PT Comparing the Dooku and Vader Final Fights

If Obi-wan or Qui-gon were in Vader's suit and Anakin were in Luke's shoes, Anakin would probably have refused to kill him, but he would have charged at the Emperor rather than switching off his lightsaber.

Or he would have accepted Vader's offer in Bespin:
Obi-wan Kenobi/Qui-gon Jin in Vader's suit: "Join me and let destroy the emperor together!"
Anakin: "Hell yeah! When do we start?"
Obi-wan Kenobi/Qui-gon Jin in Vader's suit: "Boy, this was way easier than I expected..."

Now, if the guy in Vader's suit were a complete stranger, Anakin would have killed him, then attacked the Emperor (unless Palpatine had his girlfriend hostage or something similar, of course...).

 

Luke's compassion exists, but it's presented a bit differently. We see it in his wanting to help Obi-wan, but his desire to stay with the Lars. He doesn't want to leave them in a lurch since Owen insists that they need more help and that if Luke leaves with both droids, he'll be taking from them. Then there's his desire to help Leia by going into the detention center. He's not interested in a reward like Han is. "I care", though a funny line, also refers to his belief in helping others. It isn't until we get to ROTJ and see him dealing with his father, that we start to see him use compassion as a weapon, for lack of a better word. Here, he uses his compassion towards his father by trying to reach out to him.

For Anakin, though, he's too filled with anger at all the injustices of the universe. Which is why he finds a kinship with Tarkin. At least a mutual respect which serves as the basis for their relationship in the Empire. Tarkin wants to eliminate the injustices of the galaxy and Vader does as well.

 

To bring this back to the Vader and Dooku duels, Dooku has no respect for his cohorts. They do not have mutual goals unlike Vader and Tarkin and Dooku regards the alien Separatist council as inferior. While they seek financial benefit or independence, Dooku and Sidious are merely out for power, even if it means injustice.

That could be said to separate Vader from other villains.

 

Never thought of it that way, but it does make sense. Palpatine was testing both of them to see how willing they were to commit to the Dark Side.

 

It might be worth bearing in mind that when Palpatine was egging on Anakin he was not counting on ending up with the cyborg Vader but instead an apprentice who would continue to grow ever more powerful and might eventually even be worthy of taking over as Sith Lord. Whereas by the time we get to ROTJ Vader has pretty much fulfilled his usefulness and probably reached the plateau of his power.

I think therefore as previously suggested the DS2 confrontation was a test of both potential apprentices - could Vader kill his own son? And if he could/did, how would that affect his effectiveness henceforth - would his anger be directed inwards at himself or at Sidious for putting him in that place? And obviously a more straightforward test of Luke's power and skill. In the Dooku duel, well, Dooku was always going to be killed off at one point or another right from the beginning.

Luke's strategy of just plain refusing to fight at all was just about the only thing that Palpatine hadn't planned for nor could he particularly benefit from it.

 

To me, the two situations are just false parallels, for reasons mostly explained by previous posters in this thread.

The equivalent of Anakin's situation for Luke might be something like this: Luke does not know that Vader is his father, and feels no conflict in him. Luke beats down Vader. Then, someone whom Luke trusts (e.g. the force ghost of Obi Wan) tells Luke to kill Vader. I think it's totally possible that Luke would strike him down.

The equivalent of Luke's situation for Anakin might be something like this: Anakin finds out that Grievous is his father. He can feel the conflict in Grievous. They both try to convince the other to join their side, but both fail. Dooku sets up some trap, and it appears that all the Jedi are about to get killed. Anakin tries to kill Dooku, but is stopped by Grievous. They fight, and Anakin beats Grievous down. Dooku then laughs and tells Anakin to kill Grievous and replace him as his servant. I think Anakin would turn around and charge at Dooku.

 

In an odd way, I find Dooku to be one of the most tragic figures here. Dooku is in many ways, a Proto-Vader whose life parallels Vader's life. A noble fallen Jedi knight that was lead astray. Count Dooku as a figure is just charismatic as Vader and he didn't even need a suit to be threatening. But unlike, Vader, there is no figure who trying to redeem him. But, it is fitting, Dooku probably made a fully conscious descend into evil while for Anakin, it was done on a whim because of bad circumstances and his personal failings getting the best of him.