“There is unrest in the Galactic Senate. Several thousand solar systems have declared their intentions to leave the Republic. This Separatist movement, under the leadership of the mysterious Count Dooku, has made it difficult for the limited number of Jedi Knights to maintain peace and order in the galaxy.”
The opening crawl to Star Wars: Episode 2 — Attack of the Clones introduces us to the name Count Dooku, making it clear that he will be the film’s antagonist. Unlike Darth Maul, the nearly silent, mysterious assailant antagonist from The Phantom Menace, Dooku is known not only by the audience, but also by the film’s protagonists from the start. While Maul is an unknown who reinvigorates the fear of the Sith into the Jedi and the Galactic Republic, Dooku is an openly discussed character whose actions are the plot catalyst for over an hour before he is seen on screen. From Padme and the Jedi Council, we learn Dooku is a “political idealist” and a former Jedi. A parallel is immediately drawn to Darth Vader, specifically as Obi-Wan tells Luke about him in A New Hope, a "former Jedi," though the Jedi at the time still believe Dooku could not be responsible for an assassination attempt, as it would be “out of character” for a Jedi. The fact that an organization like the Jedi, who have until this film been largely displayed as benevolent, creates suspicion within the viewer and the characters. If Dooku is stated to have defected from the Jedi for political reasons, then the created suggestion is that the Galactic Senate or the Jedi themselves might be corrupt or in some way not what they seem. When we finally meet Dooku onscreen for the first time as Obi-Wan spies on him and the Confederacy of Independent Systems on Geonosis, we are met with a villain without the devilish visage of Darth Maul, the gravelly cackling of Darth Sidious, or the robotic demeanor of Darth Vader. Instead, we meet a diplomat.
Played by the legendary Sir Christopher Lee, Dooku is heard before he is seen. Lee’s baritone voice and elegant delivery put a voice before a face to Dooku’s actions and political involvements in the prequel trilogy, setting Dooku as a new kind of antagonist in the franchise: one whose true powers lie in his persuasion rather than his, well, powers. Most fans agree that the politics of the prequel trilogy aren’t exactly the most interesting addition to the franchise, so to summarize Dooku’s involvement: there is a legitimate Separatist movement of systems leaving the Republic, and Dooku is creating alliances with opportunistic corporate entities like the Trade Federation, Techno Union and the Banking Clan to bankroll the movement and facilitate proxy skirmishes via a unified battle droid army on behalf of the Separatists. Dooku has also manipulated Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas’s secret clone army’s creation, an army the Republic has no choice but to use to combat the Confederacy of Independent System’s droid army. Finally, in using Jango Fett in attempt to assassinate Senator Padme Amidala, he’s created a trail for Obi-Wan to discover all of this in a way that only further benefits his agenda. Now, the Jedi appear to be spying on Outer Rim worlds they don’t have jurisdiction over. For Yoda and the rest of the Council to intervene and save first Obi-Wan, then Anakin and Padme, it makes the Jedi appear to be instigators of war. At all points of the plot, Dooku is in command of the outcomes and every possible Jedi action would only benefit him.
While interrogating Obi-Wan, Dooku reveals he was master to Obi-Wan’s master, Qui-Gon Jinn, and that the Republic is directly under Darth Sidious’s influence, offering Obi-Wan to join him to defeat the Sith. This scene reaffirms the suspicion of Jedi-Republic corruption while delivering a truth so outlandish, Obi-Wan can only think it a lie. His argument to Obi-Wan was likely the initial argument that drove him away from the Jedi in the first place. There are extended shots of Dooku pausing in his speech to Obi-Wan as he reflects upon Qui-Gon Jinn and their mutual hatred of Senate corruption. Perhaps he’s merely feigning solemnity to convince Obi-Wan of his cause’s riotousness, or perhaps he is in that moment remembering what led him down the path to where he stands today. It’s likely intended to be vague enough to be read either way, but Lee’s acting adds more nuance to the character. Dooku’s offer is reminiscent of Vader and Palpatine’s offers to Luke to join The Dark Side in the original trilogy, but as an independent rather than a Sith. While it wasn’t a shocking twist to the us that Dooku was indeed a Sith and not merely a Separatist, considering all bad things in Star Wars films are tied to the Sith (and you can see Lee with a red lightsaber in trailers), the moment Dooku uses force lightning and draws his curved, red lightsaber in the hangar on Geonosis comes as a surprise to Anakin and Obi-Wan. Despite all of his grandiose speeches against the Sith and talks of independence, he is revealed to be the very thing he claimed to hate: a corrupt politician who plays sides and instigates chaos for the sinister advancement of corrupt institutions.
