Every Woman Needs a Pair of Red Shoes...

Paul Atreides, the harbinger

love the bene gesserit. they're out there girlboss gatekeep gaslighting for 90 generations, perfectly and meticulously masterminding every political player of the universe into sexy times to create the Ultimate Manwhore and after ALL OF THAT. ALLLL OF THAT?

Dune timeline hits. we're here! we've done it! Our two greatest prospects!! Kwisatz Haderach! At last! And it's just fucking Kinky and Twinky over here like oh ok nice going I guess

DUNE: PART ONE (2021) // DUNE: PART TWO (2023)

-Dune, Frank Herbert

@fuckyeahisawthat

There's a moment where Paul's looking at Chani like he's a dumb lovestruck puppy and the sound mix actually fades her speech out which kind of feels like it should break the tone, but doesn't. I think that's because we're very much in Paul's perspective (hence we join him in tuning out what Chani's saying because he's caught up in looking at her) and there's a sense that he hasn't actually experienced this before. Whether that's puppy love or something deeper, which this very quickly becomes.

It's left implied where the book was explicit about it, but Paul's circle of friends was really confined to his teachers and immediate circle of protectors, without any friends or confidants his own age or the opposite sex. That's not to say that he wasn't cared for, because Thufir, Gurney and Duncan clearly do, but it's not particularly conducive to having an ordinary childhood. Romance, in particular, was not on the menu.

So despite the fact that he's running round blowing things up and hiding in the sand for hours at a time waiting to shank Harkonnens, Paul's time with Chani is the first time he really gets to just be a teenager. And it lasts only a matter of months before he has to take on memories of pain and sorrow going back thousands of years, and in a sense very much ceases to be a young man.

If I go South, I might lose you...

What are you afraid of? Worship, Gurney.

. 𝓟𝓪𝓾𝓵 𝓜𝓾𝓪𝓭'𝓭𝓲𝓫 𝓐𝓽𝓻𝓮𝓲𝓭𝓮𝓼 ⋆ 𝓓𝓾𝓴𝓮 𝓸𝓯 𝓐𝓻𝓻𝓪𝓴𝓲𝓼

...painting illustration study of my favorite feral goth space desert rat Paul Atreides

So I just watched Dune for the second time, and need to talk about that duel.

The visions that Paul has before finding the Fremen set Jamis as a friend. His words allow Paul to “let go” and survive the storm, and he says that he’ll teach Paul the ways of the desert. I guess in a way, he did. I didn’t know which actor was playing Jamis when I went into the movie for the first time, so it came as a shock to me when I realized that the person they’d been showing as a future friend and ally was in actuality the first person that Paul would murder. 

The vision that Paul has before the duel shows his death. Paul’s death. A possible future. A choice. The voices overlying the scene became more clear the second time around. Either way, Paul Atreides dies. We see Paul’s death at the hand of Jamis, and then we hear that if Paul kills, he will also be “killing” himself and allow the Kwisatz Haderach to rise. 

Paul dies in that duel. When he stands, when he has that blood on his hands, when he walks away from the corpse on the ground, the expression on his face is one of darkness. The soundtrack in that moment turns menacing, and for a second you wonder why you’ve been rooting for him.

Paul takes the first steps towards evil in that duel. 

Which is a big part of the problem I have with people who try to give Paul a free pass for the events that he’s involved in, like he has no agency at all. He does. All of his decisions have consequences, and he has the distinct advantage over ordinary people in largely knowing exactly what they are.

Paul’s largest mistake happens at the start, which is in thinking his good intentions can overcome any possible catastrophic consequences of his choices. He doesn’t factor in the possibility that those choices and their consequences might not only change the future, but HIMSELF. And he does change; so much so that, when Paul realizes he can’t stop the machine he’s set into motion, he’s actually down for it.

Paul is not any kind of hero. In Part 2, this should become more apparent.

Something that I keep expecting to come across but haven’t seen is speculation on whether Furiosa knew there would be a storm - had been waiting for it, planning on it.  

As soon as I saw her driving deliberately towards it, I had this quote in my head:

Paul Adreides (Dune) had waited until an enormous sand storm would destroy the shields and communications of the enemy before launching his most devastating attack.  The storm was his ace in the hole.

Furiosa was driving the heaviest vehicle in the chase, and knew she would be right from the start.  She had the greatest chance of surviving those winds - the war rig would stay on the ground while lighter vehicles were whirled away.  Did she know a storm was on its way? (a legit question for a couple of reasons: for one, people and animals living close to the elements can sense all kinds of things; and for two, they had tech at the Citadel and predicting deadly storms is a big survival advantage)  Did she pick that particular supply run day to move the wives because she knew she’d have this perfectly timed advantage?

Whether she had that forecast or whether she took the opportunity…it was her storm, for sure.

I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO SEES THIS, RIGHT?