Why Paul is the REAL villain of Dune.

Uncover the darker side of Paul Atreides in our latest YouTube Short! 🏜️👀 Dive deep into the iconic world of Dune to explore why Paul might not be the hero everyone believes. We'll dissect key moments from the novel and film adaptations, analyzing his decisions and their far-reaching impacts. Is Paul a savior, or does he pave his path with darker intentions? Watch now and decide for yourself!

#Dune #PaulAtreides #VillainTheory #SciFiAnalysis #BookVsMovie

Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more thought-provoking content!

[sweetsandbeats]

Everyone seems to forget that the word Protagonist exists. No, Paul isn’t a hero. But he is the main character. Everyone trying to put him in a box of hero, anti-hero, villain, etc. he’s just literally the protagonist. Box checked!!

[brandonpotts]

No one in Dune is the good guy. It is the most human story ever told. Even when Leto the second comes to power, he realizes he must put his foot on humanities neck to save them. So, even with those good intentions, he had to brand himself as a brutal tyrant.

[Peter-K]

Actually he can be called a tragic hero, someone who initially has good intentions, but is fated to follow a path that leads to ruin. A story line as old as Oedipus.

[martinsteiner]

Who is a hero? What is a hero? I have read the book many times and the story shows that: No matter how powerful you are, you cannot control everything. Especially, you cannot control, how others see you, what others do with your legacy, what they do, when they follow you.
And Paul clearly searched for the way with the least bloodshed, but millions of deaths were inevitable.

It isn't about whether Paul is a hero or not. It is about the things one cannot, can never change... that everything has consequences and even the best individuals have blood on their hands, when they rule.

Breaking this down to the question "is he a villain or a hero" reveals a total lack of understanding.

[TheRealDeal]

I find Paul’s mother, Jessica and the Bene Gesserit to be the villains of the story. They told a story of a messiah and told it to the point that many believe it to be a prophecy. A prophecy that Paul had no choice but to use in order to do something he never wanted to do; unleash a Holy War to avenge his father and house while freeing the people of Dune. If the Bene Gesserit left alone his house, he would have become a Duke just like his father, nothing more or less.

[gregmiller]

Paul is not a hero or a villain.

Paul is a man doing what he needs to do to ensure the long-term survival of humanity. Unlike normal humans, he is not working on simple opinions or biases. He can see deep into the future and almost all possible outcomes of his actions.

Yes, he causes billions of deaths. He does this so that humanity can survive in perpetuity.

[donny]

All you said is true. But also. Paul was also freeing Humanity from the Rule of the Emperor and Baron. Two people that had no problem wiping out his family and who knows how many others. By "choosing" the path he did. He was trying to also break the power of the Bene Gesserit. It was they who controlled all. It was they who put him in the position to take power and be used by them to keep control. So, yes he took revenge for the murder of his father. But he also broke the cycle of abuse that lay all around him.

[skepticalsmurf]

I feel for the character, he was essentially a victim of circumstances, he didn’t ask for any the events to happen, it was forced upon him…

[ItsUTUBEwhoCares]

All to save humanity and all while knowing he was going to have to give up eternal life and be murdered for it to work. Without Paul, Leto II really, being a tyrant everybody dies.

Still a hero.

[jguerrero]

Paul couldn't push forward with the golden path. His son, Leto II accepted the challenge to save humanity knowing he would be the villian.

[artimex]

Saying that Paul is a villain is about as shallow as saying that he's a hero. In terms of literature, he is just a well written complex character, who can't be labeled simply under either of those terms. From a deeper point of view, Paul is nothing but a normal young man thrust into a world of prescience, oracles and religion without much choice. His prescience showed him the way and therefore it is said, that he was the one who 'pointed the way'. As is written in Messiah, Children and so on, the power of prescience which Paul and Alia possessed was a double edged sword, a boon and a curse in one singular entity. A quote from the very beginning of Children: "He [Muad'Dib] said that evolution moves on changing principles which are known only to eternity. How can corrupted reasoning play with such an essence?". Translating from Frank Herbert to human language, Muad'Dib saw the evil in the universe but at the same time he knew, that he could not completely cleanse it. He never trully believed in his 'godhood' and as Duncan Idaho said - it was the desert and Shai-Hulud, that 'diefied him'. Honestly, I know this sounds like some madman's rambling, but believe me, it all makes sense If you read and fully comprehend the whole Dune saga.

[tinman]

"Beware messiahs" -Frank Herbert
That's the main theme of Dune.

[Outlaw]

Leto II really emphasizes that role further than Paul did. Paul (spoiler for those that did not read Dune Messiah or Children of Dune) saw the need for the Golden Path, but ran and shirked from it. He did not want to sacrifice his humanity.

[luigilain]

The harkonnens, the emperor, the fremen, the bene gesserit, all have complete disregard for human life.
Paul is still the closer thing to a hero in that dystopian universe.

[simonlatendresse]

He IS the hero. He's a TRAGIC hero.

[DivineKnight_]

A leader will either be the hero of a story or the villain in someone else’s. Paul’s story began innocent as it could be while he realizes on his own how manipulative the world around him is, he begins to take his revenge on the society that forced him into existence and carves a future they don’t want at his hands. It’s a cautionary tale on revenge seeking as a leader more than anything.

[flingonber]

I think it's less about not thinking deeply and more about the fact that only the first book has been adapted to film and probably the majority of readers have only read the first book also. Based on the story of ONLY the first book, thinking of him as heroic is much more understandable.

And by the way, that's not slighting people who have only read the first book - it's the one that's really famous for a reason, none of the other books are anywhere near as good as the first (although I enjoyed them).

[ksukat]

I think the scene in Dune 1 where Paul overhears his mother and the reverend mother talking about the schemes, sad. To learn your mother had ulterior motives having you.

[dennisw]

He was still a hero regardless of all the psycho analytics. He said over and over that he couldn't control the Fremen. Especially the fundamentalist

[jankolar]

"If you have only seen the movies" Villeneuve´s Dune was clear about Paul becoming a villain.