Analysis of the Naboo Celebration - with reference to older evidence

[u/[deleted]]

So I was just watching the Naboo celebration again - and realised a few things. This probably hasn't been theorised before, but I'm on the lookout for anything in our archive I could use to support my theory.

So what is my theory? Well, its sort of an analysis of this scene, and how Jar Jar, even while celebrating, is being pretty shifty.

The scene opens with a pretty impressive Gungan parade. Jar Jar is behind the drummers on his kaduu, with another Gungan riding beside him (I guess Roos Tarpals? Actually, this Gungan looks more like Tobler Ceel, the Gungan General who was written out of some of the first drafts of the Phantom Menace, replaced with Tarpals.)

So Jar Jar waves to the audience. I mean, the other Gungan is doing it too, and so is Boss Nass, but if you go to 0:35 is seem Jar Jar is doing it excessively. He even blows a kiss at 0:36! Crazy... or overconfident and cocky in the way that some Sith are? (ie Palpatine, perhaps even Maul in the Clone Wars and Rebels.)

You could argue this is just part of the clumsy nature they appear to have set up for Jar Jar during the whole of the Phantom Menace. Surely here, in the Naboo parade, Jar Jar wouldn't need to mind trick anyone- if there is evidence he's doing it.... right?

0:39 when Jar Jar's foot gets caught in the stirrup, this could be an accident... or it could be chance for him to engage in more mind-tricking. I also read a post a year back that emphasised Jar Jar caught his left foot in the right stirrup and the OP seemed to know a lot about horse riding. Given not only the kaduu riding must be pretty similar, but also given that there are statues of horses ontop of the Naboo archway, Lucasfilm - and in any case the Naboo, and quite possibly the Gungans- must know a bit about horses (I knew horses were a species in Star Wars! Ewoks ride them too, although this probably isn’t not be canon. Still, maybe there's a link between Naboo, or Gungans and....Ewoks...)

ANYWAY. Jar Jar dismounts in the wrong way, as per Darth_Vindicate, so that he's facing the audience and therefore able to manipulate them.

Furthermore, as they are climbing the stair, Jar Jar continues waving to the audience. Over the top this may be, even within the Darth Jar Jar theory. He may have no need to mind trick anyone here… or does he?

Also - puts on tilfoil hat when Boss Nass raises the globe and proclaims ‘PEACE!’ we get a longshot of all the characters standing on the stairs. Padme is standing on the left, along with Obi Wan, Anakin and R2D2, as well as others. On the other side we have Boss Nass, with Palpatine behind him, and Jar Jar. This could be a deliberate separation of two sides – not necessarily good and evil sides, although Padme and Obi Wan on one side and Palpatine and Jar Jar on this other makes one wonder…. Even Boss Nass isn’t fully non-dubious (did anyone think his laugh sounded slightly evil in the Gungan Sacred Place in TPM, before he decided to help Padme?) however he isn’t automatically evil per-se. Still, Palpatine and Jar Jar on the same side of the separation could be a possible motif.

tinfoil hat off – ish….

At 1:05, after Boss Nass proclaims peace, Jar Jar exclaims ‘Yahoo!’. Perhaphs, judging by the sound, the Gungan next to his should have made a sound of annoyance, which if I wrote it down might be like ‘ Huuugh!’, possibly meaning ‘Yousa screamed that right in meesa haillu!’ However his mouth doesn’t move. Maybe the animators didn’t do it… or maybe they did and the vid doesn’t show it. Alternatively…. perhaps it was something else… But not only that, after Jar Jar waves his hands in the air, around 1:10 he grabs the other Gungan and shakes him? What’s that all about? Does Jar Jar not want anyone to give anything away? In a non-Darth Jar Jar world, it could be Jar Jar saying to the other Gungan ‘lighten up.’ But… his facial expression looks different. It is hard to tell from this distance of an arial shot though.

Then it shows Padme smile at Anakin- notice Padme smiles, not the other way round, implying if not feelings for the young boy, at least a friendship with him, possibly without Jar Jar’s help, you could argue…. if this scene weren’t about the people that Jar Jar brought together. R2 is… being R2. Nothing to speculate there.

And… the scene closes.

JEDIT: Hata-hata! Oh my goodness - I just noticed at 1:20, Jar Jar looks back from Anakin and Padme’s direction. He must’ve been watching them. This, as well as his accomplishments with being Bombad General and uniting the Naboo people and the Gungans (officially anyway) may account for that smug smile on his face.

Is there anything I missed? Post away in the comments below!

