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The scenario is as follows- Dooku's duel with Obi-wan and Anakin on the Invisible Hand takes place as we saw, only just before Anakin slices Dooku's hands, Dooku spins or twirls and instead cleaves Anakin in two. It's then only a short hop skip and a jump to Obi-wan, who is also dispatched.

Dooku is now in the position of having a shackled Palpatine, entirely at his mercy...

Given what we know of Dooku and his plans (the Episode 3 novel talks of his desire to create a human-dominated empire), he would (in my opinion) have Grevious kill Palpatine (Dooku can't be seen to do it himself, after all- that would look very bad), then he would aspire to take advantage of the sudden political turmoil that the Republic would find itself in. The Jedi may or may not be freed from the 'shroud of the Dark Side' (though it was said in the novel that war itself pours darkness onto the Force), but the Republic would suddenly be rudderless. A few well-aimed turbolaser strikes at the Jedi Temple would take care of a lot of the Jedi, and perhaps Dooku would destroy much of the Senate as well, thus removing two major obstacles to his rise to power.

A politically unstable and extremely demoralised Republic would be met with a buoyed and emboldened Confederacy that Dooku could direct and command. What would be best for Dooku's desire to rule a human empire would be for him to distance himself publically from Grevious' actions and have the cyborg killed before long, declaring the General to have been a monsterous creation of the Trade Federation and other companies, turning the peoples of the Confederacy and Republic against the companies but keeping them on his side by perhaps personally dispatching Grevious in the name of justice.

Using his newfound hero status and his natural charm, Dooku could sway more systems to join the Confederacy and ultimately assume power over the dominant political force in the galaxy.

I doubt Dooku could kill Palpatine, at least not without being horribly maimed or dying himself in the process. I don't think some shackles are going to hold Palpatine if he senses a threat coming from his apprentice, especially not long enough to summon GG. The best Dooku can hope for is that Palpy isn't so annoyed enough about Anakin's death to kill him.

Actually, he doesn't need to spin. As Anakin was inside his guard, Dooku was also inside his. I've suggested elsewhere that Anakin was holding Dooku's hands in place with telekinesis, because it is a simple move to snap the lightsaber - especially given the optimisation of its hilt - out to bisect Anakin.

In any case, Palpatine wouldn't care about Anakin, he's an arse, and he's a sith lord. If his apprentice proves stronger than a challenger, so be it. As for Palpatine's chances against Dooku here; it's hard to call, but there's a few factors in Dooku's favour.

• Dooku is armed, Palpatine is not. Sure, I hear you say, but Palpatine doesn't need to be armed - except, as we know, Sith lightning can be deflected from a lightsaber.
• How flimsy are those manacles? Surely I can't be the only one to notice that they, at least superficially resemble the jedi-restraints of Attack of the Clones?
• If we go by the original post, then the obvious way to do it is to feign obedience, and then have Grievous depressurise Palpatine on live holonet. We've yet to see force-no-breathing as a Sith Power.

It's worth noting that Dooku is a far better man than Palpatine, and would not order such an attack on the Jedi temple. As I recall, he gave Grievous specific instructions that jedi children were not fair game, and he would have to answer for it if he killed them.

How much did Dooku know about Palpatine's grand plan?

Gandalf wrote:How much did Dooku know about Palpatine's grand plan?

What grand plan? The 'exploit the stupid jedi' one?

NecronLord wrote:

Gandalf wrote:How much did Dooku know about Palpatine's grand plan?

What grand plan? The 'exploit the stupid jedi' one?

There was talk of turning Anakin in AoTC. And Dooku was goading Anakin into going down the dark path during their duel in RoTS. Didn't Dooku know about the rule of two with the Sith?

That had me wondering just what Dooku thought was actually happening.

There have been exceptions to the rule of two.

They (mostly Dooku) trained up many fallen jedi throughout the Clone Wars. Presumably Dooku expected that with Anakin, until it was too late.

RotS Novelisation, page 51 wrote:Dooku would serve an Empire of Man.

And he would serve it as only he could. As he was born to. He would smash the Jedi Order to create it anew: not shackled by the corrupt, narcissistic, shabby little beings who called themselves politicians, but free to bring true authority and true peace to a galaxy that badly needed both.

An Order that would not negotiate. Would not mediate.

And Order that would enforce.

The survivors of the Jedi Order would become the Sith Army.

The Fist of the Empire.

And that Fist would become a power beyond an Jedi's darkest dreams. The Jedi were not the only users of the Force in the galaxy; from Hapes to Haruun Kal, from Kiffu to Dathomir, powerful Force-capable humans and near-humans had long refused to surrender their children to lifelong bound servitude in the Jedi Order. They would not so refuse the Sith Army.

They would not have the choice.

A couple of pages later, it's mentioned that, in Dooku's idea of the plan, Anakin was to be the commander of the Sith Army. And later still:

RotS Novelisation, page 54 wrote:He had no doubt that Skywalker would fall. Dooku understood that this was more than a test for Skywalker; though Sidious never said so directly, Dooku was certain that he himself was being tested as well. Success today would show his MAster that he was worthy of the mantle of Mastery himself: by the end of the coming battle, he would have initiated Skywalker into the manifold glories of the dark side, just as Sidious had initiated him.

Basically: the plan, as Dooku understood it, called for the Rule of Two to be discarded anyway, so the fact that Anakin's induction into the Sith would breach that rule was irrelevant. He also seems to have expected to take Sidious' place fairly soon in any case if he was successful in turning Anakin.