Star Words: Episode II, Part 24

This is one instance wherein a look at the original draft of the script and/or deleted scenes can really illuminate the process of refining the story. Originally, Lucas planned on a confrontation between Dooku and Padmé as well as the brief trial wherein she and Anakin are sentenced to be executed. And those are good scenes, and I'm glad to have them on the DVDs. But I'm also glad that he ended up replacing those bits with Anakin and Padmé's mishap in the droid factory (for reasons I'll explain later), as well as redirecting the Dooku confrontation at Obi-Wan.

It has a striking, eerie staging, with Obi-Wan floating and rotating unnaturally in the force field's grip while Dooku circles him like a stalking predator. And while Padmé and Dooku serve as excellent contrasts in the political realm, Obi-Wan and Dooku provide the Jedi-Sith dynamic so crucial to the drama of the Star Wars universe. What I find so intriguing about the way Dooku tries to lure Obi-Wan is his use of the plain, unaltered truth. Sure, the Sith deal in deception by their very nature. But sometimes the best way to be deceitful is to put the truth right out in the open where no one will believe it.

"What if I told you that the Republic was now under the control of a Dark Lord of the Sith?


How carefully he phrases it. "What if I told you" makes it rhetorical, hypothetical, giving him wriggle room. He lets Obi-Wan voice his denials, then calmly offers more details -- every one of them completely true. The name of the Sith Lord, his power over thousands of Senators -- not a single lie. We don't know for sure how much of his story about Viceroy Gunray is real, but I'm guessing it probably happened much as Dooku describes. The only thing he leaves out is the silly little fact that Dooku happens to be the apprentice of Darth Sidious.

What is his aim here? He asks Obi-Wan to join him (an echo of Vader's call to Luke) claiming that they can destroy the Sith together. And again, I don't think he's bending the truth all that much. As a Sith, his ultimate goal is to train a new apprentice and overthrow his old master. He already invoked Qui-Gon, reminding Obi-Wan of their old Master-Padawan relationship, and implied that Qui-Gon would be on his side if he were still alive and knew what Dooku knows. That's probably Obi-Wan's most vulnerable spot, his loyalty to his old master. Dooku knows what he's doing.

But of course Obi-Wan isn't going to blithely join a known traitor like Dooku on the basis of a few rumors. Dooku surely knows that too. He's disappointed at Obi-Wan's refusal, but far from defeated. This is one of those plans that, like Palpatine's plots in Episode I, can succeed in a number of different contingencies. If Obi-Wan joins him, great. If Obi-Wan is executed, one less Jedi to worry about. If he survives, and carries these rumors of the Sith Lord back to the Council, that will effectively sow mistrust and fear, widening the rift between the Jedi Order and the Senate. Lots of useful potential outcomes here. Dooku is furthering the Sith agenda, even as he directly betrays Darth Sidious's existence to his sworn enemies. There's some awful twisty stuff to fit inside a single scene.

Next, more foreshadowing in the form of a love confession...