Dooku

Dooku, a Force-sensitive human male, was a Jedi Master who fell to the dark side of the Force and became the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Tyranus during the final years of the Galactic Republic. Following his exit from the Jedi Order, he claimed the title Count of Serenno and, during the Clone Wars, served as Head of State of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. He was the second apprentice of Darth Sidious, the Dark Lord of the Sith whose plan to conquer the galaxy relied on Dooku leading a pan-galactic secessionist movement against the Republic. As such, Dooku immersed himself in the dark side and worked tirelessly to advance his master's plans, though he ultimately forgot that treachery was the way of the Sith.
Born in 102 BBY during the Age of the Republic, Dooku was inducted into the Jedi Order after being abandoned by his family and learned the Jedi arts as the Padawan of Yoda, the legendary Grand Master of the Jedi Order. A political idealist, the corruption in the Galactic Senate disillusioned him, influencing Dooku to voluntarily leave the Order and return to his homeworld, where he reclaimed his title and heritage as a nobleman. His former peers, though believing his decision to be misguided, nevertheless still held him in high esteem. Unbeknownst to the Jedi, Dooku had not only renounced their ways, but his commitment to the light side of the Force as well. Having sworn his allegiance to Darth Sidious, Dooku became the Dark Lord's apprentice and adopted the secret name of "Darth Tyranus." Throughout the first decade of Sheev Palpatine's chancellorship, Dooku used his resources and charisma to recruit entire star systems to the Separatist cause. At the same time, he oversaw the development of two vast armies that would be pitted against each other in the conflict to come: the Separatist Droid Army, which consisted entirely of battle droids manufactured on Geonosis; and the Grand Army of the Republic, composed by clone troopers bred on Kamino and modeled on the Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett.
Following years of maneuvering the galaxy into a state of war, the Clone Wars began when the newly formed Republic Military invaded Geonosis in 22 BBY. As leader of the Separatists, Dooku delegated military authority to a cadre of subordinates personally trained by himself, including General Grievous and Asajj Ventress. While Grievous was trained only in the art of lightsaber combat, Ventress was strong with the Force, affording her the opportunity to learn the ways of the dark side from Dooku. The Sith, however, remained faithful to Darth Bane's Rule of Two; and as such, Dooku was compelled to betray his disciple after Sidious became suspicious of his own apprentice's intentions. Though he sought to replace Ventress with Savage Opress, and later Quinlan Vos, Dooku ultimately remained beholden to his master's will. By the third year of the war, Dooku and Grievous succeeded in abducting Chancellor Palpatine from the Republic capital of Coruscant in 19 BBY. During the ensuing Battle of Coruscant, he was confronted and defeated by Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, who summarily executed the Count via beheading at the Chancellor's behest.
In the days following Dooku's death, Palpatine revealed to the Jedi that he was, in fact, Darth Sidious, who betrayed his apprentice in order to replace him with Skywalker. With the subsequent fall of the Jedi Order, Sidious consolidated his power upon declaring himself Emperor of the Galactic Empire. As for Skywalker, he succeeded the late Darth Tyranus as Sidious' third and last apprentice, resulting in his transformation into "Darth Vader" and proving his slain victim's words of sensing fear, hate and anger.
Years later, in a public broadcast to the galaxy, Jedi Knight Jarik Shan would reveal the truth of Dooku's role in a message that exposed Emperor Palpatine's true identity.
==Personality and traits==
Dooku was an aging human male who had light skin, brown eyes, white hair, and a height of 1.96 meters. He favored technique over brute strength in lightsaber combat.
Originally, Dooku was once a respected Jedi and, during the Separatist Crisis, he was viewed as a "political idealist" by his former peers. During his time in the Order, Dooku chafed at the Jedi's disdain for technology. However, Dooku became increasingly disillusioned with the Galactic Senate's corruption and the arrogance and apparent complacency of the Jedi Order, eventually coming to desire the downfall of both institutions he'd once served. In his thirst for greater power, Dooku turned away from the light and ultimately joined the dark side of the Force. As a Sith Lord, Darth Tyranus was menacing, intelligent, powerful, manipulative, arrogant, and immoral, yet remained a charismatic statesman, though his methods included torture, assassination, and even genocide. Because the Order served the Republic, Dooku believed the Jedi were dishonored and were not to be trusted. Dooku also protested the failure of the Republic, bringing numerous systems to the Confederacy, yet his true motives remained hidden. The Count truly dreamed to rule a new Sith Empire at Sidious' side.
