8. Count Dooku: The Sith Apprentice Saga Continues
At the end of Episode I, Palpatines plan is set in motion. Hes got his leadership in the senate but Maul is dead. Palpatine cant be expected to do everything himself, so of course he needs another apprentice. Ten years after Phantom Menace the new Sith apprentice is Count Dooku and hes arguably the most interesting Sith of the whole bunch. For starters Dooku was a Jedi and not only that, he trained Qui-Gon Jinn. Going only by what we see within the films it could be deduced that Dooku left the Jedi order after Qui-Gon died and maybe even because of that. Given what Qui-Gon believed in when it came to the force, it could also be argued he picked up a fair bit of that wisdom from his teacher. Seeing Qui-Gon die at the hands of a Sith and knowing the Jedi had a hand at putting Qui-Gon in that situation may have pushed Dooku into a more emotional state and this would make him a prime candidate for turning to the darkside. Now, back to Palpatine. His plan is in full motion so he doesnt have time to train some new hot young Sith. A Jedi already has the training and he needs a powerful one. One who thinks outside of the Jedi single minded view, one who has aspirations of making the galaxy a better place and is in a disillusioned state since one of his friends had died. Palpatine reveals in Revenge of the Sith that hes good at preying on those who are mourning or are struggling with the concept of death or lack of control, so getting Dooku just after Qui-Gons death seems the perfect time to lure a Jedi into the dark. Heres where it gets interesting. In a shock move, Dooku outright tells Obi-Wan about the Sith controlling the senate and its here that the original trilogy gains deeper understanding. Dooku wants Obi-Wan, a powerful Jedi, to join him. Theres no evil intentions as such. Dooku believes the system isnt working and hes sided himself with the power that can overthrow it, so that the corruption in the galaxy can be cleaned out. Of course, every move Dooku makes sends him further away from the light and sooner or later hed have gone too far to ever get back. Dooku believes that together he and Obi-Wan can overthrow Darth Sidious and bring the galaxy to order. This is exactly the same suggestion Darth Vader throws at Luke Skywalker in Empire Strikes Back and we begin to understand how the Sith work a little more. The only two there are rule of master and apprentice is pretty much the only way the Sith can function because one extra player in the game and everyone starts coming up with better plans for controlling the galaxy (more on that later). Theres also an interesting argument about how Sith Dooku is, given he never has full on angry Sith eyes at any stage in either Attack of the Clones or Revenge of the Sith but well go into that in the Revenge of the Sith article.