Character Analysis: Count Dooku

Count Dooku… Darth Tyrranus… immortalized by Christopher Lee…

Easily my LEAST favorite Sith Lord. I severely dislike the character in a bad way. I mean, Palpatine is horrible… but I love him. Dooku just annoys me. Maybe it’s the name? Maybe i’m ageist?

But my own dislike of the character annoyed me. I don’t like to hate anything in the Star Wars universe. So I decided to take a close look at the character and find something that was interesting about him. And what I discovered was interesting enough for me to justify his existence.

Sith use lies and deception to get what they want. The interesting and unique thing about Dooku is that in Episode II he does so with complete truth.

Dooku- 
It’s a great pity that our paths have never crossed before, Obi-Wan. Qui-Gon always spoke very highly of you. I wish he were… still alive. I could use his help right now.

Kenobi
Qui-Gon Jinn would never join you.

Dooku
Don’t be so sure, my young Jedi. You forget that he was once my apprentice, just as you were once his. He knew all about the corruption in the senate but would would never have gone along with it if he had learned the truth as I have.

Kenobi
The truth?

Dooku
The truth. What if I was to tell you that the Republic was now under the control of the Dark Lord of the Sith?

Kenobi
No that’s not possible. The Jedi would be aware of it.

Dooku
The dark side of The Force has clouded their vision, my friend. Hundreds of senators are now under the influence of a Sith Lord called Darth Sidious.

Kenobi
I don’t believe you.

Dooku
The viceroy of the Trade Federation was once in league with this Darth Sidious. But he was betrayed ten years ago by the Dark Lord. He came to me for help. Told me everything.
You must join me, Obi-Wan. And together, we will destroy the Sith.

Kenobi
I will never join you, Dooku.

 

I believe three things were going on in this conversation. The first and most basic was he was spreading misinformation and confusion amongst the Jedi while protecting the plans of the Sith. This would have been at his master’s orders. Basic standing orders for any Sith, really.

But after analyzing, I think he had ulterior motives of his own. His second motive, I believe, is he was testing the Jedi Order, and affirming his decision to leave. Count Dooku left the Order because he became disenfranchised with the Senate, The Corruption of the Republic, and that the Jedi Order served such things. Perhaps there was a part of him that still hoped the Order and the Republic he had dedicated most of his life to could be redeemed.
So he told the truth. The WHOLE truth. He gave them a chance to redeem themselves, to cleanse their ranks. And it was rejected out of hand. Proving to Dooku once and for all that the Jedi and the Republic were beyond redemption.

His third is similar and simultaneous to the second. He was telling not just the Jedi and the Republic the truth, but Obi-Wan Kenobi specifically. If the Council and the Republic refused to have their eyes opened, perhaps his grandson in the Force would join him. The novelization of Episode III proved that he felt a connection to Obi-Wan through their link to Qui-Gon, and he wanted to bring Obi-Wan to him.  It wasn’t necessarily the Dark Side that drove him from the Jedi though Palpatine definitely lured him in with it. Still. I don’t think Dooku was completely loyal to Darth Sidious yet. After all, he learned that Palpatine was A HUGE PART of the corruption of the Republic that he so loathed. So perhaps Obi-Wan would join him and they would overthrow both the Sith Lord that was eating at the heart of the Republic, and then destroy the corrupt Republic by controlling the Seperatists, instead of just using the Seperatists as a pawn for Palpatine’s power grab.

Alas the Jedi were too blind. KENOBI was too blind.
To blind to discern the lies of Palpatine. Too blind to see the truth in Count Dooku.

Anyone devious can lie. But it takes a completely different sort who can lie and tell the truth, while only speaking the truth. Guess Count Dooku is kinda interesting. Definitely his own man, his own Sith, and one of a kind.