COUNTDOWN TO THE FORCE AWAKENS | IS JAR JAR BINKS A SITH LORD?
In the run up to the release of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Joe Richards will be looking back at the series. This week he focuses on whether the infamous Jar Jar Binks is in fact on the Dark Side.
Jar Jar Binks. I can think of very few characters in the history of cinema who have been received with as much anger and hatred as the annoying Gungan from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
To be fair, it’s totally justified. The character is irritating, distracting and a large part of why The Phantom Menace is so utterly painful to watch. But recently, a theory has emerged that could just well prove audiences – and me – wrong about Binks, changing the way we see Star Wars forever.
George Lucas has always said that the character was introduced to entertain Star Wars‘ younger audience, and that any animosity toward Jar Jar was because people couldn’t accept that the franchise was for younger people too.
But what if this was just a cover? What if Lucas has actually outsmarted us this entire time? What if Jar Jar Binks wasn’t a moronic, clumsy and frankly useless character that was simply introduced to sell toys, but in fact was the titular ‘Phantom Menace’ of Star Wars?
This is the theory that has been hypothesised by Redditor Lumpawarroo, entitled ‘Darth Jar Jar‘, which proposes that the Gungan was “a trained Force user and knowing Sith collaborator”.
I know, I know. Sounds ridiculous, right? However, if you think about the characters’ arc over the prequel trilogy – which sees him play a pivotal role in convincing the Galactic Senate to hand over supreme power to Senator Palpatine – the idea that Binks may not be as innocent as we think doesn’t seem as crazy after all.
To back up this huge claim, Lumpawarroo has a lot of evidence ranging from Binks’ Jedi-like abilities to jump and somersault 20-foot into the air, as well as his hand gestures which may seem silly on the surface, but in actuality could be Jar Jar using the Jedi mind control trick.
Add to the fact that Jar Jar and Palpatine are from the same planet and are always seen together, and it’s hard not to think of an evil Jar Jar wearing a black cloak and conspiring against his ‘Jedi friends’ behind the scenes.
It may be wishful thinking; a way for fans to embrace and enjoy the maligned prequels, but let’s just think about what it could mean for the franchise if it were in fact true. After all, we have a brand new trilogy of films on the way, and whilst we’ve been given details of the film’s new antagonist, Kylo Ren, perhaps he is simply a mere puppet in the grand scheme of things.
With Luke Skywalker’s absence from all of The Force Awakens’ promotional material, many have theorised that he will in fact be evil in the new films, following in the footsteps of his wheezy father. However, could this simply be a distraction from the real reveal of the true villain?
In The Empire Strikes Back we had the classic “Luke, I am your father” twist, but what if in The Force Awakens we have Kylo Ren take off his mask to reveal Jar Jar Binks as he says “Esqueeze me, mesa gonna kill you now”. Imagine that. Imagine the gasps of audiences all across the world. Imagine the confusion. Imagine the pain.
It’s unlikely, and I don’t think George Lucas could have been quite so clever to have fooled generations of filmgoers – he’s good, but not THAT good – but now it will be virtually impossible for you to watch the prequels in a different light, once you’ve had your eyes opened to the Darth Jar Jar theory.
words JOE RICHARDS