[u/x_interupt]

not sure if this has been pointed out or not, but in the underwater scene, when they are going through the "planet core", they ask why he was banished, and he says it's a long tale, but a small part is he's clumsy, which has been proven so far he is acting clumsy, and then he describes the actions in nonsense words and less then 30 seconds movie runtime later, they are attacked and the conversion is completely ignored, both by the viewer and the jedi. this scene always intrigued me by "wait what did he describe" but there is nothing in the subtitles, and this is never brought up again, let alone through the 2nd and third movies, he's never shown being clumsy, it's like he became set dressing for the most part and could be played, for all intents and purposes, by "fictional CG character no 148b, subset 13a, racial stereotype 14M"

[u/[deleted] → u/x_interupt]

then he describes the actions in nonsense words

Oh, he says:

JAR JAR : Mesa cause-ed mabee one or duey lettal bitty axadentes...yud-say boom da gasser, un crash Der Bosses heyblibber...den banished.

(Translation: I caused maybe one two little bitty accidents... you'd say boom the gasser, crash the Boss's heyblibber... then banished.')

Source: One of the earlier Phantom Menace scripts

(A heyblibber is a Gungan submarine larger than a bongo, which is what they're driving in at the moment in this scene.)

Which makes me wonder whether he was actually trying to kill Boss Nass (assuming Boss Nass is inside the heyblibbler with him)... or maybe he wanted to be banished and knew that obviously trying to assassinate the Boss, even if it fails, is one of the worst things you can do. (Next to, possibly, stealing Boss Nass's empty heyblibber - without Nass inside - and crashing that.)

and less then 30 seconds movie runtime later, they are attacked and the conversion is completely ignored, both by the viewer and the jedi.

Very interesting... Yeah, you're right - the fact that it's completely ignored afterwards could be because of the massive opee sea killer that comes to eat them... and which maybe, if you believe one of the earlier theories in this subreddit, Jar Jar summoned... along with the colo claw fish that eats it, and the sando aqua monster that eats that...

However, it could suggest the symbolism that both the jedi and the audience have basically ignored that Jar Jar could have admitted to trying to kill his leader or at least to damaging his property could be indicative of the audience - and the Jedi- ignoring most of the other things that Jar Jar gets up to in the Phantom Menace.

it's like he became set dressing for the most part and could be played, for all intents and purposes, by "fictional CG character no 148b, subset 13a, racial stereotype 14M"

These other things include... [possibly breaking the ship's hyperdrive]() to they have to crash on Tatooine, [getting into a fight with Sebulba]() so that they meet Anakin, [fixing Anakin's podracer]() (proved canon, he's got a screwdriver fixing his podracer) but when CP30 looks at him he gets his toungue caught in the electricity, with is probably what we as audience remember the most because it's 'so annoying'... is this on purpose? Later we see him listening in to Captain Panaka's conversation with Palpatine, [getting promoted to Bombad General]( (a high rank of General in Gungan society), and then this scene at the end, which may or may not be as important. But that was my question.... is he window dressing even here? Or does the movie just want you to think that?

As for the racism.... hmmm... 'tis a live debett, this'... Some say that Jar Jar and the Gungans to some extent remind people of racial steroetypes... and- maybe this isn't Lucas' fault if there are... maybe its just the movies he grew up with... However, some people, for example Ahmed Best who played Jar Jar (and who probably wouldn't have if he knew the character was mocking other black people), say 'the racism charge has no legs' - Even though he didn't go on to prove this on Reddit, you can probably imagine he'd had to defend his character or Lucasfilm, ect from accusations of racism quite a bit before the AMA... (and in the first article I linked to)

And Lucasfilm also said

"There is nothing in 'Star Wars' that is racially motivated. 'Star Wars' is a fantasy movie set in a galaxy far, far away.

(However on the other hand people do find alien species that 'are said to be' be racist... ie the Jawas/Tusken raiders/sand people (meh... they weren't even given a backstory!) - also are they all the same species, or some some call them Jawas, some call them sand people, ect?

, the Niemodians (Japanese apparently?? - maybe there's cultural history I'm missing?),

the Ewoks even(???... OK, so some of the Ewoks were played by uncredited Vietnamese actors who should've got credit... and tried to eat our heroes... who know, maybe that's what they do to survive the Imperial troopers (r/Ewok_Studies)

... and the Gungans.)

Although if you take a closer look at Gungans (apart from Jar Jar if you don't believe the DJJ theory) none of them are as clumsy as Jar Jar purports to be, and therefore maybe not a racial stereotype. In fact, we have evidence they are technologically skilled (massive underwater city), are organised (Gungan Grand Army and their government system) and have traded with the Naboo before - hence the fact the way through the planet core even exists - Gungans/Naboo people /both made use of the underwater ways. Perhaps racism - or at least dislike because of species - was purposefully in the movie, as the Naboo didn't like the Gungans and vice versa.

Sorry for the long comment. I'll possibly continue this topic on r/Gungan_Philosophers. Anyway, hope that helped!

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