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Real-world articles, Clone Wars novels, Legends Young Readers

Legacy of the Jedi

“Qui-Gon was not in touch with Count Dooku. He had not expected to be. Their relationship had not been based on friendship. It had been one of teacher and student. It was natural that they should not be in each other’s lives. It would be different with Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon thought. He saw ahead to the days when Obi-Wan would be a Jedi Knight, and he would like to be part of that”

The Legacy of the Jedi, by Jude Watson

This reiterates the different type of relationships that Jedi are allowed to share openly as Master and Padawan. But in this situation, it is the fall of the Master, not the apprentice so quite a different dynamic as Jedi Dooku was the apprentice of Yoda and in turn, became a Jedi Master to Qui Gon Jinn.

We know that Obi-Wan felt the loss of Anakin to the dark side very profoundly, and it haunted him for the rest of his life. Thanks to the Star Wars movies being part of popular culture, we get to see Obi-Wan and Anakin in the prime of their relationship as men, Jedi and Master but also as friends with a bond much stronger than that of friendship alone. A bond that one can only have with another force user; a relationship in the force itself. But I’ve never thought about Count Dooku at all until now. And some say he was actually a force user that utilised both sides of the force (as Mace Windu does). I think characters like Count Dooku are massively overlooked because the movies pushed individual relationships like Anakin and Padme, Anakin and Obi-Wan and Luke and Obi-Wan, for example, leaving very little room for anything else which is why the books are such great companions to the movies.

So at some point, Darth Tyrannus or Count Dooku as he was also known was a Jedi, just like Obi-Wan and a pupil of Grandmaster Yoda. The other side of these relationships to wonder about is where the relationship went wrong. Part of it is definitely the choice of the individual, and we can’t forget this. Even though Anakin was coerced somewhat to turn to the dark side by Darth Sidious, it was ultimately Anakin’s choice to embrace the dark side of the force for his own vanity and to fulfil his own personal desires. Just like Anakin, Count Dooku made a choice to renounce the Jedi Order and take on the apprenticeship with Darth Sidious as a dark side acolyte.

As I continue reading and understanding how the dynamic between master and apprentice can be so fulfilling, I can’t help but think that there must be something missing in the teachings of the Jedi that leaves a lot to be desired. Perhaps this is the reason why so many of the better Jedi turned to the dark side in the hope of finding whatever it was they felt they needed or that was missing in their lives. But here’s a novel thought, what if the one thing that is missing is the one thing that is needed for the Force to exist in the first place? I am speaking of The Balance of course. Perhaps Darth Revan and Mace Windu were really onto something by utilising both dark and light sides of the force. Even though we think of the “Balance” as something that exists outside the realm of the ordinary, perhaps it really isn’t about that at all, at least not on a personal level.

I like this book because it explores four generations of Master, Jedi and Apprentice and gives us a relatively good glimpse of Dooku’s journey and experiences as a Jedi and later, as a Sith Lord.