Analyzing Evil: Count Dooku From Star Wars

[Music] hello everyone and welcome to the 28th episode of analyzing evil featuring count dooku from star wars an elegant and sophisticated manifestation of the dark side count dooku as with any character portrayed by christopher lee is a pleasure to watch and his evolution from one of the most instrumental and influential members of the jedi order to a central cog in the grand plan of the sith is an intricate tale of disillusionment power and domination in this video as with the previous video on maul i'll be covering dooku as he appears in the current star wars canon with one exception that being the revenge of the sith novelization as this book provides us with some key details and insights into dooku's mind that are otherwise unavailable to us in the current canon i know i can't pick and choose between the two continuities but considering this book is a representation of the film i thought it would be appropriate to include the information we receive within it expect more to come from this book in the upcoming videos on vader and palpatine for anyone curious in the upcoming video on palpatine i'll be covering the plagueis novel by james luceno due to the immense amount of information we receive regarding palpatine's early life my reasoning behind including that novel in that video is the recent canonization of darth tenebrous and the hopes that this novel or something close to it may become canon as well the canon sources i'll be pulling information from include dooku jedi lost master and apprentice age of republic dooku age of republic jango fett the clone wars tv series attack of the clones and revenge of the sith now without further ado let's begin first we'll touch on dooku's life before becoming a sith lord which we're given quite the insight to in the audiobook dooku jedi lost as well as a bit of information from the novel master and apprentice born on the planet sereno in 102 bby dooku was inducted into the jedi order at a young age beyond his memory after he was abandoned in a forest at the request of his father count gora who both feared and reviled force wielders by the time dooku was 12 years old he radiated an heir of royalty which brought him much ridicule from his fellow initiates from this young age dooku was very much the man he would grow into he was determined diligent and reserved and while the other younglings at the jedi temple would form bonds of friendship with one another dooku preferred to hone his skills or care for his belongings ever reaching for the approval of his jedi masters and always trying to prove himself to everyone and anyone around him dooku was generally humorless and kept only one friend in his youth sifo-dyas who whether he liked it or not would be his constant companion during this time in his life dooku's personality made it natural for him to gravitate towards the more domineering aspects of life and he projected himself as stern prideful and lofty a boy who knew as his friend sifo diaz once pointed out that he was the best and that it was his charge to hone his skills and take a high place amongst the ranks of the jedi order dooku felt that the jedi order was charged with upholding the morals and laws of the galaxy and it was their place to be paragons of this morality and to project themselves as such this outlook along with his personality and his unwavering views of the force and life in the galaxy made it natural for dooku to be rebellious and he clashed with nearly everyone in the jedi order however this rebellion was an orderly type of rebellion in that his view of the jedi was one that required them to be the pillars of hope law and order in the galaxy and the standards to attain such a status were incredibly high in dooku's mind this wasn't necessarily a bad thing as much of the faults that he saw within the order and the republic were completely justified such as the jedi's willingness to act as a glorified police force for the senate and the abhorrent attitude the republic had towards preserving prophets over saving sentient life these views would only become further entrenched in dooku's mind as he aged and his staunch adherence to his principles and opposition to the shortcomings of his order and the republic would only continue to distance him from his brethren these traits also serve to edge dooku's mind towards a broader understanding of galactic politics the jedi and the force and he often pushed the limits of what was considered acceptable practices for a jedi to partake in and this included frequent contact with the dark side of the force it was during a celebration on his home planet of sorrento that dooku would have his first exposure to the dark side in the form of the tirataka an ancient creature that had long ago been corrupted to the dark side it was here that dooku discovered his relation to the highest nobility on the planet through his sister jenza someone who would be one of the few people outside sifo-dyas that he would form a bond with over his lifetime continue delving into dooku's background in a moment but first i'd like to make note of three other notable relationships that had a high impact on dooku's life we'll start by covering yoda apprentice