Jar Jar Binks: "The Key to Everything"?

"So the idea that Jar Jar is the key to everything, right? He's the key from Phantom Menace all the way to Return of the Jedi... He's annoying and obnoxious and no one likes him except for Qui Gon, right? Qui Gon is tapped into the living Force. Qui Gon can sort of see this inherent value in all life the way almost no one else can, right? And so he tells Obi Wan like, 'No, we've gotta protect Jar Jar,' and you see how annoyed Obi Wan is that they've gotta, like, take Jar Jar with them. And, you know, Obi Wan's even more skeptical about it. He's like, 'You were banished because you were clumsy?' Like, this is not going to go well for any of them. But Qui Gon keeps him on [and keeps] encouraging him as a person, right? Like even to the point where Qui Gon even has to take him to Tatooine because he's just not sure how everyone else is going to treat him on the ship. And Jar Jar ends up being that obnoxious person that no one saw any value in that brings the Naboo and the Gungans together. And that helps them win the battle against Trade Federation.

"And you see that Palpatine sees this and sees how he can manipulate someone who has such a good heart, right? Like, the entire point of Jar Jar's story is that you need to be nice to everyone whether you think you can get something from them or not, because that's the right thing to do. And when you end up getting something from them, that's a bonus, right? You were nice to them for the sake of being nice, and if they can help you, all the better. Palpatine sees that and bends that lesson to the Dark Side. And the Jedi are left in their arrogance, right? Like even Yoda comments in Attack of the Clones, "The Jedi have been arrogant; we're... too wise; we think we've got all the answers, but we don't." And in Revenge of the Sith, Yoda thinks he has all those answers and he doesn't and has to go into exile, and who's there helping him try to figure out those answers and puzzle together those pieces? It's Qui Gon, right? Qui Gon's the voice who's speaking to him from beyond. Qui Gon has found that path to immortality that Yoda didn't even know existed, which is why the galaxy wasn't full of Force ghosts through the entirety of the Jedi's reign.

"And, so how does he treat Luke? When Luke first shows up on Dagobah the first time, Yoda's acting like Jar Jar, right? And Luke fails that test. Luke is just like, 'Nope. You're obnoxious, I don't wanna deal with you, where's Yoda?' And then, when Yoda reveals himself, he doesn't wanna train Luke because this is bad news. Because Luke has that propensity to anger that his father did. And then Luke goes off and makes all the same mistakes his father did: he goes off against the orders of his masters to try to save the try to save the lives of the loved ones in the face of evil the way he shouldn't, against the orders gives in to that vengeance sort of thing, and when we see him in Return of the Jedi we think that he's failed all of these tests. He shows up dressed in black, he's making death threats -- it's not good news. And then, when we get to Endor, maybe he has learned his lesson. Because, when they get trapped by the Ewoks, Han is going to blast them all because Han doesn't see any value in them, and Luke's the one who stays his hand and says, 'No, let's see how this plays out. Let's get captured. You know? Obviously I'm a Jedi Knight who's the most powerful Jedi Knight who's ever lived. I can overpower these teddy bears, trust me. We don't need to. This will work out better. And it's because of that -- because Luke has learned that lesson, finally, that Yoda taught him, that Qui Gon and Jar Jar taught Yoda, that the Empire was able to be defeated on Endor because of the lesson that Luke had learned. Because of the Ewoks.

"And... people are like, 'Meh, George Lucas didn't plan that out,' but: if you look at the way he designed his shots in Return of the Jedi and Phantom Menace with Jar Jar and Chewie there's undeniable similarities where you know George Lucas was thinking about all of this, right? In Phantom Menace there's that shot where Jar Jar enters from screen right, moves screen left, and steals a bit of meat that isn't his, which causes him to get into a fight, which causes a Skywalker to intercede in the fight and then become allies with the group, or with the two disparate groups, right? That's exactly what happens with Chewie on Endor: he finds a piece of meat, walks from screen right to screen left to take what isn't his, [gets captured], a Skywalker has to stop the fight that's going to ensue and then unite the two disparate groups for that common goal going forward. There's no way George Lucas didn't plan that.

"Jar Jar is the key to everything, and the more I talk about that the more convinced of it I am. But I dunno. I mean: am I stretching too far?" -- Bryan Young, Full of Sith podcast

... Discuss! Is Jar Jar Binks the "key to everything"?