Unfair to Paul, as he tries desperately to avoid jihad at every turn. In the end, he surrenders to the inevitability because he realizes his choices were always only illusions. The more power and the more understanding Paul accrues, the more clearly he realizes how little he truly controls.
I would more readily blame the Psycho-Historians from Foundation than the Muad’dib of Dune. Hari Seldon might not qualify as a twink, but he was more ready to embrace a little short term genocide for long term preservation than Paul, who struggled against it in vain.
I got the opposite from the book. Paul tells himself that just to calm his consciousness. He believed he could have his cake and eat it too right up until he is dodging Feyd’s hip needle, which is far too late.
Paul tells himself that just to calm his consciousness.
Paul knows he isn’t in control of his own destiny. He’s known since he became a Mentat. In the crash following his escape from the Harkonan ambush, he sees it clearly. He can calculate all the ramifications of all his decisions out to thousandth year and no matter what he says or does, it always ends in Jihad.
The closest person to demonstrate agency was his mother, who chose to have a boy rather than a girl in strict defiance of the Bene Gesserit mission. Everything past that was functionally on rails.
He believed he could have his cake and eat it too right up until he is dodging Feyd’s hip needle
He believed he could potentially find a path forward, until he was confronted with a Gonjabar Test he couldn’t pass. At that point, he was forced to choose between dying as a martyr (which would kick off a Freman jihad) or living as an Emperor (which would still kick off a Freman jihad, just a bit latter on). And he said “Fuck it, I’d rather be Emperor”. That was his only real choice. Die a hero or live to become a villain. But with the same fundamental outcome for the rest of the galaxy.
Paul had plenty of choices, just the ones where he got his revenge on the Harkonnens all lead to Jihad or his death. He chose that road. He spoke of another future where he knelt by the Baron instead, would that future have led to jihad? Certainly it would not have led to his revenge. Its definitely an interesting setting and story. A cautionary tale of being wrapped up in your own myth.
just the ones where he got his revenge on the Harkonnens all lead to Jihad or his death
Early on, he has visions of the Fremen worshiping his father’s skull and revolting without ever meeting Paul. He can’t avoid Jihad by refusing the call to destiny. The Bene Gessiats have been baking this cake for too long.
He chose to be an emperor because it was the best choice for humanity. They needed to largely destroy themselves. After Messiah he leaves into the desert after Chani dies because he can’t handle things anymore. His son, Lato II, becomes a sandworm to live for thousands of years so humanity can essentially destroy itself and come back better.
The question is, is their prescience actually perfect or are they limited? Is this actually the only way things could go? Did they miss something as an option because of their own biases?
The books are essentially about a failing of humans to want to follow charismatic leaders. This all happens because the humans wanted to follow either Paul or whoever comes after him. They were ready for the Jihad to happen and just needed to find the person to embody it. If humans can overcome this desire we will be better for it, but we keep doing it.
See also: The Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan. They also have a warmongering desert tribe that worships water, covers their faces in combat and has weird rituals nobody else understands
It’s been a while but I don’t recall him even ordering a mass execution of “Darkfriends,” much less a genocide. Even at his most paranoid he deals with people on an individual level.
The fact that Dune and Star Wars are similar stems from the 70s when Star Wars first came out and George Lucas settled when they were sued by Frank Herbert
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