If nothing else, the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy has provided an endless source of questions and contemplations for a galaxy far, far away. It added so much to the tapestry of the Star Wars Saga, from new planets to new factions and especially new characters. Attack of the Clones introduced fans to one of the franchise’s the coolest villains, Count Dooku of Serenno – also known as Darth Tyranus. Dooku was the Head of the Confederacy in the Clone Wars and secret Sith apprentice to Darth Sidious. Considering the long con Palpatine was playing on the Galactic Republic, a lot of his moves relied on the efforts, and good faith, of Count Dooku. Dooku should have realized his clout and made a play for the Galaxy.
In 102 BBY, Dooku was born on the Outer Rim planet of Serenno, named for his family House, to rulers Count Gora and Countess Anya. He had two siblings, older brother Ramil and younger sister Jenza. Upon discovering Dooku’s force sensitivity, cruel Gora cast out the child, abandoning him naked and exposed to predators at the edges of a far forest. The Jedi found the boy and took him into the Order.
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He was a studious and precise student, excelling in the Force, and was noted for his skilled use of the lightsaber. While a Padawan to Yoda, he became initially disillusioned with the Jedi Order after they forbade him and his friend Sifo-Dyas from assisting a planet about to be hit with a cataclysmic solar storm. The Jedi duo went anyway but were too late to save everyone. Had the Jedi Council let them do their duty, less people on the planet would have been torched alive.
Additionally, the Republic was more concerned with the loss of the planet’s valued resources than with the population. Dooku went on to become a Jedi Master and a lightsaber instructor. He had two Padawans, Rael Averross and Qui-Gon Jinn, before he finally left the Order to resume his station on Serenno. To become the ruler of his home planet, he had to defeat his brother, Count Ramil, in a duel to the death.
Taking the seat of Serenno he resigned from the Jedi Order. Dooku fell off the world stage for twenty years. During this time, he cavorted with Darth Sidious to plot the eventual Clone Wars. He hired the assassin Asajj Ventress to kill his sister Jenza, who learned of his fall to the dark side. Dooku also took Asajj as his Sith apprentice. Dooku re-emerged in public after reining in disgruntled systems like his own into a Confederacy of Independent Systems. As Head of the Confederacy, he seceded from the Galactic Republic formally starting the Clone Wars.
Comparing the two Sith, Tyranus was older than Sidious by twenty years. Palpatine trotted a slow and steady course through the political system, from Senator to Supreme Chancellor and then to Emperor (on the back, and head, of Dooku). Dooku experienced a great deal of the galaxy. He was already ruler of his home planet by the time he even entangled with the Sith. Dooku had a deeper connection to the ways of the Force than Palpatine did, having been a Jedi prior to falling to the dark side.
He fully experienced the Jedi Order from childhood to adult, from Padawan to Knight to Master. He was directly taught by Grand Master Yoda. He spent a great deal of time teaching other Jedi, both in the ways of the Force and combat training with a lightsaber. Palpatine was only taught by Darth Plagueis and peripheral Sith doctrines. Sure, Sidious inherited the Sith Grand Plan from Plagueis, but once Tyranus got into the necessary positions to enact it, he could have slipped off Palpatine and just continued his own way.
Regardless of Palpatine’s position as Supreme Chancellor, or his secret identity as Darth Sidious, the Master of Tyranus, Count Dooku was the leader of a secessionist movement in the galaxy. What was to stop Dooku from accomplishing the goals of the Clone Wars and take half of the galaxy for himself? He had a huge droid army, he had the backing of several systems, he had powerful allies like General Grievous and Asajj Ventress (before Dooku betrayed her to show favor to Sidious, which he should never have done).
The scales of power easily could have tipped in favor of Dooku and his cause against the Galactic Republic. In the beginning sequence of Revenge of the Sith, Dooku has Palpatine captured. Although this was a prearranged scheme, Dooku should have taken advantage of the situation to execute Palpatine, just as Palpatine fatefully did to him.
What was Dooku’s endgame with Palpatine? Sidious used Tyranus to make a clone army (Tyranus hired Jango Fett, after all). He also used him to create a secessionist faction in the galaxy to break away and wage war on the Republic. The Sith Grand Plan was to eradicate the Jedi Order, tear down the Galactic Republic and recreate the Sith Empire. If Dooku was to be the opponent of the Republic, what position could he serve after the war? He would be considered a traitor to the Senate. Would Tyranus live the rest of his life in the shadows while Sidious reigned? He had to have known Sidious was going to kill him. Especially once Sidious had his eyes on the powerful Anakin Skywalker. It is in the very nature of the Sith to betray one another and to remove the weak in favor of the strong. Dooku was a lobster in a slow-boiling pot.
Darth Tyranus was more powerful than Darth Sidious, but he was not more intelligent. Nor did he have any critical thinking. If he examined his situation, he would have seen that he had all the cards over his Master. All he had to do was arrange for a serendipitous accident to occur and bam, Darth Tyranus reigns Sith supreme. He did not. Instead, he did everything his Master bade him right up until he arranged his own execution.
There is something to be said about Sheev Palpatine’s ability to recognize pawns when he sees them. He used Queen Amidala to become Supreme Chancellor. He used Sifo-Dyas to establish a clone army. He used Jar Jar Binks to give him Emergency Powers. Ultimately, he used an unwitting Count Dooku as the clamp for his galactic war. However cool or powerful or intelligent a person is in the Star Wars galaxy, no one, not even Master Yoda, has more forethought than Darth Sidious himself.