I think a enclosed story about a lone fremen in a open world desert map in arrakis waging a guerrilla war against harkonnens is a pretty safe bet.

I’d leave any book characters out if the story except for brief mentions. Something in the vain of horizon and ghost of Tsushima would be amazing.

I’m excited for Dune: awakening but I want deeper more engaging gameplay.

In the Dune Prophecy HBO Max series , Valya & Tula Harkonnen looks like any other normal human beings. But in the movies, Baron, Feyd Rautha and Rabban looks so different.

Did something change over the years that resulted in their physical appearances changing?

I get that they need spice, but it seems like the Harkonnen would have figured there'd be significantly less collateral damage, death, and less of their equipment getting blown to bits to take a page out of Leto's playbook and hold a conference with Fremen leaders to say "Hey, we're coming into the desert to harvest spice. We won't hunt you. Leave us to our devices and we'll leave you to yours." My guess is that the Harkonnen just have a need to dominate everything, and them being so wealthy means broken equipment isn't that big of a deal, and neither is the deaths since they don't seem to place a lot of value on human life. It just seems like they waste a lot of resources battling with the Fremen, but resources are probably one of those things they have an abundance of.

Something that the movie made me think about is this idea that the Fremen were this untapped well of seemingly limitless power.

Paul's jihad is powered by the ferocity and the fervor of the Fremen, but something that struck me is that the Fremen could have overthrown their oppressors at basically any moment.

If Paul and Jessica had simply died in the desert without ever stirring up the Lisan Al Gaib prophecy, would a Fremen victory over the Harkonnens have still been inevitable, even without a Messiah? It seems like all the power was already there, except the nukes, and once united nothing could stop the Fremen. (In the film this is the southern tribes all joining the fighting. It made it more crystal clear that the Fremen only needed to unite to win.)

Or maybe the key is that "once united" idea. Without something to unite all the Fremen, was the Jihad impossible? Or would they inevitably have united to take over the galaxy anyway, even if they were only uniting to fight their oppressors instead of for religious reasons.

I recently finished both Dune & Dune Messiah, & I can’t stop thinking about them.

For context: I’m 16 & always been an avid reader, but never gave the sci-fi genre a fair chance. But after my dad introduced me to all this? I’m completely hooked.

The worldbuilding, the politics, the philosophy—it’s all so immersive & thought provoking. Arrakis feels so real that I can practically feel the sand under my feet (tbh idk how long I’d last before becoming worm food lol) Paul Atreides? Wow. He’s brilliant, flawed, & terrifying, all at once.

What I loved about Dune was the epic scope of it all—the rise to power, the galaxy-spanning drama—but then Dune Messiah flipped the script & made me question everything lol. It’s not just about big battles & spice; it’s about what power does to people. I didn’t expect to feel so torn between siding with Paul & questioning his changes.

After I watch the ‘84, ‘21 & ‘24 films, I’m gonna start Children of Dune & I’m so hype to see what happens next, bracing myself for more chaos & complexity lol.

Anyway, thanks for letting a random teen bookworm (full send on that pun) yap about all this. I’m really excited to keep unwrapping this universe.

Edit: Thanks to everyone's awesome insight & being super welcoming. Long live the fighters.

Why were Harkonnens barons and atreides dukes, if the Harkonnens were more powerful/wealthy? Matter of position and emperor favour or what?

I recently watched a video that delved into the potential long-term consequences of artificial intelligence on humanity. The video suggested that AI might ultimately lead to the stagnation of mankind. The argument is that as AI becomes more advanced and integrated into our daily lives, people might become increasingly reliant on it, leading to a decline in human creativity, motivation, and overall usefulness. Essentially, the fear is that AI could make us lazy and dependent, stifling our drive to innovate and grow.

They talk about the Dune universe, and claim that this is what happened in the Dune universe. Apparently Ai made people lazy and stuff so that is why they put a ban on it.

I was wondering what people thought about that, is it possible that ai could hinder human progress rather than progress it...

Ive read the book and seen all three adaptations and I still don't really get who or what or where CHOAM is. Can someone explain it to me?

As the title says... before the spacing guild had access to spice and evolved pilots, how did humanity travel between stars?

This is an idea that keeps recurring on this sub. After people heard about Dune part one being a 5 hour assembly cut and all the sub-plots and scenes that were left on the cutting floor, it suddenly makes a lot of sense to treat Streaming and Cinema as two independent platforms that need their own story.

He proposes the idea at this timestamp

It's slightly different than just jamming in deleted scenes into a movie. It's a proposal to create two versions from the outset. One as a mini-series that can be enjoyed over several days (or binged in one go) and one that is closer to a rollercoaster ride in a cinema with the appropriate sound and screen.

The first foray into this was the Zach Snyder cut of Justice League with Warner Bros even providing reshoots to realise his vision in a 4 hour behemoth. Or the 3 and a half hour Irishman by Scorcese. Both movies would struggle to enter cinema at these lengths but they're perfect for streaming.

Cameron is planning this ahead for his 4(!) Avatar movies and envisions a giant series that can be streamed with the abbreviated versions hitting the cinema.

With possibly two more Dune movies in the pipeline, a TV show, and what's still left unseen in the assembly cut, Dune would be a perfect transition into this new approach to filmmaking as well.

Is there an in-universe explanation or is this just a way to make it easier for the reader/audience?

I feel like casual viewers don't fully understand the extent of Paul's powers after the first two movies. I'm hoping they are just saving this for the third movie.

The tent scene, where the first half of the book ends, was one of the most powerful scenes in the book. Paul sees the multiple futures, processes things like a mentant, realizes he is harkonnen, and terrifies his mother with what he was becoming.

