PT Where's the love for Count Dooku?

I liked him much more than Darth Maul. Dooku's character was well developed and although you have to look in EU for more information, still it is an intriguing character and a complex one (from the movies).

In fact, I never understood the love for Darth Maul. He almost doesn't speak at all, and you only see him fighting and acting stupid. Yes, kids like him, but it is interesting how adults can like a so one-dimensional character.

 

I think the reason people like Darth Maul so much can also explain why people loved Boba Fett so much-- they were fill in the blank characters and were perfect vehicles for fantasies for fans to have.

I have to admit that I only liked the prequels when they first came out and it was only by rewatching and really thinking about what I saw that I realized that I loved them. So, I think it's fitting that Count Dooku is a Sith that fits the nature of the prequels-- on the surface, he doesn't look like he does much but still waters run deep and he actually fits rather well with what the overall picture is. It's just that, like the Jedi, it's hard to see the overarching story when you're presented with just a small portion of it, such as the conflict of an individual film that ends up just being a red herring for Palpatine's real plot.

I do wish though that there was a way to have seen a little bit of the master-padawan dynamic that Count Dooku would have been a good reason to show. I read it like the master-disciple relationships in wuxia flicks (although we are missing the filial piety portion that Confucianism espouses in those relationships) because I think Qui-Gon's death also pushed Dooku to leave the Jedi (I don't know if this is canon or simply fanon) so the scene Dooku has when he captures Obi-Wan is very interesting when I consider that dynamic. I can understand why Dooku's consideration of his lineage wouldn't carry over to Anakin though if he knew Palpatine was cultivating him.

 

People are probably annoyed with him because the first time we hear about him is when Padme guesses (correctly) that Dooku was behind the assassination attempts on her yet presents no evidence as to who Dooku is or why he should want to assassinate her. This, in my opinion, makes Dooku seem hollow and little more than a plot advancement. That said Christopher Lee plays him very well.

 

I did like how quickly the Jedi shot her suggestion down simply because Dooku was a former Jedi because that just so concisely summed up what was wrong with the Jedi Order. In this case, I think Dooku was a good character to show how someone the Order still trusted even after his defection could go so badly, much less someone like Anakin whom the Order recognized as more problematic.

 

People are probably annoyed with him because the first time we hear about him is when Padme guesses (correctly) that Dooku was behind the assassination attempts on her yet presents no evidence as to who Dooku is or why he should want to assassinate her.


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that always annoyed me too,

Padme "assumning too much"

oh what irony

oh wait she has the force

 

Wait, what? How is that annoying? How does that make Dooku "seem hollow and little more than a plot advancement"?

 

I know I'm in a tiny minority here, but I had never even heard of Dooku the first time I saw AOTC and I had no idea he was a Sith until Geonosis, so the mystery landed well enough with me. I was definitely intrigued by Dooku by the end of AOTC, and wanted more of what I saw. I did not get what I wanted.

Call it a testimony of staying spoiler free.

 

Agreed. As a kid, I was expecting to see the new guy with a red lightsaber. Just like "I am your father," once the cat is out of the bag, there's no going back. There's no surprise anymore, even though the film has nothing to do with it.

 

I like Count Dooku for one major reason, Christopher Lee. I love that guy.

 

I'm the same way, but with Corey Burton.

 

I thought Count Dooku was a great villain, and they did his character very well. I even liked him more than Darth Vader and Darth Sidious.

No way! Grievous was perfect in the role that he had, and I think that Dooku had enough screen time, because they didn't want Dooku to have a bigger role in the PT since he was just supposed to be a part of Sidious' plan to turn Anakin to the dark side. And if Anakin had beheaded Grievous, I don't think it would have effected him as much and brought him closer to the dark side, plus I don't think Obi-Wan could have beaten Dooku on Utapau and he would have probably escaped.

 

Padme must enemies everywhere as a Republic senator yet out of all of them she picks Dooku as the one she thinks is trying to assassinate her. From Padme's point of view what reason has Dooku to assassinate her? It makes no sense. The fact that Padme guesses that he's the bad guy straight of the mark ruins his credibility as a villain but that's just what I think.

 

It's just a scene that contrasts Padme's intuition with the Jedi's hubris.

 

If Anakin took down the General at the beginning of ROTS it would have been far better. Send Dooku to Utapau which is the reason Yoda has to leave. Let Yoda be the one to finish off the Count. Send Kenobi to help the Wookies. This would allow more Count Dooku and it would show Yoda as a powerhouse and would make his later battle with Sidious all the greater.

