Herbert is good because he plays around with alot of things in his books, and the one thing he doesn't mind indulging in basically amounts to the conflict between gender.
The Padishah Emperor is the most powerful man in the universe. A god in all but name, whom commands all of humanity, whom calls the Guild and the Landsraad to heel, who orchestrates the downfall of those whom oppose him without care for the repercussions -
Yet the moment he requests a male child from his Bene Gesserit witch, the basic reply is 'Lol no get fucked. We'll whore your daughter out to whom we wish to secure our genetic plan for humanity'.
Yeah. You think someone in that sort of situation is going to send a woman as his Hand and Word on Arrakis? Fuck no.
(Also he should be a thirty-something looking redhead but none of the movies ever do that, heh.)
Conversely, Dune is also a story about how love can move the universe, because when Leto asked for a son from his Bene Gesserit witch, his wife in all but name, she basically went all in and gave him what he wanted - threw away thousand years of breeding, all for love.
But Villenuive supposedly has a deep understanding of the setting. Yeah. Sure.
Freman Race
Fun fact - we get an off-hand mention of how the Saurdukar and the Fremen were both taken from the same location before being resettled on their respective planets. So... yeah.
(This is the part I love about Dune - Frank Herbert includes all these small little details just as offhand mentions that are kind of a big deal.)
I'm copying from an ebook, so excuse any whonky formatting.
His youth;
My father, the Padishah Emperor, took me by the hand one day and I sensed in the ways my mother had taught me that he was disturbed. He led me down the Hall of Portraits to the ego-likeness of the Duke Leto Atreides. I marked the strong resemblance between them—my father and this man in the portrait—bothwith thin, elegant faces and sharp features dominated by cold eyes. "Princess daughter," my father said, "I would that you’d been older when it came time for this man to choose a woman." My father was 71 at the time and looking no older than the man in the portrait, and I was but 14, yet I remember deducing in that instant that my father secretly wished the Duke had been his son, and disliked the political necessities that made them enemies.
-"In my Father’s House" by Princess Irulan
Maybe not thirty something, but still young-looking enough to be Leto's equivalent.
Red hair;
Paul thought then of prescient glimpses into the possibilities of this moment—and one time-line where Thufir carried a poisoned needle which the Emperor commanded he use against "this upstart Duke."
The entrance guards stepped aside, formed a short corridor of lances. There came a murmurous swish of garments, feet rasping the sand that had drifted into the Residency.
The Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV led his people into the hall. His burseg helmet had been lost and the red hair stood out in disarray. His uniform’s left sleeve had been ripped along the inner seam. He was beltless and without weapons, but his presence moved with him like a force-shield bubble that kept his immediate area open.
And again;
"Nobody permitted me to—"
"Stop playing the fool," Paul barked. "The Guild is like a village beside a river. They need the water, but can only dip out what they require. They cannot dam the river and control it, because that focuses attention on what they take, it brings down eventual destruction. The spice flow, that’s their river, and I have built a dam. But my dam is such that you cannot destroy it without destroying the river."
The Emperor brushed a hand through his red hair, glanced at the backs of the two Guildsmen.
"Even your Bene Gesserit Truthsayer is trembling," Paul said. "There are other poisons the Reverend Mothers can use for their tricks, but once they’ve used the spice liquor, the others no longer work."
So, yeah. None of the movie's really got him right.
Fucking thank you.
Herbert is good because he plays around with alot of things in his books, and the one thing he doesn't mind indulging in basically amounts to the conflict between gender.
The Padishah Emperor is the most powerful man in the universe. A god in all but name, whom commands all of humanity, whom calls the Guild and the Landsraad to heel, who orchestrates the downfall of those whom oppose him without care for the repercussions -
Yet the moment he requests a male child from his Bene Gesserit witch, the basic reply is 'Lol no get fucked. We'll whore your daughter out to whom we wish to secure our genetic plan for humanity'.
Yeah. You think someone in that sort of situation is going to send a woman as his Hand and Word on Arrakis? Fuck no.
(Also he should be a thirty-something looking redhead but none of the movies ever do that, heh.)
Conversely, Dune is also a story about how love can move the universe, because when Leto asked for a son from his Bene Gesserit witch, his wife in all but name, she basically went all in and gave him what he wanted - threw away thousand years of breeding, all for love.
But Villenuive supposedly has a deep understanding of the setting. Yeah. Sure.
Fun fact - we get an off-hand mention of how the Saurdukar and the Fremen were both taken from the same location before being resettled on their respective planets. So... yeah.
I don't recall that being said about Shaddam IV. Do you have a reference for it?
I do, actually!
(This is the part I love about Dune - Frank Herbert includes all these small little details just as offhand mentions that are kind of a big deal.)
I'm copying from an ebook, so excuse any whonky formatting.
His youth;
Maybe not thirty something, but still young-looking enough to be Leto's equivalent.
Red hair;
And again;
So, yeah. None of the movie's really got him right.
I remember most of those passages now. Been a bit since I read the first book.
Thank you.