8 Things You Learn From Rewatching Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith

7. Count Dooku's Death Sets The Tone

There have been a few beheadings in the Star Wars franchise, most notably in Attack of the Clones, when Mace Windu relieves Jango Fett of his in the battle of Geonosis. The one that occurs here, though, in Revenge of the Sith, seems altogether more sinister; a calculated, cold-blooded execution designed to show Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious' growing influence over an increasingly baleful Anakin Skywalker. With Count Dooku already hand-less (Anakin lops both of them off, going one further than Dooku did in AOTC, where he took one of Anakin's), the doomed Sith lord is on his knees in front of the Jedi, who has set both his and his enemy's lightsaber like a pair of scissors, ready to literally cut the Count's head off in one of the series' most macabre moments. Insistent that Dooku is unarmed and should face trial, Anakin is persuaded otherwise by Palpatine, who tells Skywalker to simply "do it". That he does, and the violence is amplified by the fact that we don't actually see the head come off, only Anakin's motion to signal it. This sets the tone for what will easily become the darkest entry in the franchise: no reasoning, no remorse, and hate prevailing over all else.