This mini-series was what made me fall in love with the SYFI channel in the first place. This adaptation is sumptuous with big actors spouting big lines about honour and justice and beauty. It's betrayals are huge but so are the payoffs when young Paul Atreides ascends to godhood.
I love how the story doesn't end there. Paul is unprepared and therefor unable to be the god the Universe needed. He actually destabilized a pretty stable system and his 'jihad' left piles of bodies on a thousand different worlds. Convert of die was the battle cry.
Maud'Dib's flaw was not using the political power he was given and therefor anarchy reigned in his absence. Sadly Paul's vision was too small. He needed to thing much bigger as Leto II did when he took on the mantle of the sand worm to become the God Emperor. Leto controlled the spice and controlled commerce in a thousand different systems. He systematically converted most of the desert of Arrakis to green thus making spice an even scarcer commodity that it already was. It gave the God Emperor enormous power over his subjects.
"Bless the Maker and his water.
Bless His comings and his goings.
May His passing cleanse the World.
May He keep the World for his people."
Only after the stagnation of humanity during Leto's 'golden age' and the engineering of an individual able to avoid Leto's gaze or notice just long enough to kill him and end this Atreides nightmare forever.
And this point I have to call out Brother Jaquandor who said he started DUNE but has had nothing to say about it since. I know you have seen the book buddy. I submit this photographic evidence to the court. You put it down after a hundred pages didn't you?
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6 comments:
Ummm...Cal? I read the book, and I posted about it...and you commented on that post! (Short version: I liked the book a lot, not as much as you, but it's a great book!)
The Golden Path was the only future Paul or Leto could see that would lead to humanity's continued survival. All others led to extinction. The path required a sustained effort to to re-invent human civilization, on the scale of millenia. By becoming this tyrannical monster, the emperor would have a near-immortal lifespan and the absolute power necessary to see it through.
Paul had spent his life until young adulthood as a normal human being and could not bring himself to choose that fate. Leto was pre-born, with a much higher awareness, and was able to absolve his father of the responsibility.
Leto's tragedy was that in order for the path to be successful, humanity had to remain ignorant of the reasons behind his brutal rule. Thousands of years of playing a monstrous tyrant, and he couldn't tell anyone why. Not until he was certain that the path could continue without him.
Extinction or Stagnation. Which is worse? Leto's path was a selfish one. He stripped the universe of anyone who could oppose him and for 1000 years he drove the point home with the end of a spear. Once again everything came down to those damn breeding programs of the Bene Gesserit. How can those tainted creatures have anything to do with freedom?
In breeding the perfect human, they forgot to take humanity into account in their plans. Jessica's love for Duke Leto changed everything. She was the wild card in their own ranks that they should have anticipated.
The mistake the arrogant Bene Gesserit made with Jessica was treating her like a 'serving maid' long after she was indoctrinated into their order and had proven to be one of their most accomplished students ever. Obviously they took her for granted if she could switch teams so quickly and mess up the BG's breeding program in such a huge way. If something as unimportant as love could mess up centuries of planning, then the BG's were more out of touch with humanity than I thought.
I agree with tengeckoes--Paul saw the path but couldn't bring himself to do it. Leto II saw it and took the responsibility himself. The only thing that may have undone him was Hui--she was the fatal chink in his armor at the end.
I just wish Frank had lived long enough to finish the series himself...Brian Herbert tried using notes and so forth, but when I read them, I just couldn't believe they were based off of Frank's notes. Even giving a generous allowance for the different writing styles, the plot didn't make sense to me. The ghola of Leto II turning into a sandworm? Give me a break!
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