what if..? QuiGon-as-seperatist-leader?

[cobalt60]

(IMO) the prequel trilogy have been a "better" story if the characters of Qui-gon and Dooku were the same guy.

I think in some "first draft" somewhere, Liam Neeson's character was probably supposed to survive the battle with Darth Maul, and go on to join the dark side as the Seperatist Leader in Eisode2.

I think that would have made a better story.

--> imagine Qui-gon taunting Obi-wan, trapped in the ray-shields on Geonosis in ATOC (with all the same dialog):
"it will be difficult to secure your release" (etc)

--> imagine Qui-gon in the AOTC saber-duel, saying all the same lines to Yoda, to anakin, etc..
and even cutting off anakin's arm.

--> imagine that anakin had to kill Qui-gon (not dooku) in order to "save" palpatine in the beginning of ROTS..
"do it! do it NOW!" .. and anakin is faced with the reality of killing his old master Qui-Gon

((I mean : who the heck is "Dooku", anyways? LOL. as a member of the audience, coming from phantom menace, that name has no meaning to anakin(heh). maybe if they had established the character of "dooku" as a good guy in EP1, then, as audience, we'd KNOW intuitively that he was once a great jedi who had left the order for his own reasons, etc..
instead we must take mace's word for it in Ep2 when he tries to vouch for dooku's character with a single line of dialog))

*shrug*

in AOTC , Dooku tells Obiwan "join me and together we will destroy the sith!"
can you imagine if this line were coming from Qui-Gon's lips?

---> if this were coming from Qui-gon I would have believed the seperatist leader... if it were Quigon, we would never really know what side the seperatist leader was really on. even after Anakin had mercilessly killed him in ROTS.

(we would wonder: maybe Palpatine LET anakin kill the seperatist leader..
because he knew that our man "qui-gon" was really a "good guy" who wanted to destroy the sith) (?)

this question doesn't even come up, because christopher Lee played the seperatist leader like count-freakin'-Dracula. (LOL!)

there was never a question in EpII that the seperatist leader was EVIL.
he's christopher Lee!(LOL!).



if the seperatist leader were played by Liam Neeson (as Qui-Gon) instead,
then we would see him as sort of a tragic hero, not just a "classic bad guy".

ie: he went to the dark side, to take it down from within. and he failed.

proving, ultimately, that it can't be done, and creating tension for the hero, Anakin....

(just like Red Leader in "new hope" proves the computer can't hit the exhaust port:
he goes in there, ahead of our hero, and establishes the parameters of the struggle)

...this would help to define anakin's story: so the audience knows what anakin is up against in ROTS.



also it would give a reason for the Jedi Immortality.. thing.

ie: BECAUSE Quigon wwould have to be "riding the fence" so to speak,
he would have to be "neutral" (as far as the light-side/dark-side struggle),
in order to be the seperatist leader
--> this could be used an an explaination as to why he found the secret to "BALANCE" and ended up as a force-ghost in the end.

by playing both sides of the fence, he would represent a "balance" of dark and light

*shrug*

as it stands, the "immortality" thing isn't really explained.

we have no idea how Quigon found the secret to immortality.

[Jaren Valnor]

Wow, long post.

Yeah, now that you mention it, Qui-Gon would've made a better Dooku.

And Qui-Gon found the secret to immortality from the teachings of a Shaman of the Whills, and that's no SuperShadow, but from a scene never filmed and also from the novelization.

[Ldi-Ovef Te_Azi]

i dont think, from what i have gained of quigon, that he would do that though

[Jauhzmynn Enz]

Humm, thought provocking.

[J'aii-Gun Jiinn]

Dooku was Qui-gon's Master and Qui-gon learned dooku's bend the rules to your purpose clause but if you read the secrets and legacy of the jedi by jude watson Dooku straddled the fence more ways than Qui-gon ever did and Obi-wan would never developed into the jedi he would have been Qui-gon never "cared" for Master Dooku but merely used him as a tool
it would have been neat but I don't it would have played out very well Dooku is actually means Poison in japanese and poison from within fits him very well

[Leda EmBorr]

An interesting twist. Would have made for some very intense drama.

I like it the way it is though... Qui-Gon is a character very attuned to the Living Force, and the way Dooku's character was described in the RotS novelization, it's world away from that of Qui-Gon.

Good "what if" scenario, though!