It’s a new year. It’s also time to start the second half of Star Wars: Clone Wars first season. Who better to kick it off than one of the true key villains of the “first” three movies, Count Dooku
The latest episode, on at 9:00 p.m. this evening (January 2nd) as
always, finds Anakin, Ahsoka and Obi-Wan on the hunt for the former
Jedi Knight turned Sith Lord. The thing is, this new episode, entitled
“Dooku Captured,” has a monkey wrench thrown into the system. Said
spanner is a third party, called the Weequays, They capture Dooku
before the Jedi get their lightsabers on him, and everyone is going to
pay because of this.
First, back to the Count.
Hardcore Jedi were introduced to this high level heretic back in Phantom Menace.
As it is said in the Star Wars dicta, “It was a great blow to the Jedi
order when Count Dooku voluntarily renounced his commission. A
strong-minded man, Dooku's ideas were often out of step with those of
the Jedi Council, despite the fact that his former mentor, Yoda , held a
lofty position in that governing body. His challenging views were often
echoed by his former Padawan, Qui-Gon Jinn, another Jedi who would on
occasion defy the Council.
“Dooku was a political idealist. He felt that the Jedi weakened
themselves by serving an institution as corrupt as the Republic. After
his departure, he disappeared for years, re-emerging as a political
firebrand fanning the flames of rebellion in the galaxy. In an
alarmingly short time, Dooku rallied thousands of systems to his cause,
building a growing Separatist movement that threatened to split the
Republic.”
“I have always been interested in the drama behind this particular character,” SWCW
episode director Jesse Yeh explains. “He thinks realistically, and has
a solid mind. The actions he takes are always so direct and straight
forward.
“I sense that deep down, Dooku holds a sort of emotional connection
with the Jedi I’ve always been interested in the drama behind him.
Dooku thinks realistically, he has a solid mind, and the actions he
takes are very direct and straightforward.
“In a way, he’s almost pathetic,” says Yeh. “His mind is constantly
being twisted by his pride, which is what originally led him to the
dark side. Because of his pride, he doesn’t realize he has turned into
exactly the sort of monster that he once fought against. From his
perspective, he is not doing anything different from what he did when
he was still a Jedi. He’s just trying to save the universe – but this
time from what he sees as a corrupt Republic. In the end, he’s become
just another expendable pawn of the true evil.”
As any fan knows, by that Yeh means when Dooku loses his head over Sidious’ plan to turn Anakin into Darth Vader.
But getting back on point, the first part of this two-part miniarc isn’t just about Dooku. It’s about the introduction of a third
set of combatants, the Weequays. They are intergalactic pirates. They
have no association with Jabba and his cohorts. From the looks of
things, they are out to simply profit from plundering anyone who falls
within their sights. Thing is, they have the muscle to cause some
serious damage to both the Separatists and the Republic along the way.
“The pirates have a gangster-like society. The fact that they were
actually capable of capturing the legendary Dooku took me by surprise,”
Yeh says. “Since the pirate chief is a new character, there were really
no limitations on how to bring him to the screen. As a director, I got
to determine who this new character would be – how to bring out the
combative and greedy nature of this particular species, and put those
characteristics onto the very surface of his performance.”
How will all this go? We’ll find out tonight. Next column we’ll get into more detail about Dooku and this new miniarc.
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