to yoda as a youngling dooku's bond with his master was one of respect and admiration and though we don't know exactly how dooku felt about his old master we know their bond was strong enough to enable dooku insidious to influence yoda's thoughts when they encountered him on morriband and i believe it's safe to say that even after his fall to the dark side he still had a tenderness for his old master next we have his first padawan rail avaros who only appears in the audiobook dooku jedi lost and the novel master and apprentice rail seems to serve one purpose to embody everything dooku is not rail is described as unkempt unruly and unsavory and he's a man who frequently breaks jedi codes in more ways than one to others he appears jovial amiable and relaxed the direct opposite of the stern dooku dooku shared a strange bond with rail and i believe this is because he unknowingly recognized everything in rail that he wasn't and this opposition held a strange attraction for dooku he even hugged rail during a segment in master and apprentice and sought to corrupt him to the dark side toward the end of the novel as well his relationship with qui-gon was much more reserved but he admired qui-gon's skills and intelligence and he thought of him as a great student who would be capable of surpassing him and going far within the order he was saddened at the news of qui-gon's death and had it been up to dooku he would have had qui-gon at his side during his years as a sith lord dooku likely thought of his padawans as sons to a certain degree as he makes a comment to sidious in the revenge of the sith novelization that since obi-wan was qui-gon's apprentice in a way that makes dooku his grandfather later on we'll go over how ambivalent dooku is to the bonds of family and friendship but i think this tells us that though dooku is a hardened man he still has the emotional capacity to have attachments to certain people and this aspect of him never truly escaped him as he sought to make obi-wan his apprentice during his time as a sith lord a notion that was in part motivated by his fondness for qui-gon the new knowledge of his familial relations the circumstances that surrounded his abandonment and his relationship with jenza would be a source of conflict within dooku one that would split his focus to be centered around the family he was given and the one that had given up on him though it wouldn't be the only thing as his brush with the darkness of the tirataka would cause an unwitting bond between dooku and the creature to form and when dooku would find himself exposed to other aspects of the dark side this bond would manifest in terrifying roars and visions of the great draconic creature this is most notable when dooku stole into the jedi archives with his friend seifodius where after examining the sith artifacts within he suddenly experienced one of these visions of the tirotaka and subsequently dueled with master kastana a jedi master who was responsible for locating sith artifacts for the jedi after this incident he would strive to become the padawan of master kastana who he believed could teach him more about the teachings forbidden by the jedi this interest in artifacts forbidden teachings and his interest in the prophecies of both his friend sifo-dyas and the holocron of prophecies in the jedi archives would be another point of conflict for dooku as these things were thought to have a negative impact on jedi corrupting them over time and he would find himself caught between the laws of his order and the forbidden knowledge he craved what we've discussed so far planted the seeds of the dark side in dooku's mind but there are four events that were of particular importance that led to duke's abandonment of the jedi order and his turn to the dark side all of which occurred during the events of dooku jedi lost the first was the solar storm sifo-dyas predicted would occur on the planet proto branch and both the republic and jedi's handling of this event dooku found it profoundly disconcerting as the jedi were quick to dismiss sifo-dyas's vision as unreliable and the senator of proto branch taveri was concerned about the loss of profits that would occur from this storm but not the catastrophic loss of life that would also occur with dooku's already faltering view of both the republic and the jedi this only served to disillusion the jedi master further becoming disgusted with how both ordered their priorities and their willful ignorance to the suffering of the galaxy at large second is the visions he experienced while the captive of the presagers of hakote and his use of the dark side to escape his captivity here he would experience a jumbled vision of the future where he would see many events that would come to pass intertwined including the clone wars and his rise to the position of sith lord this was dooku's first official use of the dark side and to ease his mind master kostana and siphodius instructed dooku in a technique that was designed to hamper the dark thoughts of one's inner mind and keep them centered in the force which involved wrapping one's arms in bandages this technique will come into play in our final event as well in the coming years dooku would become obsessed with