Prine said:
So
If Sidious ordered Dooku to arrange an army, where would that put Darth Maul? (you say it took place before the battle of naboo) You cant have 2 aprentices right?
From what I remember on the Episode II DVD Commentary, Lucas comments that Maul was fully trained from beginning to end by Sidious, but then when he was killed by Obi-Wan, he didn't want to start all over from scratch, so he decided to just convert a Jedi and that man is Dooku. Also, Lucas wanted to show that a Jedi CAN be converted to the Dark Side, hence this happening to Anakin in Episode III. I figure if Maul were to have lived, he might have died anyway because there comes a point in a Sith's life when he wants COMPLETE control, as in Episode II Dooku tries to convert Obi-Wan to his side, so that they can take down Sidious...and in the Original Trilogy, Vader tries to get Luke to join him in Empire so that they can rule together. The Sith thing is always about taking complete control over everything, and the problem with being a Sith is that there isn't any trust, and if there is, it's not forever.
EDIT: There is a picture floating around with Anakin fighting Dooku in Episode III with Palps (Sidious) looking on and encouraging Anakin to kill Dooku (That's what it looks like because its similar to Jedi)This repeats in Episode VI with Luke, where Sidious tries to encourage Luke to kill Vader so he can take his place.