Saga Why didn't Count Dooku apply Sith Lightning in the Final Duel with Obi-Wan and Anakin?

You know now that you mention it - I find it odd how surely Count Dooku could have been a little more 'independent' and proactive - so whilst Palpatine gave him orders on whats what but surely Count Dooku could sometimes 'disobey' that is change order priorities if it meant survival or such eh? I mean yet in the ROTS novel he pleads with Palpatine 'Chancellor! You Promised Me Clemency!' and Palpatine gave a cold remark back before ordering the Do It!

 

Palpatine shoots the lightning at Yoda when he is standing on the edge of a Senate pod and thus unable to repel that kind of force. That's like me pushing you while your on a slope as compared to solid ground. He also shoots it very quickly seemingly before Yoda can react. Again, Yoda does absord it with his hands..you watched the movie right? When the energy becomes to intense it seems to just explode, again, Yoda is blown away by the force because he is standing on the downward sloping edge of a circular pod!

 

Was a new power to him, and he wanted to show off. It was also a long range weapon, where he didnt have spend time and effort dueling which can also cost him health wise, including cardio. Also he's limited with what he can do cause he still ages as a human would so the Force would lose its potency with age as the body breaks down. The Darkside was as close to youth he could get at, it gave him a false sense of new found pride and empowered his ego and narcissistic nature. He was driven to be more powerful than Yoda and may of resented Yoda cause of his advanced age and yet remaining extremely powerful with the Force. The darkside is a pathway to abilities some consider unnatural. Yoda new of some way to counter the Sith Lightning as Yoda is quite old and not human.

 

Because Yoda showed up.

 

dooku had already used it in aotc and tcw. he choked obi and knocked him out. only anakin was left and he was't going to fall for the lightning trick again.

 

Yes true - but yet in the Clone Wars - at times Count Dooku was able to apply it (in blade-locks or at close-range) and it struck Anakin and it did buy Count Dooku time and such to escape ... I mean Anakin's weakness being he relies more on brute force and well he is impulsive and at times he could be still open to attacks and hence ... Sith Lightning could have worked - well atleast to buy time long enough for an escape ... and then again that was when Anakin was open and just charging opening at a distance at Count Dooku - I mean suppose Count Dooku and Anakin were in a blade-lock - and instead of suppose applying Dun Moch when Count Dooku taunted 'you have fear and anger ... but you don't know how to use it!' when he could have just then quickly blasted Anakin in the blade lock just then to escape or something eh?

 

But then again Master Yoda's species is not Human - so surely Count Dooku need not 'resentment' at Master Yoda - and considering how Master Yoda at times even still admonished Count Dooku in the Clone Wars and in AOTC where 'much to learn you still have ... my old Padawan'... and the fact how Master Yoda's 'bond' with Count Dooku; where Count Dooku was at first perhaps slightly hesitant when Palpatine claimed they would take advantage of this when Master Yoda was on Korriban on his self-discovery test and journey ...

Hmm - well Master Yoda was able to use Tutaminis - although it did take time and he did struggle for a brief moment against Palpatine's intense raw barrage ... implying it still took quite some resilience and well energy and concentration ...

As with well losing potency with age - but surely then Count Dooku would have worked out or discovered a means by means to sustain himself eh? Given look at Papatine - well he used Essence Transfer and fresh clone bodies but whereas Count Dooku who knows? I mean in the EU in the Clone Wars he visited Korriban at times or rather sought out Ancient Sith artifacts if not also weapons and hence surely he would have discovered something to augment his Sith Powers and such with age eh?

 

Why didn't Count Dooku apply Sith Lightning in the Final Duel with Obi-Wan and Anakin?

I feel it doesn't work for the ROTS duel as they are both different tones. In AOTC, the lightning is used because that whole duel was just to show how skilled and powerful Dooku is. It was basically him owning Anakin and Obi Wan is a matter of minutes. In ROTS, the duel is more about "equal" skill and has a more respectful feel to it. Anakin's grown up and it's time to dance with Dooku.

 

Ah it is true - that's understandable - yes at that time in AOTC Anakin was still young and well his potential clearly had a ways to go ... and yes over the Clone Wars where Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi's skills developed further ... although surely Count Dooku would have had a working knowledge of Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi's styles eh? Given where in ROTS - we see how Count Dooku ends up being mostly on the defensive and only his skills in the Force initially gave him the upper hand against Obi-Wan Kenobi although against Anakin yet - the fact how Anakin was getting closer to the Dark Side and such and how Count Dooku himself just didn't have the physical strength to match Form V's raw power ... although what about in the Clone Wars in the Crisis on Naboo where we see a similar situation; where Palpatine was observing the duel and that sinister look on his face and where at times Count Dooku and Anakin were caught in a blade lock and not too unlike on the duel on the Invisible Hand and where Count Dooku in desperation resorts to Sith Lightning to give him time ... or where Anakin dueled Count Dooku in that cave on Naboo where the help of 4x Magnaguards plus a dose of Sith Lightning and disarming Anakin finally brought him down ...

