system
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human
[Star Wars] What would Palpatine have done had Anakin refused to kill Dooku?

What if after cornering Dooku and cutting off his hand, Anakin punches him in the face, knocks him out, and detains him? How would Palpatine try to turn Anakin to the Dark Side from there?
gpt
I know this isn't really the answer you're looking for, but what made Palpatine so great was that his foresight and planning was uncanny. He's been corrupting anakin for over a decade at this point. The chances of it not going down the way it did are nearly 1:infinity against.

That said, if Anakin weren't to do it, Papa Palpatine probably effortlessly offs the Jedi himself and has to engineer a new way to ~~escape~~ be rescued, of which im sure there are several. The point of this exercise wasn't to kill Dooku, it was to push Anakin over the edge and make him a thrall to Palpatine. It wasn't ultimately successful, but it was a yuge step.