Background

Most “evil Jar Jar” theories suggest Jar Jar secretly uses mind control to influence people around him in TPM. Theories point to Jar Jar’s mouth moving in sync with Panaka and Padmé as they speak up against Qui-Gon.

Animating Jar Jar

Jar Jar, being a first-of-its-kind CGI character, needed his eyes and mouth to be programmed manually, something animators have been very clear about.

>Jar Jar is a stylized character. He was driven by Ahmed but we very much animated on top of that. We had no facial motion-capture whatsoever, so all of his facial animation is 100% key-framed.
- Rob Coleman, animation director on TPM (starwars.com)

Jar Jar’s mouth does move in many scenes where he is just a background character, but only as a linear open/close animation. To do anything more, like an O-shape with his lips, it had to be crafted keyframe by keyframe. This only happens twice in the film: When Panaka argues with Qui-Gon and when Padmé argues with Qui-Gon.

There are of course also all of the times where Jar Jar is smiling in the background, but none of these stand out from the context of the scene like the silent mouthing does.

Facts:

• It is highly unlikely that this sort of mouthing was animated and left in on accident.
• The only two times it was animated like this, his mouthing syncs with another character’s line.
• Both times when his mouthing syncs with another character’s line, the line is anti Qui-Gon.

It’s also curious that the first instance of Jar Jar’s alleged mind control is highlighted with a sound cue. It comes in right as the camera shows Jar Jar again and Panaka says his line.

Conclusion

The way Jar Jar’s mouth matches Panaka’s and Padmé’s words is intentional, and the first instance of this behavior is highlighted with (or at the very least coincides with) a menacing sound cue.

The mole and the vergence.

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 also in line with the ship resembling a head.

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

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.

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.

... http.margaux 🌟 Perfect framing in the edit 👏👏👏

https://www.instagram.com/http.margaux

edit: it's even like poetic with a male siluette casting a shadow on her gown because most of the album surrounds this one guy

Download images on the mobile app for better legibility in 4500x4500 resolution.

Edit: ENORMOUS miss by me while making this post. I had forgotten about this interview where Best literally confirms he did deliberate drunken fist moves from Jackie Chan movies. Which means George thought this fit Jar Jar perfectly or it was originally George's idea in some form.

Full interview with Ahmed Best (5:18 for Darth Jar Jar question): YOUTUBE

The viral "Darth Jar Jar" theory post in question: REDDIT

Interviewer: Could Darth Jar Jar be true?

Best: What I can say about it is – and I kind of said this on Twitter – there's a lot about it that’s true. There are some things about it that are not true.

Could Jar Jar have evolved into that? I think the answer is yes. Because of the backlash, and rightfully so, Lucasfilm backed off of Jar Jar a lot. But a lot of the influence that I put into the character mirrored a lot of what was already in the Star Wars universe.

So was there an official “Darth Jar Jar” theory in the works? That’s really a George Lucas question. I cannot answer that question.

Analysis in plain text in the comments.

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.