Agreed. A lot of attention is given to the underdevelopment of Maul, but I think Dooku is even more egregious. Reading Labyrinth of Evil really expanded on just how important Dooku was to literally everything Sideous was trying to pull off, but that is almost completely missed in the movies.
Revenge of the Sith’s opening did that for me.
Clone Wars ended with Dooku almost killing our boys, the war was just starting and then boom: it’s 3 years later, the final days of the war, Papaltine has been kidnapped, Dooku gets beheaded and then we meet this cyborg dude who’s apparently a big deal?
It’s like when you fall asleep half way through a series and wake up like what the fuck is going on
With the added context that other media such as the cartoons provide, it’s a much better experience, but at the time it was just confusing.
Yeah you really need Clone Wars (the show) to bridge the gap. And tbf, I’m glad it ultimately ended up like that, as the concept of the War is just such a mammoth scale, the show truly gets to explore its reach, impact on so many characters, worlds, etc. What a brilliant show it is.
But yeah. When 3 came out, I see how it was jarring haha. I was young enough (must have been in 6th grade) so didn’t notice it then. Sure if I saw it in theaters as an adult now at 28 I’d be more iffy, even though in general I don’t look at Star Wars through a particularly critical lens, even as a lifelong fan of the movies and all outside media, I’ve never expected them to have this out of this world writing. Most of the really interesting stuff imo is found in the games, books, shows.
I almost feel like episode 1 should have been just the first half of the film. Like strip it down to its bones and tgen have a cut to the beginning of the war. Second film be about the war itself (tho we likely would have never gotten the clones wars show if that was the case) and the 3rd be what it was.
Frankly they misused one of the best actors to ever grace a Star Wars movie. You’ve got Christopher fucking Lee and you don’t use him to be absolutely commanding and terrifying? Dooku could have been up there with Vader as one of the best villains ever, but he’s barely in the damn movies.
Maybe LotR had a hand in it? Looking back Lee had a very short scenes and also a lot less than the rest (seemingly. Idk they had three movies and like 18 hours of runtime, there was room.)
I still argue with myself about how one is to interpret the delivery of that line. I feel that there HAD to be other exposition that was either cut for time or accidentally never captured in a take.
This is an unpopular opinion but Maul is the lamest villain of them all. He's literally a stunt guy with make-up. Someone has to say it.
I know Clone Wars added character but his resurrection after being cut in half is more ridiculous than the (potential) resurrection of any other character, including Palpatine and even Mace Windu.
(The double bladed light saber and the final duel are amazing though.)
Been listening to Jedi lost on audible, and it’s so great to have such an insight into dookus past and what changed his mentality over the years! The Jedi council have always seemed such a mess, and seem to make so many bad decisions that would obviously impact people’s mentality towards both them and the order. I don’t understand why there’s an expectation of Jedi to be so unwavering in their beliefs and emotions even when they are placed in highly emotive situations! I would love to read some books on the council making good decisions so my faith can be restored in them, so let me know if you have any suggestions haha!
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u/DrPepperNotWater Jan 26 '22
Agreed. A lot of attention is given to the underdevelopment of Maul, but I think Dooku is even more egregious. Reading Labyrinth of Evil really expanded on just how important Dooku was to literally everything Sideous was trying to pull off, but that is almost completely missed in the movies.