#as well as giving Duke Leto some ancestors

[jomiddlemarch]

The night is a tunnel, she thought, a hole into tomorrow

No matter what was said later, she didn’t do it because of love.

Jessica let the story be told that way because it suited her better than the truth, though she did not pretend to herself she had had foresight enough to plan the explanation quite as carefully as Paul’s conception and birth; she let the story be told that way because it was safer for Paul and Leto and even, or most, for herself for her to be thought stupider than anticipated. Better that she be thought weaker and more susceptible to a man’s wiles than any Bene Gesserit in ten generations, for all that Leto made so little effort towards seduction that she’d worried it was not her own shortcomings but a general disinclination towards women in general, especially when she saw Duncan Idaho sparring, shirtless and oiled, those enviably long lashes, so lithe and graceful he’d have been most decorously besieged at the Imperial Court for even an hour in his bed. Alone in the chamber of the reigning Duke, a room Leto had changed little since his father’s death as though any alteration might acknowledge his loss beyond his bearing, Jessica had discovered that whatever appetite Leto might have for his liegeman was inconsequential to their binding. He made no attempt toward disguise once she was in his arms, his hands and skin honest first, followed by his lips, his tongue, and finally, his dark eyes, making her understand that while his body hungered for her, his soul was full of longing, a desire he had not expected to be gratified by either a wife or concubine.

His resignation was what she’d first begun to love, his utter lack of demand or entitlement, and then it was the way he lifted his chin in the salt gale off the cliffs of the castle, the care he took in handing his heavy fur-trimmed mantle to the serving woman who met his gaze when he came into his stronghold. He was sharp, as a blade must be that serves its master well, and he never forgot that his master was the fiefdom, the fishermen and sailors, midwives and gardeners of Caladan; he was gentle as the bone handle of the blade, that curves itself to the grasp of a killer or a woman protecting her honor. He was not a hard man to love, Duke Leto, twentieth of his House, and Jessica had fallen in love with him, slowly and then all at once. But she had not given him a son for that sole reason, though how much easier it had made her choice to contravene every principle of her upbringing, the voice within her which spoke with the Reverend Mother’s intonation, telling her she was to do what she was told, to bring forth the long-sought fulfilment of their dearest hope, their most cunning design.

It was among the cairns that Jessica had first wondered if there might be another way. She had read the inscriptions carved beneath the name of every Duke and Duchess, the names and dates of lesser interest than the mottos, some in a language so old she had to go to the Duke’s library and search the volumes for a translation. Many of the Dukes had chosen a variation on By the strength of horns of the bull, but there were a few who hadn’t. And the Duchesses were remembered with a wide array of phrases, light from the sea, the seed and the sloe, hive-keeper, and weaver of dreams, the last the apothegm of Leto’s grandmother Khrysothemis, which drove Jessica back to the library, to the collection accounting books kept by the Duchesses of House Atreides, where she found what she had suspected: an alternate breeding line that had been concealed from the orthodox Bene Gesserit. It was not a guarantee of success, indeed, it was less likely to come to fruition than the Reverend Mother’s plan, that a daughter of House Atreides and a son of Harkonnen would engender the true Lord of the Universe, the Kwizatz Haderach. And yet, it was possible, what Khrysothemis had hoped for as had Babd and Philonoe and Cailleach-Nike, each leaving the most carefully innocuous notations in their day-books for the woman who would come next. It was possible and Jessica looked into Leto’s drowsy dark eyes in the pale grey light of a rainy autumn dawn and considered. She remembered Baron Harkonnen at the Imperial Court and the working of his jaw and jowls as he’d bitten the heads off a half-dozen ortolan, the way Leto had stepped in front of her and bade her drop her pearl-trimmed veil, his broad shoulders squared in his dress uniform, his hands crossed at the small of his back, the stance he took before an attack.

She conceived a son and she waited, drawing within herself to interrogate the chromosomes as she’d been trained. It was impossible to tell, it would have been impossible to tell even if it had been her daughter’s child fathered by the Baron’s young nephew Feyd, but the child she carried might be the one. And she loved his father. So she disposed of the syrupy gold bynyrwyal in the chased flask she’d been given upon her binding to Leto, and told her Duke he would have an heir at mid-summer. When they went out next to the cairns, she poured out the measure of wine for Khrysothemis and Badb, Philonoe and Cailleach-Nike, and whispered into the wind own prayer for the baby.

When Paul was born, his eyes were blue-grey like the sea beyond the harbor and coral reefs, like every son of every Duke of House Atreides, and he needed the same coaxing to nurse as the old housekeeper Marsail said his father had. He clung tightly to her finger and she stroked the curve of his cheek and thought, yes, it was possible, he might be the one they had all waited for. He could be and she would make sure he lived to see his path, whether it was one he would walk or fold.