prophecy and discerning what he could from the prophecies of his friend sifo-dyas and the holocron of prophecies within the jedi archives and dooku's pursuit of answers to both his vision and the prophecies were instrumental in his fall to the dark side our third event was the length stuku had to go to to find the criminals responsible for his brother's maiming during the dragonfire air rally on coruscant in his pursuit of these criminals dukkha resorts to using the dark side in order to coax information out of them and in the process he discovers a spy amongst the jedi council in the form of yula braylon who was spying on the council for the crime lord sonovax in order to protect her son arath terex who was in debt to the crime lord i'd like to note that this isn't the first time dooku uses the dark side during his time as qui-gon's master as he uses force lightning during one of their missions to save qui-gon from a bounty hunter the knowledge of a wrath as eula's son was unknown to the entire jedi order even to irath himself and the fear that yula had of revealing this truth to the council caused dooku great distress as he thought it was shameful that eula had to hide something from her own order in fear of the repercussions she would face rather than seeking out help from what was essentially her family it should be noted that during the air rally dooku also displayed some of his disdain for the act of placating politicians and parading the jedi in front of the general populace something that was a point of contention between himself and many of the members of the jedi order now the fourth event is of course his abandonment of the jedi order during a mission to save his sister from abyssand pirates on soreno dooku again touched the dark side when he bonded with the tirataka and once again when he murdered his brother who had planned to bring about the domination and downfall of his home world an interesting detail to consider is dooku's removal of bandages he had wrapped around his arm to help a civilian in need of medical attention master kasthana warned him not to beforehand and shortly after this moment dooku would bond with the dark side rich tirataka who knows what could have happened had dooku chose to leave these wraps in place but his removal of them certainly accelerated his corruption to the dark side perhaps the most crucial moment in dooku's decision to assume the head of his house on soreno was a comment that his sister made upon their discovery of a valuable ore that was unearthed by the tirataka where she stated that the republic could now send members of the mining guild to assist in the extraction of this ore to help soreno prosper i imagine this immediately sent dooku's mind back to the incident on protobranch as this was again showing the republic's willingness to help people as long as they were lining their own pockets in the process this was the final nail in the coffin for dooku's waning adherence to the light side of the force and his loyalty to the jedi order and the republic all of what we've discussed so far shows us who dooku was before his fall to the dark side he was an exceptionally gifted child whose innate prudishness desire to excel and stern personality made for a child who grew prideful and sure of himself wanting to be everything he thought a good jedi to be and wishing to change the course of the galaxy for the better he was humorless and cold towards most people keeping few close to him and becoming isolated with his aloof personality and rebellious nature serving as barriers between himself and others in the jedi order as a direct student of master yoda he became skilled and wise and though he was often seen as a highly opinionated outsider his value to the council and the jedi order as a whole was greatly appreciated he served as an example to not only the jedi but to the republic and the citizens of the galaxy as well it's fortunate that these traits would send dooku on a path of higher understanding but unfortunate as well as it would lead him to the desire to bring the galaxy into order at any cost at the time of his leaving the jedi order we're left with a man whose disillusionment with the principles he upheld has led him to one conclusion that to save the galaxy it must be remade by whatever means necessary not much is known of the time between duke's ascension to head of his household and his instigation of the separatist crisis other than his attempt at recruiting his former padawan rail to his cause as we see at the end of master and apprentice but at some point he was approached by darth sidious who would take dooku on as his apprentice instructing him further in the ways of the dark side from here dooku would become an instrumental asset to the sith grand plan being the one who ensured the acquisition of the clone army into the hands of the sith it was here that dooku ordered the kaminoans to alter the inhibitor chips that had been placed into the clones to respond to order 66. dooku was essentially the figurehead of the sith and on behalf of his master he would travel to countless star systems recruiting pirates crime syndicates corporations and planets to the growing cause of separatism dooku like his master