Count Dooku
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Star Wars character | |
| Count Dooku / Darth Tyranus | |
|---|---|
 Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus, a fallen Jedi Master. |
|
| Position | Former Jedi Master, Dark Jedi, Dark Lord of the Sith, Count of Serenno, Leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems |
| Homeworld | Serenno |
| Species | Human |
| Gender | Male |
| Height | 6' 4" (195.58) |
| Affiliation | Jedi Order, Galactic Republic, Order of the Sith Lords, Confederacy of Independent Systems |
| Portrayed by | Christopher Lee (Episodes II and III) Corey Burton (Clone Wars cartoons) |
Count Dooku (also known as Darth Tyranus) is a fictional character from the Star Wars universe. In the films, he is played by Christopher Lee, and is voiced by Corey Burton in the video games and the animated series Star Wars: Clone Wars. He is the arch-villain in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and a supporting villain in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
Dooku is a Jedi Master turned Sith Lord and a cunning warrior whose acts during the Clone Wars indirectly brought about the Great Jedi Purge and the fall of the Galactic Republic. His Sith name is Darth Tyranus ("Tyranus" incidentally being the Latin word for "tyrant"); his full birth name is unknown, though it is speculated that Dooku may be his only name (similar to Yoda and Palpatine). Fanon, however, uses Jard and/or Yan as his first name, though there is no evidence to support either name.
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[edit] Biography
As revealed in Attack of the Clones, Dooku was once the Jedi apprentice to Yoda, Padawan to Thame Cerulian, and the Master of Qui-Gon Jinn. He was one of the greatest Jedi in the galaxy, supremely gifted in his connection to the Force, as well as oratory, philosophy, and lightsaber combat.
Jude Watson's novel Legacy of the Jedi explains that Dooku was first tempted by the dark side of the Force as a Padawan, when his best friend, fellow Jedi apprentice Lorian Nod, became a Sith. Dooku felt betrayed, but found himself intrigued by the Sith Order's open embrace of power, and subconsciously realized that he was just as capable of treachery as his former friend. [1]
Dooku's first appearance in the Star Wars universe was in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. He was introduced as a once-esteemed Jedi Master who had fallen from grace and become the Sith apprentice of Darth Sidious, as well as the leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, or the Separatists, a federation of planetary systems rebelling against the Galactic Republic.
Dooku was such a skilled warrior among the Jedi that, in 44 BBY, he led the Jedi in combat against the Mandalorians. Almost all of the Mandalorians were slaughtered, except for Jango Fett and several others spread throughout the galaxy. Over half of the attacking Jedi fell to the Mandalorian guns, with Fett killing many himself. After this battle, Dooku lost faith in the Republic, sensing corruption within it and in the Jedi.
Dooku was angered by the bureaucracy of the Galactic Senate, as well as the unwillingness of the Jedi Council to aid oppressed Galactic systems. This is something that still echoes in Luke Skywalker’s New Jedi Order by such Jedi’s like Kyp Durron and Mara Jade. The death of Qui-Gon proved to be the final straw. As a result of his resignation, his bronzium bust is displayed in the Jedi Archives, along with the rest of the Lost Twenty, the only Jedi Masters ever to resign their commissions from the Jedi Order.
Matthew Stover's novelization of Revenge of the Sith describes Dooku's character in greater detail than the films; Stover's version of the character is an evil man who sees others as mere objects to be used for his own ends. The book also reveals that he despises the galaxy's non-human species, and plans to exterminate or enslave them once in power. His vision of an ideal society is that of the 'Empire of Man'; "A government clean, pure, direct: none of the messy scramble for the favor of ignorant rabble and subhuman creatures that made up the Republic he so despised. The government he would serve would be Authority personified. Human authority."[1]
[edit] Powers and Abilities
Dooku's most visible abilities lie with his lightsaber skills. Dooku mastered Makashi to the highest degree, making him especially skillful when duelling with other lightsaber wielders. Such is his skill that he can even simultaneously duel such prodigious swordsmen as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. Dooku was also very strong with the Force, particularly with its dark side. In Attack of the Clones, he shows mastery of the Force such that he is capable of contending with Master Yoda, and is able to battle him to a standstill.
