I haven’t read all the prequels, they are in a stack next to my bed, but do any them go into the BG seeding of Arrakis? While I am sure that they would never teach the Freeman the weirding ways, I would theorize that they would want a competent fighting force for their program/Jihad. I’m sure they would train them up to fight the forces of the Imperium?
I only read the first “House” book and I don’t recall anything about that.
But from Dune itself, I don’t see any indication that the Bene Gesserit want to fight the forces of the Imperium - their goal is pretty explicitly to put a Bene Gesserit (one of Shaddam’s daughters, ideally) actually on the throne herself.
Or, failing that, had Jessica followed orders and had a daughter, put the child of that daughter and Feyd-Rautha on the throne in 25 years or so.
I always thought the the Bene Gesserit saw whoever sat on the throne as largely irrelevant as long as they were pulling the strings behind them.
From my reading it was a male Bene Gesserit they were after. One who could see into the male side of the memories that they were wanting from Jessica’s daughter and Feyd.
Of course given the complexity of Dune I may well have missed some of the political maneuvering that was going on in the court setting. Especially around Count Fenring and his (Bene Gesserit) wife.
Actually Shaddam only had daughters didn’t he? Did the book say anything a daughter taking the throne herself or were they always just viewed as the way for a Male to become Emperor?
Dammit, now I will need to reread it again.
I need to reread, too. It’s been a long time, but I thought that it was mentioned that Shaddam’s wife was BG-trained and purposely only had daughters (all of whom were educated by the BG, but not fully trained as Sisters) so that one of them would have to end up on the throne.
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Guess there is only one thing for it. Reread the book again!
It’s a hard job but someone has to do it… 
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Well yes, the BG are the “Politics” Side of the tripod, but they did have an ultimate goal. A surpreme being, the male BG, the Kwisatz Haderach. Was their end goal.
They had breeding programs that had been in effect for 100s or 1000s of years.
Fenring was an “Almost”. he was up untill that point the closest they had kome to the Kwisatz Haderach, but was a genetic eunuch. He missed it by ‘thisssss’ much. So they used him in other ways. If you read, he was put beside Shaddam to be his buddy and ‘guide’ him (Just as his BG wife did), so that the BG couls stear the emp where they wanted. Fenring was also the royal assassin. And at the end of Dune, Shaddam wanted him to kill the (Then) injured Paul after Paul had fought Feyd. But Fenring ‘felt’ their connection and refused.
Also remember that Fenring’s wife, ‘seduced’ (Like it was hard) Feyd, to ‘accquire’ his genetic material. I.E. she went, screwed him once and got preggo to help preserve the Harkonnen bloodline.
As to Shaddam only having daughters, that was because his BG wife was told to bear him only daughters, so they COULD take the throne, a Female daughter to leto was supposed to breed with Feyd, to ‘seal the breach’ and produce the Kwisatx haderach, but Jessica dicked it up. They had Paul, which was there before they were ‘ready’ and became something out of their control.
Is it ever spelled out (or even hinted at) anywhere in the original books exactly WHY the BG wanted the Kwisatz Haderach, or what they expected him to accomplish? I can’t recall that it was, but it’s been a while.
Well, the BG were attempting to create and control a superbeing - the Kwisatz Haderach - which would unite the warring Houses of Harkonnen and Atreides and present a messiah figure for the rest of the Houses to follow (with the BG calling the shots behind the scenes).
Lady Jessica screwed up the plan by having a son (Paul) rather than a daughter - which meant (s)he couldn’t be married off to the Harkonnens (presumably Feyd-Rautha) so that their offspring would be the Kwisatz Haderach. When Paul emerged as the Kwisatz Haderach, the BG sisterhood had no power over him when he became a God Emperor.
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Good cast for Dr Yeuh. I was imaging him older, but still fits. And there is no Fu-Manchu mustache! 
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Heh, the Mustash was actually mentioned in the book. They didn’t just pull that out of nowhere for the first movie.
Well, the BG were attempting to create and control a superbeing - the Kwisatz Haderach - which would unite the warring Houses of Harkonnen and Atreides and present a messiah figure for the rest of the Houses to follow (with the BG calling the shots behind the scenes).
Uniting the Atreides and the Harkonnen was a side-effect of their plan to wed Jessica’s daughter to Feyd’s son, not the goal. The ultimate goal of breeding the Kwisatz Haderach was to be able to finally plumb the depths of the “place we cannot see”–the racial memory of humanity through male bloodlines–and to have a perfected human to bootstrap the next stage of human evolution, under their control and supervision, naturally. The messiah figure part is totally accurate, though.
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Dune is one of my favorite books and I have read it several times. The rest of the books not so much. I was never able to really finish them, and frankly, I don’t even remember the other books.
As far as the upcoming movie.
The novel was outstanding in the way it painted its vision. I fully understand that there are many changes and allowances that are needed to take something from a novel to the screen. And generally I can see what I believe may the the reasons for some of the changes and most of the time I can enjoy the movie/TV series for what it is. But one of the reasons I disliked the David Lynch version was it felt like he was working from another persons cliff notes and had never actually read the book. The visuals he painted seemed like he was interpreting from second hand descriptions. Some scenes were ludicrous, such as the Officers (All generals??) on the Emperors ship getting on a merry go round to command their forces. Bah. The Scifi mini-series was better executed on a much much smaller budget.
Mini-rant over. For the upcoming movie, I don’t see anything that really strays too far from what I remember reading. While I don’t remember specific descriptions of armor, I do recall it being referenced. “Armored Squads” being one. But it was clear that personal shields had rendered person ranged weapons pretty much useless and bladed combat was the norm. So the existence of actual armor as in the pictures doesn’t really depart from the book just because we didn’t get two or three pages describing something he know we could already visualize.
All in all, I am far more optimistic with the movies with these pics than I was before. It seems that someone actually read the book this time and is trying to present it in a “realistic” style instead of the glitter and glitz BS that has regularly destroyed movies these days.
For me this thread has done two things. First, made me want to see the new movie when it hits and second, it has made me want to re-read Dune and maybe try the other books again.
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It looks like Warner Bros intends to go through with the simultaneous release in Cinemas and HBO Max per Head of Comms @ Warner Media.
Current release date is October 1st, though I can’t tell if that is worldwide or just North America.
I rarely go to the cinema (Taking the kids aside) but this is one where I’ll definitely be there.
i m yet to watch it 
As I don’t think it has been posted yet the latest trailer is out.
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Like the fact the stillsuits hark back to Lynch, rather than the pajama looking suits from Dune / Children of Dune.
Still looks good. I hope they don’t kill it with paywall release. By that I mean release on a specific streaming service with an added payment. If they do I probably will not see it until it hit general release and I can buy it.
The first movie was whacked.
the Scifi Channel series were much better even with the less than great effects/sets/costumes.
I really hope this movie sticks will bringing the book to the screen rather than being some Hollywood types canvas to express themselves.
I spoke to a WB employee (more like an assistant director or something) who saw a screening and she said it was incredible.
I was curious how they explained Dr Yueh and his betrayal and she told me it was handled very well and was impressive.
So far so good!
Bravo. Sometimes I wonder if anyone ever really read the book by the comments they post. I think I have read it twenty times. Never would someone think she was a mere nun: she had trained her son in the ways too. Let’s not forget she kicked a Harkonnen guard to death as well.Jessica is really the pivotal figure of the entire novel. Her decisions brought everything to where it was. She knew her son was the Kwizats Haderach.
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