wormleto - Tumblr blog

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kind of shit at backgrounds, so i tried to practice.😭😭😭 anyways, dune video game concept

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Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, Guisli Merli as Reverend Mother Ramallo in "Dune: Part Two" | The Art and Soul of Dune Part Two

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yeah

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paul and alia atreides

Such a rich store of myths enfolds Paul Muad'dib, the Mentat Emperor, and his sister, Alia, it is difficult to see the real persons behind these veils. But there were, after all, a man born Paul Atreides and a woman born Alia. Their flesh was subject to space and time.

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bene gesserit costuming + occult and religious imagery

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saint alia of the knife - regent of the atreides empire

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“i want you to know, i will love you as long as i breathe.”

dune part ii / ojibwa / waiting for this story to end before i begin another, jan heller lev

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Controversial opinion among Dune book fans maybe, but I loved the changes they made to Chani's character. Making her a fedaykin who is already an experienced fighter before Paul arrives was a brilliant choice. Dune Part Two is a war movie, and this puts her at the center of the action, side by side with Paul, and gives her a much more active role than she has in the book.

We got a hint of where things were going in the beginning of Dune Part One. The first thing we ever know about movie Chani is that she's a fighter. She serves as a voice for the Fremen, telling us the story of their struggle from her point of view. I wrote here about the difference this change makes compared to other adaptations of Dune, what a perspective shift it is to have the world of Arrakis introduced not by an outsider, describing it as a dangerous but valuable colonial prize, but by one of its native inhabitants, who tells us before all else that it's beautiful, her home that she's fighting to liberate. I am so, so glad that the second movie followed up on this characterization.

I never found Chani and Paul's love story in the book particularly convincing, because why would this woman, who already has a prominent and respected place in Fremen society, even give the time of day to her deposed would-be colonizer, let alone fall in love and have children with him? Without a compelling reason for Chani to love Paul, she ends up feeling like a prize to be won, and "indigenous culture personified as a woman to be wooed (or conquered) by the colonizing man" is a trope we've seen and don't need to repeat.

But as soon as you tell me it's a barricade romance I get it. Cool cool cool, I know exactly what this relationship is now and it makes sense. Movie Chani doesn't respect or even particularly like Paul when she first meets him, and she doesn't think he's the fulfillment of any prophecy. She comes to respect him, and eventually love him, through his actions. He's brave--sometimes recklessly so. He fights well. He's willing to stick his neck out on the front lines with the other Fremen fighters. He can (after a little help) hack surviving in the harsh desert environment. He's not too proud to learn from others. He seems to genuinely want to be her equal in a common political struggle. All these qualities make sense as things she values.

Fighting side by side as equals is just about the only way I can see movie Chani falling for Paul. And it fits perfectly with the film's pattern of reversals that Paul's capacity for violence would initially be one of the things Chani likes about him, only for her to be repelled later when she sees what he becomes.

And as for Paul, well, he's had people deferring to him his entire life. Someone who doesn't take any shit from him is probably refreshing. He seems to like people (Duncan, Gurney) who challenge him and engage in a little friendly teasing--and aren't afraid to go a few rounds in the sparring ring.

It's easy to speedrun a romance when you're spending all your time together in mortal danger fighting for a shared political cause. Especially if you then start winning in a war your people have been fighting for decades. Are you kidding me? That is the perfect environment for intense battle camaraderie to turn into romantic love, and lust.

It makes sense that this version of Chani never believes Paul is any kind of messiah. Of course a character like movie Chani wouldn't believe in or trust some outside savior to liberate them. She's been working to liberate her own people for years. The more Paul invokes the messianic myth, the more he starts sounding once again like someone who plans to rule over them, and the more uncomfortable Chani becomes. In this way she becomes a foil to Jessica, the two of them representing the choices Paul is pulled between. It's a great way of externalizing the political and philosophical debates that often happen within characters' heads in the book.

And of course this version of Chani would leave Paul at the end of the film. It's not just the personal, emotional betrayal--although that stings. What common cause does she have with someone who just declared himself emperor and is sending her own people off in a war of conquest against others? Given the important role she plays in Dune Messiah, I am super curious to see how they get her back into the story, but girl was so valid for being willing to just gtfo. Given that she has the last shot of the whole movie, I'm sure she'll be back somehow, and I can't wait to see what they do with her character in any future installments.

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we're bene gesserits. we don't hope. we plan.

dune: part two (2024), dir. denis villeneuve / st. mark preaching in alexandria, gentile bellini and giovanni bellini, 1504-7

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the ateides family + a clash of kings, george r.r. martin

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you're not ascending to godhood you're just dehydrated

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dune: part two // succession 1x10

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Everytime I see some interview or review about how amazingly 'terrifying' Austin Butler was as Feyd-Rautha I die a bit inside. Like how could they miss the point so entirely?

The baron is terrifying, Rabban is terrifying, Piter is terrifying but Feyd? Yeah sure he'll kill without remorse, he'll plot, he's sneaky and will even enjoy inflicting pain if it strokes his ego or ambition but in the context of his house....... He's the most reasonable one! The charismatic one, the one that the people can love. He's the Harkonnens' best face, their ticket to leading the universe, not by pure violence but by marriage and politics. He's even born of a father who tried to run away from them entirely.

The way that Feyd is supposed to take power is by being MORE MERCIFUL AND MORE REASONABLE than the harkonnens who came before. Even if he's motivated by ambition rather than kindness (so is Paul, in many ways), he's supposed to swoop in and RESCUE the people of Arrakis from the hands of his brute brother. JUST LIKE PAUL HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE SEEN AS A BETTER ALTERNATIVE, if not an outright saviour.

Yes he's cruel and yes he is scheming but the savagely they keep ascribing to him in the movie belongs to Rabban and the true psychopathic sadism to Piter, and then finally obviously the Baron is the worst evil schemer there is. I do not understand why they've given him a bunch of traits that are better exemplified in the other members of his house and gotten rid of the things that made him a unique Harkonnen enemy and an effective mirror to Paul.

Hell in the book he even LOOKS like Paul (curly dark hair) and it's implied that the baron is attracted to both of them, implying he has a certain type.

Sigh.

It just feels so lazy and uninventive, but most of all it's just a shame because it's so much less interesting than it could have been. Compared to that, having him do a batman voice and feed people to his cannibal harem for fun is just so.... lame.

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paul atreides and feyd rautha

dune: part two, dir. denis villenueve // dune, frank hubert // the illustrated dune, illustrations by john schoenherr // kerri maniscalco // the double in gothic fiction, alex heath // kittos epoiesen // dune: part one, dir. denis villenueve // fire & blood, george r.r. martin

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seeing dune part two for a third time tonight

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What if Paul Atreides were still alive?

TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides/Muad'Dib in DUNE: PART TWO (2023), dir. Denis Villeneuve