| “ | I have become more powerful than any Jedi. Even you. | „ |
| ~ Count Dooku to his old master Yoda in Attack of the Clones prior to their lightsaber duel. |
| “ | The Sith control everything. You just don't know it! | „ |
| ~ Dooku to Skywalker. |
| “ | I sense great fear in you, Skywalker. You have hate. You have anger. But you don't use them. | „ |
| ~ Count Dooku's last words to Anakin Skywalker, foreshadowing Darth Vader. |
Count Dooku, also known as Darth Tyranus, is a major antagonist in the Star Wars franchise, specifically being the secondary antagonist of the Star Wars prequel trilogy.
He serves as the main antagonist of the 2002 film Attack of the Clones, and a minor yet pivotal antagonist in the 2005 film Revenge of the Sith. He is also the main antagonist of both the 2008 animated feature film Star Wars: The Clone Wars and its 2008-2020 television series of the same name, specifically being the main antagonist of Seasons 1, 3, and 4; a major antagonist in Season 2, a minor antagonist in Season 5, the secondary antagonist of Season 6, and a major, later posthumous antagonist in Season 7. He is also a recurring antagonist within the Legends continuity, and the titular protagonist of both the audio drama Dooku: Jedi Lost and its novelization.
Dooku was once a Jedi Master and Yoda's apprentice, as well as Qui-Gon Jinn's master. Now, he is a powerful Sith Lord and the second apprentice of Darth Sidious, as well as the founder and Head of State of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. He is the arch-enemy of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi throughout the Clone Wars and is the master of General Grievous and Asajj Ventress. He is the perpetrator of the Clone Wars, alongside Palpatine.
He was portrayed by the late Christopher Lee in all his film appearances, who also played Saruman in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun, King Haggard in The Last Unicorn, Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man and Count Dracula in the Hammer Dracula films. In the Clone Wars animated TV series, he was voiced by Corey Burton, who also played Brainiac in the DC Animated Universe, Megatron in Transformers: Animated, Captain Hook and Shan Yu in Kingdom Hearts, and Quint in Disney's Timon & Pumbaa series.
Personality
When he was at the service of Darth Sidious, Darth Tyranus was a threatening, intelligent, powerful, manipulative, arrogant, and immoral statesman, but charismatic, whose methods included torture, murder, and even genocide. However, before turning to the dark side, he was a respected and admired Jedi, being trained by Yoda and having trained Qui-Gon Jinn. During that time, he was unconventional in his thoughts and methods, often at odds with the Jedi Council. He defended, for example, the controversial theory of the living Force rather than the unified Force. He taught it and another atypical view at his apprentice. He was also a political idealist. But seeing the corruption in the Ancient Republic, he became disabused by that and the seeming approbation of that by the Council Jedi. This made him turn to the dark side and becoming the ruthless Sith known as Darth Tyranus.
By this time with his new Sith identity, he was not above betraying his own supporters and allies such as Asajj Ventress because she had failed him, although he did show some regret after having abandoned Ventress, angering his own master, Darth Sidious. As he was when he was a Jedi, Dooku was also a typical Sith, because he genuinely thought that transforming the Republic in a dictatorship governed by himself was for the best interest of the Republic because it would purge it of the corruption and decadence, instead of simply taking power for the sake of it like Palpatine. He also had a certain fondness for Obi-Wan Kenobi, partially because he was formed by Dooku's Padawan. This was shown when he asked Obi-Wan to join him in his quest of power and even telling him the truth that the Republic was governed by Darth Sidious, though the Jedi didn't believe him. But it didn't stop him from trying to have him killed in several ways.
When faced with his death, Dooku was visibly shocked, as he never realized that he was only a pawn in Sidious's schemes. So, the Count realized too late that betrayal was Palpatine's way.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- The Force: Despite his old age, Dooku was extremely powerful and had an extremely strong connection to the Force. Although he was not quite as powerful as Anakin Skywalker at his peak, Dooku was still one of the most powerful Force-users in the history of the galaxy; arrogantly claiming himself to have been more powerful than any single Jedi of his time. Despite this claim, Dooku's Force potential did not come anywhere close to surpassing Yoda and Palpatine's powers respectively at the two's peaks.
- Telekinesis: Dooku was very proficient in Telekinesis and utilized it either as offensive or defense.
- Force Push: Dooku utilized Force Push to send his opponents flying through the air, causing them serious injury or temporarily incapacitating them/knocked them unconscious.
- Force Flight: Dooku utilized Force Flight to levitate himself or to slow-down his fall to the ground.
- Force Choke: Dooku utilized Force Choke to either weaken, kill or intimidate his opponents.
