Without darkness there cannot be light.
The spiritual leaders of the peaceful, neutral planet of Bardotta are vanishing, so, in desperation, they turn to the Republic Senate for help. But, offered the services of two of the Republic's best ambassadors, Bail Organa and Padmé Amidala, Queen Julia turns them both down: she wants to meet with Representative Jar Jar Binks, to the puzzlement of the Chancellor and the Jedi Council. The Queen has also requested that Representative Binks come alone, but the Jedi Order decides to send Mace Windu along as backup, a risky move considering their bad reputation on Bardotta.
Tropes:
- Breather Episode: Together with part 2. This story arc is relatively standalone and, although having its dark moments, is lighter with a much happier ending than the two arcs preceding it, both of which had the Sith winning.
- Butt-Monkey: Mace gets this treatment in this episode, starting off with getting claimed to be Jar Jar's servant to Queen Julia.
- Call-Forward: The prophecy about the disappearances of the Dagoyan Masters says that if they are not returned, a darkness will rise up and engulf the galaxy.
- Cliffhanger: The Frangawl cult leader escapes with the queen, and Jar-Jar and Mace promise the Bakh-tov council that they'll find her.
- Damsel in Distress: Queen Julia spends these two episodes being abducted and taken to be sacrificed, with Jar-Jar and Mace rushing to save her.
- Deadly Dodging: A Frangawl cultist throws a spear at Mace, who dodges, causing the spear to impale a Frangawl cultist behind him.
- Death Glare: Mace scares off that same Frangawl cultist just by looking at him.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: With their accents and their meditation and the sitar music that plays, the Bardottans are Space India.
- Foot Popping: Jar-Jar, when Queen Julia kisses him.
- Foreshadowing: High Seneschal Peteen and the cult leader have the same voice actor in the credits, and at the end, after the cult leader has escaped with Julia, Peteen is not present at the council meeting.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: On Bardotta, the Jedi are seen as kidnappers after an incident where several Bardottan children were inducted into the Order and the planet's local order of Force users, the Dagoyan Masters, accused the Jedi of having kidnapped them.
- Hidden Depths: At some point after The Phantom Menace, Jar Jar managed to win the respect of the Bardottan people and the love of their queen. Yoda suggests it's because of his childlike innocence, but we also see him thinking on his feet and meditating (through a slow martial arts kinda thing) with the queen.
- Human Sacrifice: The Frangawl cult is sacrificing the Dagoyan Masters to steal the Living Force within them. Even though Jar-Jar isn't Force-sensitive, he still nearly gets subjected to it before Mace rescues him because everyone has the Force within them.
- Interspecies Romance: Between Jar-Jar (Gungan) and Queen Julia (Bardottan).
- Invisibility: The Frangawl cult has a blue sparkly powder that lets them turn things invisible, and is how they kidnapped the Dagoyan Masters.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Mace breaks into Queen Julia's room just as she's about to tell Jar-Jar something important. Before Jar-Jar can talk to her again, she disappears.
- No-Sell: Mace tries a Jedi Mind Trick on one of the guards, who responds that he should know better than to try that on a Dagoyan.
- Not Helping Your Case: Queen Julia is trying to explain what she saw in the Force to Jar-Jar, but doesn't want to explain it to Mace given her dislike of Jedi. The subterfuge Mace enacts to distract the guards so he can get inside the room does not help.
- Odd Couple: Face it, you can't get much stranger than pairing Jar Jar up with Mace Windu. Naturally Hilarity Ensues, but amazingly by the end of this mini-arc it turns out they do make a fairly good team. It helps that Mace is hard to faze (and more patient than you'd expect, thanks to how important their mission is) and gives Jar Jar good advice that helps him be more effective.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Jar-Jar, when he enters the queen's meditation chamber again after talking to Mace, only to find Julia gone.
- Jar-Jar again when a Frangawl cultist ambushes him and turns him invisible and kidnaps him.
- The Prophecy: Julia explains that the disappearances of the Dagoyan Masters is part of a prophecy, one that says that if they are not returned, a darkness will rise up to engulf the whole galaxy.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: Jar-Jar, when Julia suggests that Mace is his servant. Mace looks utterly incredulous at the suggestion.
- Take a Third Option: Palpatine offers Julia the services of Padmé Amidala or Bail Organa, as experienced ambassadors. Julia chooses to meet with... Jar Jar.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Jar-Jar's opinion on heading into the ancient shrine of the Frangawl cult in search of Julia.
