Why is Count Dooku's characterization vastly different in The Clone Wars then Attack of the Clones? In AOTC he's all like, "I'm sorry old friend" and "Back down", in TCW he seems to take pleasure in killing Jedi. What happened?
Okay, so I lightly touched on this back in this post where I compare the Dooku we see in the Legends continuity to the Dooku we see in Canon and in this video. George Lucas quotes used as sources can be found at the end.
To start with: there's a dichotomy to Dooku.
On the one hand... he makes good points.
His concerns are the same that many Jedi share: the Senate is corrupt, and its representatives are abusing their power for their own selfish needs, sometimes even using Jedi to do so.
On the other hand... Dooku's a Sith.
Which means he - like the Senators - is also after power, if not moreso. He's greedy, selfish and ambitious. Sure, he makes good points but he’s part of the problem; he knows it, but he doesn’t care.
More importantly, like Maul and Grievous, the primary purpose of Dooku, as a character, is to show us who Anakin is going to turn into:
An evil, corrupted old man. A prodigal son of the Jedi Order (with closet fascist-leanings) who, in his unquenchable thirst for power, was reduced to being a slave of Darth Sidious.
One of the big differences between Dooku and Anakin, however, is that Dooku was always more politically savvy.
Count Dooku has a public image.
He uses his past as a Jedi to cultivate this persona of a wise intellectual, a rational man with fair and just demands, one who fights for the little guy.
He is the head of the Separatist movement, a charismatic figure known throughout the galaxy for his political idealism, even giving lectures at universities.
But it is just a persona.
I mean, that's probably how he started out, sure, but by the time we see him in Attack of the Clones, Dooku is a Sith Lord, and he's been one for over 10 years, because we know he was going by "Tyranus" while ordering Sifo-Dyas' death and hiring Jango Fett a few months before the invasion of Naboo.
QUICK NOTE:
In Canon, Dooku left the Jedi Order 10 years before Qui-Gon’s death. So chances are, he's actually been a Sith for almost 20 years, as we know he was already a darksider 8 years prior to The Phantom Menace because he tried to recruit Rael Averross at the end of the book Master & Apprentice.
Which means he's pure evil.
Deep down, Dooku's the guy we see in The Clone Wars:
Darth Tyranus, a ruthless, sadistic killer whose only goal is to destroy the Jedi Order and bend the galaxy to his will.
But the galaxy can't know this, right?
They think he's Count Dooku, a kind-hearted man whose beliefs are controversial but ultimately altruistic. Hell, even the Jedi remember him fondly.
So, like Palpatine, he keeps up the facade.
He does this with Obi-Wan, as he secretly tries to recruit him to overthrow Sidious (who Lucas compares to Vader trying to do with Luke in Empire Strikes Back):
He does this with the Jedi, calling Mace "old friend", telling him he's sorry he's about to have them executed.
He plays this charade up to the very end...
... but when Obi-Wan still won't back down, he is left with no choice but to kill him the fastest way he can: with a lightsaber.
A red-bladed lightsaber, in signature Sith fashion. One he’s been careful to keep a secret.
But Obi-Wan's seen it, he's seen the Force Lightning... he's been given a peek behind the curtains, so now he has to die.
And you see the change in Dooku’s behavior. He starts to taunt Obi-Wan, he’s grinning, there’s a sadistic glimmer in his eye. For a brief moment, he drops the mask and goes to town.
Oh and Anakin joins in, whatever the more the merrier. But then Yoda joins in... and Dooku can't beat Yoda. Crap, he's gonna tell everyone.
The secret of him being a Sith Lord is gonna get out...!
But this is Palpatine and Dooku we're talking about. Political geniuses, masters of spin and flipping the story. If the secret got out... who cares?
Seriously, who cares if the Jedi know he’s a Sith, now? The war's already started, Order 66 is right around the corner. He won't even bother pretending he's a good guy, with the Jedi.
Him playing the role of the "villain" when facing the Republic also makes it so that the Senate will want to keep the war going until he's captured or dead.
And because they're at war, he can simply wave the fiendish acts the Republic lays at his feet as "slanderous propaganda" in front of the Separatists, they'll just eat it up.
Furthermore, Dooku being his true, ruthless self when engaging with the Republic also has a second perk: it'll make the Jedi look bad.
'Cause the galaxy doesn't really get what a Sith Lord is, they think it's just some Jedi variant. So that's still a Jedi, right?
As such, Dooku's cruel actions and cruelty then feed into the anti-Jedi conspiracy theories about them "starting the war" and the growing distrust that'll make it so that - when the Jedi are eventually wiped out - the general public will just go "good riddance".
Which was the main goal of the entire Clone War conflict.