- Force Grip: Dooku utilized Force Grip to lifted his opponents off the ground, sometimes by the neck, to immobilize or throw them. His abilities also allowed him to influence the movements of people, as he was able to force the pirate Turk Falso to shoot his comrade while simultaneously choking him, while he performed a similar feat when he made Padme Amidala aim at and shoot Bec Lawise.
- Force Deflection: Dooku utilized Force deflection to redirect incoming attacks, such as Force lightning, with or without his lightsaber, though it was difficult to do so.
- Mind Trick: Dooku utilized Mind Trick to control the minds of other sentient beings. However, it did not work on individuals who have very strong wills.
- Taming Beasts: Dooku utilized Taming Beasts to control the minds of other animals.
- Force Lightning: Dooku utilized Force Lightning to torture or kill his opponents.
- Force Dash: Dooku utilized Force Dash to move at amazing speeds.
- Force Jump: Dooku utilized Force Jump to jump or leap at great distances.
- Telekinesis: Dooku was very proficient in Telekinesis and utilized it either as offensive or defense.
Abilities
- Lightsaber Skills: Despite his old age, Dooku was extremely skilled in lightsaber combat and an extremely gifted duelist. He was one of the few known individuals who could fight Yoda as an equal. Dooku was one of the greatest lightsaber duelists in the history of the galaxy.
- Form II: Dooku was a master of Makashi; he used it exclusively and was believed by many the most proficient practitioner of the style though even this wasn't enough to keep him from being vulnerable to Makashi's weaknesses as seen when Anakin overpowers him shortly before murdering him.
- Dun Möch: Dooku was extremely skilled in Dun Möch.
- Genius-Level Intellect/Master Tactician/Leader: Dooku was highly intelligent and wise; his intelligence and wisdom were surpassed only by Yoda, Palpatine, and Anakin Skywalker respectively. As a Sith General, Dooku was a highly skilled tactician and a very capable leader.
Killed Victims
- Sifo-Dyas (Not committed though ordered by Dooku)
- An unnamed Weequay guard
- An unnamed Weequay pirate (Made Turk shoot him against his will)
- Turk Falso
- Rish Loo
- Miraj Scintel
- Mina Bonteri (Not committed though ordered by Dooku)
- Most of the Nightsisters (Not committed though ordered by Dooku)
- Bec Lawise (Made Padmé shoot him against her will)
- Four Pyke guards
- Silman
- An unnamed Pyke foot soldier
- Lom Pyke
- Chubor (Not committed though ordered by Dooku)
- Tiplee
- Asajj Ventress
- Komari Vosa
Trivia
- Each villain in the Star Wars prequels foreshadows a different aspect of what Anakin will become. In Dooku's case, it's the fallen Jedi who loses his arms/hands during battle and whose victorious opponent is ordered by Palpatine to end their life.
- The scene in Revenge of the Sith where Palpatine orders Anakin to kill Dooku mirrors the scene in Return of The Jedi, the last film in the original trilogy, where he pressures Anakin's own son Luke to kill Anakin (who was now Darth Vader).
- Palpatine mentioned Dooku in the LEGO Star Wars: Droid Tales episode that retells the story of Return of The Jedi right where Luke is about to destroy Vader. Probably a reference to the previous point.
- Dooku also appeared in countless Lego Star Wars sets from 2002-2013, as well as appearing in the LEGO Star Wars games.
- Christopher Lee's Lord of The Rings co-star Andy Serkis would later play Supreme Leader Snoke in the Star Wars Sequel trilogy.
- Just before Dooku gets killed in Revenge of the Sith, Dooku had mentioned to Anakin that he had great fear inside him along with hate and anger foreshadowing Anakin's transformation into Darth Vader and Anakin murdering Padmé, his wife in anger.
- In the LEGO video game adaptation, Dooku loses just his right hand during the fight (and then falls over rather than kneeling), and his death occurs just seconds later instead of tens of seconds.
- Dooku makes an appearance in Angry Birds Star Wars 2, renamed Count Porku. To attack, he tosses his lightsaber, and it boomerangs back. His ability makes him similar to Mace Windu, but his lightsaber is red instead of purple, while Mace Windu uses a purple lightsaber for his version of the ability.
- Despite being the main villain of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Dooku did not appear during its seventh and final season despite being mentioned multiple times. Also, his death in Revenge of the Sith occurred before the final two episodes of the show.
- In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Dooku acted much more cruel and evil than in his other appearances. Examples of these include:
- Killing his loyal servant Bec Lawise without a second thought when the former brought up that the separatist senate would never approve of his invasion on Scipio.
- Ordering the destruction of Ryloth.
- Giving the peaceful Togrutan race to the Zygerrians so they could enslave them.
