Why is Dooku not as popular as Vader, Maul and Sidious?

Underrated character who is played by a legendary actor. So why does he not get the same amount of appreciation as the other villains? You could say he didn't have much screen time in the movies. But so didn't Maul yet everyone loves him.

Less interesting design, not as much of a physical presence as the others etc

Dooku is a great character, he is written quite well and has relatable ambitions and an amazing background. However Dooku wasn't handled the same way as Sidious and Vader in terms of depth. He came out of nowhere and died like nothing in the movies. Even though Christopher Lee is an amazing actor and very charismatic, Dooku wasn't represented as scary or some might say "cool" like Maul. It is all about how they marketed Dooku and handled his characters prior to Clone Wars.

I still love the character regardless. Although I would be lying if I didn't say most of my appreciation for the character stems mostly from the EU rather than the films. The issue is the character gets introduced Half way through AOTC with barely any character development. And in ROTS he gets killed 10 minutes into the film. Not to mention his lightsaber duels are deemed to be some of the worst duels from the movies by many people ( not me)
So I guess that's why he isn't a very popular character.

SithSauce wrote:I still love the character regardless. Although I would be lying if I didn't say most of my appreciation for the character stems mostly from the EU rather than the films. The issue is the character gets introduced Half way through AOTC with barely any character development. And in ROTS he gets killed 10 minutes into the film.

^

Because he wasn’t as cool as either of them in the movies.

Sam wrote:Underrated character who is played by a legendary actor. So why does he not get the same amount of appreciation as the other villains? You could say he didn't have much screen time in the movies. But so didn't Maul yet everyone loves him.

Maul was in the first Star Wars film in decades and he looked like a mysterious devil. Had Dooku replaced Maul in TPM he would have been more popular than he is. Maybe not more than Maul, but still.

Sheev and Vader also have the advantage of being from OT. Again, replace Dooku with them and his popularity would have skyrocketed. He just had sort of a shitty deal besides what everyone here said.

The ot would not have worked with dooku standing In for sheev or vader lol.

In A new hope we are introduced to this giant metal robot that strangles a dude and snaps his neck in the first five minutes of his screen time. He is seemingly the boss, until we learn he himself has a boss (Tarkin) who isn't as cool but it makes a point. What's done so well and what is so great about a new hope is the way Vader is portrayed, initially thoughts indicate that with his inhuman strength and ability to use a form of telekinesis that he is a robot or at the least not human, at least this is how I watched the movie, but obi wan throws a curve ball by telling us he is more machine than man which means he's a cyborg and not an android

In esb we have Vader without Tarkin and he's pissed as hell and strangling people, his presence is respected and he IS the villian of the film, we get a brief scene that establishes Vader as not all powerful tho, with the emperor, but this is almost brushed away, but again MAKES A POINT.

By rotj Vader is not the villian and he isn't scary, we see him now more as a father than a murderous psycho.

This would not have worked were Maul and Dooku in any of these roles.

Neither bring the physical presence or evolving aura of mystery Vader has

And Dooku simply is not scary enough to he the emperor. The boss of darth Vader is not a bigger hulking robot, or a well built tall man like dooku. He's a tiny shriveled up shrimp that has throat cancer and glowing eyes. Maul can't pull that off, neither can dooku

Because he's an old and boring grandpa. 

He's only interesting if you bother to read Dark Rendezvous and Stover's novel.