Count Dooku - The Emerging Sith
Dooku's outspoken opinions often gave his master cause for concern, and eventually Dooku's own Padawan, Qui-Gon Jinn expressed his own views in a similarly outspoken manner. As a result both Jedi clashed with the members of the Jedi Council on several occasions.
Count Dooku shocked the Jedi Order to its core when he voluntarily renounced his status as a Jedi, an act that was almost unheard of in the annals of Jedi history. After his departure, and unknown to his former Jedi companions, Dooku was seduced to the dark side of the Force by Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith. Dooku took the Sith name Darth Tyranus, and began to work secretly against the Jedi Order and the Republic.
Episode II
Dooku was a political idealist, and felt that the Jedi weakened themselves by serving the Republic. He disappeared for years, travelling the Galaxy and rallying countless system to his Separatist cause. Separatist agents would engineer violent uprisings in Dooku's name, stretching the resources of the Jedi in their role as peace-keepers.
As Darth Tyranus, Dooku hired the notorious bounty hunter Jango Fett to act as the genetic template for an army of clones that were being built on the storm-wracked water planet of Kamino.
While the clone army was being grown Dooku called a meeting of the most powerful beings in the Galaxy on the planet Geonosis. Representatives from the Trade Federation, the Techno Union, the InterGalactic Banking Clan and the Commerce Guild met to create the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The resources of this newly formed Confederacy were enormous, and the Separatists were now backed by the most powerful military force in the Galaxy; the combined droid armies of the commerce barons.
The Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi discovered the secret meeting and managed to send a warning to the Republic before he was captured. While he was being held Obi-Wan's friends Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala came to Geonosis to rescue him, only to be captured themselves. Dooku condemned the three prisoners to death, a sentence that was only avoided at the last moment by the arrival of a Jedi taskforce in response to Obi-Wan's request for reinforcements.
As an epic battle raged in the Geonosian arena between the droid army of the Separatists and the Jedi taskfoirce Count Dooku made his escape, pursued by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. They caught up with Dooku in a hanger and fought a lightsaber duel with the Sith Lord, who beat and wounded both Jedi.
Dooku was prevented from escaping by the arrival of Jedi Master Yoda. In the ensuing lightsaber duel both combatants used all their formidable skills, and Dooku finally made his escape by using the Force to endanger the wounded Obi-Wan and Anakin, forcing Yoda to save his companions and giving Dooku enough time to get away. He returned to Coruscant where he met with his master, Darth Sidious, and informed him that the Clone Wars had begun.
Count Dookus lightsaber
Dooku used a type of lightsaber we'd never seen before.
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