Dooku's lightsaber/Legends

Dooku's lightsaber was a curved-hilt lightsaber constructed by the turncoat Jedi during his days in the order. He wielded it up until his death during the Battle of Coruscant. The weapon was destroyed along with his body when General Grievous' cruiser, the Invisible Hand, broke in half, the rear portion containing the lightsaber burning up in Coruscant's atmosphere.

Specifications
When Dooku first set about creating this weapon, he chose a configuration that had no connection to either the weapon wielded by his first tutor, Yoda, nor to the style in fashion at the time. Studying Jedi Archive records, basing his new weapon design after the curved hilts that were standard during the heyday of Form II lightsaber combat. The curve allowed the hilt to fit better into his hand, allowing for superior finesse and precise blade control.

The emitter featured both an angular blade guard and a thumb trigger that activated the weapons dual-phase setting, shortening the blade for a close quarters surprise attack. The first third of the weapon casing was a solid piece that contained an inclined focusing chamber and a series of thermal radiator grooves along the inside of the curve. The crystal chamber was positioned in the joint between this piece and the handgrip. Beneath the fabric covering of the handgrip was a magnetic adhesion plate that secured the weapon to Dooku's belt when not in use. The final third of the hilt contained the activator and the three power cells. The first cell, a compound power cell, was contained in the bend in the hilt directly below the handgrip. The second, a Phase A cell, was positioned next to the activator, a red pinky trigger. The last cell, the reserve, was contained in the weapons pommel.

Jedi Master's weapon


When he was promoted to Jedi Master, Dooku fabricated this new, personalized weapon as a replacement for his original lightsaber, a standard weapon that he had built as a young Padawan. This new weapon saw use during the Battle of Galidraan against the True Mandalorians, whom the Jedi believed were responsible for various terrorist attacks on the world. In truth, the entire debacle were manipulations performed by the Governor of Galidraan and the Mandalorian Death Watch leader, Tor Vizsla.

Dooku and his Jedi taskforce utterly destroyed the True Mandalorian, handing the lone survivor, Jango Fett, over to the Governor. Dooku afterwards reflected that had he been the only Jedi survivor, he would have lowered his weapon and allowed Fett to leave, having developed a grudging respect for the warrior.

The battle of Galidraan was only the latest in a series of frustrations Dooku was experiencing, having become infuriated with the inaction and bureaucracy of the Senate and the Jedi Council. When he received word of the death of his former student, Qui-Gon Jinn, he decided that enough was enough and left the order. The lightsaber remained in his possession.

Sith lightsaber


Shortly after leaving the Jedi Order, Dooku was contacted by Palpatine, secretly Darth Sidious, the reigning Dark Lord of the Sith. Expecting a lightsaber duel to the death, Dooku was surprised when Palpatine instead spoke with him, discussing their views on the current political situation. Concluding that his and Palpatine's views were not so different after all, Dooku allied with the Sith Lord. Dooku became Darth Tyranus, and the blue crystal of his lightsaber was replaced with a Sith-made synth-crystal.

Dooku operated as Palpatine's primary agent, supporting his new Master's schemes with his massive family inheritance, recruiting and eliminating the necessary individuals, all with the goal of creating the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Dooku's lightsaber became his primary tool towards this end, and the new bloodshine blade became stained with the blood of even old friends, such as Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas. Dooku supervised the training of the Kaleesh-cyborg Grievous, teaching him numerous advanced lightsaber combat techniques. Dooku's lightsaber saw frequent use in sparring matches with the cyborg, and Grievous' resulting skill qualified him as an expert duelist.

The Battle of Geonosis
The combined manipulations of Dooku and Palpatine finally came to fruition with the battle of Geonosis. The Clone Army produced by the Kaminoans cloners was finished, Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, along with Republic senator Padmé Amidala, were captured on Geonosis and accused of espionage, kick starting a massive political firestorm on Coruscant. The Jedi sent a taskforce of 200 Knights led by Mace Windu to rescue the captives from the Geonosian execution arena. The attack backfired, and the Knights themselves were routed and surrounded. Dooku offered to spare them if they surrendered; they refused.

However, before Dooku's Confederacy troops could finish them, the Clone Army, led by Master Yoda attacked. As the Battle of Geonosis began, Dooku quietly fled the carnage, racing across the desert landscape towards his secret hangar. However, he was pursued by Kenobi and Skywalker in a Clone Gunship. Making it to his hangar, Dooku waited inside for the Jedi. Dooku handily subdued the charging Anakin Skywalker with a blast of Force lightning and brandished his lightsaber against Kenobi.



