In the event you’re not paying a lot consideration, Dune and its sequel Dune: Half Two can look like a typical hero’s journey story. It follows Paul Atreides, a boy who comes together with his father to the desert planet of Arrakis to search out himself caught in the midst of an interplanetary coup, a non secular rebellion, centuries of manipulation by area nuns, and one girl’s resolution to have a child. By the point the mud storm settles, Paul has change into Muad’Dib, the savior of the Fremen and galactic emperor.
But, attentive watchers and, particularly readers of the novels by Frank Herbert, know that the Dune franchise regards Paul as only one extra charismatic chief, unworthy of belief and given to damaging objectives. These viewers definitely embody Paul’s actor Timothée Chalamet, who described his character’s function in Dune: Half Three to attendees at CinemaCon. “He’s change into his worst imaginative and prescient,” he mentioned (by way of EW) of Paul, an individual nonetheless “attempting to determine the right way to nonetheless shield those that he loves in his life whereas turning into the omnipotent darkish emperor of the universe.”
“All-Highly effective Darkish Emperor” isn’t what most moviegoers need from their heroes. One want solely have a look at the big backlash Rian Johnson continues to get for saying that Luke Skywalker made some unhealthy selections within the years after Return of the Jedi. A weirdo like Alan Moore can flip Harry Potter‘s “Chosen One” arc into one thing stomach-churning for his League of Extraordinary Gents collection, however most individuals simply need to see the native child do good, to see the stableboy pull the sword from the stone and change into an excellent king, no questions requested.
However that’s by no means been Paul’s story, not even in Herbert’s telling. Whereas he definitely doesn’t pin all of the blame on Paul and, in truth, permits his protagonist to see that the Fremen jihad would occur no matter his actions, Herbert by no means frames the character as a hero. As an alternative, he understands Paul as somebody simply as topic to the currents of historical past as everybody else. Additional, the books’ most pointed criticism pokes at those that would deify these individuals, similar to Princess Irulan and the hagiographies she presents as historic information.