He was also willing to betray his own followers and allies such as Asajj Ventress and Pre Vizsla, though not without regret over abandoning Ventress, which angered his own master, Darth Sidious. Before he left the Jedi Order, however, Dooku also carried a strong bond with some of his peers, such as his Jedi Master, Yoda, as well as his own Padawan, Qui-Gon Jinn, whose death at the hands of Darth Maul resulted in his final push to the dark side.
Dooku was very vindictive, as shown when he ordered devastating attacks against Mother Talzin and Hondo Ohnaka for crossing him in the past. Dooku was also quite fearless, and was willing to sacrifice himself in a final attempt to fully convert his last apprentice, Quinlan Vos, to the dark side by tempting Vos to strike him down after he mortally wounded Vos' lover, Ventress. Dooku's loyalty to Sidious however, ended in his undoing, as the latter eventually betrayed him by instructing Anakin to kill him, which left Dooku in a state of disbelief. At that point, Dooku gained a new understanding of what had transpired—he had been used and betrayed by his own secret master.
==Powers and abilities==
Even in his old age, Dooku was a highly skillful lightsaber duelist. During his time as a Jedi he was known as one of the Order's finest swordsmen; it was said that only Yoda was his superior and that Mace Windu was his only worthy opponent. On Geonosis, Dooku was able to easily defeat both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker one immediately after the other, and then go on to fight Yoda himself. Dooku proved able to compete with Yoda but was unable to defeat his former master and was forced to retreat. During the Clone Wars, he would often prove to be equal and even superior to Skywalker and Kenobi, as well as Kenobi's apprentice Jarik Shan, even as their skill grew throughout the war, dueling Anakin on several occasions to a stalemate, and both, or even all three simultaneously on at least one occasion.
Among the most skilled swordsmen the galaxy had ever seen, Dooku was a practitioner of the second form of lightsaber combat, Makashi. Makashi—also known as Form II—was a style designed specifically for lightsaber-to-lightsaber duels. As such it was considered obsolete in a time when most Jedi were more likely to face blaster-wielding opponents. The style's rarity gave Dooku an advantage when engaging in lightsaber duels, as few of his enemies were trained to defend themselves against it. Makashi relied on precision, speed, and economy of movement rather than wide-sweeping strikes that characterized later styles, and Dooku's curved-hilt lightsaber was designed especially for that. Dooku's skill with Form II was unmatched throughout his life, and by the time he was made a Padawan he was recognized by the Jedi as a dueling prodigy; this accomplishment would go unchallenged until decades later by Jarik Shan, who became similarly recognized as a dueling prodigy at the Jedi Temple by the time he was a Padawan, his skill comparable to Dooku's own at the same age, which even Dooku himself indirectly acknowledged during his brief one-on-one duel against Shan.
However, in spite of Dooku's almost unrivalled sword mastery and decades of experience, he was still vulnerable to Form II's greatest weakness—its lack of kinetic power; in contrast, Jarik Shan was able to make up for this by implementing various techniques from other saber forms, most notably with Form's III and IV, the former of which he was instructed in by his master, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Dooku's weakness with Form II was demonstrated during several of his encounters with Anakin Skywalker, particularly in instances where Anakin was significantly angered. During Dooku's attempt to kidnap Palpatine on Naboo, the Count was very nearly overwhelmed by Anakin's brutally direct Djem So attacks, and managed to fend Anakin off only through use of the Force. During their final encounter onboard the Invisible Hand, Dooku suffered the same issue, but because Skywalker's power had by that time significantly increased, the young Jedi's ferocious swordplay battered through Dooku's defenses, draining his reserves of Force energy and leaving him physically exhausted.
In addition to his formidable lightsaber skills, Dooku was enormously powerful and skilled in the use of the Force. He demonstrated great prowess and strength in the use of telekinesis, and was also highly skilled in the use of Force lightning, using it as both a means of torture and execution. He was able to use lightning in conjunction with telekinesis, usually to send a person flying or even to levitate his opponents while using his lightning on them, as he demonstrated on Ventress and two Nightsister assassins.
==Appearances==
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