Dooku easily fended off Kenobi's opening attacks, and his own counters forced the Jedi to give ground. In the end, Dooku brought Kenobi down with light though damaging slashes across his right arm and leg. Raising his lightsaber to finish Kenobi, Dooku's strike was suddenly parried by the recovered Skywalker. As the two began their bout, Kenobi tossed his lightsaber to Anakin, which he used against Dooku in an aggressive dual-blade assault. Dooku momentarily fell back, but he quickly countered, gaining ground before destroying Skywalker extra weapon. The two advanced on one another, weapons raised. Their ensuing bout ended abruptly when Dooku twirled and slashed off Skywalker's weapon arm with a swift undercut. Blasting Skywalker aside with a Force push, Dooku paused to briefly catch his breath. At that moment, Yoda entered.

The two engaged in a brief though vicious Force battle, which ended when Dooku broke off and decided to engage Yoda blade-to-blade. As Yoda drew his own weapon, Dooku leapt into action, unleashing his full lightsaber mastery against Yoda. However, Yoda's own swordmanship skills allowed him to hold off Dooku's relentless attacks, and seize the offensive. Driven back by Yoda and realizing that he could not win, Dooku distracted Yoda by using the Force to topple one of the hangars power columns onto Kenobi and Skywalker. As Yoda broke off to telekinetically catch the power column, Dooku was able to quickly board his ship and escape.

Early engagements


After a brief meeting with Palpatine on Coruscant, Dooku traveled to his secret base on Bakura. Once there, he was ambushed by the Jedi Masters Tholme and Sora Bulq. While complementary towards them for having discovered his base, Dooku ultimately brought them down. Bulq was blasted aside with a burst of Force lightning, while Tholme was stabbed in the shoulder and slashed across the eye. Dooku tended to Bulq's wounds, and converted him. Bulq "rescued" Tholme and returned to the Jedi Temple a hero, and Dooku's agent.

During the Battle of Raxus Prime, Anakin Skywalker charged aboard Dooku's ship in pursuit of the Count. On board, the two engaged in a brief lightsaber duel, which was ended when Skywalker was drugged by Dooku's mercenary, Cydon Prax. Dooku sent Skywalker to the Kashyyyk moon Alaris Prime to serve as one of the test subjects for the recently unearthed Force Harvester.

Recruitment efforts
Traveling to Rattatak to peruse contestants in the world's gladiatorial arenas for a new minion, Dooku came upon Asajj Ventress, a Rattataki warlord and Jedi trainee whose master crash landed on the world some years ago. Ventress killed all the combatants in the arena vying for Dooku's favor, and even attacked him in a bout of rage. Dooku subdued her with Force lightning and brought her to a room on the world. Attacking her when she awoke, the two engaged in a vicious duel across the chamber, Ventress impressing Dooku and a present-via-hologram Palpatine with her skills. However, Dooku still brought her down, destroying her Jedi weapons. Dooku recruited her into the Confederacy, gifting her with the twin-lightsabers of his deceased former-Padawan, Komari Vosa.

In 22 BBY, Dooku met with the leaders of the Station 88 Spaceport in an attempt to recruit them into the Confederacy. When they refused, Dooku attempted to have them assassinated, but they were saved by the timely intervention of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Fleeing to his ship, Dooku was pursued by Lorian Nod, a failed Jedi and the head of Station 88, and a former childhood friend of Dooku's. Dooku impaled him from behind before leaving.



When converting the Jedi spy Quinlan Vos to his cause, Dooku recruited him into his cadre of Dark Acolytes. Engaging the Jedi in a sparring match while providing a tutorial on the Dark Side, Dooku proceeded to bring the Jedi along to recently conquered Tibrin. Accepting Vos' argument that the tyrannical Suribran Tu had to be eliminated to win over the population, Dooku beheaded the dictator. Quinlan again joined Dooku on a mission to his own homeworld, Kiffu. The world's leader, Vos' aunt Tinté Vos, refused Dooku's overtures. Dooku and Vos, along with the Sith Lord's cadre of Dark Acolytes, attacked the Tinté Vos' bodyguards in a bid to assassinate her. However, at the last moment, Quinlan betrayed Dooku, killing one of the Acolytes and fleeing into Tinté complex with his aunt in tow. Dooku quietly pursued, engaging Vos in a brief duel before subduing him with the Force. Setting to work on the Jedi, Dooku convinced Vos to kill Tinté himself after the Jedi discovered that his aunt had his parents killed.

Raids and Assassination
While Dooku devoted most of his effort during the war towards being the Confederacy's political leader rather than military, there were several missions that he completed himself. He led the Coruscant Insurrection and actually managed to breach the Jedi Temple itself, stealing a Sith holocron held in storage in the Archives, and went on a mission to the planet Hitaka, slipping under the noses of such Jedi as Ki-Adi-Mundi and Aayla Secura.

