Elheru Aran wrote:Recruiting Dooku while at the same time training Maul are not mutually exclusive. It's never said that he didn't recruit Dooku *before* Maul died, after all. However I do think that it's probably a given that Dooku likely wasn't a full Sith at that point, only being strung along by Palpatine as a second-stringer or as the actual apprentice and keeping Maul as an enforcer. But who knows; most of that EU has been scrubbed and it's hard to tell what the exact situations are from the films and novelizations.
Dooku being entirely absent from Episode I suggests that (unless evidence arises showing otherwise) Dooku was not a major figure in Palpatine's plans at that time. Since ten years passed in between the two films, there was plenty of time for Dooku to be recruited, and plenty of reason to think that Palpatine was sticking to the pattern of having only one apprentice at a time.FaxModem1 wrote:Well, back in the EU days, a big part of Dooku's fall seemed to stem from his old apprentice, Qui Gon, being killed, which hastened Dooku's fall to the dark side. Without Palpatine whispering in his ear, or Maul not being able to duel Qui Gon on Naboo, Dooku may stay retired/with the Jedi Order.
Otherwise, he would not have taken such pains to have Anakin kill Dooku, and to have Luke kill Anakin, to "take their place at his side." He would simply have recruited both of them at once.