Count Dooku

Count Dooku / Darth Tyranus
Star Wars character

Portrayed by Christopher Lee (Episode II-III)
Voiced by Corey Burton (Star Wars: Clone Wars, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (TV series), Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: Battlefront II, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Republic Heroes, Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars and Kinect Star Wars)
Jeff Bennett (Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter)
Christopher Lee (Star Wars: The Clone Wars film)
Michael Donovan (Lego Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles)
Fictional profile
Species Human
Gender Male
Position Jedi Master (formerly)
Dark Lord of the Sith
Count of Serenno
Leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems
Homeworld Serenno
Affiliation Jedi Order (formerly)
Order of the Sith Lords
Confederacy of Independent Systems

Count Dooku, also known as Darth Tyranus or Lord Tyranus, is a fictional character from the Star Wars universe, appearing as the main antagonist of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and a minor antagonist in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (portrayed by Christopher Lee)[1] and a central villain for Star Wars: The Clone Wars (voiced by Corey Burton).

Once a respected Jedi Master, he falls to the dark side of the Force and becomes Darth Sidious's second apprentice, the founder of the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the instigator of the Clone Wars.

Depiction

Film appearances

Introduced in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Darth Tyranus (Count Dooku) appears as the leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, a federation of planetary systems rebelling against the Galactic Republic due to his anger by its bureaucracy as well as the apparent unwillingness of the Jedi Council to aid oppressed galactic systems.

Tyranus recruited bounty hunter Jango Fett to assassinate Padmé Amidala on Coruscant which fails. When a confrontation forces Fett to flee Kamino to Geonosis, the bounty hunter rendezvous with his benefactor Tyranus. After capturing Obi-Wan Kenobi on Geonosis, Dooku informs Kenobi that he's attempting to save the Republic. Dooku also states that he was saddened by Qui-Gon Jinn's death. After Kenobi refuses to join him, Dooku promptly sentences him to death.

After an army of Jedi as well as clone troopers rescue Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala, they chase Tyranus. Just as he was preparing his solar-sail craft for launch, Tyranus was confronted by Skywalker and Kenobi in a lightsaber duel. When Skywalker charged at Tyranus, the young Jedi Padawan was unprepared for the Sith Lord's Force lightning. With Kenobi left alone, Tyranus outmatched the Jedi Knight in blade-to-blade combat and slashed his opponent's arm and thigh. Tyranus then fights Skywalker attacking with two lightsabers but destroys one weapon and eventually slices off his opponent's forearm. As he was about to escape, Yoda confronted him. After attempting to defeat the Grand Jedi Master with a combination of Force lightning and hurling machinery and parts of the hangar ceiling at him, Tyranus engaged Yoda in a lightsaber duel. Evenly matched, Dooku distracts his former master by trying to make a large pillar fall on Skywalker and Kenobi which distracts Yoda as Dooku makes his escape.

When he returns to Coruscant, Tyranus shows the Geononsian designs of the Death Star to Darth Sidious and informs his master that their plan is working: "The war has begun."

In the opening of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Count Dooku encounters Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi while they are sent to rescue Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Darth Sidious's alter ego) from General Grievous's flagship outside of the planet Coruscant. The film's novelization states that Palpatine and Dooku intend to turn the young Jedi Knight to the dark side by eliminating the Jedi Master.[2] With Palpatine's plan to destroy the Jedi, Dooku plans to build a Sith army with Anakin as a commander.[3] In the ensuing duel, Kenobi is incapacitated which leaves Anakin and Dooku to fight alone. Anakin channels his hatred of Dooku and taps into the dark side to overpower him, severing both of Dooku's hands and leaving him helpless. Palpatine then encourages Anakin to kill Dooku; after initial hesitation, Anakin decapitates Dooku in cold blood. The novelization depicts this scene from Dooku's point of view: he realizes that Palpatine had never truly intended for him to be his apprentice but had merely been using him as a means to engineer the war and as a placeholder for his true apprentice Darth Vader.[4]

Cartoon appearances

During the micro-series, Count Dooku (Darth Tyranus) leads the Separatists from behind the scenes, fights Asajj Ventress and then recruits the Dark Jedi, and trains General Grievous in lightsaber combat.

In the 2008 film, Count Dooku plots to bring Jabba the Hutt into the folds of the Confederacy by enlisting Ziro the Hutt (Jabba's uncle) to kidnap Rotta (Jabba's son). After Ziro's agents deliver the Huttlet to the planet Teth, Dooku contacts Ziro again to arrange for Asajj Ventress to take custody of Rotta. When Jabba requests Jedi assistance to rescue his son, Dooku planned to frame the Jedi for the crime. When Ventress fails to gain the Huttlet, Dooku personally fights Anakin Skywalker but their duel ends in a draw and his plan eventually gets foiled.

In the first season, Count Dooku tries to broker a treaty with Toydaria via Ventress but fails due to Yoda. He then commands Grievous in surprise attacks by the Star Destroyer Malevolence. He then sends Ventress to free Nute Gunray. He also tests Grievous when Kit Fisto fights Grievous. After crash landing on Florrum, Dooku is imprisoned by Hondo Ohnaka's pirates but escapes along with Kenobi and Skywalker. After that, he orders one of his generals to destroy a colony with a new weapon but fails. Dooku orders his servant Wat Tambor (the Techno Union's leader) to retreat after learning of Mace Windu's arrival. However, he does not evacuate in time and Dooku orders the droids to destroy his base, though the attempt fails.

