Force lightning question

I agree with some observations, and while i like your take on Dooku versus Anakin, I have to disagree. I could tell immediately that Dooku was using a weaker, less refined fighting style (nothing likehis earlier AOTC fencing) and he was taunting Skywalker. Dooku was good, and he had good reason to want to toy with Skywalker. But in the situation they were in, with a battle raging on and the Separatists on the verge of losing the space battle, it doesn't make sense for Dooku (assuming he WAs giving it his all) to spend any more time with Skywalker than absolutely neccessary. Now, Dooku took Obi out of the fight rather easily and with use of the Force when Obi-Wan was caught off guard. Don't tell me Dooku wouldn't have tried to push Anakin to charge him and then elminate the boy. No, the most sensible explanation was that Dooku was ordered to toy with Skywalker, and was probably told to throw the fight, that Sidious would save him at the last moment. And the idea that Dooku would try and betray his master by NOT simply toying with Anakin this far in the game isn't sensible either. If he killed Anakin and had to fight Sidious right then and there... assuming he survived the duel he would still be captured by the Republic and the Jedi council and imprisoned for the murder of Anakin Skywalker and the chancellor. His best chances lie with Sidious' plan.

Now, your theory about force lightning I like, but if it were true, the reprocussions (especially in the SW versus forum.. lol) would be great. Suddenly OT Vader isn't as fast NOT because of 70s and 80s movie making technology but because of his own limitations with his body and the Force.

It's not a theory, It's stated right in the visual dictionary. Which, as I said, because Lucas contributed to it as much as he did, makes it canon as far as I'm concerned. It was also stated again in the young readers novelization of ROTS again, in an interesting added scene where Sideous mulls over if he should bother saving Anakin/Vader or not.

Now yes, we all know he's slow because of 70's and 80's movie making. I concede that. I've said myself in other threads that if Episode 4 were being made today, Vader and Obi Wan's fight would be a puter-fu extravaganza. And it is no doubt because of that it was put out in the dictonary that way as a convenient explanation, but it's one that still makes sense.

My take on Anakin/Dooku, on the other hand, is purely my theory. It also depends on if Sideous actually revealed his dual identity to Tyrannus. At first I assume he must have, but General Grevious seemed to have no idea who Sideous was in Clone wars, which gave me pause. The fact Dooku didn't reveal his master after his betrayl (speaking of betrayl, having the master tied up would be a damn good time to kill him, I can't see Sideous making himself that vulterable. With maul maybe, but not to his far more intelligent and independent apprentace in Tyranus)

What possible reason would Dooku have to throw the fight though? I assume Sideous wouldn't let him know he was considering a replacement, and if he was trying to goad skywalker into the dark side, well, that makes a very big risk when you throw the fight. And again, if he did know, considering that Palpatine was all tied up, how could he help his apprentace? If Dooku was holding back, I'm more inclined to believe he was doing so on his own initiative, hoping to get a new recruit or just perhaps just wanting to toy with the boy, not realizing how dangerous that really was.

You again make some good points.

But as for the ROTS novelisation, that is quasi-canon at best. Since the novelisation deviates from the movie more than any other novelisation, I've rather chalked it up as a Vader/Sidious fanboy bible. I mean, really... the only people who cite ROTS novelisation are trying to prove Vader or Sidious kick more ass than person B. It's never a good thing said about Yoda, Obi-Wan, Mace Windu or anything.

As for the Visual Dictionary, they aren't canon. The ROTS visual dictionary is written by James Luceno, who is a fiction writer. Unless I failed to find it, there is no line that says Lucas proofread and agreed with everything in any visual dictionary, and the idea that GL sits around and proofreads ANYTHING that comes out is ridiculous. There is proof he knows some of EU, as shown by Aayla Secura and a few other things... But really, the true definition of canon is GL's words, the movies, and radio plays on the movies. Nothing else. The visual dictionary runs as quasi-canon and, depending on the author and just how badly they twisted things, its level of quasi-canon and range from BS to Sounds About Right. But just because it makes sense doesn't mean its the answer in this situation. I mean, I'd like to think the visual dictionary was right, but I have this feeling that it'll be a dead end.

Now, as far as Dooku not knowing who Sidious was, this is not true. Why?

- Dooku obviously had Sith training with Sidious for about 13 years. He walked side by side with Sidious on Coruscant at the end of AOTC. If he couldn't tell from any of those times that Sidious was Palpatine, he must be either the dumbest Sith lord of all time or Sidious has a new, previously unmentioned Fool Dooku feat.

- GG is an alien, and some aliens don't notice how close or different humans look. GG's only experience with Sidious are in the form of cowled, half visible recordings. In LOE, Grievous has no idea who Sidious is as he captures him, but he suspects.

I've since relooked at a few things and concede the point, Dooku had to have known. Guess he still thought he had something to learn, cause I would have made a point of wakling around the chair, talking about whatever, then putting my saber through the back of the seat and the old man's chest. I still don't think he was outright ordered to throw the fight though. And I'm wonder if perhaps, in Anakins current power and agression, perhaps Dooku couldn't use the force on him the way he did Obi Wan.

So we don't consider the ROTS novel to be cannon now? I thought the general agrement on the board was that the Novelizations (which did back up the visual dictionary on this subject) were canon. Very well. I still don't see how the argument about force lightning is in anyway flawed. We do know that Vader is very suspectable to force lightning: ROTJ proves this. We also know he has no hands. Even assuming he could generate force lightning from the stumps where his natural flesh begins, he would short his own life support out and likely die shortly thereafter. At the very least, he'd ruin his own robotic hands and probably wouldn't be able to aim very well with the stuff anyway.

Ah, about the novelisation... NONE of them are canon, though why this applies to ANh (as it was written by GL himself) I can only guess. The OT novelisations tend to be closer to the movies than the PT.

Because it wasn't written by GL. It was written by Alan Dean Foster. He ghost wrote it for GL; not a word of it is from George.

The ANH novelisation?

Yup.

Gotcha.

I think Dooku was ordered the throw the fight, but I don't think he expected to be killed, I mean let's look at the way he looked at Palpatine when he ordered Anakin to kill him...

On the other hand, if he did throw the fight, why did Palpatine order him killed? Surely if Dooku could beat Anakin then why take Anakin as an apprentice?

He can in the Episode III video game.

Wow, that means nothing.

Actually palpatine knew that anakin could beat dooku, you got to remember that palpatine planned all of this.

I was just pointing it out.

Originally posted by Darth Nhilus
Actually palpatine knew that anakin could beat dooku, you got to remember that palpatine planned all of this.

Uh, no.

Well then, why did Palpatine to kill Dooku?

The extent to which Palpatine planned anything in the movies centers around him gaining power. If he knew that Anakin would beat Dooku without having to tell Dooku to throw the fight, he would have to be the most prophetic genius ever made. A jedi master and now sith of 80 some years of experience in what has to be the best fighting style in the series versus an arrogant headstrong youth with nowhere near a third of that experience will win a fight with Dooku giving it his all?

Please... ridiculous.

I meant to put, Why did Palpatine tell Anakin to kill Dooku?

To feed the darkside within him, and to remove Dooku (a potential threat) from the equation.

Yup. Sith do that.