[edit] Attack of the Clones
In Episode II, the Council sent Obi-Wan Kenobi to investigate the emerging Separatist threat. He discovered that all records of the planet Kamino had been erased from the Jedi Archives. He eventually deduced that Dooku had erased the records so that he and Sidious could use the planet to engineer an army of clone troopers to take over the Republic. He also found that Dooku had killed Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas at the Sith lord's request. He traveled to the planet Geonosis to confront Dooku, who entreated him to join the Separatist cause, darkly hinting that the Republic was under the control of a Dark Lord of the Sith. (Unbeknownst to Obi-Wan, he was right; as hinted at in the first two films in the Star Wars prequel trilogy and finally revealed in Revenge of the Sith, Sidious controlled the Republic under his civilian self as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, and transform it into a Galactic Empire ruled by the Sith.) Obi-Wan refused to betray the Jedi as Dooku had, and was condemned to death.
Later, when Obi-Wan's apprentice Anakin Skywalker and Senator Padmé Amidala arrived to rescue him, they were captured and sentenced to be eaten alive by large beasts in a Colosseum-style arena. However, the executions were interrupted by the sudden arrival of Jedi reinforcements, led by Jedi Master Mace Windu. Though the Jedi were overwhelmed by the new droid army of the CIS, they were soon rescued by Yoda, who led the very Clone Army Dooku helped create, forcing the Separatists to retreat.
Dooku retreated to his secret hangar, but he was followed by Obi-Wan and Anakin. Anakin rushed at Dooku, but was rendered paralyzed when the Sith Lord blasted him with Force lightning. Obi-Wan was left to duel the Count alone, but was quickly bested. As he was about to deliver the death blow, Anakin charged forward, intercepting Dooku's blade. The two then engaged in lightsaber combat, with the fight ending as Dooku slashed through Anakin's swordarm at the elbow. Tyranus was again thwarted from escaping by the arrival of Yoda, his former master. He at first attempted to use the Force to overpower Yoda, hurling stones, machinery, and even Force lightning at Yoda, but he deflected all of the assaults. When Dooku saw it was futile to try and defeat Yoda with Force powers, he drew his lightsaber and they began to duel. The battle ended in stalemate, and Dooku fled the planet with the plans to a Geonosian-engineered superweapon. In order to retreat, Dooku distracted Yoda by hurling a large metallic column to crush the unconscious Obi-Wan and Anakin. After disengaging from combat, Yoda stopped the crane from falling into Obi-wan and Anakin. Dooku soon arrived on Coruscant, where he met with Sidious and informed him that the Republic and the Separatists were officially at war.
[edit] The Clone Wars
In the video game The Clone Wars, Count Dooku leads the Separatist Army, as in the films. He hires Cydon Prax to replace Jango as his bodyguard. He finds the Force Harvester, an ancient Sith artifact, on Raxus Prime. He later finds the pieces, scattered by the ancient Sith, and revives an antique Sith weapon known as the Dark Reaper. The Dark Reaper was first defeated by a Jedi Knight named Ulic Qel-Droma 4,000 years before The Phantom Menace, during the Great Sith War. At the Sith Temple on Thule, it is defeated again by Anakin Skywalker.
In the video game Star Wars: The New Droid Army, a Count Dooku Clone raids the Jedi Temple Library ten months after the Battle of Geonosis. This clone oversees the Cortosis Droid project, and is killed by Anakin Skywalker on Metalorn.
During the Clone Wars, Dooku took up a few apprentices of his own, though of the non-Sith variety: Sev'rance Tann, Asajj Ventress, Durge, Tol Skorr, Kadrian Sey, and General Grievous. He also acted as the political figure of the CIS. Grievous and Ventress are the most prominent of Dooku's apprentices in the Star Wars universe: as revealed in the Clone Wars series, James Luceno's novel Labyrinth of Evil, and Revenge of the Sith, Dooku molded Grievous into a formidable lightsaber duelist; in Ventress' story arc in the Clone Wars series and the novel Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, meanwhile, Dooku recruits and trains her at Sidious' command, his ultimate plan being to pit her against Anakin Skywalker in battle in order to test the young Jedi's worth as a potential apprentice. [2]
Even though Dooku's servants were aware that he was a Sith and a student of Darth Sidious, they were unaware that they had been manipulated as a part of larger scheme. Near the end of the Clone Wars, Dooku had General Grievous capture and imprison Palpatine to despise the corrupt Senate into believing he had been kidnapped, thus creating the sympathy necessary to give the Chancellor even greater emergency powers.