In the second season, Count Dooku's Confederacy officially back the Death Watch group of Mandalorian terrorists trying to bring down the New Mandalorlans' pacifist government. Dooku urges Governor Pre Vizsla of Concordia (Death Watch's leader) to give the Republic a reason to send a military presence to Mandalore which Dooku believes will inspire the inhabitants of Mandalore to start a revolution spearheaded by the Death Watch movement. But his plan falls through when Duchess Satine Kryze of Mandalore presents her case to the Galactic Senate, urging them to hold off a military force, despite the attempts of a Death Watch assassin to silence her. Dooku orders Vizsla and his men to hold off the attack force, claiming he has further plans for them.

In the third season, Count Dooku is ordered to prove his loyalty to Darth Sidious by killing his own assassin Ventress whom Sidious fears has grown too powerful to control. Dooku follows his orders albeit reluctantly. But unknown to Dooku, Ventress survives and turns to the Nightsisters to have revenge on her former master. After a failed assassination attempt, Dooku goes to the Nightsisters on Dathomir led by Mother Talzin to provide Savage Opress as a replacement apprentice that doubles as Ventress's own secret weapon which Dooku unknowingly trains on Serrano. But their respective plans against each other fall apart when Opress attempted to kill both Dooku and Ventress.

In the fourth season, Count Dooku duels Anakin in lightsaber combat three different times (the first on Naboo, the second on Zygeria and the third on Naboo again). He then deals with the Nightsisters by having them killed. Believing both Ventress and Talzin have been killed off by Grevious's forces, Dooku's attention focuses to Savage whom he fears will become more of a threat as the former apprentice finds his long-lost brother (and Dooku's predecessor) Darth Maul.

In the fifth season, Dooku plays a rather minor role. He is only seen in hologram form guiding King Rash, the false king of Onderon, in their attempt to defeat a band of rebels. He also appears briefly when Grievous takes over Florrum to gloat about taking revenge on Hondo Ohnaka.

In the sixth season, Dooku finds out about clone trooper Tup executing Order 66 prematurely. He works from behind the scenes to foil the Republic's efforts to diagnose the problem, and eventually succeeds with the death of Clone Trooper Fives. He then manipulates the Banking Clan and its representative Rush Clovis into putting all their resources in the hands of the Sith, bringing war to the planet of Scipio. However, all is not right when the Jedi discover the lightsaber of Sifo-Dyas and start an investigation. Sidious then forces Dooku to clean up their trail, and Dooku confronts Anakin and Obi-Wan on Oba Diah. In the process his alter ego Tyranus is revealed to the Jedi, and they realize that it was he who created the clone army. Some further investigation by Yoda prompts Dooku and his master to perform a Sith ritual to break the Jedi Master; in the illusion Dooku appears to fight Anakin, but the Jedi seemingly executes him the same way he did in Episode III. However, they fail to break the mind of Yoda.

Comic books

In the Star Wars: Republic series, set during the Clone Wars, Dooku trains multiple Dark Jedi apprentices, most of whom he uses as minions. His apprentices include Ventress, Tol Skorr and renegade Jedi Quinlan Vos. Vos initially intended to infiltrate the Separatists as a spy for the Jedi Council but instead nearly falls to the dark side.

Novels

Dooku appears as the main antagonist or a secondary villain in many expanded universe novels.

In Jude Watson's Legacy of the Jedi, Dooku is first tempted by the dark side of the Force as a child when he and fellow Padawan Lorian Nod steal an ancient Sith Holocron from the Jedi Archives and he informs his friend to stay in the Order; he is intrigued by the Sith's open embrace of power and realizes that he is just as capable of treachery as they are. Lorian eventually lands Dooku in trouble for stealing the holocron which Lorian had stolen but Dooku got off scot-free and Lorian was banished from the Order. Years later, he encounters and eventually kills Nod.

In Sean Stewart's Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, Dooku attempts to trap Yoda by offering to negotiate an end to the Clone Wars. Despite his attempts to convert his former master to his cause, he is ultimately unsuccessful but is very nearly swayed in turn by Yoda to return to the Jedi Order. But the intervention of Anakin and Obi-Wan enrages him and ends any efforts of rapprochement before they can began, leaving both Yoda and Dooku in deep thought following the confrontation as Dooku feels condemned to being a Sith and Yoda feels that any attempts to turn his former student back to the light have been rendered impossible. In the novel, it is also revealed that Dooku always resented his parents for "giving him away" to the Jedi Order.

In James Luceno's Labyrinth of Evil, Dooku engineers Grievous's transformation into the cyborg commander and trains him in lightsaber combat. He then schemes with Sidious to invade Coruscant in what he believes to be a plot to kill Obi-Wan and initiate Skywalker into the Sith.

Toys

A number of toys based on Count Dooku have been produced including the Lego set Lego Star Wars: Duel on Geonosis which recreates the duel between Jedi master Yoda and the Count Dooku,[5] and a Hasbro Count Dooku lightsaber.[6]

Portrayal

Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus was portrayed by Christopher Lee in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith while Kyle Rowling did most of the lightsaber sequences. The character was voiced by Corey Burton in Star Wars: Clone Wars (as well as most of the video games).

Christopher Lee reprised his role to voice the character in the 2008 animated film while Corey Burton returned to voice the character in the subsequent TV series.

References

Bibliography
Notes
  1. ↑ "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones". Christopher Lee Web.
  2. ↑ Stover 2005, p. 52.
  3. ↑ Stover 2005, p. 53.
  4. ↑ Stover 2005, pp. 76–79.
  5. ↑ "Yoda takes on Count Dooku in battle to be Christmas number one". Daily Express.
  6. ↑ "Star Wars Count Dooku Electronic Lightsaber". entertainmentearth.com.
Further readings

External links