Tagging @aquitainequeen​ @ellynneversweet​ @221bb​ for our earlier discussion re: the perilously small House of Atreides and general Dune world-building and also to refute what is referred to in canon as “the Jessica crime”

[hauntedwitch04]

News 

Paul Atreides x reader 

Words: about 1k words 

Warnings: None, just a lot of FLUFF 

Author’s note: Hi! I’m so sorry, this is so late, but I managed to write it down only today.It’s from this lovely request by anonymous. I hope you all are well and you like it, since it's my first time writing for this character. 

Requests are always open 

My masterlist I Ask 

Join the Taglist 

I find myself back in the bathroom hugging the toilet, throwing up for the umpteenth morning. Once the vomiting sensation is over, I sit with my back against the wall. I feel drops of sweat run down my forehead as my warm body makes contact with the cold surface. A few minutes pass by when I finally find the strength to go back to my room and change my clothes, replacing my pajamas with clothes more appropriate for where I live. Since I have been married to Paul for a couple of years, I have had to revolutionize the way I live. Before I was just the simple daughter of a soldier, now I am the wife of a great Duke, and from me they expect an attitude that respects my position. Her mother, Jessica, has been a great help to me during these years, with valuable lessons and advice on how to behave, what to say and what to do at important events and dinners. Paul, on the other hand, has never cared if I adapted and changed for the court life, because he has always told me that he has always loved me, loves me and will love me the way I am, and does not want me to change for anything in the world. 

After getting dressed, I go downstairs to breakfast expecting to see my husband, when I actually find only Jessica, sipping tea reading a book. I greet her, she looks up from the book and smiles at me. I sit down at the table, pour myself some tea and turn to my mother-in-law, inquiring as to where Paul was, already so early this morning. 

"Leto wanted him to attend today's meeting, he asked me to tell you he'd be free in a couple of hours and to ask if you were feeling better now. What's going on my dear?" She asks looking at me worriedly, I slowly sip my tea as she speaks and immediately feel my cheeks blush at her concern, touched by her affection. 

"Nothing serious, don't worry. It's just a couple of mornings that I don't feel great and I find myself throwing up, but then for the rest of the day I feel fine. Do you happen to know where those chocolate treats are, I don't know how many I've had this week, I've been craving them pratively every second of the day." I see her stare at me, then give an amused smile as I speak, looking for my snack, when she hands me what looks like eggs on a plate in return. Suddenly a very strong feeling of vomiting rises up in me, causing me to run out of the room to the nearest bathroom. She follows and helps me. After I finish and calm down, I turn to her and ask her why she did that. She smiles and says something that hits me deep inside. 

"You know my dear, I felt in a very similar way to you just before I found out that I was waiting for Paul...". Her words freeze me in place as I begin to reflect, and all of a sudden everything seems to fall into place: late periods, morning sickness, and strange cravings at the most unlikely times of the day. Jessica smiles at seeing my confusion and comforts me by saying that she would now call the doctor to accept the fact, although she said that female intuition is never wrong. And she was right. Dr. Yueh confirms my mother-in-law's suspicion, and compliments me on the sweet news. Immediately tears of contentment well up in my eyes, thinking of the family that Paul and I will finally be able to build. We had talked several times over the years about having children, but we preferred that they come on their own and not to look for them. I can already picture my husband with our son or daughter in his arms, telling him all the stories his father used to tell him as a child about his ancestors. I don't even realize I'm running until I'm standing in front of the meeting room door. I knock only to hear the Duke's voice ask who it is. I open the door and immediately meet Paul's gaze, who immediately looks concerned about my presence there. I see the council staring at me, waiting for me to speak, while Leto glances at his son's worried face. 

"I apologize for the interruption, but may I steal Paul for a moment." I ask, and my words do nothing but worry the boy. The Duke nods his assent and in a second Paul and I are out the door as we hear the council talking again. I take him by the hand and lead him down a slightly more secluded hallway, then take his hands and stare intently into his eyes. 

"Honey, you're making me worry. Are you okay? I went downstairs this morning to get you something to eat and ask for some medicine, when my dad forced me to attend that stupid meeting. Are you feeling any better? Should I call the doctor?" I smile and tell him no with my head. He looks at me with a face that expresses all his concern and curiosity. I take a deep breath and then start talking. 

"I'm fine, don't worry. Your mom already took me to the doctor and she said I'm fine, in fact more than fine." I take another breath and then continue. "I have news for you, very good news." Tears begin to run down my cheeks, and he immediately does his best to wipe them away with his hand. "Paul...we're going to have a baby. I'm pregnant!" A billion emotions pervade him and light up in his eyes: happiness, fear, joy, but mostly love. Tears begin to flow down his cheeks as well, as he wraps his arms around my body in a protective yet sweet way. He whispers in my ear a hundred times "I love you" and "thank you, for this immense gift", while we stay there one in the arms of the other, wrapped in our bubble of love for the new soul that will join our family, happy to finally become parents. 

