Wild Theories and Half-Cocked Notions About Why Count Dooku Told Obi-Wan the Truth
Sith be slippery like that
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There's a scene in Attack of the Clones that has always baffled me. Allow me to briefly set the scene, for those of you who are trying to remember who the heck Count Dooku is.
Obi-Wan ends up captured by Count Dooku, who is leading the Separatist movement to leave the Republic. Dooku is apologetic about the “misunderstanding” and then starts dropping truth bombs.
Dooku: What if I told you that the Republic was now under the control of a dark lord of the Sith?
Obi-Wan: No, that's not possible. The Jedi would sense it.
Dooku: The Dark Side has clouded their vision. Hundreds of senators are now under the influence of a Sith lord called Darth Sidious.
The crazy thing—it’s all completely true! It raises a question I've been wondering since the film released in 2002—why did he tell Obi-Wan? What was his motivation? We're left to assume it's just a Sith doing Sith things, sowing confusion and doubt. But while that may be true, it's not a very satisfying explanation. We can do better.
Consider these options:
He was a secret double agent who infiltrated the Sith to take them down from the inside.
Like George Washington, he could not tell a lie.
As low man on the totem pole, he was feeling increasingly concerned about the Sith’s “Rule of two”.
Christopher Lee, the actor playing Count Dooku, decided to take things in a surprising direction and George Lucas kept the cameras rolling.
He was hoping to play both sides against the middle and remain the last man standing.
Dooku had been scared straight by an after-school special.
He'd grown tired of Palpatine dismissively calling him “my young apprentice”.
Frankly, I think all of these make a ton of sense.
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