had the uncanny ability to appear as a generous welcoming gentleman whose manners and respect brought him far with those he was trying to negotiate with and his mastery of playing the politician helped greatly in his endeavors however dooku was still the same man he was during his years as a jedi but to an even more extreme degree as he hated the essential functions he had to participate in and he had gone from a reserved and stern man to a cold and heartless individual and with the power of the dark side at his disposal and his willingness to embrace his darker emotions he had become ruthless and remorseless his attitude towards individuals on a personal level was unforgiving as he often tortured those who were under his direct command like asajj ventress and quinlan vos and failure in the face of dooku was frequently met with suffering or death dooku was described as a political idealist by his peers before the outbreak of the clone wars and harmless in his activism this couldn't be further from the truth however and his brutality had already manifested in full before the war started as we see him order the death of his friend sifo-dyas the death of his sister and he personally kills a newly knighted jedi during a mission to solast this would only be the beginning of the countless atrocities dooku would order as though everything that transpires during the clone wars can essentially be traced back to darth sidious it's dooku who carries out these plans at the behest of his master from the destruction and genocide caused by the many individuals working under him like general grievous and asajj ventress to the general disorder and loss of life that occurs as a result of this war all of it is a result of the direct and deliberate influence of dooku we get a brilliant self-description of dooku as he is during his time as a sith lord in the revenge of the sith novelization that i'd like to read for you now dooku is different he doesn't remember when he discovered this it may have been when he was a young padawan betrayed by another learner who had claimed to be his friend lorian nod had said it to his face you don't know what friendship is and he didn't he had been angry certainly furious that his reputation had been put at risk and he had been angry at himself for his error and judgment trusting as an ally one who was in fact an enemy the most astonishing part of the whole affair had been that even after turning on him before the jedi the other boy had expected him to participate in a lie in the name of their friendship it had been all so preposterous that he hadn't known how to reply in fact he has never been entirely sure what beings mean when they speak of friendship love hate joy anger even when he can feel the energy of these emotions in others they translate in his perception to other kinds of feelings the kind that makes sense jealousy he understands and possessiveness he is fierce when any being encroaches on what is rightfully his intolerance at the in traceability of the universe and at the undisciplined lives of its inhabitants this is his normal state spite is a recreation he takes considerable pleasure from the suffering of his enemies pride is a virtue in an aristocrat and indignation his inalienable right when any dare to impugn his integrity his honor or his rightful place atop the natural hierarchy of authority and moral outrage makes perfect sense to him when the incorrigibly untidy affairs of ordinary beings refused to conform to the plainly obvious structure of how society ought to be he is entirely incapable of caring what any given creature might feel for him he cares only what that creature might do for him or to him very possibly he is what he is because other beings just aren't very interesting or even in a sense entirely real for dooku other beings are mostly abstractions simple schematic sketches who fall into two essential categories the first category is assets beings who can be used to service various interests such as for most of his life and to some extent even now the jedi particularly mace windu and yoda both of whom had regarded him as their friend for so long that it had effectively blinded them to the truth of his activities and of course for now the trade federation and the intergalactic banking clan the techno union the corporate alliance and the weapon lords of geonosis and even the common rabble of the galaxy who exist largely to provide an audience of sufficient size to do justice to his grandeur the other category is threats in this second set he numbers every sentient being he cannot include in the first there is no third category someday there may be not even a second being considered a threat by dooku is a death sentence a death sentence he plans to pronounce for example on his current allies the heads of the aforementioned organizations treachery is the way of the sith this is who dooku is now his idealism is still in place but it's been warped from a desire to help the galaxy with his power to a desire to be atop the rest of the beings in the galaxy to display his elegance his perfection and impose his will upon those he deems less than he the thing about dooku is that his intentions at one point were half-heartedly noble his