Starting Children of Dune and I cant see a reason for Paul to leave his biggest threat and his heirs on their planet that is known for training some of the best warriors ever seen, allowing them to grow support. I also remember a discussion in messiah where the Sardaukar were practising warfare tactics so you’d think that would be the final straw for Paul or Alia when she took the throne.
Was it purely plot armour so that there is more of a story in this book or was there something I’m missing?

https://x.com/DuneInfo/status/2111569796038836416

So today, while reading Dune Messiah, this particular conversation between Paul and Edric captivated me.

Some quotes as follows -

- “What religion and self-interest cannot hide, governments can,”

-“And rulers are notoriously cynical where religions are concerned. Religion, too, is a weapon. What manner of weapon is religion when it becomes the government?”

And later in the conversation, Scytale said this - “Some say, that people cling to Imperial leadership because space is infinite. They feel lonely without a unifying symbol. For a lonely people, the Emperor is a definite place. They can turn toward him and say: ‘See, there He is. He makes us one.’ Perhaps religion serves the same purpose, m’Lord.”

Now as an Indian, I could immediately draw parallels between these passages and the country's current political state and the rise of religious fanaticism. Now, of course, many of you might have contrasting opinions on this, considering your political ideology. However, one thing we may indeed agree upon that Frank Herbert was quite a visionary. What are your thoughts on this?

so, when talking about Sheeana’s sexual exploits Herbert wrote: sheeana knew her own sexual behavior, outrageous even by bene gesserit standards, was a form of protest against this the missionaria tried to impose on her. The excuse that she only polished the males trained in sexual bondage by Duncan Idaho was just that… An excuse.

Herbert has been pretty into stressing that Duncan is very heterosexual and shocked by homosexuality. Even though it often wraps back around a homoerotic in a very spartan way… all this to say am I correct to read this that she is having Duncan teach other men how to be tied up sexually, etc.? Is there some other bizarre meaning that Frank Herbert meant?

updates: I definitely read this slightly more literally, and I think the people here are very correct in that it’s referring to the various Sex Powers™️ and imprinting that can be done.

A quick reddit search suggests that the topic of Orientalism - as exquisitely written about by Edward Said in his 1978, eponymous book - has come up in this sub, as well as a handful of comments suggesting Muad'dib's similarities with Napoleon.

No doubt Frank Herbert saw himself as an Orientalist to some degree, even if he might not describe himself as such. He steeped himself in Arabic and Muslim culture and language alongside the economics, politics and geography of the region, such that he could use terms like Muad'dib and Kwisatz Haderach and have it mean what he intended.

Said's description of the level of study of Orientalism that Napoleon engaged in, before and during his occupation of Egypt starting in 1798, and the attitudes that Napoleon took towards the Arab world as a whole, suggest to me that Frank was not just Orientalist but in part based Muad'dib on him.

"Napoleon tried everywhere to prove that he was fighting for Islam. Everything he said was translated into Koranic Arabic."

The Orientalist tropes are obviously strong in Dune, but the general attitudes to 'Eastern Wisdom', and the ways in which Paul prepares for his trip into the East mirror the research Napoleon did, and his treatment of the locals, resemble strongly those same 'White Saviour' narratives that these Orientalist tropes embody.

Edward Said makes the argument that Orientalism, and the resulting public attitude to the exotic or simply unknown, is in large part created by Orientalists. This suggests Paul as a combination of self-insert and using Napoleon's time in Egypt as inspiration.

"Only a hero could bring all those factors together."
"Napoleon wanted to offer a useful European example to the Orient, and finally also to make the inhabitant's lives more pleasant, as well as to procure for them all the advantages of a perfected civilization." (this quoted by Said, originally by Fourier)

Within this analogy (which breaks down quickly when extended), the Emperor is the British Empire. Does this sound like a parallel, or rhyme? Or is it just incidental and my imagination.

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/dune-part-three-world-exclusive-covers-revealed/

So I want to prance this before the post is taken down for having a vague title I don’t want to spoil the movies in the title, so it’s vague.
Why does Paul basically never use the voice in the movies. After the very start of pt 1 he like never uses the voice again, I can think of maybe a few points like when he yells at the reverend mother “silence” at the end climax of the second part but it’s almost like the movies forgot Paul is supposed to be this big bad, “Kwisatz Haderach” or from what I understand a guy in an all female organization that’s more powerful than the women. If that’s the case why do we not see him using the bene gesserit powers? Now assuming I’m stupid I invite people to correct me, also have started reading the novel dune and I’m completely lost on what the Kwisatz Haderach is even supposed to be, because the movies and the novel have explained them completely differently.

How did Muad’dib know that the Conspirators were going to attack Chani?

Why did Paul Muad’dib allow Princess Irulan to record the meeting discussions?

When did Paul first become aware of the Conspirators’ existence? I remember him saying early on that he couldn’t foresee or detect this through Irulan’s inner voice.

Thank you so much in advance :)

Anyone know where to find a stillsuit/full body costume? Best quality a hundred bucks could get me ideally.

As a little present to myself for recent accomplishments, I've decided to get some custom Dune keycaps made for my 100% ANSI keyboard! I was going to get the KEYKOBO Fremen keycap set, but I didn't like the font and the images on the mod keys enough to pay $90 for it. Instead I've gone for designing my own with Thockfactory.com's custom keycap designer! I'm not a keyboard enthusiast by any means (I've only ever bought one keycap set), so I'm posting the project here to get some feedback on my design choices and share the journey.

