Dooku’s Offer

Attack of the Clones

My number one scene in Attack of the Clones is a dialogue scene. Incredible when you consider that I’ll regularly point out that I don’t particularly care for the Episode II script – and that’s some Senate level diplomacy right there. However, the scene in which Count Dooku asks a captured Obi-Wan Kenobi to join him in the fight against the corrupt Republic is a true diamond in the rough.

Trained by Yoda and having been a prominent member in the Jedi Order, Dooku recognised the flaws of the Jedi and turned to the dark side. That is, of course, wild paraphrasing, but that is the gist. And key here, is that Kenobi can’t see past the fact that Darth Tyranus is standing in front of him.

When Luke Skywalker tells Rey of Jedi hubris in The Last Jedi, I now always think back to this scene between Dooku and Kenobi. The Jedi is blind to the facts that Dooku is laying out in front of him – the truth that the Senate is now in the hands of the Sith Lord Darth Sideous.

The Jedi Council’s judgement had been clouded for a while. They all knew that something felt peculiar in the force and the bizarre revelations of a mysterious Clone Army being built on Kamino had raised eyebrows.

Kenobi was sure that “the Jedi would be aware of it” if such a ruse were to exist, to the extent that he could not even stop to consider the plausibility of Dooku’s suggestion. Hubris, indeed.

Dooku’s attempt at manipulation in this scene is elegantly crafted. Kenobi’s not about to let his guard down, but Dooku’s hint that his former apprentice Qui-Gon Jinn would have joined his Separatist cause had he still been alive is an interesting concept to contemplate. Given that we know that Qui-Gon was a maverick Jedi, who regularly disagreed with the council, I imagine he would have joined Dooku and perhaps the two of them could have brought an end to Palpatine’s game of thrones.

As Dooku strides in and out of the light, quite literally, throughout this scene, here is a turncoat who knows which side of the conflict to be on. He changes the way we look at ‘the good guys.’ It shows just how deep the plot of the prequels runs.