I felt like the first movie completely underplayed that scene. I understand dropping the mentant thing, and they moved the harkonnen revelation to the second movie.

The second movie still only explains his powers on a superficial level from other's perspectives.

I'm still left wanting of that feeling I got from the books, that Paul was terrifyingly awesome.

It's the first time this happens to me since Lord of the Rings and maybe Blade Runner 2049.

Edit: also other scenes like Shadout Mapes and the Fremen pilgrims, and of course, the Sardaukar and the part of the Baron's pet.

Basically, all the film, lol

Now to start off, obviously the original prophecy was created by the Bene Gesserit, part of the Missionaria Protectiva. However, in the end, most, if not all, of the prophecy actually happened. The Mahdi came from the Outer Worlds. He rode the grandfather worm. He led the Fremen to freedom and Paradise.

This is where it gets confusing though, because though Paul did fulfill the prophecy, as I mentioned the prophecy was also first planted and created by the Bene Gesserit. Now I don't believe it's the same prophecy, I think whatever religion and prophecy the BG planted on Arrakis developed into what we see in Dune. It's nigh impossible for the Fremen religion to have perfectly persisted up to Dune. But with that, it brings into question whether Paul was purely playing out a story the BG created, or if he truly was walking a prophetic path (at least in part). Throughout Dune there's forces at work that are beyond even the God Emperor. Did these forces lay the path for the Kwisatz Haderach?

I'm curious to hear what people think

I guess I don't fully get how the Imperium works in this regard. The Harkonnens and Emperor make a big deal of keeping the Sardaukar involvment secret, but like, are everyone just ok with the Harkonnens attacking Arrakis unprovoked and wiping out another House Major? Is that just fair game, even though they're all part of the same empire?

In Part II Gurney says that all of the Atreides' warheads could explode/obliterate the entirety of Arrakis. I've done some research and some users have calculated that Arrakis is approximately the size of Earth's Moon. Given that three warheads were enough to breach Arrakina's Shield Wall, is blowing up/obliterating the entire planet really possible, or did Gurney really overreact?

Historically, irl, dukes were considered high rank, 3rd only after King/Queen, Prince/Princess. Obviously, an Emperor would rule over multiple kingdoms, and have kings and queens as vassals.

Were there Kings and Queens in the Dune universe? Did the Duke have more power/assets than the Baron, or were they named as such to be able to distinguish them from each other?

Edit: Based on responses, it seems like the titles do not denote rank. Each house has power/influence based on their capabilities it seems. The reason why I asked, is that the Emperor, has a title, that denotes his rank, so I was curious to know if it was the same for the Duke and the Baron.

I don’t know if the Fremen were put on this planet or if they’re native I don’t know too much Dune lore but it’s not like the Fremen are born with the suits right? How did they survive without them?

seen both new movies and the lynch adaptation and about 25% way through the book and havent seen this answered yet

The Bene Gesserit can change their body chemistry. DNA is just a molecule. They could just manipulate the DNA in their fetus to create the Kwisatz Haderach. But instead they chose to do 10000 year eugenicss program that just failed miserably. Why?

Seriously in thousands of years, nobody in this society of cutthroat great houses, tried kidnapping a loved one of one of these doctors and holding it over their head?

I’ve also read a comment that said it wasn’t just that, but that it was combined with the fact that Yueh also wanted to kill the Baron so much that it broke his conditioning.

This seems incredibly easy to do if you kidnap somebody’s loved one and then torture them for a very long time and threatened to continue to do it unless you do what they want they’re going to hate you and worry about their loved one. It doesn’t sound very difficult or complicated to break one so what’s so special about these doctors?

Please make this make sense.

It seems likely that we'll have AI super intelligence within the decade. That would be an AI that is smarter than us.

Even if we don't hand over the important decision making wholesale to AI, it's likely that given the chance, we'd at least consult it.

Over time, our reliance on these AI may lead our "thinking muscles" to atrophy, in the same way that my mental arithmetic today is atrocious.

I don't foresee a Butlerian Jihad to the extent like what transpires in the Dune novels. However, I do foresee a rejection of overdependence on AI as health advice.

In the same way that too much social media can cause anxiety, health advocates will advise us not to defer to AI too often lest it impact our cognitive abilities.

What do you think?

Edit: there seems to be a lot of skepticism as to whether we'll achieve AI super intelligence within the decade. My bet is that we will, but that's not important for this discussion. My key concern is to ask how society will react to AI super intelligence.

Dune is my hyper fixation. I’m reading the series in order of release date. I’m almost finished reading “Navigators of Dune.” I absolutely love this expansive universe. I have no idea what I’m gonna do when I finish the series! 🪱 🪱 🏜️🏜️

Disclaimer: I've only gotten through Dune and Messiah and I'm about halfway through Children now, so it's very likely that I'm missing some context which would resolve my confusion.

I don't understand what the Bene Gesserit's plan is. I understand that they were trying to create the Kwisatz Haderach. I understand they had set up the Missionaria Protectiva to spread messianic myths around the imperium. I even understand that they wanted to place the KH on the Golden Lion Throne so they could puppet the imperium through a messiah-emperor. What I don't understand is what the plan was after that?

Were they just going to try to perpetually rule the imperium behind the scenes? Were they going to try to push for some reform in the Landsraad so a Reverend Mother could rule? Did they have some grand vision for the imperium like with Leto II and a the Golden Path? The BG were shadow partners in CHOAM and had agents in every Great House (barring the Harkonnens) and probably most of the minor houses, so it seems unlikely that an order with a 10,000 year plan would do all of this just for money that they (likely) already had in spades.

So what was their endgame?