 

Just a fantastic Sith whom I have warmed up to the past year. Mostly because he is "intriguing". This is why I am going back and reading these post on him to learn more about him. I really wish he was in TPM as a disillusioned jedi who was on the brink of leaving (See my TPM Rewrite). Had he not been a sith and just a former jedi fighting with a green or blue saber and you see this in ROTS with him capturing Palpatine and explaining he is the sith, you would be clueless on his intentions and who you should root for. Would've been brilliant in my opinion, but as far Tyranus goes, potential lost, but a great addition to the prequels indeed.

 

I agree with a lot that's been said above. Dooku is this classy villain who had good reasons to become a villain but ends up undoubtedly evil (the way Christopher Lee delivers the line "patience, Viceroy, she will die" is simply chilling and I love it )

I also find that the "Dooku stage" was necessary to establish how manipulative Palpatine really is and fits well with his two other apprentices. Palpatine starts with Darth Maul and essentially trains him to be an assassin. He ends with Darth Vader and essentially destroys his life to shape him into what he wants. For both of these, there's something rather brutal with the process. In Dooku's case, on the other hand, Palpatine picks an individual who is both smart and experienced and turns him to the Dark Side through pure intellectual manipulation. And there's a tragic irony in the fact that Dooku thinks of himself as manipulating others, only to discover in the end that he was the one being manipulated. To me, the PT plot is lacking in many aspects, but that bit is masterfully played.

 

Judging by the movies alone, I believe Dooku thought he could actually achieve his political ideals by using the system, which were in contrast to Palpatine's. There's nothing wrong with what he wanted, it's just how he tried to achieve it which was evil. The ends do not justify the means. In that way, he is a foil to the Rebellion. Even Padme in the end recognized there was common ground. And Anakin said Padme was starting to sound like a separatist. "Heroes on both sides." I thought he was a very interesting character.

Throughout history, there are two kinds of people who want to separate from the central government: -Those who want power for their faction. (Trade Federation)
-Those who want liberty for all. (Rebels)

Dooku is intriguing because you don't know which kind he really is. But what's clearly evil is his "ends justify the means" mentality. Much could be said of the Jedi order as well. Perhaps he's a mirror to them.

 

Dooku was the perfect Sith for what Palps used him for. A charismatic leader that could rally support during a time of war.

 

Another great thing about Dooku is that he's visually a dark mirror to Alec Guiness' Obi-Wan, and also of the school of veteran British actors that populated the original trilogy.

I also love the progression of master/apprentice that he fits into: Yoda>Dooku>Qui-Gon>Obi-Wan>Anakin>Ahsoka.

I love the stylized Dooku on The Clone Wars, especially his beard, but I often find he is too menacing and not charming enough. Christopher Lee manages to be suave and genial throughout, even to the Jedi trying to kill him.

 

But was Dooku actually Yoda's apprentice? He was probably one of the younglings that Yoda taught, but was he actually Yoda's apprentice? The movie implied that, but did it actually say that?

 

He's Christopher Lee. That is all

 

Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus is a good character played by a good actor, but like everyone else says, he has way too little screen time. :/

 

Personally I consider him to be of the second kind. He lived the ascetic, selfless life of a Jedi for seventy years. If power or money per se was what interested him, you'd think he'd have left to reclaim his aristocratic birthright earlier. I think when Ki Adi Mundi said, "He's a political idealist, not a murderer," he was right about the first bit.

I think it's more than visual. There are a lot of similarities in character between Dooku and Obi-Wan. They have a certain similar hard cold edge and goal-oriented ruthlessness to them. They're manipulative and have the cognitively dissonantial ability to deliberately bend the truth to their aims while sincerely believing (or at least appearing to) that their goals are so righteous that the "truths" they say are right. They both value abstract ideals over personal loyalty, and harbour deep cynicism towards the Republic's government. Even Obi-Wan's tendency to drop snarky comments at tense moments is paralleled by how Dooku has this almost mischievous look on his face when he catches Obi-Wan in a saberlock right before wounding him.

I find Dooku fascinating in his own right (and also, Christopher Lee is better-looking than both Guinness and McGregor), but also because of those similarities. He's a lonelier, more bitter/jaded version of Obi-Wan.

Yoda calls him "my old Padawan". We know from TPM that the term Padawan is reserved for the one-to-one Master-apprentice relationship.

 

OK, thanks.

 

I really like Dooku and Christopher Lee. However I felt he was one Sith too many. I would've liked to have seen him as a non-Sith political ally of Sidious and the Separatists.