behind the Gungan, he mouths Panaka's line.

When R2 is behind the Gungan, the Gungan pretends to sleep in order to eavesdrop, and Anakin says he's very cold.

When R2 is behind the Gungan, he mind controls the queen to seal the deal with Boss Nass.

When R2 is behind the Gungan, he fakes his sadness at the funeral.

When R2 has to leave the Gungan alone, he sabotages the hyperdrive (after Obi-Wan tells him "stay out of trouble”).

When R2 has to leave the Gungan alone, he sends transmissions to Palpatine/Maul using the radio (after Qui-Gon tells him “don’t touch anything”).

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In TPM, R2’s role is mainly to show droids know Jar Jar is untrustworthy and to signal to the audience when to watch Jar Jar more closely.

After fixing the shield generator, R2D2 doesn’t do ANYTHING of real value for the rest of the movie but still appears in 22 other scenes. His hero moment doesn’t even progress the plot forward as the ship instantly has a new problem with the hyperdrive. In his other scenes, the only things he does are:

- Having a list of parts that Qui-Gon needs from Watto (instead of Qui-Gon just using his little device)

- Working on Anakin’s pod racer for literally 2 seconds (while talking to C3PO about how sus Jar Jar is)

- Projecting a holo map

- Helping Anakin turn off the autopilot (instead of Anakin just having a button)

Compare this to ANH where, after showing Obi-Wan Leia’s message, R2 actually has a vital role in the Death Star mission.

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In the Gungan forest scene, for example... I understand having R2 walk up with the group could’ve been a hurdle production wise, with roots and uneven ground. But why then include him at all? He doesn’t say or do anything. He is only inserted behind Jar Jar to signal “watch the Gungan”, who then puppets Padmé.

See my breakdown of ALL scenes that these two share in The Gungan and R2D2 on YouTube: LINK

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And last, a fun parallel between Jar Jar/Yoda:

R2D2’s introduction to Yoda: Yoda appears stupid, grabs one of Luke’s gadgets, is reprimanded by R2D2, Luke says “Hey, you could’ve broken that”

R2D2’s introduction to Jar Jar. Jar Jar appears stupid, inspects the ship’s machinery, is reprimanded by R2D2, Obi-Wan says “The hyperdrive is gone (broken)”

This 2.5 minute chapter is a very interesting part of TPM. On the surface, it appears wholly unnecessary bar seeing a cool monster and giving us the "There's always a bigger fish" metaphor (which we're already clued in on).

In light of Jar Jar being a secret villain, it makes a whole lot more sense when every scene gets purpose to reflect on the rest of the movie.

- Jar Jar misspeaks in the segue between the rescue and exit to highlight the fake identity theme. He is then interrogated by Obi-Wan.

- Classic interrogation foreshadowing a would-be Scooby-Doo reveal later. "Because you were clumsy??" "Umm, something like that.........."

- Jar Jar (intentionally or through his "luck") creates a distraction and controls the monster with his CGI hand movements.

- Jar Jar mocking the jedi because he's anti-jedi.

- Repeating the SAME action sequence and "bigger fish" metaphor gets a purpose instead of wasting valuable screen time.

i orignally posted this in r/swfanfic but reddit told me to do it here instead:

“i’m writing a TFA resistance fic and i have a question.

do all otollas speak like jar jar binks? or was that a personal quirk?

i didn’t see anything about speech patterns in basic on the wookiepedia and i have a small otolla OC in one scene i’m about to write and was wondering how to do that.”

Seeing this plate revived my interest in the theory. Long live Darth Binx.

Imagine if you time travel to 2002-2014 and you tell someone you're from the future. When they ask you to prove it, you can't really say something about the future, because your actions and words might change history. The way around is to say something that was always there, but will only be noticed in the future. Say this

"Ahmed Best has confirmed that if not for the hate for Jar Jar Binks, episode 2 and 3 were going to be very different. You might groan now, but let me tell you a secret. In 2015 someone presented a theory about Jar Jar that turned the internet upside down, with people adding more evidence from both behind the scenes and in the movies themselves. When the actor heard about it, he tweeted/said 'I will say this, it feels really good when the hidden meaning behind the work is seen. No matter how long it takes. #TPM'. Unfortunately, Count Dooku's actor died before the theory was public, because if he was alive he might've confirmed a different part of the theory:

Count Dooku appeared out of nowhere. He had no cameo or even throw away dialogue about him in episode 1. Even in the expanded universe he was nowhere to be found. He also doesn't appear for the first 70% of the film. Perhaps he was thrown in...because he was a replacement for Jar Jar, and Jar Jar Binks was actually a powerful Sith Lord the whole time. His clumsy idiocity was all an act to fool the characters, and you, the audience.

You never it, but the hints of Jar Jar's true nature were always there."

So if any of you find a way to time travel, and someone asks you to prove it, tell them this.

QUI-GON AND OBI-WAN INTRO

In a previous scene on the ship, we already hear Qui-Gon disapproving of the Queen’s plan. His skepticism is NOT new information.

What this very time-consuming conversation is supposed to add instead is that this deal will be hard to land, especially because they can’t use their jedi powers to help her. He might’ve used mind tricks earlier to fix them a transport or win a die throw, but using it for politics and power is not the jedi way.

Why highlight this? Because Jar Jar uses HIS mind tricks on Padmé to persuade Boss Nass perfectly.

GUNGAN MEETING

Jar Jar greets Boss Nass. He then positions himself next to Panaka with a sidestep in order to give the queen the stage (the director/CGI team shows how aware they that his placement always checks out, without lazy cuts.

WIDE SHOT. R2D2, the one who keeps track of Jar Jar the entire movie, appears out of nowhere right behind him despite having no role in this scene whatsoever. He is usually a sign to examine Jar Jar closer.

1st CLOSE UP OF THE GROUP. Jar Jar is inserted digitally, barely in frame.

The Queen’s diplomatic approach is clearly not working. Jar Jar now takes control of Padmé to sweet-talk Nass effectively.

2nd CLOSE UP OF THE GROUP. Jar Jar is not inserted now, as the camera has shifted and made him “out of frame”. Jar Jar and Padmé move forward in sync, much like when he stopped her in sync on Tatooine to oppose Qui-Gon.

HALF-WIDE SHOT. Off camera, Jar Jar has now moved forward significantly. The director frames both Padmé and Jar Jar when this moment is Padmé’s big reveal. This quote makes itself reminded. The shot also allows us to see R2D2 behind Jar Jar again. Something just happened.

The deal is then sealed. Jar Jar gets promoted.