#I mean if frank herbert can do it.

[david-watts]

if I am forced into university again this year would it be funny to write thinly veiled lawrence/ali fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off for my professional writing class.

[fuckyeahisawthat]

There are so many places in the Villeneuve Dune adaptations where he just...takes all the narrative pieces that Frank Herbert laid out and subtly rearranges them into something that tells the story better--that creates dramatic tension where you need it, communicates the themes and message of the book more clearly, or corrects something in the text that contradicts or undermines what Herbert said he was trying to say.

The fedaykin are probably my favorite example of this. I just re-read a little part of the book and got smacked in the face with how different they are.

(under the cut for book spoilers and length)

The fedaykin in the book are Paul's personal followers, sort of his personal guard. They show up after his legend has already started growing (the word doesn't appear in the book until chapter 40) and they are people who have specifically dedicated themselves to fighting for him, and right from the moment they're introduced there is a kind of implied fanaticism to their militancy that's a bit uncomfortable to read. They're the most ardent believers in Paul's messianic status and willing to die for him. (They are also, as far as you can tell from the text, all men.)

In the book, as far as I can remember (I could be forgetting some small detail but I don't think so) there is no mention of armed resistance to colonialism on Arrakis before Paul shows up. As far as we know, he created it. ETA: Okay I actually went back and checked on this and while we hear about the Fremen being "a thorn in the side" of the Harkonnens and we know that they are good fighters, we don't see anything other than possibly one bit of industrial sabotage. The book is very clear that the organized military force we see in the second half was armed and trained by Paul. This is exacerbated by the two-year time jump in the book, which means we never see how Paul goes from being a newly deposed ex-colonial overlord running for his life to someone who has his own private militia of people ready to give their lives for him.

The movie completely flips all these dynamics on their head in ways that add up to a radical change in meaning.

The fedaykin in the movie are an already-existing guerrilla resistance movement on Arrakis that formed long before Paul showed up. Literally the first thing we learn about the Fremen, less that two minutes into the first movie, is that they are fighting back against the colonization and exploitation of their home and have been for decades.

The movie fedaykin also start out being the most skeptical of the prophecy about Paul, which is a great choice from both a political and a character standpoint. Of course they're skeptical. If you're part of a small guerrilla force repeatedly going up against a much bigger and stronger imperial army...you have to believe in your own agency. You have to believe that it is possible to win, and that this tiny little chip in the armor of a giant terrifying military machine that you are making right now will make a difference in the end. These are the people who are directly on the front lines of resisting oppression. They are doing it with their own sweat, blood and ingenuity, and they are not about to wait around for some messiah who may never come.

From a character standpoint, this is really the best possible environment you could put Paul Atreides in if you want to keep him humble. He doesn't get any automatic respect handed to him due to title or birthright or religious belief. He has to prove himself--not as any kind of savior but as a good fighter and a reliable member of a collective political project. And he does. This is an environment that really draws out his best qualities. He's a skilled fighter; he's brave (sometimes recklessly so); he's intensely loyal to and protective of people he cares about. He is not too proud to learn from others and work hard in an egalitarian environment where he gets no special treatment or extra glory. The longer he spends with the fedaykin the more his allegiance shifts from Atreides to Fremen, and the more skeptical he himself becomes about the prophecy. This sets up the conflict with Jessica, which comes to a head before she leaves for the south. And his political sincerity--that he genuinely comes to believe that these people deserve liberation from all colonial forces and his only role should be to help where he can--is what makes the tragedy work. Because in the end we know he will betray all these values and become the exact thing he said he didn't want to be.

There's another layer of meaning to all this that I don't know if the filmmakers were even aware of. ETA: rescinding my doubt cause based on some of Villeneuve's other projects I'm pretty sure he could work it out. Given the time period (1960s) and Herbert's propensity for using Arabic or Arabic-inspired words for aspects of Fremen culture, it seems very likely that the made-up word fedaykin was taken from fedayeen, a real Arabic word that was frequently used untranslated in American news media at the time, usually to refer to Palestinian armed resistance groups.

Fedayeen is usually translated into English as fighter, guerrilla, militant or something similar. The translation of fedaykin that Herbert provides in Dune is "death commando"...which is a whole bucket of yikes in my opinion, but it's not entirely absurd if we're assuming that this fake word and the real word fedayeen function in the same way. A more literal translation of fedayeen is "self-sacrificer," as in willing, intentional self-sacrifice for a political cause, up to and including sacrificing your life.

If you apply this logic to Dune, it means that Villeneuve has actually shifted the meaning of this word in-universe, from fighters who are willing to sacrifice themselves for Paul to fighters who are willing to sacrifice themselves for their people. And the fedaykin are no longer a group created for Paul but a group that Paul counts himself as part of, one member among equals. Which is just WILDLY different from what's in the book. And so much better in my opinion.

[thedwarrowscholar]

Hey! Do you still help with translations for tattoos? Any help would be amazing and greatly appreciated!

I’d love the following from Dune, but in Moria Script!

‘Not a problem to solve, but a reality to experience’

Well met, mcnewguy!

Yes — I do still assist with Neo-Khuzdul translations, especially when the request carries personal meaning or creative intent. While many reach out for tattoos, my work often tends to go beyond direct inscription — aiming to consider linguistic accuracy, cultural and historical context, and tone, with as much care and depth as the phrase deserves.

You asked for a Neo-Khuzdul translation of:

“Not a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.”

It’s a powerful line. Worth noting, however, that the original quote from Frank Herbert’s Dune is actually:

“The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.”

This line is itself closely inspired by the 19th-century philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, who wrote:

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”

Sketch of Søren Kierkegaard

🌌 Kierkegaard, Existentialism, and Tolkien

Though Kierkegaard lived nearly a century before existentialism became widely known, he’s often regarded as its first thinker. His Christian existentialist philosophy emphasized personal choice, the confrontation with despair, and the pursuit of meaning through lived experience — ideas Herbert clearly drew from in Dune.

While Tolkien never explicitly references Kierkegaard (to my knowledge), it’s likely he was at least familiar with his works, particularly through Charles Williams (fellow Inkling and editor at Oxford University Press), who personally championed the English translation and publication of Kierkegaard’s writings.

Tolkien’s world, too, reflects deeply existential themes — especially in how Elves and Men grapple with mortality and fate. Wraiths, for example, can be seen as literalizations of Kierkegaard’s concept of “living death”: caught between life and death, devoid of purpose, driven by fear and despair. As in Kierkegaard’s view, despair in Tolkien is not just an emotion — it’s a spiritual condition.

In this way, your quote rests at a meaningful crossroad between Dune, Kierkegaard, and Middle-earth.

Clarity amid Uncertainty

🧭 A Note on Tolkien and Dune

It’s also worth mentioning that while your chosen quote bridges existential philosophy and fantasy, J.R.R. Tolkien himself held a notably negative opinion of Dune. In a letter to John Bush dated March 12, 1966 (entry 964 in Tolkien’s Library), he wrote:

“I dislike Dune with some intensity… in that unfortunate case it is much the best and fairest to another author to keep silent and refuse to comment.”

Tolkien never elaborated on the reasons for this strong dislike. However, some have suggested that it stems from the stark philosophical contrast between the two authors: Tolkien, a devout Catholic and staunch deontologist, emphasized virtue, duty, and moral absolutes — whereas Herbert’s Dune leans heavily into consequentialism, where actions are judged by their outcomes. These opposing ethical frameworks shape the very core of their respective mythologies.

Still, the fact that a line originating from Kierkegaard could echo through both Herbert’s Dune and now a Dwarvish rendering is a testament to the lasting power of good philosophy — and the universality of certain truths, across all worlds.

🪓 Neo-Khuzdul Translation

Lu banal du bâbnul, ak aksât d' arfur. (Not a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.)

Let’s briefly unpack it:

lu — “not”

banal — “problem” (from the root BNL)

du — “to”

bâbnul — “to solve” (also form the root BNL - from tabnili, “to face problems” + allied prefix ba- to indicate removal/overcoming)

ak — “but” or “yet”

aksât — “reality”

d' — shortened form of du, used for smoother flow before vowels

arfur — “(to) experience” (infinitive)

The phrasing is carefully constructed with a tone fitting of Durin’s folk. I hope it serves you well — whether carved in stone, etched in ink, or simply carried forward in thought.

Ever at your service, The Dwarrow Scholar

[machinesonix]

Somehow I have made it this long without realizing that none of the screen adoptions of Dune so much as mention the Butlerian Jihad. Like I guess it's burned into my brain so hard I sort of assumed it was part and parcel of the universe. Don't get me wrong, I think that's probably the first thing you learn if you want to dive deeper into the setting, but it still hits me like if the LotR movies showed us the big flaming eyeball tower and was like ‘Oh, that's why there are bad things, but don't worry, that's just background stuff.’ Yeah, you can understand the movie, but if the story is just like Frodo vs. The Witch King you are losing out on any of the conversation about the corruptive allure of power or theological undertones. So without further ado let's pretend this is for the benefit of interested new fans roped in by the movies and not part of my desperate attempt to silence the howling specters of literary analysis that live in my blood.

The Butlerian Jihad is an event set ~10k years prior to the events of Dune in which humanity won their freedom from the machines that they had enslaved themselves to. As a result, it is a religious taboo to create a machine that thinks like a human. That's frankly the bulk of the information presented by Frank Herbert in the text without dipping into books 7+, but whether or not those are canon is frankly an enormous can of worms, which really makes sense when you consider the size of the worms. But boy howdy, Frank loved his subtext and parallelism. Everyone has a foil character, every theme is hit from multiple angles, and Villinueve has been doing an excellent job of capturing a lot of that in repeated imagery and dialogue. The Butlerian Jihad happens off camera, but it's themes are absolutely critical to the big picture.

The Butlerian Jihad was a holy war. It was not merely a rebellion against the machines, it was a crusade against them. The prohibition against thinking machines isn't just a law, it's in the pan-universal Bible. Absolute psychopath Pieter DeVries himself claps back at the Baron for insinuating he might have a use for a computer, and this is a guy who has been hired specifically for his preternatural absence of morals. Let's hold onto that idea for a minute. 

Probably my favorite scene in the first book is the one where planetologist Liet-Kynes is dying out in the desert. As the last of his strength fades to dehydration he hallucinates conversations he had with his father concerning terraforming Arakkis for human habitability. He's told that the means are not complicated. There is already enough water on the planet, the Little Makers just have it all trapped deep underground as part of the sandworm reproductive cycle. You just need to isolate enough water to start irrigating plant life, and once it's established that'll keep the water on the surface on its own. The hard part is making sure everyone on the planet is environmentally conscious enough to foster a developing ecosystem. Nobody can drink any of that water while it's being collected, because they'll just introduce it back into the water cycle where the Little Makers are. It's going to take generations, so that sort of water discipline is going to have to go above and beyond a social convention. People need to be willing to die before they'll take a sip and compromise the plan. Ghost Dad Kynes concludes that the only mechanism in the human experience to enforce this consensus is religion. 

In the context of this whole parallelism thing, you have probably noticed that the Butlerian Jihad is not the only holy war in the narrative. Paul sees a new jihad as the only way of creating a future where humans can flourish. Now you might be saying ‘Wait now, Machines. I thought the point of Paul’s holy war was to avenge Leto and disempower established power structures by taking away the control of the spice!’ And you’d be right. The thing is, without getting into spoiler territory, Dune Messiah is not going to be about how everything just gets so much better now that Paul has destroyed the economy, government, and untold billions of human lives. This isn’t the endgame. Dude can see the future and the way he does it involves looking into the past. Paul lives in a society defined by a holy war and his goal is to redefine society. 

Putting it all together you can see what I mean about the Butlerian Jihad being essential to the themes even though the story never shows us a thinking machine or a narrative beat where the absence of computers changes the outcome. It helps us see the big picture. I’ve seen a lot of dialogue lately on whether Paul is a tragic hero or a consummate villain and I’m not here to answer that, but I am here to underline the critical detail. Paul intends to be seen as a tyrant. Just like Kynes’ hallucination says, religion is the lever to make a value stick around forever. He wants to traumatize humanity to hate chosen ones and emperors the same way the machines traumatized humanity to change them forever. The Water of Life ritual doesn’t invert his values, it lets him realize these visions of war are the means, not the ends. He is absolutely not happy about it, but this is Paul’s terrible purpose. 

[trojanteapot]

Why the Northern Fremen don't believe in the Prophecy

The reason is just an incredibly simple, sociological reason. What do they keep pointing out about Arrakis? That the south is harsh and uninhabitable... to outworlders. We know this harsh environment increases religious fervour to bolster survival, but what does this mean for the north? Why did they lose their faith?

The settler's cities, Arrakeen and Carthag, are situated in the north. The Harkonnens don't believe the south is habitable so they only mine spice in the north. Their brutal suppression of the Fremen are only in the north.

So imagine you are one of the Northern Fremen. You know there's a prophecy about the Lisan al-Gaib, the Voice from the Outer World that would save your people. But here are these outworlders, who rampage your planet, who enslave and brutalize your people, who only see Arrakis as a resource, and its inhabitants as a means to an end, or "rats" that are in the way of their bottom line. Rats to be exterminated. Seeing all of this, of course you would start to doubt the prophecy. If this is how real outworlders are, why would the Lisan al-Gaib be any different from them?

And this is why Chani and the other Northern Fremen stop believing. They see through its manipulation of the Fremen. But they also understand that if the Fremen band together and fight back, they can win battles on their own. The Southern Fremen don't see any of this, because they're essentially protected from the violence of the colonizers by the dust storms near the equator. They might hear stories about the Harkonnens, but that wouldn't shake their faith in the Lisan al-Gaib. They are willing to simply wait for the "right" kind of outworlder, which does come along in the form of Paul and Jessica.

I think this is a really clever explanation of this divide in the thinking of the Northern and Southern Fremen, which is also related to the idea of how the environment that people grow up in shape their beliefs and their culture. Even though this is a departure from the first novel, this change is still true to the spirit of Frank Herbert's Dune.

[white-spectre]

Thoughts on The Similarities Between Morrowind and Dune

(and a personal analysis foreword)

----

I've been struggling lately with the idea of wanting to create things, but having a complete lack of aptitude for most forms of art. Within the last few years, I have noticed a huge decrease in my typing ability, reading comprehension, and overall articulation that concerns me, and I think depression is a huge factor that I try to work on as often as I can. I don't get any fulfillment or sense of creation from my work and life has felt so overwhelming and dull lately, but I guess I would consider writing as one of my better talents overall. Seeing something completed feels nice, and once I start on a project, I will usually see it through. Even if it is something that has probably been hashed out a million times, but I love analyzing my little blorbos sometimes and Tumblr is THE place to spout into the void. Already I've written a paragraph and only had to correct about 200 mistakes so here we go... (Spoilers for both Dune and Morrowind of course).

In this analysis, I will provide a little history of both works for people who are unfamiliar with one or the other, and compare similarities and differences. I want to make it very clear from the beginning that Dune was published many, many years before Morrowind, and that I believe that many aspects of Dune helped shape the concept of Morrowind's lore, but I do not believe that this was extensive to the point of plagiarism or intellectual property theft.

Dune was published by Frank Herbert in 1965, which was the first of 6 novels in the original series. The series was later expanded upon by Frank's son Brian Hebert and currently includes 30+ novels set in the Dune universe. The series is set in our universe approximately 20,000 years in the future, and take place mostly on the planet of Arrakis, or Dune, as it is called by the native people. The story follows the members of House Atreides and their contested lordship of Arrakis. The young Atreides heir, Paul, is the culmination of a millennia-long eugenics experiment by the Bene Gesserit, an organization of women with mystical abilities and training. Paul is believed to be the Kwisatz Haderach, one who is able to see all potential futures. Following the decimation of the Atreides-held city on Arrakis by a feuding house, Paul seeks asylum with the native Fremen population. Their belief in the Lisan Al-Gaib leads them to believe that Paul is their messiah, and they later overthrow the invading House Harkonnen and restore Paul Muad'Dib as the emperor of Dune.

Morrowind is the third installment in the Elder Scrolls video game series, and was released by Bethesda in 2002. The game is set in Morrowind, one of 9 provinces of Tamriel. The story follows a slave, released without explanation by the Emperor, to the remote island district of Vvardenfell. The former slave/adventurer is given the task of working with an operative of the Blades, the Emperor's guard and spy network. The spymaster Caius has the adventurer obtain various accounts of the native prophecy of the Nerevarine, a reincarnation of a legendary hero that will unite and save the people of Morrowind from an ancient evil, the Sixth House. As the questline progresses through many trials, it becomes clear that the adventurer appears to fulfill the prophecies, and culminates with the adventurer defeating the lord of the Sixth House, Dagoth Ur, and freeing the people of Morrowind from the blight.

Both Morrowind and Dune rely heavily on storytelling from the perspective of an outsider to learn the ways of the native culture. Paul learns the way of the Fremen as he traverses Arrakis as a means of separating himself from his previous way of life and understanding the prescience that he will one day lead the Fremen in a galactic Jihad; the Adventurer learns the ways of both the Great Houses of Morrowind and the Ashlander tribes in order to lead them in fighting the Sixth House and Dagoth Ur. Both native populations have a far-reaching history of nomadic, tribal origins. Both view their respective empires as invading forces to be repelled.

Both stories use lost and forbidden knowledge as a key plot point, with the Adventurer retrieving the Lost Prophecies of the Seven Visions and Seven Trials, Knowledge forbidden by the Tribunal Temple; and with Paul ingesting the Water of Life to obtain memories of the lives of past Reverend Mothers of the Fremen, forbidden to any male.

This ties in with the use of religion as a means of control in both stories. In Dune, the Bene Gesserit are said to "seed" planets with a doctrine that they believe will advance their goals in the future, which ultimately leads to the Fremen belief in the Lisan Al-Gaib and the rise of the Atreides Empire. In Morrowind, the Tribunal have persecuted the Dissident Priests for their teachings that the Tribunal only attained godhood through deception, and maintain strict control over what the Temple preaches. Both Vivec and Paul Atreides later regret the ritualistic practices of their following, and both admit that they allowed ritual and habit to corrupt the practice of their worship.

The province of Morrowind and the planet Arrakis are both viewed by the outside world as savage, inhospitable, and mostly uninhabited land. In Morrowind, the Empire has fairly recently come to the island of Vvardenfell, and most Imperial forces consider the island to be a wild, rural backwater of the world. Tension is high between the native Great Houses of Morrowind and the Empire, with very little or no contact between the Ashlander Tribes and the Empire. In Dune, the native population initially remains hidden from the Imperial forces that seek to harvest the planet's resources, and the few that have contact with House Atreides are seen as dangerous and alien in their practices.

There are other similarities that I can't articulate very well because it is getting late... Alia's possession by Baron Harkonnen in Children of Dune mirrors Dagoth Ur's seeming possession by the proximity to the Heart of Lorkhan, Paul's reliance on Spice as a means of prescience mirrors the Tribunal's reliance on the heart for their godhood and so on.

I am by no means a professor of literature. This is not meant to be a definitive list of similarities. I just had some thoughts on the similarities for a while and it's been tickling me to write them down. I apologize if I've transposed some words or missed the right verb form, my brain just does that now :/

[wot-tidbits]

Brandon Sanderson says studios and streamers aren’t ready to adapt his work

‘Streaming has had a big problem with epic fantasy, and this has me worried’

The following are quotes from recent interview with Brandon Sanderson on Polygon. I chose certain responses which I think to be the most interesting parts.

If you are interested you can read the whole article here.

"I have had a lot of offers for The Stormlight Archive, people wanting to make prestige television for cable networks or streamers. Very nice offers from very great people that I would want to work with. And I’ve said no because I don’t feel it’s the right time for Stormlight Archive yet. I am in the fortunate position where I can walk away from some of the best deals that might be offered to authors, and do what I think is best for the story."

"What would convince you the time was right? What signs are you looking for?

The solid answer is: I don’t know. Hopefully I will recognize it when I see it. But the reason I don’t know is, I’m not convinced that we have hit stability in the streaming market. Streaming has had a big problem with epic fantasy, and this has me worried. Rings of Power and Wheel of Time have not gone as well as I would’ve hoped. Shadow and Bone lasted only two seasons, after a very strong first season. Streaming hasn’t figured out epic fantasy yet.

Maybe this is a holdover from network television days, where they’re trying to make the episodes fit into the structure of how episodic television used to work, rather than filming an eight-hour movie and showing it in chunks. But maybe that’s a bad idea. All I know is, right now we haven’t seen really great epic fantasy film television since the early, mid seasons of Game of Thrones. Fifty million dollars per episode has not done it, so it’s not a matter of the money they’re throwing at it. The other thing we haven’t seen is any of these shows really taking off to the extent that I would like with the general public."

"Really, what I want — it’s just a little thing, just a little thing — I just want a genius filmmaker on the level of Denis Villeneuve, someone who grew up loving my work [the way Villeneuve loved Frank Herbert’s Dune], and wants to bring it to the screen with the mix of fidelity and adaptation required to make a great epic like Dune. You do have to change things [for a screen adaptation], but this filmmaker would really understand the property, and have an artistic vision that matches the property.

For epic fantasy and science fiction, we have rarely seen that, but it happened with Dune, and it happened with Lord of the Rings. So hopefully there’s someone out there that can work with me to make Mistborn."

"With an unlimited budget and unlimited creative control, I think I could make something really good. But who knows? I mean, The Rings of Power essentially had that, and it’s not very good. It’s fine, but is it the thing that you want? I mean, I really think the key member is that visionary filmmaker. Epic fantasy has responded poorly to too much oversight from above. I think that was The Witcher’s problem. You had that visionary: It was Henry Cavill. And they didn’t want to listen to him. So, well, there you go."

Thank you, Brandon. It was healthy to read how he used many opportunities to fill in shade for the failures of modern fantasy adaptations including one very special project in particular. But please, continue to point about that "successful show for Amazon". Probably the author can agree with you some day.

[sandwormrp]

Watch Party: Children of Dune

Here's a transcript of the nonsense we were discussing while watching Episode 1 of Children of Dune. It was a lot of fun. We'll be doing it all again in 2 weeks for the next episode!

Enjoy!

Yeah, these are the events of Messiah, then Children afterward So you're watching Dune Part Three, essentially

Somewhat nun-like robes on the attendants with Alia

There are always old folks grouching about how the young people behave

paul makes the mistake of reading the comment section

I'd be freaking out too if my unborn child was harassing me through time and space already

'dad can i have a grilled cheese' 'dad' … 'dAD'

Omg is this a corrino

Yes

I can tell, they don't fall far from the tree do they

I love Wencicia's team rocket villain vibe. (1) very villain (2) not in a million years gonna get that pikachu

'whatever the need, we have the breed' i wonder who came up with that slogan

I'll stop looking at it, see if that helps

oh no i was pronouncing it ghoula gowla

I def prefer "cha-knee" over "chain-ee"

It's gif not jif!

Frank Herbert himself had some interesting ideas about how to proncounce the words and names he used.

WOAH LOOKAT THAT HAT

Jawbone hat

Ribbed for muad'dib

Makes a convenient backscratcher too

Son, put your shirt on, seriously

Can't rn future son wants a caprisun

Imagine trying to manage all these goobers AND Alia too

Is this a Corrino I see before me? Its handle t'ward my hand?

You know irulan is scrawling down scathing things

'aliaa sucksss'

Alia's blog is peak bitchy Irulan hate-reads Alia's blog posts

In the book, Irulan actually makes the cuckolding threat right to Paul himself. It's an interesting exchange.

'cuckhold him all you like; this LINE

Don't mind me, just sweeping up the shattered Bechdel test …

that child is like 6 years old, what do you mean its his turn

TO BATTLE CHILD

wendy !!! wendy what about parental love!!!

Caw caw motherfucker

the caws add to the dramatics

And there's someone with his shirt off already Look on the bright side, he could be a child in House of the Dragon

Ghoul - Ghola Golem - Ghola

I always though GO-la Yeah, he's a fuckin' Go-la, mate

man mad that ruler of the universe does not come around for tea anymore

Yeah what gives He used to write me poems and stuff Ghosted by the Emperor

Get darted, buddy

Music player: I didn't see shit

above her paygrade when you ban your grandma from your planet

I liked how in the book they go into how Scytale has an ethic as an assassin where he always gives his target a chance to escape & genuinely feels bad in a compartmentalized way

MY HOUSE, MY RULES NOW GRANMA

Sassy-ass seating pose Chill out Paul

He's a thing to look at

Definitely kind of a mermaid look with the legs bonded together

he lookslike the neomodians (not spelling that right) from star wars and paul looks like neil patrick harris

Hayt from the book had metallic eyes, too, pretty cool

"He's also trained as a sex toy, sire"

'cool eyes' is suuuch a fun element to a story and we're 0/2 so far with implementation

irulan is slayinggg

I love her dramatic cage Dangit the secret language will stay secret

Oh its cool to see the training things in action. I imagined them different from the books description

Oh theres the naked

Wha— is that his sister or chain

That's his sister.

oh well that's awkward

Frank would be pleased

i like how they're keeping with the same music throughout the entire thing

oh they're speeding through this book

Ah yes, the spitting disease, of course The disease that makes you spit

Paul: pls see a doctor

are we not concerned by that wording

"empty me as your will"

Bijaz is to Dune Messiah as Mushroom is to Fire & Blood kinda

thomas the train engine crashes through a wall

"paul what are you doing in the road" "getting hit by a car like I had a vision I would? was I supposed to just not go in the road"

Irulan: I was here first

something chani would never say from denis version but book accurate right

Movie chani would be going in there SWINGING

yeah this version is very sweet

Lady I'm just playing with my balls, you came to talk to me

i feel speaking in italics

The vibes, Alia. I feel the vibes.

Alia displaying her red flags

"I can handle it-" cuts to spider curled on the floor

oh her silly hat is great

i adore her silly hats

Best silly hat

Imagine her bird flying into that accidentally Cute lil ship Is it from Naboo?

CALADAAAAN

Jessicaaa Jessica!!! jessica!!!

Let her vacation in peace away from her wretched children

so obviously green screen

The greenest of screens

they live in a cool screensaver

They live in a scene from that Encarta digital encyclopedia

oh but i love it, its so camp

Son being the original troll lmfaoo

Lemme get drunk on you instead

Glad I'm not the only one seeing that hahaha

ooh i like his black eyes

aww look at his lil mermaid outfit I bet they did that for the lols

He looks like a harpy

Fingerprint wall goes hard

It really does, I love that Smacking the glass LMFAO BAD FISH smack

i think i am in love with her

Book Edric did get bullied quite a bit, lol

He really did

plans within planss. i think it was said in the denis version too. is it repeated in the books a lot?

A couple times if I remember right

that's a neat sandworm

Lol the teeth

Imagine trying to get a tooth from that

somethin out of the thing

Worm dentists must get paid pretty well

couldntitjustdigdown

Now to their credit, those grapple things were actual props there

Didn't we learn anything from jurrassic park

Not for around 10 movies now

"dw I'll just go lie to her again about having eternity"

"Hey babe, about that eternity? Turns out the store is all out of it. Sold out completely." ��People are panic-buying eternity."

what made his eyes go black? i mightve missed that

The 'stone burner' weapon

He won a small person and got blown up

The conspirators used an atomic-type weapon, but Paul was on the edge of it and his eyes were burned out.

Even though the conspirators knew exactly what house Paul was going to.

Oh that isn't terrifying

the warcrys hmm hmm hmm hmm

two bros in the same tank

five feet apart

Jar buddies!

hallucination: hmm hmm hmm hmm

Same tank, like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito

getting into fremen music would be so neat

when paul first came in like "i stepped in a puddle" i was like: this is the dumbest thing you can say until I remembered arrakis

maybe a wandering kind of tune? like you could try to guess the next note but be wrong every time

Hahahaha guess which planet Semuta comes from

See that statement, "What do you see with those eyes" is a little less impactful when his eyes are just normal juicy eyeballs

Alia: dibs on the robodick

I do like how the blue eyes glow in response to spice (even if they're Wrong)

The eyes of Ibad

Paul is very zen considering Irulan was practically poisoning Chani to get rid of the baby

maybe the standards are different when you've killed 1004494949 trillion people

OH THEY KISS

Paul this ain't going to make things easier?

The dramaaaa

A much more modest kiss thank goodness Oh I forgot about this

that looks uncomfortable

why is he doing that with his hips

With his pants on no less

sounded like a fight

Walking the dude out into the street still full-mast

That shot looks pretty good! Her on the cliff looking out Not bad for 2000's

yeah and "i am a desert creature, I know when to hide"

I love that they include their lil chat from the books Love how everyone is telling duncan he's scared

why she sound like that

LMFAO gma still in her cage

we should use cages more on sandworm we don't use cages enough

Hm mm Increase cages, noted

Ones with just a table and a lil chair

oh they put his pants on!

lol dramatic face shots of him to her birth

that's nice of them

This music is not quite tonally there…

Scared they were gonna show us his nakedness then Thank god hes wearing pants now, which poor guard had to do that?

Is this really the music we want for murdering attempted assassins and painful childbirth?

omg no fishy boy

The guard "Hey man, I don't like this any more than you do"

oh a TOMB, that is rough buddy

He's getting Mummy'd (as in the movie with Brendan Frasier)

Paul remembers it from his ancestral memory

The black eyes and him tipping his head while shes having birth is a little much lmao. its like if feyd was watching someone give birth

That was Mohiam getting killed, btw

man there is a LOT HAPPENING

A rather ignominious end

bye chani

Those babies shot outta there like rockets, My Lord

Midwives waiting with catchers' mitts

never saw children in his entire life?

'i kissed your arch nemesis just earlier'

It was a hatekiss? Maybe? Man she looks great for someone dying of twinbirth No sweat stains, hair looks good

oh no. the script was just too dramatic for them. a disservice to good actors. lol

Neck'd!

he cant change clothes that fast… cowards not wanting him to be in a dress tbh

unless the clothes are flesh which is also a disturbing thought

Such a bummer

like sylveon's ribbons (nodding)

If I ever run Scytale, gender will be as fluid and changing as the desert They're super weird, facedancers In a cool way

I like Scytale

stop saying moodib

are we naming Log's cows again?

Using her voice to fuck with him dang

Leto II get your nipples outta here dude We're kinda busy

shirts went out of style , its not his fault

Oh no my…. hip? My weak spot? There's probably an artery in there

The funky connection between prescient and preborns is fun to play around with

'Nice shot, dad'

yeah a gigantic time loop

Time to bail on these kids SEE YA

Fuck dem kids

"Irulan will take good care of these kids, surely" “Also my extremely troubled sister"

“Alia will do a good job ruling, surely"

Nothing will go wrong

"Notorious philanderer Duncan will be a good partner for Alia" “Why not add my mom into the mix, yeah she's not got a ton of baggage on this planet"

Crushed by a giant penis

eyyyy

Death by Desert Dick?

not the triple d it was violent

The end scene was like a hurricane of everyone pouting and then dying

[sebastianswallows]

I want to talk a little bit about Frank Herbert and the Bene Gesserits, because it's something that's been on my mind for a while and I haven't seen anyone looking at these characters from this perspective yet (not that I looked very hard, but I check the tags occasionally and just haven't seen it, and this would be the first place I'd expect to).

It's strange in a good way seeing Dune become popular, and people actually reading the books, and it being cool to do so, not it being a niche and nerdy thing. But what's equally weird is to see all the praise Frank Herbert's getting, especially from women readers 😂

Because at any point between, I think, the 80s and the 2000s, if a guy said he liked Frank Herbert that was considered by women to be a red flag. I remember women chatting about this in online forums back in the day. It was the equivalent of a guy saying he likes Jordan Peterson now.

It's an analysis of Dune that doesn't seem to have come through again. Audiences have caught on to the homophobia inherent in how the Baron was represented, but nobody is talking anymore about the blatant sexism of the books.

And I say this as a long time fan, because I was super inspired by most of the female characters in the novels and in particular the Bene Gesserits, so to hear that Herbert was supposed to be a misogynist took me by surprise. "What do you mean it's sexist? This is great!" The idea of a group of women who fully dedicate themselves to their own intergalactic girl gang, who follow their own plans, who use their femininity to their own ends, who live through discipline and self control and are fully empowered to face down any threat, that was so inspiring to teenage me.

But I guess the sort of women I most admired were the ones who were terrifying to men.

I mean, the only "good" female characters are either not Bene Gesserits, like Chani, or are Bene Gesserits who go against the order, like Jessica. Moreover, the only "good" female characters are those who betray their group for the sake of men. Like Jessica going against the word of the Reverend Mother because Leto wanted a boy.

Irulan's only redeeming features are her complete dedication to Paul and being basically in love with him and being the author of glorifying history books about him in spite of the fact that he deposed her father and is keeping her in a loveless marriage and constantly publicly humiliates her by treating Chani as his wife.

Even Chani, an otherwise bland and marginal character compared to the film, is at her most poignant when dying in child birth for the sake of giving birth to Paul's children. A death which happens because Irulan had been secretly poisoning her out of jealousy. Frank Herbert just has women clawing each other's eyes out for the sake of Paul's affection. I don't care how good that dick is, it's not worth poisoning another woman over. Poison him instead and take the throne, girl.

But oh yeah, in this intergalactic empire tens of thousands of years in the future, they seem to have discovered neither the concept of divorce nor of female inheritance of titles and property. It can only be a man inheriting the throne, not the Emperor's biological daughter. And once Irulan is married, well she's just stuck there. Pretty incredible.

And however great the Bene Gesserits are, they still need a man to "see where they can not see". No matter how empowered a group of women becomes, they still need a man. Only a man can see into the future. Women can only see into the past. Therefore, only a man can save the world.

I get that they tried to conceal some of this in the recent film, and they managed to do so to some extent, but it's mostly been with Chani. You still have the problem of Jessica and Irulan being just servants for the whims of the men in their lives, a fact which gets them into a lot of trouble. And you have the Bene Gesserits portrayed as scheming witches who are evil to have their own plots and designs, and are dependent on a man to see into that place which terrifies them.

I mean, enjoy the books by all means. I always did in spite of all of this, and I still like the story and the world. I still love the characters too. But man if the author didn't have some unflattering ideas about us 😂

[queer-reader-07]

favorite books

congratulations! you've unlocked the special interest!

since you said books (plural) who knows when this list will end!

my forever number ones:

Dune by Frank Herbert - this is like my one fav i can never quite articulate because it's just. so perfect to me. it changed my life though and i love it with my whole heart.

The Feeling of Falling in Love by Mason Deaver - this is the book i'm known for. this is the book i've gotten enough people to read that i've lost count. this is the book i've gained friendships because of. it's a t4t YA romcom that is equal parts tender, loving, emotional growth and absolute tomfoolery. i love it so dearly i genuinely cannot express to you how much i love this book it is my main special interest outside of chemistry i am being so serious.

sci fi & fantasy favs:

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler - ok it's more spec fic than anything but you get the point. this book is about radical hope and its importance in the face of despair and oppression. set in 2024, written in the 90s, required reading if you haven't already. also "god is change" fundamentally altered my approach to deconstruction so there's that too.

Masters of Death by Olivie Blake - like a gaiman novel but written by a good person! very gay, very messy, literal games of the gods. your main character is a vampire real estate agent and she wants to sell this haunted house but the ghost haunting it won't leave. the godson of Death is like a cunty asshole but you also kind of love him? god it's an insane premise and i LOVE it.

The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams - this is what epic fantasy should be. the MC is like what if indiana jones was a Black lesbian and it absolutely rocks. empires on the brink of collapse, potential incoming apocalypse, running from the authorities, all the good stuff.

contemporary and litfic favs:

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong - i read this for the first time as a newly discovered queer 15 year old in my gender in lit and film class and my one memory from that experience is hearing my teacher read the line "do you think we'll be fags forever?" out loud and me immediately crying. i've since reread it and that line still ruins me, but it's also just a phenomenal exploration of queerness in the midst of being raised by and being an immigrant in White america. vuong writes this novel as a letter to a mother who the author knows cannot read english, which is art if i ever saw it. vuong is a poet writing prose and it shows in the most beautiful way.

If You Still Recognize Me by Cynthia So - this is for the fandom girlies (gn)!!! there's a bit where our MC says something to the effect of "i can't wait to read her fic and type out a comment saying 'i hate you for ruining my life!!' when really i mean 'i love you i love you i love you'" AND IT GOT ME IN MY FEELS. anyway this book had me like that one spider-man meme.

Old Enough by Haley Jakobson - i bring you an excerpt from my review: This novel is for the cringefail queers. It's for the young queers. It's for the queers who tried a little too hard when they came out. It's for the queers who tried to hold onto their closeted life in one way or another for a little too long. It's for the queers who feel that they never really came of age; the ones who maybe still are. What I'm saying is, this book is for me. It's about me in many ways.

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin - a queer classic for a reason. this novel explores masculinity through repressed queerness and self loathing and i think it altered my brain chemistry in the process. such a poignant and tragic piece of literature.

nonfic favs:

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin - this book unironically changed my life, baldwin is a genius. my copy is marked up to shit and i'm sure when i inevitably reread it i will mark it up even more. i immediately described this book as "timeless and thought provoking" upon finishing and i stand by that. this book was published over 60 years ago but so much of it still rings true. it's largely memoir, told through letters. it touches on race, masculinity, religion, and in many ways, radical hope.

Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Y Davis - required reading for any leftist in my opinion. this emphasizes the important of collectivities and community care when organizing and fighting injustice. genuinely this novel reshaped the way i view community care (what it means, how to do it, etc etc). a foundational text on abolition and organizing as well. it emphasizes how freedom movements and fights for liberation are inherently connected. this book's thesis is "freedom for all or freedom for none" and by god it does a damn good job of communicating that.

“Whenever you conceptualize social justice struggles, you will always defeat your own purposes if you cannot imagine the people around whom you are struggling as equal partners.”

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green - this book is part memoir, part love letter to the human story and i loved every moment of it. i think of how john reminds you in this novel that while not being able to see your future may mean not foreseeing the horrors, it also means not foreseeing the joy and wonder that awaits you. i think of how he describes hope as a "prerequisite for my survival" and how that has grown into the core of my politic. i think of how this book taught me that cynicism is unsustainable and we do a disservice to ourselves and each other when we give into it

special categories of favs specifically for the books about being mixed race that made me feel seen and real:

A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliot - i wrote a whole essay about this one chapter out of this book because of how much it resonated but, in short: this is a sobering memoir to say the least. elliot tells the story of her life as a mixed race, First Nations indigenous woman through a collection of essays. she covers topics such as colonialism, racism and racialization, and misogyny. there's this one essay in particular that will always stick out to me personally as a mixed person, Half-Breed: A Racial Biography in Five Parts. it explores this specific grief around being mixed, around having privilege your non mixed family doesn't, around having to use that privilege to protect them. it's the best literary explanation i have ever found for the feelings i've held for so long. overall though, this novel is a great example for what i mean when i say the person is political. just, really good all around if you're looking for memoir.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - i read this book for the first time when i was like 15 and i really ought to revisit it but i remember being stopped dead in my tracks by how accurate the exploration of race in America was. how it explores the way that race is oftentimes less about your personal identity and more about how others perceive you (what does it mean to pass as white? how can and do some mixed people use that ability? what does that say about our society and our history?).

This Place is Still Beautiful by Xixi Tian - many of the same themes as The Vanishing Half but YA and more accessible! this one resonated particularly well with me as it follows two sisters, both White & Chinese, and their experiences with their racial identity. one sister looks "more Asian" and the other looks "more White" and the way that played out felt like a mirror to my life, i saw in them the same feelings i've felt every time someone told me my brother "just looks so much more Japanese" than me. and to see those struggles in a teen, to know that my experience wasn't isolated? it was so meaningful, revolutionary even.

ok that's all for now, i'm almost certainly forgetting some but these are all favs of mine <3

[winter-wise]

Saw a poll for FMK, Paul, Gurney, Duke Leto (not going to link it because the person who posted that poll has no control over the results) but I was surprised because there is an objectively correct answer to this question.

Paul: Paul becomes a tyrant. We *know* what happens if you either a) fuck or b) marry Paul. If you fuck him you'll get pregnant and die, and he won't prevent it because he believes it's the least awful way that life could go for you. If you marry him it will be solely for political reasons, and he'll spend the whole marriage ignoring you as much as possible and pretending not to giggle while Alia calls you names. This is canon. We also know he wouldn't marry for love because Fremen practise polygamy, so he could have married Chani for love, but didn't.

And I mean... do you want a partner who, every so often, goes into a spice trance with no sign of when he'll wake up? Do you want to tie the knot to a guy who set off the events to kill billions? Do you want to even think about the kinds of monologues Paul would have about you?

Kill Paul.

This leaves us with Leto and Gurney.

Duke Leto will not marry you. If he didn't marry Jessica, he wouldn't marry anyone. Even if you could marry Leto, you'd probably be killed by a political enemy. Yes, he's hot, but 'inevitably getting horribly murdered by a Harkonen soldier-hot?'. Also, he can be pretty dismissive of Jessica's discomfort. He has it in him to be a loving husband, but he would not be a perfect husband.

However, it is explicit Dune canon from the hand of Frank Herbert himself that this guy is really good in bed. Fuck Duke Leto.

Which leaves marrying Gurney. Now, he is explicitly ugly, but he is also well-read, a skilled musician and composer, and he both reads and writes poetry. He's well-versed in history. He can play the intense love songs *and* he can play the fun drinking songs. He's physically fit, an incredibly skilled fighter, he's got a great sense of humour (in the books, at least), and he's perceptive enough to notice when Paul stops valuing human life, because Gurney still values human life. He's also the guy who Jessica starts hooking up with after Leto's death, and I trust in Jessica's ability to pick out guys who are good in bed. He doesn't have looks, but out of the three options, Gurney is by far the best option to marry.

[quickcharlie]

Denis Villeneuve discussing Dune Part 2 in an interview with the New York Times today, including whether he will be reading any FeydPaul fan fiction lol

He explains why Lady Jessica’s face is so heavily tattooed, whether Paul considers himself the Messiah and what he thinks of those Javier Bardem memes.

This weekend, “Dune: Part Two” muscles back into IMAX theaters with the verve of Timothée Chalamet rodeo- riding a giant sandworm. After nearly two months in theaters, the film is the current champion of this year’s box office race, with a total take of more than $680 million. (It’s also available to rent or buy on some streaming platforms.) The film’s success is thanks in part to audiences that have returned over and over to get lost in the rocky warrens and spiritual reckonings of the planet Arrakis. One admirer reports he’s seen the movie 25 times to date.

That there’s so much to explore in “Dune: Part Two” is a credit to its writer and director, Denis Villeneuve, who boldly reshaped Frank Herbert’s complex and cerebral 1965 novel “Dune.” Villeneuve split the book and its themes into two films: “Dune: Part One,” released in 2021, focused on the political struggles between two families, the Atreides and the Harkonnens. “Part Two” delves into religious fervor as the two surviving Atreides, young Paul (Chalamet) and his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), ingratiate themselves with Arrakis’s Indigenous desert tribe, the Fremen, by allowing the locals to believe that Paul is their Messiah — a prophecy that, if it comes to pass, will mean the slaughter of billions of victims across the galaxy.

Villeneuve has yearned to tell this story since he was a in . His devotion is palpable; every frame feels steeped in monkish contemplation. Yet, he’s also a visual dramatist who doesn’t want audiences to get tripped up by too much exposition. His scripts give only passing mention to core concepts like spice, a psychedelic dust that powers everything from space travel to Paul’s clairvoyant hallucinations.

Though Villeneuve doesn’t want to overexplain, he was willing to provide some answers in an interview via video where every question about the film — even silly questions! — was on the table.

Does Chalamet’s Paul Atreides actually believe he’s the Messiah? What’s the meaning of Jessica’s face tattoos? Villeneuve also got into the erotic lives of his desert dwellers and the extra narrative weight he threw behind Paul’s Fremen love interest, Chani, played by Zendaya. As Villeneuve said with a grin, “Chani is my secret weapon.”

Here are edited excerpts from our conversation.

The last time we spoke, you weren’t sure what to make of the sandworm-shaped “Dune” popcorn bucket. It went on to be so popular that it sold out in cities before opening day and is being resold online for around $175. What do you think of it now?

I thought that the bucket was an insane marketing idea. I laughed so much. It is so out there. I don’t know who designed it, but they’re a bit of a genius. I’m at peace with the bucket.

In this film, Javier Bardem’s character Stilgar is reduced to a guileless follower of Paul Atreides, who Stilgar believes is the new Messiah. His conversion is tragic. But also, Bardem’s awe-face has become a funny meme, and the second time I saw the movie, people laughed at almost every line he spoke. Did that reaction surprise you?

No. I am very happy when you say that he is a tragic figure. For me, he is the most tragic figure of all. The idea to bring humor to Stilgar was to make him lovable, to feel the humanity in that character. He’s not an austere figure, he has a big heart. But his beliefs, his faith, his reactions bring humor — and that is something I love about making a sci-fi film, because I can talk about that without offending people because it’s a fake religion. I designed all the prayers myself, so I know it’s fake. I find Stilgar very funny. And when people laugh, I’m happy because that was the intention.

Someone makes a dig that Stilgar has found a savior again. This is not even his first time? All his life he has been raised with that dream. So I suggest that every time a guy comes from outside with a lot of charisma, he hopes he’s found him. Like in the Bible, we have tons of prophets before Jesus came.

The arc of “Dune: Part Two” is Paul accepting that he must become the Messiah — and get billions of people killed. Does he truly believe that he is the Messiah? Or does he just decide to let the Fremen believe that he is? I don’t think he believes that he is the Messiah. I think he feels the burden of the heritage that the Bene Gesserit [the mystical sisterhood that Jessica belongs to] have laid among the Fremen, and he sees the potential to use that religious power to survive. Paul is warned that no man can survive drinking the spiritual water of life. But as that’s part of the lore of a planet seeded with manipulative propaganda by his own mother, I have to ask: Have other men actually been drinking the water and dying? Have they been scared off from trying? Is the warning just a setup for a magic trick?

There are people that have tried it in the past and died. In Frank Herbert’s world, femininity is a power. I think Herbert was fascinated by motherhood, by the power of creation. I love this idea that the power is held by women. It’s something that was ahead of his time when he wrote it and I tried to put the focus on it. You say so much with Jessica’s costuming. In the first film, her look is immaculate and baroque. This film begins with her in rags, but she finds another path to being dressed and treated like royalty. And she gets a lot of tattoos on her face. Why did she get so many more face tattoos than the outgoing reverend mother?

She’s trying to play on the symbolism that was put in the prophecy. She’s supposed to be the mother of the Messiah, so I wanted to bring the idea that she was like the pope of the reverend mothers on Arrakis. There’s some kind of madness in writing elements of the prophecies on her face. Frankly, I think when you drink the worm poison, it affects your sanity — and the same with Paul. I like the idea that we feel she’s going too far. Jessica is already pregnant when the first movie ends, and she’s still pregnant at the end of this film. Which means you had to condense this massive story into less than nine months because her body is a time clock. The idea was to compress the book so that Paul will feel the pressure to get the Fremens’ trust, to start gearing up — but not to succeed, not to have the time to create a real war. Time is against him.

Because in the book, this takes years. Long enough for Jessica to give birth to a very unnerving daughter, Alia. We glimpse Alia as an adult — she’s played by Anya Taylor-Joy — but you skipped over seeing her murder people as a toddler. Was it hard to decide no “murder toddler”?

I think pregnant women look tremendously powerful. To use that power was very exciting. And usually when you see a pregnant woman onscreen, she’s always giving birth. To avoid that moment, to stay in the state of being pregnant, I thought was very Frank Herbert-like. I was going away from the killer toddler, but I thought that was more fresh and original. Honestly, it’s one of the things that I’m proudest of in the adaptation. Speaking of female power, let’s talk about Chani.

Chani is my secret weapon. Frank Herbert was sad to realize that people saw the book as a celebration of Paul Atreides. He wanted to do a cautionary tale against messianic figures, a warning against blending religion and politics. I wrote the second movie trying to be more faithful to Frank Herbert’s intentions than to the book. In the book, Chani is just a follower. I came up with the idea of her being reluctant. She gives us the critical distance and perspective on Paul’s journey. I wanted to make sure the audience will understand that Paul becomes a dark figure, that his choices are exactly what Chani was afraid of. He becomes the colonizers the Fremen were fighting against. And then the movie becomes the cautionary tale Frank Herbert was wishing for.

Paul makes a choice at the end that will go on to kill billions of people. That’s so large and theoretical that it’s hard to grasp. But you structure your climax so that in that moment of betrayal, he’s also betraying the love of his life — a betrayal we understand.

He betrayed her in many ways. But the big thing for Chani is that it’s not about love. It’s about the fact that he becomes the figure that will keep the Fremen in their mental jail. A leader that is not there to free the Fremen, but to control them. That’s the tragedy of all tragedies. Like the Michael Corleone of sci-fi, he becomes what he wanted to avoid. And he will try to find a way to save his soul in the third part.

But “Dune Messiah,” the book your third film is based on, picks up 12 years later with a reunited Paul and Chani. How far did you feel you could push her anger? Because at some point, she’s going to have to forgive him. That anger is tremendous. I don’t want to reveal what I’m going to do with the third movie. I know exactly what to do. I’m writing it right now. But there’s a lot of firepower there and I’m very excited about that decision. In the spirit of no dumb questions, Chani says that Paul sand-walks like a drunk lizard. Which means Arrakis has booze?

Actually, there is spice beer. In the book, there are Fremen parties, even some orgies involving spice. I didn’t bring that into the movies because it’s PG-13.

Body fluids have significance to the Fremen. Spitting is the giving of water, a sign of respect. But tears and vomit are a waste. So what is kissing?

As long as you don’t lose your humidity, you can kiss. It’s an exchange of fluids — an act of love, when you think about it. Fremens love to kiss.

What about the, um, other romantic fluids? You cannot have sex outside, for sure. But they are very sexual. I suspect that all sexual intercourse happens in environments that are protected from losing moisture. When they are in their sietches [or caves] underground, those are sealed. You don’t need to wear stillsuits inside them. We can deduce from that there is no problem to have sex in a sietch.

By the way, who decided that Fremen was pronounced Freh-men and not Free-men? All the pronunciations, I took them from recordings of Frank Herbert’s voice. Frank Herbert used “Freh-men,” which I love. It makes it less on-the-nose.

You kept two major characters out of the first movie and only introduced them now: the princess Irulan, played by Florence Pugh, and the Baron Harkonnen’s nephew Feyd-Rautha, played by Austin Butler. The princess is the first voice in the books, the first face onscreen in David Lynch’s “Dune” [1984]. What made you sure holding them back was the right move, despite three years of fans asking, “Hey, where are they?” When people ask me what was the biggest challenge in making those movies, it’s writing them. In order to make this adaptation, we have to make big, bold decisions. One was that the first movie should be seen from Paul’s perspective. I wasn’t able to do that entirely because I had to go to the Harkonnens’ side to introduce them so that the story will be clear, but I tried to find an elegant simplicity in the story structure. And I wanted, frankly, to keep some firepower for the second movie.

Why is Feyd-Rautha’s gladiator scene in black and white? And what are the splats in the sky above the dome?

Frank Herbert explores the impact of ecosystems on cultures, on humans. How it influences the way we evolve — our biology, culture, technology, mythology, religion. The psychology of a tribe is linked with their environment. If you want to know things about the Fremen, you observe the desert. I wanted to have the same approach to the Harkonnens. They killed nature. It’s a plastic planet. One thing left was sunlight, but instead of a sun that reveals color, it kills colors. When you are outside, it’s all black and white. It gives us ideas about how these people perceive reality, politics, violence in a binary world — it brings the idea of fascism. It also gave me the opportunity to bring images that remind us in our memories of World War II and the Nazi regime. So it’s an idea that I had as I was writing. Then I had the idea to have strange fireworks in the sky that will look like Rorschach drawings. It’s a nightmarish celebration. The perception of a dome is not accurate. It’s just that the fireworks reach a certain altitude and then they explode. But it’s true that it looks like a liquid that falls from the sky.

Forgive me if I am not being fair to sadistic, psychopathic Feyd-Rautha. But all of the gladiators were supposed to be drugged for his happy birthday massacre. The one who secretly isn’t puts up a worthy battle. So I assumed that Feyd-Rautha isn’t that great of a fighter. But at the end, he’s the only warrior who is Paul’s equal?

It’s a show. You see that the Harkonnens are very cruel and their society is very paranoiac. His opponent is known in the books as one of the great fighters, Lieutenant Lanville. I tried to show that Feyd is excited to have a real opponent. He has a code of honor, he respects the effort, and he has fun with it. That’s the idea I tried to convey — he’s not a coward.

Audiences might remember that the Bene Gesserit wanted Jessica’s child to be a girl, that Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides was supposed to be female. And they specifically bred Feyd-Rautha to be a male. Were they hoping these youngsters would mate?

Yeah. They are trying to increase the potential of humanity by breeding the best specimen of each tribe or family. A baby between Feyd-Rautha and an Atreides daughter would have brought peace between Harkonnens and the Atreides, and created an über being.

Will you read any of the internet fan fiction spawned by the idea of Timothée and Austin hooking up?

[Laughs] But you know, we approached their fight at the end like some kind of symbolic union. The way their bodies get close to one another, there’s something animalistic, an intimacy, I was looking for.

I rewatched the first film again recently. It opens with a quote in another language: “Dreams are messages from deep.” I love that quote. It feels like how a film resonates, too. But it wasn’t until I had subtitles on at home that I realized who said it. Of all the important characters and cultures to establish, you gave that major moment — the very beginning of your franchise — to an anonymous Sardaukar from the murderous imperial army that we’re cheering to see get killed. Why?

I love your question. The Sardaukar are the dark side of the Fremen. I thought it would be interesting to have a tiny bit of insight that they are not just tremendous warriors, but they have spirituality, philosophical thought. They have substance. Also, their sound was designed by Hans Zimmer. I absolutely loved how it feels like it’s coming from the deep, from the ancient world. Frank Herbert said beginnings are very delicate times. By starting with a Sardaukar priest, I was indicating to the fans that I was taking absolute freedom with this adaptation, that I was hijacking the book. But you also deeply love the book. So when you make these bold changes, do you feel like asking Frank Herbert for forgiveness?

Yes. There’s so many darlings that you kill. An adaptation is an act of violence.

“There’s so many darlings that you kill,” Denis Villeneuve said of filming “Dune,” a book he loved. “An adaptation is an act of violence.”

[daxwormzz]

Who’s Piter? (Full disclosure, I’m entirely prepared for rambling, I’ve just never heard of this)

HIIIIIIII OKAY SO. Basically. Piter de Vries is this guy from hit 1960s scifi novel Dune by Frank Herbert. He’s the right-hand to the main villain, The Baron Harkonnen. He’s only in the first half of the first book, and some of the bad prequel novels.

Piter’s whole thing is that he’s a Mentat, a human trained to essentially function like a supercomputer and be crazy good at calculating shit. (Because “thinking machines” have been outlawed in the world of Dune, so no computers!) but also he’s specifically this thing called a TWISTED MENTAT, which means he’s a computer who’s evil and has no moral compass. It’s up to interpretation what exactly caused this— there’s sorta two theories with equal amounts of evidence. One: this one evil organization purposefully fucks up Mentats to MAKE them essentially lose faith in morality and humanity as a whole. Like reeeeaaally fucks them up. And two: they’re actually just born like that. Like the mentat was already predisposed to “evil” behavior and that one organization just exploits that and employs them.

I sorta think it was a mix of that for Piter, I think he was born with obvious signs of brain illness and that was exploited and exacerbated by whatever he was put through. I think if he wasn’t “twisted” he probably would’ve grown up to he just some kinda strange asshole, rather than one of the most wretched guys you’ll ever meet.

That being said, the actual gist of Piter’s personality and description is this: eccentric and snarky conniving guy who LOVES to torture. He’s also shown to be very power-hungry, and subtly obsessed with control and death as a whole. And also poisons. He has a passion for poison-making. As a mentat, he’s also an assassin of sorts, cause turns out they’re pretty good at that. He’s described as having a terrifying “silky” voice, so kind of like if a snake was a guy. He’s also described as followed: a short “effeminate” man with frizzy hair, probably wears platform boots, blue-within-blue eyes, and red-stained lips. (“It was like a mask grimace over those eyes like holes”, to quote the book directly.) his eyes and mouth are an important detail, because those come from all the DRUGS he takes. Like so many. He’s specifically takes Spice, the most important substance in Dune basically. That’s what makes his eyes that weird blue! So he’s like… unnerving-pretty. Weird looking but pretty in the way a very toxic sea creature is. Do NOT touch. Sometimes he refers to himself in the third person and he sounds like the Miette cat post.

BUUUUT YEAH so like, weird guy amiright? I’m prone to loving evil right hand man characters, I’ll be for real. But what really got me crazy about his character is how he’s treated in the story by various characters. Sure, he’s a bad awful guy and all that- but he is also CONSTANTLY dehumanized. Specifically by his “employer”, The Baron. Who is a whole other can of worms. There’s even a whole scene where the baron puts Piter on “display” and refers to him as “it”. The baron also explicitly exploits Piter’s drug addiction to get him to comply and stay “loyal”, which is particularly scary I think, because spice withdrawal is incredibly deadly.

Piter and the Baron have some of the most bonkers banter in the entire book. It’s comedically evil in every way. You can tell they HATE each other but it’s hidden under so many layers of scheming and posturing. Piter would take the barony if he could 💪💪💪😔😔😔 Piter is also THE guy who comes up with the entire coup against the main character’s noble house that sparks the main events of the entire book??? Like he states directly that it was HIM. On like page 21 of the book. And this is not talked about much. None of his movie versions really get to the “meat” of his character, especially the newest Dune films. He’s very glossed-over, honestly. Which is a shame because as you can tell, I find him fascinating!

I think…. I’m done now… thank you for coming to my Piter talk… I hope this is enlightening 💚

[mareastrorum]

This took a while to write up. Here’s something about Dune and Villanueve’s adaptation. I felt I really needed to chew on it before posting.

This is by no means a full thesis, just putting down some thoughts on Chani and Paul. I’m trying to minimize my use of story-specific terminology so that people who aren’t as familiar with that can still follow along.

Of course, massive spoilers below.

For those that have only seen Villanueve’s films, they are an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune, the first book in a series. You’ll find an incredible number of critiques and reviews of them online, as well as other adaptations. All of the adaptations have cut at least one part of the main plot, for varying reasons. Note that I said main plot. Cutting side plots is absolutely expected given that the first book is a behemoth, but each adaptation also cut part of the actual main plot line. That isn’t something unique to Villanueve’s films.

Some book background: Dune is a very thoughtful exploration of imperialism and ecology, particularly how certain patterns are reflections of each other. Most of the story takes place on Arrakis, a desert planet and sole source of melange, colloquially called “spice.” Spice is a mind-enhancing drug that is necessary for navigators to manage intergalactic travel at high speed—so it is the backbone of the intergalactic empire that plants aristocratic families on the desert planet of Arrakis to harvest the spice, which of course involves the oppression of the native Fremen that see the worms as religiously sacred. The atrisocrats use varying combinations of violence, diplomacy, and religion to oppose the Fremen at the same time that they appropriate Fremen knowledge of how to survive the incredibly harsh clime of Arrakis.

The key problem is that Arrakis as a habitat cannot change without endangering the sand worms that provide the spice. Terraforming to shrink the deserts where they live puts them in danger because water (the rarest resource on Arrakis) is fatal to the worms. Liet-Kynes (an ecologist from the Empire and half-blooded Fremen) persuaded Fremen leaders that it would be possible to terraform the planet gradually over dozens of generations and eventually create pockets of safe and habitable land for the Fremen without taking too much from the sand worms. The Atreides family learned this from Liet-Kynes before he died, and Paul eventually sets this plan in motion when he becomes Emperor. That plan was what won over the Fremen to his side. He had an actual plot to get them what they wanted, a path to become Emperor so he would have the power needed to make it happen, and intent to do this in a way to safeguard Fremen culture in the face of imperial exploitation by making the Fremen the dominant culture of the Empire. At least, that’s the story he sold them and himself.

Dune Part 1 did not have that facet. Liet-Kynes did not teach that to Paul and Jessica before dying. In fact, Liet-Kynes’s most lampshading scene of dying in the desert while despondently hoping that the Fremen would “beware of heroes” was cut entirely from the film. Now, that is a small deviation, and I can understand that Villanueve would have cut it for his style anyway. He doesn’t like telling—he favors showing in film. That is perfectly fair. Having a character lay out “this is my plan” and telling the audience blatantly “Paul is a hero and that is not a good thing” just wasn’t going to happen anyway, regardless of whether it was part of the plot. So when Part 1 came out, I didn’t take that as a decision to deviate from the actual plot of the book. I figured Villanueve would introduce these things otherwise, and it would make sense to come from Stilgar or another Fremen leader. Not that big a deal.

(Note: I’m not getting into a lot of the other omissions, such as the missing scenes, Gurney’s paranoia that Jessica had betrayed the Atreides, Paul’s mentat training, Jamis’s funeral, etc. I could literally write a book about everything that was left out, and honestly, it’s just more reason to read Dune.)

For Part 2, the biggest difference in is that Chani is a true believer in the prophecies that Paul is the Lisan al-Gaib, the messiah that would lead the Fremen to paradise. In the film, Chani is not merely a skeptic—she is a nonbeliever. As a result of this change, rather than support Paul, bear his first child, and agree to become his concubine (eventually bearing the twins that feature in the next two books), Chani of the films instead does not have his first son, disputes Paul’s claims, and leaves on her own rather than support his war. Additionally, although it’s not facially relevant, Chani is also the daughter of Liet-Kynes, the Imperial ecologist, and so is a mixed blood Fremen (though she is accepted without issue by the Fremen). Instead, in the film, Chani has no connection to Liet-Kynes.

This is a drastic change in plot. I genuinely do not know how that will be remedied so that Chani will bear the twins that eventually rule the universe and lead the empire down the prophecied Golden Path in later books.

Why is that a big deal?

To start, there is a significant change in symbols used between the book and film in this respect. I cannot overstate the importance of Chani as a symbol in Dune. In the books, Chani is a stand in for the Fremen and their culture, particularly that culture in current day. She is the daughter of Liet-Kynes because the current Fremen cultural goal is to bring about that dream of a terraformed Arrakis where they do not need to live so desperately. That is inseparable from the effects of the Empire; her father is an ecologist because that is the Imperial influence that the Fremen were willing to accept and integrate into their own lives. Paul genuinely loves Chani, is protective of her, wants her to thrive, and eventually wants to become the person of the prophecy she believes in. He wants to be the hero she expects of him, without losing his identity as her partner.

However, Chani does not represent all Fremen. Stilgar, Chani’s uncle, represented the old guard of Fremen that rigidly held to their old laws and ways of living. Paul and Jessica were not given any leniency; they had to prove themselves to become Fremen, and his support was clearly conditional upon that. As a result, to gain the Fremen’s respect and move them towards their common goals, Paul and Jessica assimilated into the Fremen culture, and then Paul systematically destroyed his rivals—which is the Freman way—taking the remainder under his banner to fight the Harkonnen. Paul finally broke from that tradition when he chose to let Stilgar live, convincing the old guard that it was better to cut down their enemies rather than each other for deviating from tradition. Chani stood by Paul the entire way, learning how fight Harkonnen from both Paul and Jessica, learned to use the Voice from Jessica, and became Paul’s most staunch supporter and connection to all other Fremen. Every aspect of Chani’s identity and her choices feed into the narrative that the Fremen had expectations of Paul, he willingly rose to the challenge, and they loved each other fiercely.

But near the end of the first book, Paul sent Chani and their firstborn son to a hopefully safe location that was then attacked by the Harkonnen. Paul did not know if either had survived at the time it was reported. Rather than rush to find them, Paul struggled with the decision and ultimately continued the fight against the Harkonnen. This was to tell the reader that Paul’s love didn’t save them, that he was not going to save the Fremen, and he was going to continue his bloodshed. This had already happened, and was going to happen again. Luckily, Chani survived, they mourn their son, and she agrees to be his concubine so that he could marry Princess Irulan and become Emperor. Everyone knew at that moment that Paul had no love for the princess and the marriage was purely political. Princess Irulan resented this until the end of the next book, when she reveals that she also came to love Paul, and she was jealous of Chani. But Paul did not love Irulan the way he loved Chani. It’s again a reflection that Paul truly loved the Fremen culture and saw the Empire only as a means to an end: achieving the Fremen’s goal of creating paradise on Arrakis. Dune ends with that affirmation.

In the film, that is no longer the case. Chani was not a symbol of Fremen support because she set out alone. Most of the Fremen supported Paul. She didn’t believe in Paul or the prophecies when most did. She didn’t have his firstborn and it remains to be seen if the twins will exist. Rather than Paul making a decision that shows he will destroy the Fremen culture, Chani makes a decision to reject him. This changes the dynamics involved in the story, and I genuinely don’t know if it will be handled well.

The next books continue the story years after Paul becomes Emperor. In Dune: Messiah, Paul wrestles with the duties of Emperor while attempting to preserve the Fremen culture (to keep Chani and their unborn children alive) and fulfilling his roles as prophet and leader. At the same time, he is beset by assassination, rebellion, and usurpation attempts. At the end of Messiah, Chani dies while birthing twins, the worms are beginning to die off, Paul loses hope in his plan, and then he walks off into the desert expecting to die because he does not want to become the Emperor he foresees necessary to continue this plan. He realized he has changed the Fremen forever, not for the better, and he thinks the best thing he can do is exile himself. Paul didn’t save anyone he cared about, and when faced with the decision to try to salvage the future in front of him, he walked away. Paul is a failure. The point is that he fails in the book titled Messiah.

The books were an ongoing warning that no matter your good intentions, no matter the support and love and resources involved, to introduce an outsider whose power depends upon a limited resource into the place of origin will eventually destroy any other aspects of it, even if that power was intended to preserve. Whether it’s imperialistic appropriation of a culture and its religion, or terraforming to change land optimal for a religiously and economically significant animal into something comfortable for another species, the thing you love will die.

You cannot save a habitat by introducing an invasive species. You cannot save a unique species by destroying its habitat. You cannot save a culture by using it to conquer others. You cannot appropriate a culture and keep it just like it was before you commandeered it. You will wind up with something else, and eventually the only remnants of the thing you loved will be memories reenacted by people so separated from the original that they won’t even know or care why they’re doing it (as shown in Messiah and God Emperor).

The entire point of the Dune series is that “white saviors” don’t actually exist. They’re “heroes” until time reveals that they’re not. They are merely conquerors with the delusion that they are saving the thing they sacrificed in order to attain power.

Chani’s rejection in Dune Part 2 erodes that. Someone who didn’t read the book is going to wonder, “what if she had stayed and persuaded him?” “What if Chani was the Lisan al-Gaib?” “What if an actual Freman had taken over the Empire instead of Paul?” Then the audience thinks, ah, of course, Paul made mistakes and that’s why he’s going to fail. If only he hadn’t been so blinded by ambition, everything would have been fine. If only he hadn’t needed to be the leader, if he had let Stilgar do it, if he had let Chani do it, etc. In other words, if the white savior had just done it the right way, it would have worked.

But that isn’t the point of Dune. To become the leader of an Empire requires that level of ambition. Stilgar submitted to Paul because he saw that Paul’s ability to engage with both the common folk and the extremists among the Fremen was absolutely necessary to defeat the Harkonnen, and Stilgar chose that over any other priority. Chani supported Paul because she loved him and genuinely believed he would lead her people to better times, because all she knew was desperation and oppression. There was ruthless calculation and devotional love in equal measure, but the cost of success as a hero seeking to lead an empire is that the thing you loved will die. The Fremen had already changed into the bloodthirsty, fanatical army before Paul ever saw the Emperor face to face. Paul’s son died and Chani went missing because Herbert was telling us that the future Paul and Chani both wanted was already dead before he laid siege to Arrakeen, before he became Emperor, before he started a war to solidify the Freman’s domination of humankind. The reason that everything in Dune eventually works in Paul’s favor is because even with perfect conditions, he failed. There is no world in which he would have succeeded.

You can’t eat a cake and have it too. Empires eat. Heroes, no matter how much love they have in their hearts, no matter who they fight for, no matter how much their supporters/victims wanted it too, cannot use an empire to save anything. The very nature of imperial power is to consume. Love doesn’t make a “white savior” any less imperialistic than a tyrant bent on conquest.

Is the next film going to get us to that point? I don’t think it will. I think it’s going to be yet another adaptation trying to tell a different message because Herbert’s message isn’t very palatable to a mass audience. We don’t want to hear that love doesn’t win in this circumstance. It’s a horrifying message, but it’s one that’s true when telling the story of imperial and ecological exploitation of cultures and rare resources.

That isn’t to say that the films wouldn’t be a good story on their own. It’s just not the story of the books, and I’m one of those people that actually likes the books.

There’s a lot of ways Chani’s new story could go, and I’m watching it like I’m observing someone setting up a dare devil leap. Villanueve is an incredibly skilled storyteller, but this is something no one’s done before, a lot of things can go wrong, and if he doesn’t stick the landing, it’s gonna be pretty gross no matter how the crash happens. I want him to succeed. I’m still gonna watch the next film. I’m just well aware that this is probably going to end in a watered down, generic “Paul failed because he wasn’t Fremen” sentiment rather than “Empires rely upon exploitation and destruction, at the expense of everything else.”

It’s still fucking amazing eye candy, and I’ll probably watch it again.

[pureamericanism]

It's an almost banal truism that classic science fiction was largely a projection of the Frontier Experience - and, more broadly, the whole world-shaking events of the European Age of Discovery - onto an imagined outer space. Less frequently remarked is that the reverse is also true.

I grew up devouring Golden Age science fiction novels, and was a fervent believer in Mankind's Destiny Among The Stars. Well, the Space Age - like all the great dreams of thr 20th century - has turned out to be something of a damp squib, but I still want stories of fantastic voyages of exploration, adventure, science, discovery, and intrigue in a vast new world of far-flung outposts separated by titanic distances. So to scratch that itch, why not just...go back to the source?

If you want something like a story about an isolated asteroid mining colony, you can just read the memoirs of a surgeon at a Hudson Bay Company outpost! Why bother with Heinlein when you can just read the diaries of pioneer women, the tales of Yankee filibusters in Latin America, the authentic exploits of desert-island buccaneers, or the early adventures of the Portugese in the Indian Ocean? Do you want fraught tales of inteigue and war and high politics that extend to the farthest reaches of known space? A good book on any of the big 18th century wars for empire will satisfy. And can Star Trek remotely compare in imagination and excitement to the voyages of Cook and La Pérouse? "Strange new worlds, new life, and new civilizations?" Boy howdy, we got 'em! If you look at these things with fresh eyes, with the eyes of a science fiction fan rather than those of someone with access to an infinitide of pictures of them online, nothing could be more surprising than a dugong, a platypus, a redwood, a southern continent of solid ice.

All of this is really just an overly long preamble to my main point, though. Which is that I believe the story of Hernán Cortés, Montezuma, and the Conquest of Mexico to be possibly the greatest one ever told. The themes...bro, the themes! There is here a richness, a complexity and depth surpassing almost anything I can think of in legend or literature.

It is, of course, a science fictional First Contact story, in which two shockingly different civilizations who know nothing of each other suddenly find themselves facing each other down. And indeed, like any good First Contact story, one of the principal characters, La Malinche, is an interpreter! See how the resulting clash of civilizations eludes simple stereotyping - sure, it's easy to see the Spaniards as brash young interlopers into the sophisticated and urbane world of the Aztecs, whose capital was perhaps as much as an order of magnitude more populous than any city in Spain. But equally it is possible to see the Aztecs as provincials, isolated from a wider, older world that suddenly irrupts into their narrow one. Consider that Cortés supposedly got practical advice on political machinations and military strategy by - studying Caesar! Access to ancient wisdom penned by dead hands in far-off lands provides material aid to him.

Then there are the religious themes. It can be seen as a story about the triumph of Christianity, of the Church Triumphant, but what does it mean for a religion founded by a suffering martyr to become militarily triumphant? And what does it mean for thr religion of a suffering martyr to become triumphant over a religion of human sacrifice to the gods? This is a complex and multi-layered irony that spares no one. And consider the strange foreshadowing of the legend of Quetzelcoatl returning from over the sea. Shades of Frank Herbert, here, even (especially?) if the tale is a post-conquest invrntion.

And the role of technology in the tale. Yes, the steel and shot, the horses and hounds, the ships and sails were all powerful allies for the Spaniards, but these would not have sufficed without the smallpox virus - a reversal of Wells that still underlines the power of biology and of the very small even in the face of all our mastery over the brute world. But the conquest also would not have been possible without the alliance with the Tlaxcala and other local rivals and adversaries of the Aztecs. There are very pointed lessons in the social, political, and diplomatic sciences being demonstrated here. Some are obvious, and others very subtle - look at the ways these differing civilizations reacted under the extreme stress of this brutal war to see what I mean about the subtle ones.

I could go on, I could mention the strange aesthetic touches, such as the similarity in climates between the Valley of Mexico and inland Spain, and the parallels between Spain's role to Rome and Mexico's to Spain; or I could talk about the fascinatingly ambiguous characters of all the major players in this story, and the surprising arcs they go through; but not only am I already going on rather long, but I fear I may be making too light of what were, after all, real events, real events that resulted in piles of corpses, and whose tremendous human consequences are still felt deeply by tens of millions of people.

But I stand by my statement that it is one of the richest, profoundest stories I know of. The gods may be cruel, monstrously cruel, but they are artists, too.

[sepublic]

Continuing off of my previous post, coming off of Part 1 one might expect Paul to be wary of Chani, only to inevitably be pulled in by her charm, the way he inevitably becomes a dictator despite wanting to avoid this. But then come Part 2 and he's actually fairly receptive to Chani and not scared; But it's Chani who is the one who starts off as initially wary of Paul, but inevitably she's won over by his charm, and that's when the danger really begins for her and the Fremen who at first might've seen the Lisan al-Gaib as a means to an end (their own wellbeing), only to be willing to die for him.

And I think you can consider this in regards to the brief discussion of Caladan in Part 2; Again, Part 1 is arguably from Paul's perspective, so we begin on Caladan before visiting the exotic Arrakis as outsiders. But if Part 2 is through the eyes of Chani, we begin on Arrakis, and very briefly yet meaningfully hear about Paul the exotic outsider's homeworld of Caladan, as described from a Fremen perspective; A planet where the most scarce yet valuable resource falls from the sky, constantly. There's so much of it that people don't know what to do with it, they can afford to literally play with (or in) it via swimming.

There's so much it becomes a nuisance they try to avoid, sustenance overwhelming to the point of poison; And is that not what happens to Arrakis? From what I've heard, Paul's terraforming results in rain coming to Arrakis, but the water is poisonous to the Sandworms and renders them nearly extinct, devastating Arrakis. Which of course is Frank Herbert's way of criticizing attempts by colonizers into making deserts 'green' while completely misunderstanding and/or ignoring how life already does work there.

But that gets me back to my point; Part 2 reverses the perspective, it's from Chani's eyes and in the end it's Paul who is the dangerous, usually racist trope of the exotic lover from an exotic world who ends up dooming our protagonist because you can't trust those savages!!! Something like that. Because despite what white people may think, it is not the brown people and their home to be afraid of; It's white people themselves being the threats, often in their attempts to 'save' brown people from their suffering and 'corrupt' ways. The white person IS the exotic one here, have you ever considered how the brown person may see it that way?