Taglist 

• @xoxoloverb

• @rainelikerain

[blue-mint-winter]

Dune trailer reaction/analysis

Paul’s vision

Paul’s whispering voiceover resembling Lynch’s Dune (also Leto II My skin is not my skin. Something’s changing in him, something’s happening.)

seeing Chani in casual outfit first, very nice. She’s a woman and she’s special to him. Though it is also total opposite of her book introduction in which when Paul first saw her in a stillsuit, he thought she was a young warrior.

kissing scene - looks tender and with chemistry + stillsuit is very prominent in it

the trailer promises an emphasis on their romance in the film which is good because this wasn’t done well before in previous adaptations (or the book itself lol because they just got together and that was it, no extra drama.)

the eyes of Ibad! and she calls him - his destiny calls

he wakes up in the dark, and the headboard of his bed is gorgeous!

also this is literally “The sleeper must awaken”

but the contrast between the dream full of light and waking in the dark bedroom, mmmm nice

“there’s a crusade coming” - Paul knows what’s up, the vision of him looking at war and devastation with Chani is very foreboding - AND it doesn’t say what’s this war about and who’s fighting which is a clever set up - if you don’t know the book, then you know all of it XD. But this gives the plot the sense of mystery and danger and stakes.

GOM JABBAR

I am gushing over the symmetry of that shot in the dark room, with Paul at the center and HIS LEGS. Look how he’s standing!

His face when she asks him about his dreams!

that Atreides sign on the collar! He looks so good!

“From director Denis Villeneuve” and the cut to above clouds and a lightning - a storm is coming. Also a shot VERY reminiscent of his work on Arrival and those clouds.

The most famous, iconic, first scene of the book is in the trailer - well, it makes sense to use it to get people interested.

I LOVE Gaius Helen Mohiam’s costume design in this. I think it might be the best ever. Also, her voice, her acting, it all fits. She’s mysterious, hides her face, she’s dangerous, she’s fast, sharp, dangerous, wise. It is her.

Caladan

Flying boxes - ships/drones/tech because this is still the future despite the feudal system

Paul on the shore on Caladan

I really LIKE the music here. Gives me PoP vibes :)

Anyway, the whole idea of making Caladan the total opposite of Arrakis by making it so dark - that’s different than what I’m used to. I always imagined it as a very green, fertile world, abundant with water, life and plants. Traditionally Giedi Prime is the dark planet. BUT I can see the logic behind making Caladan so sunless, cloudy, water and stone kind of planet - illustrates the stark military nature of Atreides rule just as well as Paul’s uniform-style clothing. They are war-like. And it is very opposite to the scorching sun of Arrakis and lack of water on the desert. And the similar austerity of both is thematically appealing. We get a sense from those surroundings and gom jabbar scene that Paul wasn’t just a duke’s spoiled son.

“You inherited too much power” - hmm, that does sound ominous, GHM wants him gone!

THAT training scene with Gurney!!!!!!

first of all, the actor looks just right, I think it’s Josh Brolin? I like that I didn’t immediately think Thanos when I saw him,  instead I recognized it’s Gurney!

They made the fight FAST!!! And it looks awesome! The issue is that in the book those fights are slow because they use the energy shields, but it would look stupid on film, so instead making it fast was a stroke of genius - visually great and also makes you think the characters are total badasses (which they are)

Is Paul looking at a sunrise or a sunset over the ocean? My guess is sunrise, but it’s pretty ambiguous, could be either and fit the theme of him leaving Caladan/beginning his journey towards destiny. And he looks so handsome in this shot.

Atreides Family

Paul needs to surpass his ancestors - and the shot on some ancient sculpture with Greek writing referring to the mythical Atreides he’s descended from. Awesome, really awesome since his powers as Kwisatz Haderach are based on the ancestors.

Oscar Isaac introduced as Duke Leto and the shot of the palace on Caladan - nice, looks very much like fortress, surrounded by sea and protective stone

Greek style pottery in the palace too

Jessica too! she looks worried

seems that Leto is putting a hand on her nape, an intimate gesture but also kind of... possessive?

Arrakis

They arrive, Paul smiles

more foreboding despite everything looking fine, they have an army, they look strong and prepared

freaking Jason Momoa as Duncan greeting Paul LOL - but this had a right, genuine emotion to it. Very nicely done.

Stilgar! Harkonnen troops! Rabban! Baron!

Doctor Yueh, at last

More foreboding and Duncan being Duncan, but Jason Momoa style - he’s kind of “if Ronon was cocky and loud”. Alright. I had concerns about him, but he might work out in this role. I just don’t see him as a heartthrob knight type honestly. Really wonder how he and Jessica would be done. And I don’t know about him and Alia or the ghola fuckery in later books. (They would have to get a different actor for Duncan in Heretics, there’s no way Momoa could work.)

Paul in stillsuit, ok.

Back to gom jabbar and Chani - he sees she’s real!

The chorus sounds good with the explosions

Ornithopters look like dragonflies, I like it.

Baron... in a bath??? Is it spice bath?

some other iconic scenes from the book only hinted but who knows, knows what they are :)

SHAI-HULUD!!!