In his fighting, first against Anakin and Obi-Wan and then against Yoda, Dooku acts as a bridge between different depictions of the Sith in Star Wars. While the first on-screen lightsaber duel between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan in A New Hope doesn’t hold up as well by today’s action movie standards, in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Vader has a fighting style I’d describe as “immovable object” and uses his cyborg strength for a few very powerful looking swings. Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace adds a lot of welcomed physicality and real-life martial arts prowess in his extended lightsaber duel against Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon Jinn. Count Dooku falls somewhere in between the two Sith’s lightsaber abilities, coming off as a skilled fencer who makes few unnecessary movements, similar to how Vader remains largely still, but also having a clear technique based on parrying blows and disarming his opponents, literally in Anakin’s case, similar to how Maul has a discernable technique he is proficient in. It comes as no surprise that most of the fight sequence in Attack of the Clones was filmed via Christopher Lee’s stunt double, as Lee was nearly 80 years old at time of filming, but this fighting style remains believable to a man of years like Dooku. One shudders to think how powerful a man who can fend off two powerful Jedi then hold his own against a Jedi stated to be as powerful as Yoda must have been in his prime.
The reappearance of force lighting, last seen used by Darth Sidious, the Emperor in Return of the Jedi, is the moment the audience knows for sure that the Jedi are dealing with a more serious Sith Lord than Maul. An ability that could have been assumed to be exclusive to Sidious, the greatest Sith Lord seen in the film franchise, force lightning coming from Dooku tells us that he is a significantly more powerful threat than Maul and closer to Sidious in terms of power. With the knowledge Dooku was once a Jedi and that he can now manifest this power, the separation of Light Side and Dark Side of the force is called into question, as his fall from the Jedi foreshadows Anakin Skywalker’s fall in Revenge of the Sith. If Maul, an assailant who strikes quickly and silently, is meant to represent the terrifying unknown of the Sith, Vader, a warlord enforcer of the Empire, is meant to represent the cold ruthlessness of the Sith, and Sidious, a shadowy despot, is meant to represent the corruption and absolute power of the Sith, then Dooku excellently bridges the gap between Maul and Vader in the evolution of the Sith on screen as a Sith who can act from the shadows in secret like Maul, can act as a leader like Vader, and manipulate events while wielding dark powers like Sidious. Dooku is an agent of change in Star Wars: he falls from Jedi to Sith, he sets off the most noteworthy events before Anakin’s fall from Jedi to Sith, and he changes the audience’s understanding of the relationship between good and evil in the franchise.
An interesting thing to note is that canonically, the Jedi don’t learn Dooku is a Sith Lord, Darth Tyrannus, until season 6 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. If there were any doubt in the audience watching Attack of the Clones, there’s an additional scene of Dooku meeting Sidious in person in which Dooku is explicitly called “Lord Tyrannus.” Had the series started with The Phantom Menace, the twist would have been more shocking, but because the audience has knowledge of the original trilogy, it sadly falls flat. The Dooku in canon is admittedly a more significant figure in the story of the fall of the Jedi, but the Dooku seen in the prequel trilogy is still a transformative figure who changes villainy in the franchise nevertheless.