#also idk how old irulan is supposed to be in the books? I think around paul & chani's ages but

[demon-of-the-ancient-world]

Really trying to get the vibes of the messy messy Paul/Irulan dynamic that lives in my fic and it's hard because we really don't see all too much of their actual relationship dynamic in the books? They're almost never together. All we really know is Irulan is kind of a disaster, Paul pretty much ignores her, she reeeeeally wants him assassinated but also obsessively writes down everything he says. There's some real interesting nuggets in there though, especially combined with how their characters have been shown so far in the movies.

ramblings under the cut:

Because while Irulan still is very much plotting against Paul, 1) the specific Thing I'm working on partly takes place immediately after Part 2 i.e. a long time before that so one of the things I'm working on is figuring out how their relationship evolves over that time and 2) what fascinates me about their relationship is that in a lot of ways it's an inverse of Paul and movie!Chani's. Both women are very much Not Happy with him, but their reasons are reversed. Chani knew him, loved him, and by the end of the film has been deeply betrayed by him on a personal level. For sure they end as political enemies as well, but the main source of strife between them is emotional.

And then Irulan is almost exactly the opposite. She has presumably never met Paul and knows little about him, but (at least in my version/interpretation) is somewhat fascinated by the idea of what he is now. And contrary to Chani, her reasons for conflict with him are about 90% political. Sure, he disposed her father, but I think Irulan - unlike Paul at the beginning and by extension Leto - understands how shaky the rule of a royal family really is and clearly sees the behind the scenes workings of all that it takes to keep that kind of rule in place. Her father killed his, and now he is taking revenge. Of course that results in some level of emotional baggage, but I think she gets it in a way. She's analytical and calculating, and sees this more as a political move on his part than a personal one. He's a threat to her status, to the Imperium as she knows it, but these threats are the sort she would be used to dealing with as an emperor's daughter, albeit on a lesser scale than what he brings.

So on one hand we have Chani's highly-emotional-but-wrapped-up-in-political-views conflict with Paul, and on the other we've got Irulan's emotionally-distant-but-based-in-large-scale-political-motions conflict with him. It's a very different vibe.

I'm also trying to sort out what will hopefully end up being some VERY messy complicated Feelings on her part. There's a whole spectrum of like:

"Who does this kid think he is???"

"...he kind of scares me"

".......he kind of scares me and I hate that a part of me is kind of into it"

"this BITCH took my dad's throne that could've been mine maybe if the patriarchy didn't exist how DARE he you little shit you won't get away with this istg I'm going to slit your throat --"

"wait ok if things weren't so fucked up you'd actually be a crazy interesting person hold still so I can put your brain in a test tube you weirdo"

"genuinely kind of wish I was just loved. No not by my husband ugh buuuut it's a shame our marriage sucks ass can't he just Be Nice"

"look how hard I'm manipulating him I'm such a girlboss he thinks he's won but I'm manipulating him soooo hard right now good job me"

"...this little shit doesn't scare me"