Paul in full stillsuit gives me life. Cover up completely, because you gotta save all the water

Final thoughts

This is an amazing trailer. THE HYPE IS REAL. This movie might be the definitive Dune adaptation. I love the visuals, costumes, scenery, designs, cinematography, music. Actors seem to fit well in their roles. Especially Paul rocks.

The focus on Paul and his journey is good, but I am a little worried about Jessica, because she’s barely in the trailer and in the book she’s the character we start with. She’s a co-protagonist and I would hate for her to get sidelined like in Lynch’s film. I am hoping they’re saving her for the best.

Also, no sight of Alia? Is she going to be in the movie at all? She might not if this is adapting only the first half of the book.

Anyway, I am very excited. As far as trailers go, this was awesome. It gave enough info but didn’t try to explain everything about the world and the characters. We get the basic premise and some of the characters, but it left out most of the surprises. As an ad, this is solid and gives us a taste of what it’s going to be like to watch this movie. Good job, Denis Villeneuve. I knew you could do it.

[atamascolily]

let’s talk about the Bene Gesserit

When Paul meets Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohamian of the Bene Gesserit, he identifies the order’s purpose right away: “Politics.” The Reverend Mother is surprised, and gives Jessica the side-eye to see if Jessica has spilled secrets, but Jessica denies it. I don’t know whether to believe Jessica or not here because Jessica has told Paul all kinds of things, but I’m going to assume Jessica is telling the truth here, and this is supposed to be yet another sign Paul is super-smart, super-observant, the Chosen One, etc, etc.

But I want to know: what does the rest of the galaxy think the Bene Gesserit do?

Pretty much every female character in Dune who’s not Fremen is Bene Gesserit, or at least has some degree of training from them. All of them are linked to powerful men: Jessica is a ducal concubine and mother of his heir; Margot is wife to Count Fenring (and presumably only allowed to marry him and be a Lady in her own right because the Count is a “eunuch” and can’t bear children); Irulan is a princess and the Emperor’s daughter. Even the Reverend Mother, once the superintendent of the Bene Gesserit school on Wallach IX, is now the Emperor’s Truthsayer. And the narrative goes out of its way to mention that Thufir Hawat specifically purchased Jessica for Duke Leto, and cleared her for the Atreides household.

So, are the Bene Gesserit seen as a religious order? A finishing school for ladies of the ruling class? Are they the futuristic equivalent of medieval nunneries, except with less embroidery and more manners? All of the above?

In reality, the Bene Gesserit are all-female order on a self-directed mission to provide “a thread of continuity in human affairs”. They do this by a secret breeding program, separating humans from “animals” by means of various tests (one of which Paul undergoes in the novel’s opening scene). The Bene Gesserit schools are filled with the (presumably female) offspring of this breeding program, as well as any other genetic lines they’re interested in manipulating. Many, like Jessica, are kept ignorant of their heritage by the higher-ups so they can secretly breed back into the line (ironically, a standard technique in animal breeding!). Apparently, the BG have found out the hard way that outright incest is a hard sell, so they keep the participants in the dark, which is... horrifying. The BG’s stated goal is to create a Kwisatz Haderach, a man who can look into the void that no BG [female] Truthsayer can see, “into both feminine and masculine pasts”.

Leaving aside the irony of an all-female organization seeking to create a man more powerful than they are, I don’t understand why the Kwisatz Haderach has to be male; it seems like a female Kwisatz Haderach who can see into both her male and female ancestral lines ought to be equally possible. Even if you argue that those male ancestral memories are inextricably linked to a Y chromosome or some other vaguely scientific rationale, it’s a) never explained anywhere in the book that I can recall, and b) Paul’s sister Alia will have this ability--and in fact will be haunted by at least one male ancestor to her extreme detriment. Maybe the BG are trying to create a male Kwisatz Haderach because they think men are easier to manipulate and control? Or do they not know what they’re talking about?

The Emperor knows the BG are useful; that’s why he has a Truthsayer and presumably was okay with them training his daughter, but he doesn’t seem to know the BG are manipulating his wife and concubines to make sure he has only daughters, so they can marry said daughters to a match of their choice. The BG orders Jessica to do the same thing, and she defies them because Duke Leto really, really wants a son. Does that mean the BG are always supposed to bear female children to keep the order going, or did Jessica and Irulan’s mother receive special orders on account of their positions? I don’t think this is ever made clear, and it bugs me.

I also don’t understand why the BG don’t... do something (anything!) when Jessica defies them and has Paul instead. Granted, Paul is the duke’s heir, he’s protected from assassins in general, but it seems like the BG might have had some way of influencing/punishing Jessica for her disobedience and they... don’t. At all. And I don’t get it. If Jessica’s act is so courageous--as Irulan later assess that it is in her history--what are the consequences?

The Reverend Mother sarcastically says Jessica defied the orders and had a son because she was arrogant enough to think she could produce the Kwisatz Haderach at last. Jessica says she suspected the possibility, but what made her think that? She doesn’t even know who her parents are! She hasn’t passed the final tests to be a Reverend Mother (and her defiance presumably knocked her off that track because the BG can’t trust her with that level of power), so why would she think HER SON would be the Chosen One? I don’t get it. Is Jessica being sarcastic here, too?