 

Because he was either too confident in his skills, or Palpatine told him that he wanted him to elongate the fight for whatever reason.

 

Dooku was fully aware of the plan to turn Anakin (missed the memo about this involving Dooku's death, unfortunately) and thus all the taunts about feeling fear and anger etc, which took lightning off the table for one of two reasons: either it was pretty ineffective against a Jedi still holding a lightsaber (given Dooku is FAR less powerful than Sidious, who couldn't get past Mace's lightsaber) or it would have worked too well, and instead of Anakin giving into his anger and fear he ends up as charcoal about 30 seconds into the fight, which doesn't help anyone really.

 

Dooku's use of Dun Moch, or verbal taunts, turned out to make Anakin more powerful rather than suppressing his will. But I don't know about the effectiveness, lightning is meant to be extremely difficult to block, even when wielding a lightsaber. It worked on Anakin last time anyway.

 

Yeah, it was a really bad plan from Dooku's point of view... but worked out PRECISELY as Sidious intended. Dooku had presumably been told 'yeah, taunt the guy, it will ruin his concentration' but Sidious knew full well Anakin actually using his emotions would wreck Dooku - just as planned. It could even be as simple as Dooku just can't help gloating/taunting his opponents when he's got the upper hand because he's just kind of a dick like that and just underestimated what could happen if Anakin really cut loose. If he'd wanted to win the fight outright he'd probably have gone in much more aggressively from the beginning and at least tried throwing in force chokes or a bit of lightning, but he never realised he was a pawn, not a player, until it was way too late.

If you look at the scene carefully I think it's only when Palpatine/Sidious tells Anakin 'DO IT!' that Dooku actually realises his death isn't a setback, it was part of the plan all along. (It's at this point that generally @ Iron_Lord steps in with a perfect quotation to sum up and I am left wondering if the guy/gal just carries the books around in his pocket... or perhaps head.)

 

This was a pretty interesting thread to read!

I think the answer is pretty simple- Dooku knew that Anakin and Obi-Wan were, as my brother put it, "swag enough to block it." XD So, why waste energy on it? And I think you guys are right that Dooku knew the plan all along.

 

Comes of posting the relevant quotes once, and thus being able to search and copypaste

Dooku, cringing, shrinking with dread, still finds some hope in his heart that he is wrong, that Palpatine has not betrayed him, that this has all been proceeding according to plan—
Until he hears "Good, Anakin! Good! I knew you could do it!" and registers this is Palpatine's voice and feels within the darkest depths of all he is the approach of the words that are to come next.
"Kill him," Palpatine says. "Kill him now."
In Skywalker's eyes he sees only flames.
"Chancellor, please!" he gasps, desperate and helpless, his aristocratic demeanor invisible, his courage only a bitter memory. He is reduced to begging for his life, as so many of his victims have.
"Please, you promised me immunity! We had a deal! Help me!"
And his begging gains him a share of mercy equal to that which he has dispensed.
"A deal only if you released me," Palpatine replies, cold as intergalactic space. "Not if you used me as bait to kill my friends."
And he knows, then, that all has indeed been going according to plan. Sidious's plan, not his own. This had been a Jedi trap indeed, but Jedi were not the quarry.
They were the bait.
"Anakin," Palpatine says quietly. "Finish him."
Years of Jedi training make Anakin hesitate; he looks down upon Dooku and sees not a Lord of the Sith but a beaten, broken, cringing old man.
"I shouldn't—"
But when Palpatine barks, "Do it! Now!" Anakin realizes that this isn't actually an order. That it is, in fact, nothing more than what he's been waiting for his whole life.
Permission.
And Dooku—
As he looks up into the eyes of Anakin Skywalker for the final time, Count Dooku knows that he has been deceived not just today, but for many, many years. That he has never been the true apprentice. That he has never been the heir to the power of the Sith. He has been only a tool.
His whole life—all his victories, all his struggles, all his heritage, all his principles and his sacrifices, everything he's done, everything he owns, everything he's been, all his dreams and grand vision for the future Empire and the Army of Sith—have been only a pathetic sham, because all of them, all of him, add up only to this.
He has existed only for this.
This.
To be the victim of Anakin Skywalker's first cold-blooded murder.
First but not, he knows, the last.
Then the blades crossed at his throat uncross like scissors.
Snip.
And all of him becomes nothing at all.

 

And there it is!