Was Count Dooku Actually a Good Guy? (& Was He Truly Evil?)
If there’s one thing that we learned from Star Wars, it’s that the galaxy isn’t all about the battle between good and evil because there are people that dwell in the grey areas of the morality spectrum. Of course, some of these characters may be fundamentally good or evil but were forced to do either evil or good things. Some fans believe that Count Dooku is one of the characters that might be good but had no choice but to become evil. So, was Dooku a good guy?
Dooku is evil because the means he used to accomplish his goals were evil. He was motivated by the desire to change things in the galaxy because he thought the Republic and the Jedi Order were fundamentally flawed.
Remembering that the ends do not justify the means is always important. As such, even if Dooku was motivated by his desire to change the galaxy, his actions were still evil, no matter how you look at them. That is why he is an evil man who may not be as evil as the other Sith Lords but was still considered evil due to what he did during the Clone Wars.
Was Count Dooku Actually a Good Guy?
One of the most important enemies that we met during the Star Wars prequel trilogy was Count Dooku, who waged war on the entire Galactic Republic by uniting the Separatists under his leadership so that they could topple the Republic with their droid army. This was how the Clone Wars saga of Star Wars began, as the Republic was forced to create a grand clone army to find a way to counter the forces of Dooku’s Separatists.
Of course, we also learned that Dooku used to be a Jedi Master. He was Qui-Gon Jinn’s master when he was still just a Padawan. Nevertheless, differences in ideals with the Jedi Order forced Dooku to leave the life of a Jedi to return to Serenno, where he resumed his life as a count. But the truth was that he was secretly working with Darth Sidious and was the Sith Lord named Darth Tyranus.
During Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Dooku was working against the Republic. We also saw more of Dooku’s actions against the Republic during the events of Star Wars: Clone Wars. But the recent Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi series allowed fans to see Dooku differently.
Dooku’s history was shown in that series, as we could see the events that led him to leave the Jedi Order. We found out that he had become disillusioned by the Jedi Order when he saw plenty of Senators and leaders throughout the galaxy were simply using their power to oppress the common people. On top of that, because the Jedi Order protected the Republic and the Senators, the Jedi were not doing anything to stop the oppression in different systems throughout the galaxy.
As such, Dooku left the Jedi Order and served Darth Sidious. He worked with the Sith Lord because he understood that changes needed to be introduced to the galaxy. So, does that mean that Dooku was a good guy?
It might be true that Count Dooku just wanted to institute changes in both the Jedi Order and the Republic, and he did so by aligning himself with the Sith to find a way to change the order of things through Palpatine’s grand plans. But while his goals may have been somewhat good, that doesn’t make him a good person.
That’s because Count Dooku did many horrible things as a Sith Lord and the Separatists’ leader. The first act that forced him down a path he never came back from was killing Jedi Master Yaddle just after Dooku lost Qui-Gon Jinn and just before he became Palpatine’s newest apprentice.
Of course, we know that he did a lot of heinous acts both as the count of Serenno and as the leader of the Separatists. His actions were well-documented during the events of Star Wars: Clone Wars, as it was clear that he didn’t care how many people lost their lives as long as the Separatists were victorious in their goal to defeat the Republic.
In that regard, Dooku used to be a good guy but became a bad guy during the latter part of his life when he went down a dark path. As such, while he did have motivations that weren’t necessarily evil, he still did bad things that forced him to stray from the path of good.
Was Dooku Truly Evil?
The thing about Dooku is that we know that he did some horrible things during the time that he was the one leading the Separatists. Of course, he killed many people as a Sith Lord and was responsible for launching an entire war that took the lives of millions of people throughout the galaxy. But was Dooku truly evil?
For starters, Dooku left the Jedi Order because he saw how fundamentally flawed it was. He realized that while the Jedi were good people, they didn’t do anything about the oppression happening in different parts of the galaxy because it was more important for the members of the Jedi Council to protect the Republic and the Senate. There were flaws that Dooku saw in both the Jedi Order and the Republic, and that was the reason why he became a disillusioned man that wanted to be the one to change the order of things.
Dooku was not driven by selfishness or rage like most Sith Lords. Instead, he was driven by his desire to see a change in the galaxy. This drove him to join Darth Sidious, who sold him on his desire to change the galaxy as well. However, what Dooku didn’t know was that Sidious wanted to change the way things were for his selfish gain because he was a power-hungry megalomaniac wanting to control everything in the galaxy. On the other hand, Count Dooku merely wanted to change the flaws he saw in the Jedi Order and the Republic.
As such, Dooku wasn’t driven by evil desires when he joined the Sith and became the Separatists’ leader. Instead, he was driven by his lofty goals for the galaxy. That means that he wasn’t fundamentally evil like most of the other Sith Lords were. He was simply a man that became too consumed by his desire to change the order of things, which led him down a dark path.
So, while Dooku may not exactly be a good person, he was never a fundamentally evil person like Darth Sidious was. He only became evil and did evil things because he thought there was no other way for him to institute the changes he wanted to introduce to the galaxy. But because we know that the ends never justify the means, Dooku was an evil man that may not have been fundamentally evil. However, he was still evil because he did evil deeds to achieve fundamentally altruistic goals.