The Reverend Mother says Jessica did it because she loved Leto and didn’t want to disappoint him, which Jessica admits to. The Reverend Mother’s mostly angry because her plan was to wed an Atreides daughter to the Harkonnen heir and maybe put a stop to all the infighting between the two families (or compound it further? or for other reasons that only make sense when you learn who Jessica’s father really is?) Now with Paul as the heir, that’s not possible--because marriage is all about biological progeny, property, and heteronormativity in this book--and the Reverend Mother is annoyed mainly because the BG might lose both bloodlines in all the forthcoming violence.

I guess this begs the question of to what extent a BG agent is their own operative, and to what extent they are controlled/under the influence of the order as a whole? The Reverend Mother seems sympathetic to Jessica, saying, “Each of us must make her own path,” which implies some degree of independent agency. She also sees that Jessica has been teaching Paul the BG Way, and “I’d have done the same thing in your shoes and devil take the Rules”. And she encourages Jessica to train him in the Voice, because she thinks that’s the only way Paul’s going to survive the Harkonnen treachery to come (which she knows about because she’s presumably privy to much of the Emperor’s behind-the-scenes scheming with the Harkonnens).

And then the Reverend Mother walks out “with not another backward glance” and we don’t see her again until the final scene. “The room and its occupants already were shut from her thoughts.” And Jessica is freaked out by the fact the  Reverend Mother is crying as she walks away.

Why is she crying? Does she genuinely love Jessica as her “own daughter” as she claims, and she regrets that Jessica is either going to die or be a fugitive with a price on her head once the Harkonnen trap is sprung? Is she upset about what could have been, and wasn’t? Is she regretful of all the genetic material and possibilities, thousands of years of careful work and preparation obliterated by forces she has no intention of stopping? All of the above??

I don’t know why the Reverend Mother shows up to test Paul’s humanity at the beginning. Is it because she’s curious? Or does she have no choice given Paul’s lineage, and her suspicions/Jessica’s assertions that Paul really might be the Kwisatz Haderach? Did Jessica ask for it, because she knows Paul needs this test in order to move to the next level in his training and she’s not emotionally equipped to administer it? All of the above?

And the Reverend Mother looks straight at Paul, saying outright that she sees the possibility/potential for him to become the Kwisatz Haderach and walks away... why??

Conclusion: The Watsonian explanation is that the BG talk a mean game, but they’re not as smart as they think they are. The Doylist explanation is that Frank Herbert wanted to set up his plot just so and didn’t care if the BG looked stupid in the process.

But this got even weirder when I realized there was an appendix in my edition (which I had never read before) claiming to be an in-universe “Report on Bene Gesserit Motives and Purposes” written for Lady Jessica “immediately after the Arrakis Affair,” which comes to the exact same conclusions.

The report does clarify that the BG expected the child of Jessica and Leto’s daughter and Feyd-Ruatha Harkonnen to have a high probability of being the Kwisatz Haderach. So Jessica’s decision to skip ahead on the program a generation wasn’t such a long-shot after all.

Except: “For reasons she confesses have never been completely clear to her, the concubine Lady Jessica defied her orders and bore a son”. So Jessica herself doesn’t even know why she did it...!! But she must have known some of this, because why else would she train/test Paul the way she did, or admit to the Reverend Mother she thought it was possible in the first place?

The writer goes on to note that BG knew teenage Paul had prescient dreams, the Reverend Mother failed to mention that his humanity test had broken records in her report (not mentioned in the book itself!!);  that the BG knew that spice could amplify psychic powers... and did nothing to stop Jessica and Paul from going there and eating a fuckton of spice; and didn’t make the connection that the rumors of a guerilla prophet leader born of a Bene Gesserit mother and destined to be the savior might have some connection to the two people who had disappeared shortly beforehand (!!!); plus some stuff about their dealings with the Spacers’ Guild and the complications of a higher-order nexus they couldn’t see past, which ought to have alerted them that someone more powerful than they were was messing around with the future.

“In the face of these facts, one is led to the inescapable conclusion that the inefficient Bene Gesserit behavior in this affair was a product of an even higher plan of which they were completely unaware!”

And on that note, the report ends and I just... cannot believe that Herbert deliberately lampshades the BG’s incompetence--and then concludes that “God [aka the author] did it”. Because unless I missed something important and Paul meddles with the past somehow, I don’t know how else to interpret this...

I suppose this report might be written by an unreliable narrator--like every other in-universe document in this book--but then what is even the point if we never get any answers..?