[edit] Revenge of the Sith
During the opening of Revenge of the Sith, Anakin and Obi-Wan battle Dooku while trying to save Palpatine. Dooku had orders to kill Obi-Wan, defeat and capture Anakin, and then Palpatine and Dooku would turn Anakin to the dark side, destroy the Jedi Order, and form the Empire with Dooku at Palpatine's side. Once turned, Palpatine led Dooku to believe, Anakin would be the perfect commanding general of his new Sith Army, built from the remnants of the Jedi Order and other Force-using groups, such as the Witches of Dathomir.
Dooku arrived as Obi-Wan and Anakin were about to free his master, and began to duel the two of them once again. Dooku's mastery was again apparent as he easily blocked both of Anakin's and Obi-Wan's blows, and isolated Obi-Wan from the battle with a force push. Pursued up the stairs of the bridge by Anakin, Dooku led a careful retreat where Obi-Wan rejoined the fight, at which point Dooku simultaneously kicked Anakin away, locked Obi-Wan in a Force grip, and hurled him across the room, knocking him unconscious. Before Dooku could prepare himself, however, Anakin kicked the aged Jedi over the balcony of the bridge and rejoined the fight. Dooku again fought ably against Anakin, but could no longer mount an effective attack, as the young Jedi's connection with the Force and prowess in lightsaber combat had greatly intensified since their last confrontation. In the end, Anakin repaid the Count for his defeat on Geonosis by cutting off both of Dooku's hands. Sidious had promised Dooku that he would intervene in the unlikely event that Anakin won the duel, but unfortunately for Dooku, he only realized the Sith lord's betrayal in the moment before his death. In reality, Palpatine never intended Dooku to be the true apprentice; Dooku was a placeholder for Anakin and a tool for engineering the Clone Wars. At Palpatine's insistence, Anakin decapitated the helpless Sith Lord in cold blood. This violation of the Jedi Code sets the stage for Palpatine to eventually turn Anakin to the dark side and make him his new apprentice, Darth Vader.
[edit] Trivia
- Aside from his name, Dooku does have many similarities to Dracula (other than having been portrayed by Lee); both are villainous, erudite and sophisticated counts who wear a cape and dress in black.
- Dooku also shares similarities to Saruman, played by Lee in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Dooku, like Saruman was a formerly good being who was corrupted by an evil power (Darth Sidious in Star Wars, Sauron in The Lord of the Rings). Both characters perish in the beginning of the third films of their respective series (although Saruman's death only occurs in the Extended Edition of The Return of the King).
[edit] References
- ↑ Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Novelization - Novelization, 1st edition hardcover, 2005. Matthew Woodring Stover, George Lucas, ISBN 0-7126-8427-1
- The New Essential Guide to Characters, 1st edition, 2002. Daniel Wallace, Michael Sutfin, ISBN 0-345-44900-2
- Star Wars: Attack of the Clones: The Visual Dictionary, hardcover, 2002. David West Reynolds, ISBN 0-7894-8588-5
- Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith: The Visual Dictionary, hardcover, 2005. James Luceno, ISBN 0-7566-1128-8
- Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Revised Core Rulebook, hardcover, 2002. Bill Slavicsek, Andy Collins, J.D. Wiker, ISBN 0-7869-2876-X
[edit] External links
- Count Dooku entry in the Star Wars Databank
- Dooku on Wookieepedia: The Star Wars Wiki
- Dooku.net -(fan site)
Categories: Dark Jedi | Jedi masters | Fictional counts and countesses | Fictional characters with the power to manipulate electricity | Fictional henchmen | Fictional swordfighters | Fictional traitors | Star Wars Old Republic characters | Star Wars Separatist characters | Star Wars Sith characters
