The Darth Jar Jar Theory: Was Star Wars' Most Mocked Character Secretly a Sith Lord?

What if Jar Jar Binks was never actually a bumbling idiot? What if the clumsiness was all an act, and he was secretly a Sith Lord working in league with Palpatine, pulling the strings of the entire prequel trilogy? It sounds completely ridiculous on its face, but George Lucas loves his twists, and there are some surprisingly compelling pieces of evidence to support the Darth Jar Jar theory.

Throughout The Phantom Menace, Jar Jar is portrayed as almost impossibly clumsy, tripping over his own feet at nearly every turn. But whenever the movie actually requires him to be athletic, that clumsiness suddenly disappears without explanation.

Jar Jar's clumsiness vanishes exactly when it matters

When Jar Jar takes Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan underwater to the Gungan city, he effortlessly executes a perfect Olympic-level series of twisting flips before diving into the water.

The only other characters we see in the prequels move like that are Yoda and the Jedi Master who later becomes a Sith Lord.

Then there is the final battle. Jar Jar may look hopelessly in over his head as chaos erupts around him, but he also accidentally destroys every battle droid that gets near him. He even manages to take out a couple of tanks in the process.

Jar Jar uses the same hand gestures as a Jedi mind trick

Whenever Jar Jar tries to sway someone's opinion in the prequels, he waves his hands exactly like the Jedi do when they use the Force to influence weak minds.

He does it to convince Qui-Gon to free him from the Gungans early in The Phantom Menace. He does it again when he convinces Queen Amidala to go to war. And most importantly, he does it to the entire Senate when he proposes giving emergency powers to Chancellor Palpatine, an act that literally hands the galaxy over to the Sith.

George Lucas himself called Jar Jar "the key to all of this"

Probably the most famous piece of evidence behind the theory comes from George Lucas himself. In behind-the-scenes footage from The Phantom Menace, Lucas is seen telling his team, "Jar Jar is the key to all of this."

That line, combined with the athletic ability that only surfaces when the plot needs it, the battle droid destruction disguised as slapstick, and the repeated use of Jedi-style hand gestures at every pivotal moment in Palpatine's rise, makes up the case behind the Darth Jar Jar theory.