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The Problem of Count Dooku
Count Dooku is a character that causes some problems when contemplating the SW universe.
He's a member of the Republic aristocracy, a Jedi who resigned from the Order, and a Sith. His surface goals are noble -- the Separatist movement had a lot of sense behind it in hindsight, even if the leaders were mostly loathsome and self-interested -- and yet he's working for one of the most calculating and devious of politicians.
But from the movies themselves, it's very hard to tell what his motivations are. He's more of a stock villain than anything else, and that makes for a thin backstory at best.
Personally, I think he was listening to the will of the Force, filtered and distorted through his own emotions. He'd gotten caught up in the Jedi habit of thinking the ends justify the means, and the end he wanted (a renewed Republic?) justified some very nasty means, indeed.
Dooku must have been magnificent once, as he was Yoda's students and Qui-Gon's master, and I doubt that you could deal with either one of them, let alone both, without being something quite amazing yourself. He's still quite impressive when Obi-Wan encounters him in AotC, as he's managed to get all the diverse interests that make up the Separatists following *him*.
The fact that he and Palpatine were running a two-man con on such a massive scale was pretty damned impressive, even if Dooku was foolish enough to believe that Palpatine wouldn't turn on him when it was convenient. I wonder if Dooku thought by causing an external problem, that the Republic would sort itself out and revitalize?
Was he also hoping to shake the Jedi Order up? Destroy the Sith from the inside? He actually asks Obi-Wan to join him to that end in AotC, which suggests that Dooku still thought of himself as not-a-Sith. He tells Obi-Wan the exact truth, that the Republic is under control of Darth Sidious -- neglecting to mention that Sidious is Palpatine -- and yet goes to Palpatine and happily confirms that war has started.
Combine with the implications that Dooku was the one to arrange for the creation of the Clone Army ten years before AotC -- or shortly after TPM if you are keeping your eye on the timeline -- the sense I get out of all this is that Dooku was a rogue agent.
He was *trying* to bring down the Sith, and trying to reform the Republic by force. It's just that his method was to go outside the Jedi Order and the Senate authority and act as a lone wolf.
In the end, he was magnificent and brave and so wrong-headed as to make one weep. His failure was a failure of the Jedi as a whole -- arrogance to the point of horror, self-reliance to the point of foolishness, and callous indifference to suffering to the point of disaster.
He's a member of the Republic aristocracy, a Jedi who resigned from the Order, and a Sith. His surface goals are noble -- the Separatist movement had a lot of sense behind it in hindsight, even if the leaders were mostly loathsome and self-interested -- and yet he's working for one of the most calculating and devious of politicians.
But from the movies themselves, it's very hard to tell what his motivations are. He's more of a stock villain than anything else, and that makes for a thin backstory at best.
Personally, I think he was listening to the will of the Force, filtered and distorted through his own emotions. He'd gotten caught up in the Jedi habit of thinking the ends justify the means, and the end he wanted (a renewed Republic?) justified some very nasty means, indeed.
Dooku must have been magnificent once, as he was Yoda's students and Qui-Gon's master, and I doubt that you could deal with either one of them, let alone both, without being something quite amazing yourself. He's still quite impressive when Obi-Wan encounters him in AotC, as he's managed to get all the diverse interests that make up the Separatists following *him*.
The fact that he and Palpatine were running a two-man con on such a massive scale was pretty damned impressive, even if Dooku was foolish enough to believe that Palpatine wouldn't turn on him when it was convenient. I wonder if Dooku thought by causing an external problem, that the Republic would sort itself out and revitalize?
Was he also hoping to shake the Jedi Order up? Destroy the Sith from the inside? He actually asks Obi-Wan to join him to that end in AotC, which suggests that Dooku still thought of himself as not-a-Sith. He tells Obi-Wan the exact truth, that the Republic is under control of Darth Sidious -- neglecting to mention that Sidious is Palpatine -- and yet goes to Palpatine and happily confirms that war has started.
Combine with the implications that Dooku was the one to arrange for the creation of the Clone Army ten years before AotC -- or shortly after TPM if you are keeping your eye on the timeline -- the sense I get out of all this is that Dooku was a rogue agent.
He was *trying* to bring down the Sith, and trying to reform the Republic by force. It's just that his method was to go outside the Jedi Order and the Senate authority and act as a lone wolf.
In the end, he was magnificent and brave and so wrong-headed as to make one weep. His failure was a failure of the Jedi as a whole -- arrogance to the point of horror, self-reliance to the point of foolishness, and callous indifference to suffering to the point of disaster.
no subject
I think Dooku genuinely wanted to reform the Republic, but did he want to bring down the Sith? The trouble is, as ROTS illustrates quite neatly with the parallel images of Anakin holding Dooku at swordpoint and Windu doing the same with Palpatine, that by the time the Clone Wars began, the Jedi and Sith weren't all that different. Dooku may have come to the conclusion that the Sith's independence and their lack of compunction about the means they used to reach their ends would make them more likely to achieve the reform he wanted to carry out, and that the Jedi's self-image as "the good guys" was just hypocrisy and a refusal to acknowledge their own flaws.
I don't have a very high opinion of him, despite the justice of this assessment, because he was so ruthless in using the people he needed to use -- most obviously the Separatists, but (in the Clone Wars/EU materials) people like Asajj Ventress and Sora Bulq as well.
no subject
While I don't read the EU currently, and definitely don't consider it canon -- a nifty source of ideas, but not true canon -- I think it's easy to see that Dooku's flaws are pride and arrogance. He basically oozes it during AotC.
Dooku may have come to the conclusion that the Sith's independence and their lack of compunction about the means they used to reach their ends would make them more likely to achieve the reform he wanted to carry out,
But what were his goals? Restoration of the Republic? Creation of something new and stronger?
Ruthlessness is not a new trait for Jedi, nor is arrogance. Qui-Gon is one of my favorite characters in the prequels, but he uses people all the time.