[saint-severian]

Dune - Chapter 1

Worldbuilding presents a challenge for fiction-writers whose worlds go beyond the familiar. The problem is this: how to flesh out a fictional universe with realistically deep and realized background and details without constantly dumping information on the reader as if in a textbook. Although it would be hard to say that Herbert totally avoids this kind of long-form description, he does gracefully justify it. We, the readers, learn in the first chapter about the political intricacies of the universe of Dune because those intricacies are directly relevant to our protagonist right from the outset. Paul Atreides, our guy, is an elite. His parents are elites, and everyone he interacts with in the introductory is an elite in their respective field. His existence is centered, with no ambiguity to him or us, around his future career as a political elite. But he is not a politician, and though, as we will see, his father has to take on a role comparable to a politician, this is quietly a distasteful necessity, an offense to what Paul would call his “sense of rightness”. More on that later. 

The Atreides family are not elected politicians. They are aristocrats, who, as we learn in the second paragraph of the text, have lived in “Castle Caladan”, which takes its name from the planet itself, for twenty-six generations. Paul’s ancestors have ruled over an entire planet for more than five centuries. He’s old money. And despite the fact that we learn later that his House is not great by the standards of the galactic Imperium to which it belongs, his father, Leto Atreides, is a widely popular man among the other elites. In this one fact much of the plot is derived. First, we realize that Paul is not the hero of a rags-to-riches story. He is not an underdog, not a challenger in the grand scheme of things. Just the opposite- he is a fifteen-year-old boy who is placed and prepped to become an extremely powerful man. As we will learn, it is more than his external environment that puts him in this position. The second implication of the high status or popularity of his family is that, as Herbert says, “a popular man arouses the jealousy of the powerful”. The jealousy of the powerful for Paul’s family will put in effect events that determine Paul’s fate and the fate of the human race. 

Under the (assumed) pretext of the Duke Leto Atreides’ rising popularity and competence, he is assigned a new charge. The ‘Padishah’ Emperor (a word meaning “lord of kings”) has chosen Duke Leto, his feudal vassal, to govern a poor, provincial planet in his name. The planet, called Arrakis, is known for two things: it is extremely harsh for human life, being a world entirely of desert, and it is the sole source of a precious resource that is required across the Imperium for everything from space travel to life-extension. This important substance, “mélange”, is usually called simply “spice”, and much of Dune will revolve around it. Already the obvious real-world parallel must be observed: the precious resource required universally in the gigantic economy which is found in a poor desert country - it’s a metaphor for oil, of course, and Arrakis, the desert planet, is a stand-in for the Middle East, and its primitive and Islamic-influenced inhabitants, the Fremen, represent the wilder elements of the Arab world. Not to waste any time - yes, this parallel is legitimate and not at all a secret. But Dune is not an allegory for one particular time and place. It is, like all myth and fiction, applicable to many times and many places. 

Although we do not yet know exactly why, a strange woman who is regarded highly by Paul’s mother Jessica, has come to visit Paul and administer a brief test. The test lasts only seconds, perhaps more than a few minutes, but Paul’s life is in the balance - if he fails the test, he will die. Knowing this, his mother nonetheless consents. Paul is assured that she passed the same test long ago, and just before she leaves the room, Jessica tells her son to “Remember you’re a duke’s son”. We quickly see the relevance of this reminder when the nature of the test is revealed. The old woman tells Paul that she is testing him for humanity as he is threatened with a weapon that kills only animals, a “gom jabbar”. Paul is disgusted that she would suggest he - the son of a duke, as his mother just reminded him - would be subhuman. I’ve always loved her response to his outrage: “Let us say that I suggest you may be human”. 

Upon my first reading, I interpreted the fact that the tiny, needle-like gom jabbar was poisoned with a substance that was lethal only to the subhuman. This is not the case - it’s not the blade itself that is lethal only to animals, but instead the weapon would only be used on an animal, because only an animal would fail the test and receive the punishment of the poisoned blade. And what is the test? Simple: delayed gratification. Put your hand in a box and don’t pull it out, even while the box gives you excruciating pain. If you fail the test and pull out your hand, you will be stabbed and poisoned and immediately die. Control your urges and pass/live, or give in to your instincts and fail/die. Already we’re on a great track: Herbert has, in the first chapter of his book asserted that not all humans are human, that some are just animals, and that the real dividing line between these two is self-control. This judgement does not bode so well for the innately uninhibited members of the sapient population. Herbert declares, through the mouth of the representative of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood, that those who are incapable of restraint are subhuman. Let’s take a look at this fascinatingly fascist matriarchy of manipulators. 

Old Gaius Helen Mohaim, the old crone in question, tells us after Paul passes his test with flying colors that her sisterhood is a surviving descendant of a series of “schools” that were founded a very long time ago, after an event that left humanity without the use of “thinking machines”, and thus with a lot of responsibility on our hands to make up for the absence of what had become the crutch of computers. Here is another key concept of the Dune universe - the idea that computers (and many other things) are crutches that allow human beings not to think or act for themselves, but instead to rely upon external systems and tools that do their work for them, and as a result leave them vulnerable for “other men with machines” to make slaves out of them. 

