Andor was, in a sense, the most “grounded” Star Wars TV show of all time. Tony Gilroy’s classic series takes a delightful step away from the lighter themes, presenting a deep and dark character study that explores the theme of rebellion. It’s easily the best Star Wars TV show ever made, not least because there’s something wonderfully timeless about it. Some plots have even seemed almost prophetic as the months passed, a disturbing fact that Gilroy himself has commented upon.
George Lucas originally intended Star Wars to be for kids, but Andor rightly eschewed that to remind audiences that there’s room for many different types of story. And yet, for all that’s the case, Star Wars has just woven another character into Andor‘s story – one who was literally designed for the children. Yes, that’s right, we’re talking about Jar Jar Binks here.
Jar Jar Binks Discovered the Technology Behind Luthen’s Fractal Radio
Andor introduced a rebel cell we’d never seen before, one with a tense relationship with Mon Mothma and the rest of the Rebel Alliance. Ostensibly run by Luthen Rael (but actually managed in practical terms by his “assistant,” Kleya Marki), the Axis network used so-called “fractal radios” to communicate. It was the first time we’d ever seen these fractal radios in Star Wars lore, and viewers assumed Luthen had come across the technology through his study of ancient cultures. It turns out, though, that the truth is a little different; rather, they date back to the Clone Wars.
Jar Jar #1 is a unique comic; featuring art by Michael Atiyeh, Laura Braga, and Kieran McKeown, it’s written by Marc Guggenheim and Jar Jar actor Ahmed Best himself. It reveals that Jar Jar and Jedi Master Kelleran Beq worked together during the Clone Wars, both suspicious of Chancellor Palpatine due to his use of the emergency powers Jar Jar himself had petitioned to give him. The two discovered unique crystals on the planet Urubai that could be used to develop a “fractal radio” system, and they began setting one up so they could coordinate without Palpatine’s knowledge.
The comic strongly implies that this is how Grogu survived Order 66, given Kelleran Beq (Best’s other Star Wars character) was the one to rescue the Child from the Jedi Temple… and he took Grogu to a Naboo diplomatic vessel he’d arranged to be on standby. More than that, though, it’s reasonable to assume that the fractal radio network was passed down to the Axis network by Jar Jar himself. In fact, there’s a subtle hint in Andor Season 2 that the two may be even more closely related than that.
Andor Seaosn 2 Returned to Naboo
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Andor had teased a Naboo connection since the beginning. Luthen lived on Coruscant under the pretense of working as an antiques dealer, and it was immediately noticeable that he had a significant number of Naboo artifacts – including ones linked to the Naboo royalty and to the Gungans. The connections became even more overt when Andor Season 2 featured a flashback in which Luthen tested the young Kleya’s resolve on Naboo, seeing whether she would flinch from a bombing. This was the beginning of Luthen’s Axis network, and we’d thought it significant because Naboo is Palpatine’s homeworld. Now, there’s a striking Jar Jar connection too.
Is it just a coincidence that the Axis network was born on Jar Jar Binks’ homeworld, and used technology only he and Kelleran Beq were aware of? Incredibly, it’s now possible Jar Jar Binks was the true founder of the Axis network, giving Luthen the fractal radios he would use to establish a wider rebel movement. Indeed, Jar Jar would have access both to the royal palaces and to Gungan artifacts, and could even have been serving as Luthen’s supplier to keep the Coruscant shop working.
This is the beauty of Star Wars; it’s a transmedia franchise, where everything is connected to everything else, sometimes in the most bizarre and unexpected ways. In this case, nobody could ever have anticipated that Star Wars would establish a potential narrative throughline between Jar Jar Binks and Luthen Rael, but that really does now seem to be the case. Maybe Jar Jar has been redeemed in Star Wars lore after all.
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