Anakin and Kenobi faking out Dooku

Originally posted by RealistRacism
It's a reasonable assumption to make, since the Count was easily superior in Attack of the Clones and early TCW. Is Sidious going to risk the life of his future Apprentice by not telling Dooku to take it a little easy?

No not really. But key part here is you ADMIT it is an Assumption. And not reasonable enough for everyone to buy into.

He was not easily superior in early TCW. I just posted TCW movie fight above where Dooku clearly went for the kill, and where Anakin still held his own for most the fight.

Sidious is not the type of Master to take it easy on future Apprentices. And Dooku clearly has no love for Anakin. What exactly would Sidious have done if Dooku “accidentally” killed Anakin.

Maybe force choke him for a bit, and that would be that. He wouldnt kill Dooku over it because then he would have No Apprentice.

To really find out if Dooku was going easy on Anakin, you can just look at the performance in RotS, which you have yet to disprove was a dominant display in favour of the Count for a huge majority of the fight. This was the main point, but instead you've devolved into using TCW (a far less reliable medium) to reach a conclusion.

It isn't a baseless assumption however, which is the key point. You're pretending as if Palpatine saw Anakin as an expendable tool like Maul or Dooku himself, which is obviously false. Palpatine had been slowly gaining Anakin's trust and manipulating him for years, pulling him out of conflicts he deemed dangerous before catastrophes could happen and sending him on ones that would help his development/lead him down the dark path. He went out of his way to make sure nothing happened to his future Apprentice, so I don't know why Dooku would be the exception. There were times when he could have easily killed Anakin throughout TCW regardless, but didn't.

It doesn't matter what Sidious would have actually done, it only matters what Dooku thought he would do. And since Dooku is always portrayed as very fearful of his Master, I'm sure disobeying an order as big as this, is going to lead to thoughts in his head of excruciating torture and/or death.

Dominant display for the huge majority of the fight? Lol

It was the one kick that floored Anakin. Thats it. He wasnt dominant at any other part of the fight.

We know Anakin was getting stronger as the fight went on as per the Novel and the Script. Thats just how he rolls.

So Dooku not getting beaten right off the bat was due to Anakin not yet unleashing his full power. Nothing more.

You only need to look at TCW fights to see Dooku doesn’t hold back against Skywalker, and was having enough trouble with him back then, let alone by the time of ROTS, by which point Anakin was canonically Vastly more powerful.

He was parrying all of Anakin's strikes with the latter having Kenobi as aid.

We're using Legends stuff now? Of course Skywalker was getting stronger, as Obi-Wan was being made a fool of right before him. Doesn't mean Dooku was somehow having difficulty against Anakin...?

By framing the statement as "Anakin not yet unleashing his full power" you're implying that he wasn't willing to kill Dooku, or at least; he wasn't trying. In reality, he simply couldn't defeat him until he tapped into the dark side. There's a difference. If he was vastly more powerful as you say, the Count would have been ragdolled out of the Ship.

Screw Obi-Wan (whose not the best offensive companion anyway). Where was Dooku owning Anakin aside from the 1 kick? Dooku was backing off from Anakin the whole time.

The script by Lucas is Legends?

Originally posted by Darth Thor
I cant place Dooku above Anakin at any point in ROTS tbh. Anakin had simply grown too powerful by then, and was not exactly that far below Dooku even in the clone wars. The only reason Dooku seemed competitive at the beginning of the ROTS fight was due to Anakin holding back.

Well, even Nick said, that Anakin starts as level 8 and then is moving up to level 9. And that the difference is the dark side. It was just this moment.
You can call it "holding back", doesn't matter. In my opinion it wasn't holding back at all, since I consider that as unintentional.
Dooku had his orders, he was about to kill Kenobi and lure Anakin to the dark side, by taunting him to use his anger and hate. Until he did that, everything was going as planed (since he thought that he already killed Kenobi), despite the fact, that Anakin and Obi-Wan were much more demanding opponents then Dooku asumed.
And one more thing - Dooku just kicked Anakin away with simple kick. It stined Anakin for a couple of seconds, so he was unable to help Obi-Wan. If Obi-Wan wouldn't be that lucky, he would have died there. Anakin then kiked Dooku, which seemd to be much harder in compare to what Dooku did. But Dooku did an elegant somersault, ended on his feet, ready to continue the fight.

Once again, I dont wont be misunderstood - Anakin had enough power within himself to beat Dooku, he used that and he killed him. At thhat moment, when Anakin started to use that power, he was beyond Dooku's reach, he was just stronger, more powerful. But before that, there is nothing in that fight, that suggest, that Dooku was loosing.

^ If we go by Gillard, then Anakin starts off as an 8, same as Dooku. So still dont see how that makes Dooku superior at any point.

Yes of course Dooku showed superiority when he kicked Anakin. But that was the only point in the fight he did show superiority. And I think its too speculative to say Anakin would have been finished there if not for Obi-Wan. Because he still at least had his weapon. He was in a worse floored position in TCW movie when he was vastly less powerful, and still managed to save himself.

If we ignore the novel and the script and TCW then your arguments for Dooku starting off superior work. But in the context of those other sources, I think its clear Anakin always would have won that fight, with or without Obi-Wan, and with or without Palpatines orders to Dooku.

^
Yes, they both were, I've never claimed, that the difference between them was that big. They were nearly equals, with Dooku's small advantage. But it doesn't mean much, since Anakin would anyway use his emotions and would have won. Possibly 9/10 or every single time. I'm not arguing that, I only argue, that from the start of the battle to the moment when Dooku taunted him, the Count had the upper hand, nothing more.

^ Fair do’s.