PT The Jedi, the republic and Count Dooku

So this has been bugging me for a while. Dooku started the CIS a few years before the clone wars yet the Jedi only thought of him as a political idealist. Did they not think to talk to him? And why was the republic just letting worlds leave as they were peacefully doing for years before the clone wars.

Just wanted to bring this up. See if this timeline bothers anyone else or am I being stupid?

 

As far as the movies develop anyway, Dooku was only someone who worked with the sepratist movement, not someone who was a violent extremist. I don't think they talked much to him. I get the impression they hadn't spoken for some time. They likely led their own separate lives and the jedi didn't see much reason to seek him out if it wasn't necessary.

 

This likely taps into the arrogance of the Jedi Council during the prequel era. The idea of talking to somebody who dared to leave was probably beneath them. Heck, you saw how they treated Ahsoka, and she was trying to help them!

 

The Separatists weren't leaving the Republic just yet. They were declaring their intent to leave, much like a protest.

 

For why the Jedi didn't try to talk to Dooku, who's to say they didn't? Dooku was playing a part, I doubt he was entirely amenable to their advances.
I'm pretty sure the EU and canon states that the Separatist Crisis began when Dooku gave the Raxus Address.
We don't know the full content of that speech but based on what we do hear it seems like his complaints weren't entirely unreasonable. He condemns corruption in the Republic, proclaims it broken, and announces the formation of a new system designed to address the old one's flaws.

As to why the Republic didn't take action sooner, what could they have done? By the time we get to the films they're debating whether a Military is even necessary, they don't have one, if the crisis continues, they may need one, but the Senate is split on the matter. Palpatine is adamant he won't let the systems leave; the systems are insistent that they want to. They are at an impasse, and their negotiations are failing. It's exactly as Palpatine intended. It's not easy to coax a system that has seen a thousand years of peace into war. Palpatine publicly "reaches out" for a peaceful solution, Sidious tells Dooku to screw up the negotiations, Dooku makes "unreasonable demands" and the peace talks fall apart, repeat until the senate is ready for war. It's not that complicated.

 

Did you forget the Chancellor was Palpatine, a.k.a Darth Sidious who was manipulating the events from both sides? Jedi Council also works under the Senate and the Chancellor was already controlling the senate and the courts at that point and also controlling CIS via his apprentince Dooku. There was no preventing the war without defeating Darth Sidious.

 

The context of the "political idealist" line in Episode II is of course relevant to a very specific remark about who is responsible for the assassination attempts on Padmé. Nute Gunray is ultimately responsible for those attempts, given that he instructs Count Dooku to employ Jango Fett to kill her, before he will join the separatists (he ends up joining in anyway, after the sudden first battle of Geonosis). Thus Dooku remains the political figure head, not the one orchestrating the assassinations.

As for the failure of the Jedi to approach him to deal with the separatist crisis - given he exiled himself from the Jedi Order, he is not only a persona non grata amongst the Jedi, he has also deliberately put himself beyond their reach and influence. The Senate has indeed been reaching out to Dooku and his council of separatists ('my negotations will not fail') since they are the official voices of the Republic. Palpatine sabotages these negotations to ensure the Clones Wars occur as part of the Sith's Grand Plan.

 

Doesn’t he kill Yaddle in the new canon? Kinda hard for the Jedi to want to approach him after that.

 

I assumed that was done very much in secret, with none of the Jedi knowing about it (I know it took place right around TPM, and Mace is claiming Dooku is not a murderer 10 years later, before being shown to be wrong).

 

Did they have any idea Dooku was head of the CIS before Episode II?

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In the novelization they tend to describe him that way:

“This is not good news,” Captain Panaka remarked, after delivering the blow to Senator Amidala.
“We've suspected all along that Count Dooku and his separatists would court the Trade Federation and the various commercial guilds,” Padmé replied, trying to put a good face on it all. Panaka had just come in with Captain Typho, his nephew, with the report that the Trade Federation had thrown in with the separatist movement that now threatened to tear the Republic apart.
“Viceroy Gunray is an opportunist,” she continued. “He will do anything that he believes will benefit him financially. His loyalties end at his purse. Count Dooku must be offering him favorable trade agreements, free run to produce goods without regard to the conditions of the workers or the effect on the environment. Viceroy Gunray has left more than one planet as a barren dead ball, floating in space. Or perhaps Count Dooku is offering the Trade Federation absolute control of lucrative markets, without competition.”

With lines like "Count Dooku and his separatists" and the presumption that Count Dooku is the one making the offers, it does seem like he's the Separatist leader in practice and that this is publically known.