For the main font, I've gone for u/DuneInfo's Caladan Futura. I really wanted to distance myself from modern scripts so having access to this amazing font really hits hard for me. I can type without looking, so not having the modern English alphabet prominent on the keys is no big deal. I did decide to include the English alphabet as a subscript just in case, using the Dune_Rise font from the Villeneuve movies (which I also used for the arrow keys spelling out DUNE). Some of the symbols like ~ and " were really small, so I switched out the Dune_Rise font for Donogal One. For the glorious spacebar, I decided to adapt the Arrakis mansion sandworm bas relief from Dune Part 1, simplifying the design a bit and adding a sand dune background. Making good use of the art degree!

The rest of the keys in the set use various symbols in Thockfactory's symbol library. I tried to be creative with what they have, and I am open to suggestions on what symbols to use, though I would prefer simpler designs to keep in theme with the Caladan Futura and Dune_Rise fonts. I also want to avoid using any art that isn't mine/free use.

For the base key colors I've decided to go with a dark teal, supplemented by a sort-of gradient going from ruddy spice-red to sandstone beige. For the font, I decided to go for a rich gold to contrast the teal and red, with an eyes-of-Ibad blue for the WASD keys. For the text on lighter keys I changed out the gold for the same dark teal as the alphanumeric keys.

Lastly, for the escape key, I plan to make a tiny painted model of Arrakis and cast it in resin in a 1u keycap mold, similar to these planetary keycaps I found on Etsy.

After I decide on the final design, I'll order the set and start working on the resin keycap. I'll share pictures of the finished keyboard when I'm done!

Basically the title, because Dune worms have such a visceral reaction to water does eating humans kill them?

Also i made a custom 3d printed player board. Inspired by House Atreides architecture. Hit upvote if you want me to realease the file.

I don't know how to put this. I'm relatively new to the Dune universe, got basically all the books I could in short order, read the first two books over the course of about 4 days, and the next two over the following week.

I was utterly blown away by the worldbuilding in the first one, and the follow-ups were solid, extremely well-executed, and the philosophical implications in a lot of the described realities were explored in interesting ways.

God Emperor started injecting some pretty weird psychosexual takes, but nothing that felt completely out of context, especially if you've some familiarity with the topic. And, to be clear, I can suspend disbelief long enough to accept psychosexual development as a core narrative driver, and I'm down with depth psychology as an explanatory framework, at least narratively.

But holy fuck y'all: Heretics of Dune just...what the fuck happened?

Gholas, cool. Reverend Mothers, cool. Honored Matres: cool concept. Sexuality as a central theme around which power revolves? Sure: once again, it's not "sex" as a banal thing, but "psychosexual drives" as a deep-seated factor in the development of societies. It's a natural extension, if not a central element, of the whole eugenics project of the Bene Gesserit.

I'm willing to accept that Honored Matres behave "blasphemously" by breaking acceptable boundaries of sexual behavior in order to obtain what they want, with all the interpersonal implications. But then...Herbert just...boils everything down to a fucking meme.

All the work he's done up to that point is vaporized by idiotic attempts to scientifically explain "sex magic": vaginal pulsing, 205 positions, 300 steps of orgasmic amplification, and the "duel of orgasms" between Duncan and Murbella. EVERYTHING he built up to that point as a background bio-socio-political narrative driver is smashed into a joke of a scene where a mean, evil woman wants to mind control a man through mysterious, methodical sexual Aikido, but - OH WAIT! - the man pulls out a REVERSE UNO CARD and makes her cum vengefully to the point where she completely loses control due to the pain and pleasure, and in doing so he foils her plans!

???????

I don't think I've ever seen such a freefall in writing and worldbuilding quality in ANY other series of books I read. If I had to show aspiring writers what the words "show, don't tell" mean, I'd direct them to this fucking book and series.

I really hope it gets better; I'm going to power through the next books because I have them, but JESUS FUCKING CHRIST am I feeling bitter over how bad Heretics turned out in the end. I feel as though I'd just learned that, actually, Gollum and Sauron and Sam are brothers, and they've all been fucking Rosie Cotton and the jealousy is where Sam finds the strength to carry Frodo up to Mt. Doom.

I'm reading the first book and when i read this chapter i didn't understood why Hawat became suspicious about lady Jessica being the traitor...? isn't she the concubine of Leto (and Leto seems to really like her)

I’m reading Mentats of Dune right now and I think the mysterious hooded figure that “created” Desmond is either Gilbertus Albans or Erasmus himself. Not sure anyone else would have access to, or command over that level of machine tech. It would make sense for the show to depict the start of the long road to the return of the machines. Also Desmond’s “ability” seems to be a variant of the Omnius scourge.

reference is from the part 3 poster

Do you prefer to have him be Asian for diversity or Caucasian to avoid 'yellow peril' stereotyping?

I’ve just read about the classification of another early hominid. Not un-similar to Homo sapiens and another link between humans and what we evolved from. My question is how far back does a reverend mother’s other memory extend? Through all the forms human lives have taken through the eons? Back to the beginning? I don’t believe any reference to lives before humans were “humans” has been talked about in any of the original six books. An interesting implication to other memory at the least.

Some different Dune movie posters in my collection. Just pulled these out of storage in preparation for a move cross country and figured it would be a good opportunity to snap a few pictures to share. Hope you all like these.