Hello! I recently discovered your blog and I love your stuff about Obi and Dooku. Especially about the Count. If you don't mind me asking what are your thoughts on Dooku and Ventress's relationship? What do you do think would have happened if Dooku refused to obey Sidious and not let Ventress go? Sorry if it's a lot to ask.
Hello there and welcome, friend! I happen to LOVE Dooku so you have come to the right place!
So this is an interesting question and a GOOD question. Dooku is a hard Master, a hard man - but that’s always been the case, even when he was a Jedi. (Rael states this outright in Master and Apprentice and still, I always have to wonder how Rael Aveross, aka the human equivalent of a perpetually wrinkled shirt with one prominent and indelible grease stain on the chest, how Rael got so under Dooku’s skin that Dooku would hug- hug! the man after not seeing him for months. Anyway, that’s another story for another time.)
Anyway, Ventress. I think the scene where Sidious orders Dooku to eliminate her is instructive.
Sidious: “Your assassin is powerful.”
Dooku: “She’s important to me.”
That’s…not what Sidious was saying, Dooku. He’s totally betraying his feelings here.
And, you know…Dooku probably was, either consciously or subconsciously grooming Ventress to help him overthrow Sidious. I do think he kept certain things from her in order to maintain the power imbalance between the two of them, but they were close, in a kind of screwed-up way. Look how betrayed Ventress was when Dooku abandoned her. Look at how Dooku tries to fight for Ventress with Sidious, something he rarely does outright.
And in Jedi Lost, Dooku actually shares a lot with Ventress. About his childhood, his training with the Jedi. Dooku isn’t a man to open up to anybody, even to manipulate them, so it says a lot that he allows Ventress this wholesale glimpse into his life. (It also says a lot as to how intimidating Dooku must have been, to allow this vulnerability while keeping his absolute authority over Ventress. I actually think the only person not fully swayed by being Dooku’s apprentice was Rael, and that’s probably why they had the relationship they did. Even Qui-gon, according to Rael, would have eventually followed his Master anywhere, which begs a ton of questions if Qui-gon hadn’t been killed on Naboo, but again, I’m getting off-track.)
In a way, Dooku set up Ventress to fail. Her fighting, her tactics…they really showed a marked improvement after Ventress left the Sith and this feeds into the idea that Dooku was purposefully suppressing her potential as to a) not catch Sidious’s attention (too late) b) to not usurp him as it was the way of the Sith and c) possibly because Dooku was still (perhaps subconsciously) after a larger prize (Kenobi). Also, Dooku might have, on some level, still felt ambivalence about his turn, and in keeping Ventress distant, he could keep his feelings about his turn distant.
But Dooku is a teacher, through and through. And teaching, while often an altruistic act, is also a power imbalance and can confer onto the teacher certain feelings of superiority depending on the circumstances and people. I think Dooku liked it all - the act of passing down his knowledge, of creating the lineage he could never have with his family on Serenno (and this goes for both Canon and Legends).
Now, if Dooku had disobeyed Sidious?
The first thing they would have had to do is create a splinter group of Sith, a la Maul and Savage. And then how would the economics of the CIS play out? Dooku was the political and military leader of the Confederacy, but Sidious was playing both ends so corporations like the Techno Union, the Trade Union, and the Banking Clan were funding both sides. In some ways, the advantage might go to Dooku there, as Sidious would still need to keep up his persona as Chancellor while Dooku and Ventress would have nothing to lose.
And then what? They would try to kill Sidious, of course, before he killed them. Would Dooku and Ventress try to strike an alliance with the more unorthodox arm of the Jedi? Ventress would be a better emissary for that, and even then, probably only Obi-wan would have heard her out. And that creates some interesting possibilities. Or if they even kidnapped Obi-wan (or Ahsoka. Probably not Anakin as Anakin was a little too murdery.)
But speaking of Anakin - how would Sidious have dealt then? Timeline moved up? Order 66 right then? Save Anakin and tell him how tragic it all was but they could take strength in each other? How it was all Dooku and Ventress’s fault? How Anakin needed to exact revenge on them? But still, politically, the pieces weren’t quite in place yet. So instead, the CIS might have turned on itself, or the “neutral” corporations would have shifted over to the Republic. Or not. It would have been MESSY AS HELL.
(And if Ventress wasn’t cut loose, that means no Savage, which means no Maul, which means…Obi-wan might have had a better time of it. Or Ventress might have gone back to Dathomir anyway and found Maul and then what? An unholy triumvirate of Dooku, Ventress, and Maul? Poor Obi-wan, is all I can say.)
Anyway, the fallout of Dooku disobeying Sidious would have been MASSIVE.