Although there is another, apparently all-male school that focuses on “pure mathematics” (an autistic and male pursuit), the Bene Gesserits’ focus is politics, as Paul surmises on “remarkably few clues”. He had to guess that the Sisterhood’s business was politics, despite the fact that he is a political elite, his mother is a member of the Sisterhood, and she had been training him in their ways. The strategy of the BG is covert manipulation of political elites (this should conjure up a list of real-world parallels) ... by, for example, assignment of a sister to become the consort of a duke and the mother of his child, for example. They are an all-female sect that engages in a feminine form of politics, a passive form of politics based around manipulation and deceit. The fact that they are a purely feminine organization in their essence and substance justifies their desire for a masculine version of their power, hopefully a masculine element they can control like anyone else. This masculine version of the Bene Gesserit is called the Kwisatz Haderach, the “one who can be in many places at once”. While the Bene Gesserit can access the “feminine avenues” of their ancestry via blood memory, they can only access their feminine ancestors. The males, and by extension the male perspective, is forever closed to them. But not to the Kwisatz Haderach. The real biological link to these concepts are that, while women have an XX chromosome, and are thus entirely female, men have XY, and are really only half ‘pure male’. Males have something females don’t, but not the other way around. Although males have the capacity to be passive, and thus to take on the aspect of the Bene Gesserit, whose existence is passive despite its great importance and power, they are also endowed with the active element, forbidden to the feminine. This pure male essence is not only unknowable to the female/BG, it is terrifying to them. 

In this several myths are invoked. First there is the Dionysian image of the male leader surrounded by female sycophants in the Kwisatz Haderach as the male apotheosis of the Bene Gesserit coven. Second there are the various themes of the Great Goddess of the feminine, and the conquering aspect of the masculine, embodied in the myth of Apollo among many others. Notably missing from the story so far is a snake motif- an element central to the Apollo myth and to Great Goddess figures everywhere. But there will be, so look out for it. 

However, many are called but few are chosen to become the Kwisatz Haderach. And, although Paul has passed the first test, those who try to fulfill this role and fail are not forgiven. 

[aion-rsa]

Dune: The Sardaukar Are Scarier Than You Realize

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains Dune spoilers.

At a glance it feels like we’ve seen this song and dance before. An army of white-armored soldiers stand in perfect square formations beneath the comings and goings of Offworld spaceships. They’re soldiers; the supposed elite; the Emperor’s very own Sardaukar hit squad. But to anyone who’s watched a Star Wars movie or nine, they’re not that threatening, right? This supposed scourge off the Empire—excuse me, Imperium—is built up to be unbeatable until our protagonists start mowing them down by the dozen.

Well, as it turns out the Sardaukar of Frank Herbert and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune are no Stormtroopers, and anyone who thinks otherwise can ask the ghost of Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa) for proof. Yes, the loyal Atreides man stood bravely against the Sardaukar until the end, and even took a solid handful of them to the afterlife with him for company, but as he said earlier in Dune, “When you cross swords with a Sardaukar, you know it.” And in Duncan’s case, it was the last thing he ever knew.

We similarly saw the Sardaukar battalions wipe out most of Duke Leto Atreides’ armed forces and finally eradicate an entire Fremen stronghold (although not without incurring heavy losses themselves). More ruthless and violent than Stormtroopers, the Sardaukar really are, as one of their officers boast, “The Emperor’s blades. Those who stand against us fall.”

This gives added creepiness to that brief snapshot we get of their homeward on Salusa Secundus where men look to be “trained” while being crucified upside down, and as some gravelly-voiced figure provides a deeply unsettling religious chant from on high.

If you’ve never read Herbert’s 1965 novel or any of the Dune sequels, trust us, the Sardaukar are so much worse than you realize.

How Sardaukar Are Made

In truth, Sardaukar are not from the planet Salusa Secundus; or at least their ancestors weren’t. Many centuries ago, Salusa Secundus was the home of House Corrino, the royal family which has ruled the Known Universe for thousands of years under the crown of the Padishah Empire. From the brutal living conditions of Salusa Secundus, House Corrino consolidated its power as the greatest and most dangerous family in the universe.

However, after the Corrino House moved to a more glorious planet on Kaitain, they transformed their former homeworld into a prison planet. Think where Sigourney Weaver winds up in Alien 3—or really just the penal colony of Australia. Anyone whom House Corrino decreed seditious or vile was sentenced to live out their remaining days in vicious conditions.

But what happened to them after they were exiled to the Imperium’s best known hellhole? It is unclear because the Padishah Emperor forbade any sort of survey or open records to be kept of the occurrences on Salusa Secundus. That’s because the Corrinos’ victims were not only sentenced to suffer: convicts, and convicts’ children, and their children’s children, and so on for eternity were sentenced to be assimilated and brainwashed into a warrior culture’s cult. Like the Spartans of the old earth, the weak were filtered out from the strong at birth, and the healthy from the sick.