In an attempt to assassinate Yoda, Dooku sent the Jedi Master a holographic message concealed in the damaged lightsaber of a recently slain Jedi. Claiming to be willing to defect to the Jedi, rejecting the Sith and abandoning the Confederacy, Dooku convinced Yoda to meet with him on Vjun. Yoda came, and they spoke. Dooku actually began to give the idea of defection serious consideration. However, the abrupt arrival of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi on the planet spurred Dooku into a rage, and he attacked Yoda. In a vicious rematch, Dooku actually managed to wound Yoda, gaining ground on the Jedi Master. However, in the end, Yoda's powers proved superior, and Dooku fled.

Rematch with Skywalker


In a bid to recruit the Hutts, Dooku had the son of Jabba Desilijic Tiure kidnapped, attempting to pin the action on the Republic. However, the Republic forces managed to extract the young Huttlet from the Confederacy holdout on Teth, and Rotta was transported to Tatooine by Anakin Skywalker, and his new student, Ahsoka Tano. While his droids shot down Skywalker's vessel, Dooku ambushed the Knight in the desert. In this rematch, they proved largely even, though Dooku managed to gain the advantage by blasting Skywalker to the ground with a Force push before leaping at him. Skywalker managed to regain his feet, though the backpack that apparently held the Huttlet was slashed in half as he regained his feet.

Believing himself victorious, Dooku quietly gloated, though remained unsurprised when Skywalker revealed that he was only the decoy, the Huttlet being with Tano. Dooku expected such a deception, and had laid several IG-100 MagnaGuards in wait at Jabba's palace to ambush her. The two briefly resumed their duel, though Skywalker ultimately broke off to attempt to rescue Tano. The operation to recruit the Hutts to the Confederacy's side was ultimately a failure, as Jabba's son was ultimately returned to him, and the Confederacy involvement in the kidnapping was revealed.

Subsequent battles
Dooku also participated in the Battle of Falleen, quietly infiltrating the royal palace while his forces distracted the defenses. Holding the Falleen King at lightsaber point, Dooku forced a surrender.

When Dooku fled the disastrous Skirmish at Vanqor, his ship was shot down and he was forced to ambush his pursuers, Kenobi and Skywalker, in a cave on the surface. Telekinetically initiating a cave in, he trapped them and made off with Skywalker's lightsaber. When he returned to his ships crash site, he came upon a pirate gang led by Hondo Ohnaka. Accepting transportation, Dooku was captured by the pirates, his and Skywalker's lightsabers quietly pickpocketed by Ohnaka's Kowakian monkey-lizard. Dooku ultimately escaped from the pirates, hijacking a ship and leaving the system. The circumstances under which he reclaimed his lightsaber, however, remain unknown.

End Game
Dooku was present during the Battle of Boz Pity, where Asajj Ventress was recuperating after a disastrous defeat at Anakin Skywalker's hands. When the Republic attacked, Dooku left most of the fighting to his troops, led by Grievous, and an enraged Ventress. Dooku himself avoided the carnage, only engaging Mace Windu when the Jedi attacked him. The two proved evenly matched, though Dooku cut the duel short when he set his MagnaGuards on the Master. Rescuing a disabled Grievous and gunning down Ventress, Dooku fled the system.



Engaging Grievous in a sparring match, Dooku commented on his abilities, encouraging the General to rely more on unorthodox and evasive tactics. After the match, the two were contacted by Darth Sidious, who sent Grievous to attack Coruscant while Dooku would distract Kenobi and Skywalker on Tythe. The plan unfolded brilliantly, with Dooku leaving for Coruscant with the frantic Jedi in pursuit. Arriving on board Grievous' cruiser, Dooku waited for the Jedi with an apparently captive Palpatine, captured by Grievous, who was unaware of Palpatine's identity as Darth Sidious.

When the Jedi arrived, Dooku was under the impression that he would kill Kenobi and work with Sidious to turn Skywalker and gain his allegiance. Brandishing his lightsaber against the Jedi, Dooku easily held off their dual assault, their comparatively simplistic lightsaber forms being easily countered by his swordsmanship. However, halfway through the fight, they suddenly switched to the advanced forms they had mastered during the interim period, gaining ground on Dooku. Outmaneuvering Skywalker, Dooku attempted to overcome Kenobi with a series of thrusts at the Jedi Master's legs, but Kenobi's defensive fighting style easily turned aside these attacks, forcing Dooku to blast Kenobi aside with a Force push. Focusing on Skywalker, Dooku was forced to fall back, his precision defense bashed aside by Skywalker's more strength-oriented method. Driven up a flight of stairs to the entrance balcony of the chamber they fought in, Dooku was forced to change tactics as Kenobi rejoined the fight. Abruptly kicking Skywalker aside, Dooku seized Kenobi in a Force-grip, raising the Jedi off the deck before hurling him down the stairs and telekinetically crashing a portion of the balcony down on him.



