Dooku and Palpatine's Disagreement

[unspeakablehorror]

I've long interpreted Palpatine and Dooku as having a fundamental disagreement over who would be a better choice as a Sith Apprentice: Anakin or Obi-Wan.  I think Palpatine was dead-set on getting Anakin as his apprentice whereas Dooku felt Obi-Wan would be the better choice.

I think there's something in canon (though I don't know for sure) where it implies that Dooku thinks this is because Anakin losing his arm to him would make him a 'lesser' Force-wielder somehow.  But I don't think that was really his reasoning.  If he did express such a sentiment, either externally or internally, I rather think it was more of an excuse than anything else.  I think he always viewed Obi-Wan as the best and most obvious choice.

I think it's because Obi-Wan was Dooku's grandpadawan, and because Dooku thought he was more sensible and would cause fewer problems in the long run.  Rather than Anakin's arm loss causing Dooku to reassess him, I think Dooku cut off Anakin's arm because he did not think him suitable to be a Sith, and wanted to use Anakin's failure in the duel as proof that he was too impulsive.  I can't help but notice that he repelled Obi-Wan just as easily but took care not to slice any of his appendages off.  I also can't help but hypothesize that Palpatine explicitly told Dooku not to kill Anakin, and that he may have even been irritated about him slicing his future apprentice's arm off.  Either that or Dooku was worried that killing Anakin outright there would alienate Obi-Wan too much.   

I think Dooku either envisioned Obi-Wan replacing him as Palpatine's Sith apprentice, or perhaps more optimistically, Obi-Wan becoming his Sith apprentice and the two of them defeating Palpatine together (which was perhaps his hope in Attack of the Clones, where he so helpfully alluded to where Obi-Wan might find Sidious).

Meanwhile I think Palpatine doesn't think there's any question that Anakin is the better choice to be a Sith.  There's the matter of Anakin's extremely high Force potential, but I think his impulsiveness was something Palpatine also viewed as an advantage rather than a disadvantage.  Because I think Palpatine never envisioned his apprentice as leading or becoming master.  So he wanted someone who he thought he would be able to better control.  There may also have been an aspect of not wanting his previous efforts to have been for nothing, as my impression is that this had been something he'd planned on from the moment he first met Anakin.  At the same time, I also think that the very personality traits that Dooku viewed as making Obi-Wan a good potential successor, were the same ones that Palpatine viewed as a detriment to him being his apprentice.  Also, I think Palpatine just thought Obi-Wan was boring compared to Anakin (which is an interpretation I've put in my Cut Strings fic).

Comments

[edrevol]

Hm. I think Anakin was susceptible to the dark side because of his love for his mother and Padmé, and thus easier for Palpatine to manipulate. Obi-Wan had Qui-Gon, except Obi-Wan managed to let him go. I don't know if Palpatine thought Obi-Wan boring or too difficult to manipulate or entice to fall to the dark side.

Yeah. Anakin lost his arm as a consquence of his impulsiveness. I see why Dooku would prefer Obi-Wan as an ally. Anakin did manage to gain Obi-Wan's ... ah ... level-headedness (for lack of a better term) after he became Vader, though. I wonder how long it took him.

I don't know as much about Dooku, sorry. From what I do, it makes sense that he'd prefer Obi-Wan, especially if he was aiming to overthrow Palpatine. Wonder how much he knew about the Empire at that point. Not sure if I see it ending happily, but it's nice to imagine.