Jar Jar being a Sith Lord would've totally redeemed this movie

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Absolutely. Jar Jar even pushed Anakin to indulge in lustful thoughts by cheekily referring to Padme as "pretty hot, huh?"

Both Palpatine and Jar Jar Binks came from the same planet. Darth Maul was just an expendable pawn discovered on Coruscant... a red herring for the audience, but ultimately mentally weak in The Force aside from swordsmanship. The Master/Apprentice relationship is Paps and Binks, and their Force powers seem to work similarly. George Lucas punished the audience who didn't accept his goofy pivotal character by denying them the appropriate payoff. (Aside from Jar Jar being elected Senator representing Naboo and motioning for Palpatine to receive dictatorial powers, I guess.) Lucas expected everyone to be charmed by Jar Jar at first and feel a sense of betrayal later. Instead it was the inverse... as Binks would undoubtedly be far cooler as a wolf in sheep's clothing. So cool, in fact, that it's basically how we all deduced the truth all these years later.

I only disagree with your interpretation of Count Dooku as the stand-in for Sith Jar Jar. I believe Dooku was always intended to be there with a prestigious actor for a human character to just represent a Jedi led astray. It's character-building for the Jedi Order heirarchy of the movies as well as foreshadowing for Anakin's arc towards the Dark Side. It was stated that Dooku was Padawan to Yoda, Master to Qui-Gonn, who, in turn, instructed Obi-Wan and Anakin. This is what heightens the drama when he fosters the droid army and battles a group of his fellow Jedi on Geonosis. Christopher Lee also follows a formula laid out of the typecast villainous actor (the other being Terence Stamp of Ep I) who is actually sort of a good guy who missed his opportunity to divert the path towards dictatorship.

It makes more sense to me that you should, instead, imagine Sith Jar Jar in the role of General Grievous in Ep III. That seems the more appropriate personality, battle tactics, and scenario to fit Jar Jar. He even was officially pronouced a General at the end of the initial movie. The absurd camouflage of a cyborg-droid with functioning lungs and heart seems to represent a tribute to the lost potential of Jar Jar Binks. Grievous' character design is like a hollow shell taunting us the viewers, who are too fickle to deserve any better.

Sure would have been nice to see Obi-Wan shoot his former colleague, Binks, in the heart with a blaster while declaring the weaponry as uncivilized, huh? Again, even more complimentary to the uncivilized behavior of Binks as he was introduced.

"Hello there." Kenobi

I imagine the twist of evil Binks would have been revealed by the end of Ep. II, while Count Dooku might just have been a true-blue Separatist Jedi rather than actual Sith Apprentice. Also a far more interesting twist.

100% agree. I just finished reading Asimov’s Foundation trilogy as it’s believed that Lucas was inspired by The Mule. The character is also a clown but not so front and centre or child oriented as Jar Jar. I think this was Lucas’s mistake, which he realises a bit in the behind the scenes (“may have gone too far in a few places”).

Considering all of this, it’s pretty interesting to realise that Mike Stoklasa’s Redlettermedia Plinkett reviews which are so highly regarded as started the youtube video essay trend are pretty wrong about prequel Star Wars. In retrospect you can’t help but feel pretty bad for Lucas and all the bullying he has faced. First bullied into changing his film, then bullied as people still didn’t like it. I’d love to see someone write a thesis on this and the film being a misunderstood masterpiece.

Darth Jar Jar is so obvious when you know what to look for, yet to took about 10 years for anyone to realise. One you do notice, it’s everywhere and people are still picking up on new things.

Seeing the trailer for the new Lego show feature Darth Jar Jar makes me worried that they can’t use it properly now, especially since it’s supposed to be something mixed up and not right in the galaxy.

I also want to believe that Snoke was originally Jar Jar. Imagine how amazing the trilogy could have been with both Kylo Ren AND Jar Jar revealed instead of Palpatine behind it all.

I think Jar Jar was part of Lucas’s plans for the sequel trilogy that got scrapped by Disney. Consider that despite scaling back Jar Jar’s role, he still appears in II and III and is shown gaining political power. This feels akin to The Mule.

If you look at the poster, Qui-Gon Jinn’s hair is blowing out on the left and Queen Amadala’s head dress is making almost the same shape on the right, giving Jinn a slight Jar Jar resemblance in shape, which also echos Darth Vader’s helmet. Is this trying to hint at a deeper connect between Jinn and Jar Jar? Jar Jar does manipulate Jinn a few times in the movie to get what he wants. Jar Jar himself is shown wearing black despite not wearing this in the movie if I recall.