It is said six out of every 13 children born on Salusa Secundus die before the  age of 11 due to the unforgiving and fanatical training regiment of their forefathers, who were in turned raised by their fathers to have a religious-like deference toward all members in the House Corrino. In the royal family’s favor, they’re raised to be peerless swordsmen and warriors (and to have a decent middle class lifestyle, apparently), to the point where one wonders if they influenced the Unsullied in George R.R. Martin’s “A Sword of Ice and Fire” as much as they did Stormtroopers in Star Wars.

Why the Sardaukar Use Swords

The Sardaukar and their foes all favor blades over projectile weapons. This is due to the invention of the defensive Holtzman shield you see utilized throughout the movie. Thousands of years ago, these personal defense shields were built to protect users from any type of object that could be fired from a weapon like a gun, laser, or presumably a bow and arrow.

Overnight, this invention reinvigorated warfare in Dune’s universe, leading to a renewed interest in the old ways of swordplay where new techniques were cultivated that could allow a blade to move slow enough to slip through the shield’s protective barrier. Villeneuve helpfully visualized this for viewers by having the shield glow blue when it successfully blocks an attack and glow red when an object penetrates its protection.

It is said there are no finer warriors in the whole Imperium at eliminating the usefulness of a Holtzman shield than the Sardaukar. And yet, according to Duncan Idaho, the Fremen appear to be better fighters. The Fremen certainly grew up in a landscape as merciless as Salusa Secundus. But I suppose we’ll find out who truly is the better warrior culture when we get that anticipated Dune Part Two.

Dune is playing in theaters and on HBO Max now.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post Dune: The Sardaukar Are Scarier Than You Realize appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3nmmQCw

[rottenappleusach]

Knighthood through time, Part VII: Paul Atreides, from Dune.

by Fernanda Leal

In first place, I would like to thank my friend Franco Arata for helping me to understand the story of our following character, which is developed through a series of books. In second place, you might ask: why did I need help? Well, first; we have to admit when we don’t know enough about certain topics and ask for help in order to make a good job avoiding mistakes; and secondly, I haven’t read any of the Dune’s series book, what a shame, isn’t it?

Maybe you have never heard about Dune, but let me tell you that is a very famous and successful science fiction novel, published in 1965 by Frank Herbet. The franchise originally has 6 books, but there are more than 10 which were written by Herbet’s son and Kevin J. Anderson.

 The story in a few words

Like all the big books’ franchises, it’s really difficult to summarize the story in just 50 or 60 words without forgetting or mentioning some important details. I think that the most important fact that we have to keep in mind is that this story isn’t set in medieval times but in a futuristic land. Even though we have certain medieval features like aristocracy, empires, and feudalism, we can also see space travels, futuristic weapons, and huge spaceships.

The novels tell us the story of Paul Atreides, son of Leto Atreides, Duke of Caladan and Lady Jessica. She was part of the Bene Gesserit order, which commands her to conceive a girl for the Duke, but due to the intense and enormous love that she felt for the Duke, she conceived the boy that the Duke had always wanted. Here is when a series of complots, battles, and drama begins, all this triggered by the longing of power and the Golden Lion Throne.

The three stages

Page    

Paul Atreides lived in planet Caladan with his parents, until he was 15 years old. Even though the Bene Gesserit order wanted him to be born a girl, he received the same training that his mother, learning and acquiring knowledge in martial arts, knowledge, and control over his metabolism and senses. He had 3 masters: Gurney Halleck, Duncan Idaho, and Thufir Hawat. Each one of them trained Paul in different fields, like weapon combat and Mentat.

Squire

At the age of 15, he and his people were told to leave Caladan and go to Arrakis (or Dune) in a conspiration from part of Emperor to the Duke. Due to a betrayal from one of his own people, the Atreides’ massacre started. The Emperor’s forces killed almost everyone including the Atreides army and Duke Leto. Paul and his mother Jessica escaped from the massacre helped by Duncan, who sacrificed himself for the protection of Paul. They went into the Desert of Dune, where they were sheltered by the Fremen.

Even though I consider this part of the story as the squire stage, no one was in charge of Paul’s protection (like the case of Peter Pevensie). With his mother’s help, he trained Fremen people in weapon battle and led them in a revolution against the Harkonnen and the Emperor, the man that killed his father. For the Fremen, Paul was a kind of prophet which is “The One Who Will Lead Us to Paradise”.    

Knight

Paul had doubts about if he was the real Messiah, besides he wanted to unleash all his powers. These reasons triggered him to drink the “Water of Life”, falling in a state of coma for one week. Into this “journey” he had full control of time, the past, present, and future and discovered the identity of his ancestors.

Finally, when Paul woke up, he guides the Fremen in a final battle against the Emperor, riding the enormous sandworms which were typical from Dune. The battle ends with the victory of Paul and the Fremen. Paul forced the Emperor to retire to another planet and to give him his daughter’s hand. By marry Princess Irulan, Paul becomes the new Emperor.

  For those who are very keen on Dune franchise, IM SORRY but I couldn’t write all the details of this adventure because there were thousands! I gently invite you to search for deeply explanations and information about these novels, and why not? To read them if you want to!