| “ | I have become more powerful than any Jedi. Even you. | „ |
| ~ Count Dooku taunts his old master Yoda in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones prior to their lightsaber duel, and his most famous quote. |
| “ | The Sith control everything. You just don't know it! | „ |
| ~ Dooku to Anakin Skywalker. |
| “ | I sense great fear in you, Skywalker. You have hate. You have anger. But you don't use them. | „ |
| ~ Count Dooku speaks his last words to Anakin Skywalker, foreshadowing the latter's transformation into Darth Vader. |
Count Dooku, also known as Darth Tyranus, is a major antagonist in the Star Wars franchise.
He was once a Jedi Master who served as the Padawan of Yoda and master of Rael Averross and Qui-Gon Jinn before becoming a powerful Sith Lord and the second apprentice of Darth Sidious. He is also the perpetrator of the Clone Wars, orchestrated by Sidious, serving as head of State of the Confederacy of Independent Systems and manhandling and coordinating Sidious' plans on his behalf. He is the archenemy of Anakin Skywalker throughout the Clone Wars and master of both General Grievous and Asajj Ventress.
He was portrayed by the late Sir Christopher Lee in all his film appearances, who also played Frankenstein's Monster in The Curse of Frankenstein, Count Dracula in Hammer Studios' Dracula films, Fu Manchu in Hammer's Fu Manchu series, Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man, Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun, King Haggard in The Last Unicorn, Cushing Catheter in Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Saruman in Sir Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies, and The Jabberwock in Alice in Wonderland. 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, Scarecrow in Batman: Gotham Knight, Captain Hook and Shan Yu in Kingdom Hearts, and Quint in Disney's Timon & Pumbaa series.
Roles
He serves as the secondary antagonist of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, appearing as the main antagonist of Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and the opening antagonist of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. He is also a posthumous antagonist in the 2019 video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, as well as the titular protagonist of both the audio drama Dooku: Jedi Lost and its novelization.
He also appears as 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 both Seasons 2 and 5, the secondary antagonist of Season 6 and a background antagonist in Season 7.
He is also a recurring antagonist within the Legends continuity, appearing notably in the 2003 micro-series Star Wars: Clone Wars as the main antagonist of the first season and one of the two overarching antagonists (alongside Darth Sidious) of its last two seasons. He is also the villainous overarching protagonist of the 2002 video game Star Wars: Bounty Hunter.
Personality
Dooku is ruthless and utterly amoral, seeing others as mere objects to be used and discarded. Friendship, loyalty, and love mean nothing to him, and betrayal is second nature. He is also intelligent and charismatic, and able to manipulate virtually anyone into seeing him as a savior, an ally, or whatever else benefits him the most at a given time.
While serving Darth Sidious, Dooku is a ruthless terrorist and warlord, whose methods included torture, murder, and even genocide. However, before turning to the dark side, he was a respected Jedi Master, having been trained by Yoda and served as the Master of Qui-Gon Jinn. During that time, he was unconventional in his philosophy 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 presented himself as a political idealist, but his only real objective was power.
By this time with his new Sith identity, he was not above double-crossing his own supporters and allies such as Asajj Ventress because she was failing him, but he showed some regret after turning his back on Ventress, infuriating his own master, Darth Sidious.
Arguably Dooku's greatest weaknesses are his arrogance and vanity; he believes himself to be superior to everyone else by virtue of both his aristocratic lineage and what he believes are his natural gifts, and this sometimes leads him to make mistakes and errors in judgment. He despises the galaxy's "common" inhabitants, whom he dismisses as "ignorant rabble".
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 Sidious at their peak.
- 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 Padmé 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: Dooku was extremely skilled in lightsaber combat, and a gifted duelist. He was one of the few known individuals who could fight Yoda as an equal.
- 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; his intellectual abilities were surpassed in the Jedi Order only by Yoda. As a Sith General, Dooku was a highly skilled tactician and a very capable leader.
Victims
- Komari Vosa
- Sifo-Dyas (Ordered by Dooku)
- An unnamed Weequay guard
- Barb Mentir (Made Turk shoot him against his will)
- Turk Falso
- Rish Loo
- Miraj Scintel
- Mina Bonteri (Ordered by Dooku)
- Most of the Nightsisters (Ordered by Dooku)
- Sanjay Rash (Ordered by Dooku)
- Bec Lawise (Made Padmé shoot him against her will)
- Four Pyke guards
- Silman
- An unnamed Pyke foot soldier
- Lom Pyke
- Chubor (Ordered by Dooku)
- Tiplee
- Asajj Ventress
- Innumerable Clone Troopers and Jedi (At the hands of Grievous, Ventress and many others, ordered by Dooku)
Relationships
Allies
- Jedi Order (formerly)
- Galactic Republic (formerly)
- Darth Sidious (formerly)
- Grievous
- Asajj Ventress (formerly)
- Hutts (sometimes)
- Jabba the Hutt (sometimes)
- Confederacy of Independent Systems
- Geonosians
- Kaminoans (formerly)
- Trade Federation
- Techno Union
- Jango Fett
- Boba Fett
- Zam Wesell
Enemies
- Jedi Order
- Anakin Skywalker - Archenemy and Killer
- Obi-Wan Kenobi
- Galactic Republic
- Clone Troopers
- Krayt's Claw
- Hutts (sometimes)
- Jabba the Hutt (sometimes)
- Darth Sidious - Indirect Killer
- Asajj Ventress
- Darth Maul
- Mother Talzin
Trivia
- Like Darth Maul and General Grievous, Dooku is one of the villains in the Star Wars prequel trilogy who each foreshadow a different aspect of Anakin's future as Darth Vader. In his case, Dooku represents the fallen Jedi who acts as the public face for Sidious' machinations, and who loses his arms/hands during battle and whose victorious opponent is ordered by Sidious 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).
- Sidious 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 Star Wars: Episode III 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. He is also defeated by simply whacking the back of his head, with none of his limbs being taken. However, his absence past this point mirrors his original incarnation's death.
- 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.
- Count Dooku killed his brother and sister to turn himself to the dark side of the force.
- Dooku first appeared in Attack of the Clones, the second film of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Both his masters of the light and dark side of the force were Yoda and Sidious who both first appeared in The Empire Strikes Back, the second film of the original Star Wars trilogy.
- Dooku is the only main antagonist of the second film in a Star Wars trilogy who does not redeem himself in the third film of his respective trilogy as both Darth Vader and his grandson Kylo Ren redeemed themselves in Return of the Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker respectively. As such, he is the only one of Palpatine’s apprentices who is never redeemed, as even Darth Maul made peace with Obi-Wan Kenobi just before his death in Rebels.
- Unlike most other Sith Lords, his eyes never turn yellow. This implies that he never fully embraced the dark side like Maul, Vader and Palpatine did.
- Despite being the main antagonist of Season 1 of Star Wars: Clone Wars, he only has about 2 minutes of screen time.
- Despite being the main antagonist of Attack of the Clones, he doesn't appear until the second half of the film.
- 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.
- Taking Jabba's offspring and attempting to blame the Jedi for it, even going so far as to attempt to have Ventress kill him so that Jabba will join the CIS.
- Being a very abusive teacher towards Savage Opress.
- Ordering genocide against the Nightsisters.
- Ordering the death of Mina Bonteri for trying to end the war.
External Links
- Count Dooku on Wikipedia
- Dooku on the Star Wars Wiki
- Dooku on the Star Wars Wiki
- Count Dooku on the Disney Wiki
