Count Dooku
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Template:SW Character "Treachery is the way of the Sith..."
Count Dooku (102–19 BBY) (also known as Darth Tyranus) is a fictional character from the Star Wars universe. Dooku is an esteemed Jedi Master who is tempted by the power of the dark side, and thus, he becomes the apprentice to Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith.
Dooku's seduction to the dark side by Darth Sidious is a relatively simple one. Dooku is frustrated at the bureaucracy of the Senate and the unwillingness of the Jedi Council to step in during certain events and situations that might have been beneficial to those who are in torment and the like. Further adding fuel to the fire is the death of his former Padawan, Qui-Gon Jinn. Dooku believes that the Jedi caused his death.
In the films he is played by Christopher Lee, and he is voiced by Corey Burton in the video games and Clone Wars animated series. He first appeared in Attack of the Clones.
His Sith name is Darth Tyranus, a name obviously derived from "tyrant," particularly more at "tyrannous." It is also possible that the name Dooku is derived from the Japanese word "doku," which means poison.
Biography
In the film Attack of the Clones, it is revealed that Count Dooku had once been a Jedi formerly under the tutelage of Yoda (he was apprenticed to Master Thame Cerulian, but his relationship with Yoda was much closer). He is in turn the Master of Qui-Gon Jinn, who in turn trained Obi-Wan Kenobi as a Padawan. Dooku has been a Jedi for many years, and his bronzium bust is displayed in the Jedi Archives, along with the rest of the Lost Twenty, the only Jedi Masters ever to resign their commission from the Jedi Order. Dooku leaves the order around the time of the Battle of Naboo and retakes his family title as Count of Serenno.
The circumstances under which Dooku leaves the Jedi are still a mystery (according to wide speculation, the death of his former apprentice Qui-Gon Jinn is a major factor). It is also unknown exactly how or when Dooku first comes into contact with Darth Sidious (the Sith alias of then-Senator Palpatine), a mysterious Dark Lord of the Sith (and the Master of the late Darth Maul, who slew Jinn), but Dooku somehow falls to the dark side of the Force and becomes Sidious's new Sith apprentice, taking the name Darth Tyranus.
As Tyranus, Dooku recruits the mercenary Jango Fett to become a template for the Grand Army of the Republic's clone troopers later to be used by Chancellor Palpatine and the Republic. In the video game Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, he tests Fett by having him defeat the Bando Gora and their Dark Jedi leader, Komari Vosa, his former apprentice who had a crush on him. Ten years later, the Machiavellian Count Dooku comes out of hiding, appearing on Raxus Prime and heavily criticizes the Republic and the Jedi Order for their decadence, hypocrisy, and corruption. Dooku, on the orders of political mastermind Darth Sidious, publicly calls for entire systems to secede from the Republic and join the Separatist movement, culminating in the formation of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The first meeting of the CIS is hosted on the planet Geonosis, where Kenobi is captured by the Geonosians and accused of espionage. Dooku cleverly claims that he has no power over the decision. Furthermore, with equal cunning, Dooku deflects suspicions of Chancellor Palpatine's plotting of all this by simply telling the truth to Obi-Wan about the conspiracy, successfully gambling that the hostile Jedi would never believe this allegation coming from him. There is also speculation that Dooku may in fact have been trying to acquire Obi-Wan as his own apprentice in a personal effort to wrestle power from Sidious, a common occurrence among the Sith.
Later, when Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala arrive to rescue Obi-Wan, they are also captured and sentenced to death in a Geonosian style execution- i.e. attacked by large beasts in a Colosseum-style arena while chained to large poles. However, the executions are interrupted by the sudden arrival of Jedi reinforcements, led by Mace Windu. Though the Jedi are overwhelmed by the new droid army of the CIS, they are soon rescued by Yoda, who is leading the very Clone Army Dooku had helped create, forcing the Separatists to retreat.
While the clone troopers advance and obliterate the droid forces, the Separatists call for a retreat while Dooku pretends not to know how the Republic had gathered such a powerful army in such a short time. Poggle the Lesser, Archduke of Geonosis, commands a full retreat and proceeds to turn over the plans for the future Death Star superweapon to Count Dooku to keep the Jedi from finding them.
Count Dooku flees to his secret hangar, but he is followed by Obi-Wan and Anakin. After injuring Obi-Wan, he duels with Anakin, who proves to be a bit of a challenge to the aging Dark Lord, but the battle ends when Dooku severs Anakin's sword arm. Before he can escape, however, Dooku is confronted by one last Jedi—his old mentor, Yoda. After a battle of Force powers, Dooku insists on settling their contest with a lightsaber duel. Ultimately, the duel goes unfinished as Dooku uses the Force to drop a crane on the wounded Obi-Wan and Anakin to distract Yoda long enough to make his escape. Count Dooku soon arrives on Coruscant where he meets with his Master, Darth Sidious, and informs him that the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems are officially at war.
In the video game "Star Wars: The New Droid Army" A Count Dooku Clone raids the Jedi Temple library ten months after the battle of Geonosis. This clone oversaw the Cortosis Droid project. It is killed by Anakin Skywalker on Metalorn.