TLDR:
The guy we see in most of Attack of the Clones is Count Dooku, political idealist, AKA who he presents himself to be.
The characterization we see at the end of Attack of the Clones, in The Clone Wars and in Revenge of the Sith is that of Darth Tyranus, Sith Lord, AKA his true self.
George Lucas Quotes:
About Dooku’s valid points:
“I wanted a more sophisticated kind of villain. Dooku’s disenchantment with the corruption in the [Republic] is actually valid. It’s all valid. So, Chris plays it as, “Is he really a villain or is he just someone who is disenchanted and trying to make things right?””
- Starlog Magazine #300, 2002
“The confrontation between Obi-Wan and Dooku originally was a confrontation between Padmé and Dooku, and it was a political thing. I decided, after seeing the movie, that I didn’t need that scene with Padmé and Dooku, it was in the wrong part of the picture, and this one, with Obi-Wan, would be more appropriate.
It would work better if Dooku would actually tell the truth about what’s going on and then create a situation where nobody believed him. And it also allows you to kinda have some sympathy for Dooku in that he carries the sympathies of most of the Jedi which is that the Senate is corrupt and is incapable of carrying out any meaningful actions because they argue about everything all the time.”
- Attack of the Clones, Director’s Commentary, 2002
About the similarities between Anakin and Dooku:
“[In the garage scene, Anakin] sort of lays out his ambition and you’ll see later on his ambition and his dialogue here is the same as Dooku’s. He says “I will become more powerful than every Jedi.” And you’ll hear later on Dooku will say “I have become more powerful than any Jedi.” [...]
And Dooku is, kind of, the fallen Jedi who was converted to the Dark Side because the other Sith Lord didn’t have time to start from scratch, and so we can see that that’s where this is going to lead which is that it is possible for a Jedi to be converted. It is possible for a Jedi to want to become more powerful.”
- Attack of the Clones, Director’s Commentary, 2002
“I needed to get across the point that Jedi can leave the Order, to set up what happens with Anakin later on. Also, in the end when you realize that Dooku is Darth Tyranus, it explains what Darth Sidious did after Darth Maul was killed: he seduce a Jedi who had become disenchanted with the Republic. He preyed on that disenchantment and converted him to the dark side, which is also a setup for what happens with Anakin.”
- Mythmaking: Behind the Scenes of Attack of the Clones, 2002
About Dooku’s true nature:
“If you put two Sith together, they try to get others to join them to get rid of the other Sith. Dooku's ambition here is really to get rid of Darth Sidious. He's trying to get Obi-Wan's assistance in that [...] so that he and Obi-Wan could overthrow Sidious and take over. And it's exactly the same scene as when Darth Vader does it with Luke to try to get rid of Sidious.”
- Attack of the Clones, Commentary Track 2, 2002
“In the midst of this turmoil, a separatist movement was formed under the leadership of the charismatic former Jedi Count Dooku. By promising an alternative to the corruption and greed that was rotting the Republic from within, Dooku was able to persuade thousands of star systems to secede from the Republic.
Unbeknownst to most of his followers, Dooku was himself a Dark Lord of the Sith, acting in collusion with his master, Darth Sidious, who, over the years, had struck an unholy alliance with the greater forces of commerce and their private droid armies.”
- Shatterpoint, Prologue, 2004
If anything, his portrayal in TCW was *less* ruthless than in AotC, not the other way around. His esteem for Obi-Wan felt more genuine, and we were definitely made to feel the tragedy of his fall when we got a glimpse of what could have been in Yoda's vision.
He also clearly hesitated when having to use his bond with Yoda to harm him and he kept recreating almost Jedi-like relationships (albeit warped) with his apprentices. He also let it slip that he genuinely cared for Ventress in a way and didn't want to discard her.
Of course, all of that nuance only highlights the pure evil of his actions - he had the capacity for good, he had the knowledge and wisdom to choose a better path, and he didn't. Out of greed, lust for power, self-preservation and pride. He was selfish to the core and he was fully aware of what he was doing.
And not just his (very obvious) hesitations regarding Yoda and Asajj...
... but also the one re: Qui-Gon, as seen in Brotherhood, provided he wasn't putting on a show, there.
These exceptions to the rule sorta mirror that albeit brief moment of clarity has with Obi-Wan in Kenobi when he says “I am not your failure” or the very clear reluctance he shows before telling Ahsoka that if she won’t leave him, she’ll die.
For both these characters, their master and their apprentice(s) are the soft spot.
Once again: Dooku truly is what Anakin will one day be.
gummygunk
origamiaround
dailybridgerton
2087
izzy806
kianamaiart
snowghoul
amandla