initial reason for becoming the apprentice of darth sidious is in the pursuit of a vision he's long held since his childhood that of a galaxy that is protected and safe in the hands of those who prioritize the well-being of its citizens and who use their gifts in the force to enforce law and order upon a corrupt galaxy however as he describes further in the revenge of the sith novelization he developed the view that beings who aren't human are in fact lesser beings as dooku now has the not so noble idea that it should be humans at the center of his new supreme government as he believes they're the only beings capable of pushing the galaxy in the right direction and providing guidance to what he perceives as savages in the various alien races of the galaxy dooku envisions that in the new empire it is he who will be the driving force behind enforcing the new government's control of the galaxy by training the remnants of the jedi and any other force wielders to be soldiers in a new sith army a dark version of the current jedi order that serves the new empire headed by himself and commanded by a mighty general in anakin skywalker this in dooku's mind would bring about as he says to himself in the revenge of the sith novelization a government that is clean pure and direct with none of the messy scramble for the favor of ignorant rabble and sub-human creatures that made up the republic he so despised the government he served would be authority personified this is what is going through dooku's mind as he awaits anakin skywalker and obi-wan kenobi aboard the invisible hand and with this knowledge of dooku's vision the fact that he expected his fight with the two jedi to be easy and the trust he placed in the plan his master had laid out explains the shock on dooku's face as sidious ordered anakin to sever his head unfortunately for dooku as he says treachery is the way of the sith and the very minute amount of redeeming qualities found in dooku are entirely absent in his master as sidious never intended to force the empire into what dooku envisions and his motivations for all the destruction and death he orchestrates is in a way much more simple and definitely far more malicious as the entire reasoning behind everything he's done is all in pursuit of ultimate and absolute personal power as he realizes while staring death in the face dooku never had a chance and he was yet another pawn in the game played by darth sidious a game he had no control over whatsoever so at this end who was count dooku he was a prideful elegant arrogant exceptionally gifted and idealistic child who believed in himself his ability to see the wrong in the elements that surrounded him and in the future of greatness he strived for and saw within himself that he would need to make the changes necessary to bring ultimate good to the galaxy over time though this personality these ideals this pride would push him further and further to the dark side to xenophobia to the idea that a galaxy rife with corruption needed reformation at any cost this would lead an already aloof and reserved man to become a cold and hardened villain who would stop at nothing and sacrifice everything and anything to place himself at his rightful place above the common rabble of the galaxy a place where he could guide them to the ideals and morals of a new pristine empire by force dooku is a perfect example of what can happen to someone when they're noble ideals and genuine concern for their people their planet their galaxy can become corrupted into the monstrosity that is control and domination over the minds and hearts of others to achieve the now corrupted goal of law and order dooku may have had good intentions in his younger years but as he has aged the reality is that dooku brought strife death and destruction to the galaxy in pursuit of a now selfish desire to rule and the suffering he brought to billions of individuals on a mass and personal scale make him a terrifying and abhorrent villain and his entire being is an embodiment of some of the cruelest and most heinous aspects of evil thank you all for tuning in to this episode of analyzing evil and i hope you've enjoyed what are your thoughts on dooku did i miss anything let me know down below and leave a suggestion for a villain you'd like to see featured while you're at it if you liked this video and want to see more like it appearing in your feed click the subscribe button to keep up on the latest episodes and feel free to leave a like while you're at it thank you once again to all of my existing subscribers for your incredible support if you'd like to support the channel further consider signing up as a patron over on patreon you can find a link to patreon down in the description thank you to everyone who signed up so far and a most vile thank you to those whose names you're seeing on screen now join the channel's discord server to 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Channel: The Vile Eye

Views: 139,813

Rating: 4.9647717 out of 5

Keywords: Count Dooku, Darth Tyranus, Darth Vader, Darth Sidious, Darth Maul, Evil, Sith, Empire, Star Wars, Jedi, Separatist, Ventress, Grievous

Id: MNDLPlERozA

Length: 25min 20sec (1520 seconds)

Published: Wed May 12 2021