In the video game The Clone Wars, Count Dooku leads the army of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, or the Separatist Army, as in the films. He hired Cydon Prax to replace the deceased Jango as his bodyguard. He finds the Force Harvester, an ancient Sith artifact, on Raxus Prime. He later finds the pieces scattered by the ancient Sith and revives an antique Sith weapon known as the Dark Reaper. The Dark Reaper was first defeated by a Jedi Knight named Ulic-Qel Droma 4,000 years before The Phantom Menace during the Great Sith War. At the Sith Temple on Thule, it is re-defeated by Anakin Skywalker at the final confrontation of the video game.
Count Dooku is regarded as one of the greatest Jedi in the order for his strength of character as well as his skill with the Force. With his deep voice and veneer of elegant charisma, this political idealist and wealthy Count of Serenno displays class and intelligence. The elderly librarian Jocasta Nu states, "He was one of the most brilliant Jedi I've ever had the privilege of knowing." He has been a practitioner of the Force for nearly eight decades, and Dooku and his student Qui-Gon Jinn would have surely sat on the Jedi Council if it were not for their maverick views. In addition, Dooku is a master swordsman, specializing in the seldom-used Form II art (see the seven forms of lightsaber combat), which makes use of his special curved lightsaber hilt. In all, Dooku is an accomplished philosopher, orator, warrior, and Force-adept. He trains Qui-Gon Jinn, who will go on to train Obi-Wan Kenobi, who will then train Anakin Skywalker and his son, Luke Skywalker. As Darth Tyranus, he is the apprentice to Darth Sidious, having replaced Darth Maul, who meets his end at Obi-Wan's hands.
During the Clone Wars, Dooku takes up a few apprentices of his own, though of the non-Sith variety, in Sev'rance Tann, Asajj Ventress, and General Grievous. He also acts as the political figurehead of the CIS. Of course, even though Dooku's co-conspirators are aware that he is a Sith and serves Darth Sidious, they are unaware that they are mere puppets in a larger scheme. At the end of Star Wars: Clone Wars, Dooku has Grievous capture Palpatine during the opening of the Battle of Coruscant. By the start of Revenge of the Sith, Anakin and Obi-Wan come and battle the Sith Lord while trying to save Palpatine. Dooku is barely able to render Kenobi unconscious before being disarmed (literally, as both of his hands are severed) by Anakin. At the Chancellor's urging, Anakin uses his lightsaber combined with Dooku's own to behead the Count with a scissor-like strike, killing a shocked Dooku instantly. As Dooku only realized at that time before he died was that Palpatine used him until he outlived his usefulness and Anakin (as Darth Vader) replaced him as Palpatine's new apprentice.
Episode III Novelization
Dooku leaves the Jedi Order when he comes to believe that the Order is just a blind pawn to the corrupt Senate. He retires to his family estate and assumes his hereditary title as the Count of Serenno, instantly becoming vastly wealthy. Sometime shortly after, he encounters Sidious/Palpatine and falls in step with the Sith Lord's plan to rebuild the Republic into a Galactic Empire. It is no coincidence that Dooku's puppets, the CIS, are almost all aliens, for Dooku is a speciesist who fully intends to use that factor to usher in a human-centric rule.
At the Battle of Coruscant, Dooku "captures" his master in an elaborate plan to be captured himself. They both know that the only rescuers likely to arrive in time would be Obi-Wan and Anakin. The plan would be for him to kill Kenobi, but be "defeated" by Anakin. He would then, in captivity, turn on the CIS by surrendering to Republic forces and claiming to have only recently learned of the extent of the atrocities committed by General Grievous, who would be the perfect scapegoat on whom to hang all of the CIS's war crimes. He would later ostensibly emerge as Emperor Palpatine's right-hand man in the new Empire, leading a new Sith Army of dark side Force-wielders to replace the Jedi Order and bring order to the galaxy.
Two things disrupt his plans. First is the fact that Anakin's and Obi-Wan's saber skills have improved dramatically since they last met, although they initially do not let on to this and allow Dooku to believe them to be swordsmen of a significantly lesser caliber.
By the time he is at Anakin's mercy, he realizes the second deception: Palpatine never intended him to survive, nor for him to be his true apprentice; he is simply a place-holder to bridge the gap between Maul and Vader, whom Skywalker will become. At the Chancellor's urging, Anakin executes his fallen opponent—who is effectively incapacitated—driving one more dark side wedge into his soul; however, Anakin regrets this action instantly. This becomes one of the reasons later that he is unable to finish Mace Windu's work and kill Palpatine.
There is a parallel between Count Dooku's character and Saruman in The Lord of the Rings (who was also played by Lee in the recent movie adaptations). In both stories the character is a fallen hero who is seduced by power and uses deception to hide his true intentions. There is also an intentional parallel between Dooku and Anakin, as both are former Jedi who become apprentices to Darth Sidious.
See Also
| Preceded by: none | Head of State and Government of the Confederacy of Independent Systems 24-19 BBY | Succeeded by: General Grievous |
| Preceded by: Darth Maul | Sith Apprentice to Darth Sidious 32-19 BBY | Succeeded by: Darth Vader Template:End boxes:Conde Dooku ca:Comte Dooku fr:Comte Dooku fi:Kreivi Dooku pt:Conde Dooku |