Turning back to Skywalker, Dooku was caught off guard by the Jedi. Kicked off the balcony and viciously pursued, Dooku tried to turn the tables by taunting Skywalker to disrupt his focus. However, Dooku only angered the Jedi, and Skywalker came on even harder. As Dooku was driven back towards Palpatine's chair, he began to realize that he was not able to overcome Skywalker. His fears were confirmed when the Jedi sliced off both his hands and took his lightsaber.

As Dooku fell to his knees, Skywalker brought both blades to Dooku's throat. Palpatine, eager to replace the elderly Dooku with the younger and considerably more powerful Skywalker, urged the Jedi to execute the helpless Count. Despite initial hesitation, Skywalker ultimately gave in to his darkest instincts and sliced off Dooku's head.

Palpatine and Skywalker quietly left with an unconscious Kenobi in tow. Dooku's lightsaber was left with his body, and was destroyed when the rear half of Grievous' cruiser broke off and burned up in Coruscant's atmosphere.

Behind the Scenes
When Dooku was originally being conceived for Star Wars Episode II, early concept art depicted him as a female Sith. However, as the character was developed, and Christopher Lee was cast, the concept art was shelved, with the curved hilt of Dooku's lightsaber being the lone holdover from it.

Appearances

 * LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
 * Star Wars: Battlefront
 * Jango Fett: Open Seasons
 * Star Wars: Bounty Hunter
 * Star Wars Republic: Rite of Passage
 * The Eyes of Revolution
 * Star Wars Adventures 4: Jango Fett vs. the Razor Eaters
 * Star Wars Adventures 5: The Shape-Shifter Strikes
 * Star Wars Adventures 6: The Warlords of Balmorra
 * The Approaching Storm
 * Boba Fett: Part I: Survival
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones / comic / novel / junior novel
 * Precipice
 * Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars video game
 * Star Wars: Battlefront II
 * Most Precious Weapon
 * Boba Fett: Crossfire
 * Star Wars Republic 49: Sacrifice
 * Star Wars Republic 50: The Defense of Kamino
 * Jedi: Mace Windu
 * Star Wars: Clone Wars PhotoComic
 * Star Wars: Battle for the Republic
 * Jedi: Shaak Ti
 * Star Wars Republic 54: Double Blind
 * Legacy of the Jedi
 * Jedi: Count Dooku
 * Star Wars Republic 63: Striking from the Shadows
 * Star Wars Republic 64: Bloodlines
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars film / novel / junior novel
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars Official Movie Storybook
 * The Clone Wars: Wild Space
 * The Battle Begins
 * Star Wars The Clone Wars Volume 1: Shipyards of Doom
 * Star Wars The Clone Wars Volume 2: Crash Course
 * Star Wars The Clone Wars Volume 3: The Wind Raiders of Taloraan
 * Star Wars The Clone Wars 1: Slaves of the Republic - Chapter 1: The Mystery of Kiros
 * Star Wars The Clone Wars 4: Slaves of the Republic - Chapter 4: Auction of a Million Souls
 * Star Wars The Clone Wars 6: Slaves of the Republic - Chapter 6: Escape from Kadavo
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Ambush junior novel
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Destroy Malevolence
 * Star Wars The Clone Wars Secret Missions 1: Breakout Squad
 * The Clone Wars: The Fall of Falleen
 * Star Wars The Clone Wars 7: In Service of the Republic, Part 1
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes
 * Star Wars The Clone Wars: Hero of the Confederacy
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Quest for R2-D2 game
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Quest for R2-D2 film
 * Star Wars Republic: Show of Force
 * Star Wars: General Grievous
 * Jedi Trial
 * Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
 * Star Wars: Obsession
 * Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Star Wars Republic: The Siege of Saleucami
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith / comic / novel / junior novel
 * Star Wars Republic: The Hidden Enemy
 * LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
 * Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron
 * The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader
 * Star Wars The Clone Wars 7: In Service of the Republic, Part 1
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes
 * Star Wars The Clone Wars: Hero of the Confederacy
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Quest for R2-D2 game
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Quest for R2-D2 film
 * Star Wars Republic: Show of Force
 * Star Wars: General Grievous
 * Jedi Trial
 * Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
 * Star Wars: Obsession
 * Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Star Wars Republic: The Siege of Saleucami
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith / comic / novel / junior novel
 * Star Wars Republic: The Hidden Enemy
 * LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
 * Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron
 * The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader
 * Star Wars Republic: The Siege of Saleucami
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith / comic / novel / junior novel
 * Star Wars Republic: The Hidden Enemy
 * LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
 * Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron
 * The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader
 * The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader