#Paul maud’dib

[thestarlightforge]

Did Paul’s original vision-path eventually come true? Or did he fail in the end?

**DUNE BOOK SPOILERS TO FOLLOW: DISCUSSING FULL SERIES OF NOVELS**

I just got to the end of Dune: Messiah and then speed-read the Wikipedia summaries for the rest of Frank Herbert’s original novels, and I’m trying to make sense of it.

There’s a lot of plot, of course. But from what it seems like, by going into the desert blind, becoming the Preacher, and playing his parts in Alia’s death & Leto II trying & half-failing to enact his “Golden Path” (which Paul had foreseen also & avoided?), he eventually set the stage for the peace that the perfected Kwisatz Haderach—the thousands of times reborn Duncan Idaho ghola—achieves by bonding with the machine people from the original Butlerian jihad. The reawakened Paul & Chani gholas end up back on Dune, healing the planet for the Fremen; humans have found some semblance of peace with the machines; and a combination of super spice & machines are able to be used for navigation, so the universe is navigable without a melange monopoly that concentrates power & destroys native populations (i.e. the Fremen who got destroyed, except for the gholas of Stilgar, Chani & etc. eventually).

My understanding of the meta-narratives around these books were that Frank Herbert worked in Washington before he became a SFF writer, & he wanted to caution against treating political leaders (like JFK) as messianic figures. Messiah makes this pretty clear, all the way from Paul’s “I hate myself but basically I’m Space Hitler” speech in the 1st half of the novel. Eugenics (the breeding program that lead to his birth), fostering religiosity around it, are all bad ideas.

But if Paul’s original prescience did come true (in books published after Frank’s death) and/or the breeding program got restarted (even if it did have an explicit directive to avoid another Kwisatz Haderach this time)… Doesn’t that undermine the message?

OR did Paul actually escape his prescience when he wandered into the desert & went blind, thus finding himself on a different road because of the unforeseen birth of his son (only his daughter was in the visions)—and thus his paternal line being awakened in a similar way to Alia/Jessica’s maternal line awakening? Was him walking into the desert his final act of giving up, or did he actually foresee that if he adhered to Fremen ideologies that completely, that would be the way to be sure they kept following his path (which he believed to be the way to avoid the most violence) long after his death?

Basically: I don’t think I have it in me to binge all 8 of these lol, or until Paul (or almost any characters I recognize) comes back in the final 2. Where does this ending leave us, in y’all’s opinions? Was Paul a hero whose violence really was necessary to prevent something worse 5000 yrs down the line, or a fraud who sacrificed billions for nothing? Were his actions worthwhile? Did he foresee this ending? Did he break free when Leto II was born? Where do we go from here?

[thoughtswithfinn]

the desert mouse - maud’dib

paul wanting to be called “little desert mouse” and then committing heinous crimes will never not be funny to me

[therealelrondhubbard]

[konncreete]

“ I’ve killed sixty-one billion, sterilized ninety planets, completely demoralized five hundred others. I’ve wiped out the followers of forty religions which had existed since-“

-Paul Maud’Dib Atreides.

-Dune Messiah (Frank Herbert)

[bioluminesced]

your mothers warned you of my coming

[starfall-xo]

Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides photographed by Jack Davison from the set of Dune: Part Two (2024) for M Le Magazine du Monde + charcoal drawing by @sergiart5_

[the-anastasia]

I hate when Sci Fi has overly complicated names that I have no idea how to pronounce. Kwisatz Haderach, Lisan al Gaib, Chakobsa, Paul…

[thestarlightforge]

Of course Dr. Liet-Kynes, a black woman, had a long term, sustainable plan to bring water back to Arrakis—in a way that she was fairly sure wouldn’t harm the Indigenous Fremen culture or the planet’s native ecology.

And was then promptly killed by white settler colonist wars.

And had her mission replaced by the well-meaning yet *totally feral* first son of a white women’s order of religious zealots and an ancient nuclear-colonial superpower, the eugenic manipulation and privilege practically bleeding out of his ears.

That makes sense.

[kittenfangirl20]

While I saw people arguing over who would win in a fight between Anakin Skywalker and Paul Atreides, I was thinking about how bad ass it would be if they teamed up and kicked ass together.

[rain-carradine]

muad’dib is so wise

[takemetodragonstone]

watching dune part 2 with my mom was such a funny experience because i could hear her just quietly tsk in that disappointed mom way every time paul made a decision she didn’t like

[gracethyomen]

Rex - The Buttress but it’s Paul Atreides

Listening to this song made me think of Paul Maud’dib Atreides so here are some lines i think work especially well.

thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[kuulpenguin]

“Wise in the ways of the desert”

[bioluminesced]

worst teenager in the galaxy award

[moonlit-void-to-the-far-unknown]

Can I just say I love Paul’s angry foot stomp to make a point that the emperor has to kiss his ring.

Just the sassy, like

“Bitch what do you think my hand out means. *foot stomp* do it!”

It’s like how a bunny thumps their back feet when annoyed.

I just love the like *stomp* and stare at the emperor.

[shiftperception]

having multiple names or aliases (i.e. aragorn a.k.a. strider a.k.a elessar etc): ough

using a new name or alias instead of your given name (i.e. mr anderson neo): >pounds fists on desk

gaining new names or aliases but keeping all of them, including your given name, and sometimes mashing them together (i.e. paul maud’dib atreides): foaming at the mouth