The Greatest Mysteries In The Dune Series

In this video, we will discuss some of the biggest mysteries in the Dune Saga. Keep in mind that this video will have some spoilers for the Dune series.

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[QuinnsIdeas]

(Spoilers) I should clarify that the key change between the BH Dune books VS the Originals, is that the originals position a "Human" uprising against oppression(face dancers vs masters) as a major core. The BH books take facedancer agency away and make them servants of machines. They walk back Daniel and Marty's actual nature even though its rather explicitly stated in Chapterhouse Dune.

[jayb]

The "Great Enemy" being some form of advanced prescient hunter-seeker makes sense when you realize that the two main purposes of the Golden Path were to encourage humans to spread as far and wide as possible and to breed them to be invisible to prescience.

[askani]

There is poetic beauty in the original ending. Idaho escapes the net, and Marty accuses Daniel of letting them go, "again!". In my opinion, Daniel and Marty were clearly meant as projections of the author himself and his wife, who helped him write the series. In the end, the books' characters managed to escape from the author, they escaped from a predestined future, they were finally free from a written story. At the end, humanity is free to choose its own future, and not even the author can know what it will be. We, the readers, will never know either. We will never "see" the characters continuing their lives, because Leto freed humanity from the book. Dune's humanity now exists somewhere outside the books, outside the author's imagination. Their story is now their own, it can't be written anymore.

[Beachdude]

It's strongly implied that the face dancers not only free themselves from Tleilaxu control but are also able to absorb the memories of those they come in contact with. Marty and Daniel at the end appear to be a pair of these advanced face dancers and they may have been able to absorb so many memories that they each become, in effect, a kwisach haderach like Paul and Leto. This would explain why Leto spent so many generations breeding Atreides so that they couldn't be seen through prescient vision.

[Facetiously.Esoteric]

I always thought it was an alien intelligence from another universe. The scattering was to make sure humans were so spread out that the aliens couldn't get us all.

[RickClark]

For myself, the only books I consider canonical are the books that Frank Herbert actually wrote. I have read a couple of the later books and they aren't even close to the quality of the original books. You are absolutely correct in saying the Dune books are dense. In the first four or five pages of Dune all of the main characters are introduced, the hint of the conflict to come is introduced and the rising tension of the move from watery Caladan to dry Arrakis is highlighted. Water gives life but the desert takes life. This idea is a recurring theme throughout the novel and we see it in these first pages. In these pages there is also the idea of a clock ticking, of time moving inevitably toward an event that is implied to be a major milestone, the Kwisatz Haderach. At this point we don't know what that means, but it is obviously important and something that has been ongoing. This ticking clock is another subtle theme throughout the novel as well. So many plot threads are start in these few pages and I have only mentioned a few. It really is a masterclass on how to begin a saga.

[cristobalmarinmolina]

Good afternoon. The mystery of Earth is very similar to "Foundation" saga by Isaac Asimov. Sometimes is called "Old Earth" too (other times "Gaia" and "Terra"). Almost all people in galaxy do not remember it. Sometimes, it is mentioned like a origin myth of the Galactic Empire. All these, and much more, show "Foundation" series as clear antecedent of "Dune" saga. Good work. Best regards and good luck.

[zedekiahthemoonwalker]

"May thy knife chip and shatter."

[Kamenriderneo]

The super advanced Hunter-seeker that you mentionned reminds me of an old episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 1 episode 21, "The arsenal of Freedom".
In it, the Enterprise arrives in orbit of a planet where the civilisation living on it as gone extinct long ago. Where arriving on the surface, they find these strange probes that are able to replicate themselves, hunt down and destroy or immobolise targets. But their most terrifying ability, is that they scan a person's mind and then create a hologram of someone they knew to trick the target into revealing information, such as the defensives and offensive capacities of a starship...

[spudthepug]

I really wish KJA and BH would just publish the notes that were left behind. Then we could know the extent of what was written and what had to be made up out of whole cloth.

[jasonkraley]

you mentioned Frank’s depiction of machine intelligence (AI) “not having a grudge against humanity” but rather it was (simply) “operating off of the ultimate extrapolations of the commands it was given”.. have you made a video explaining those “commands”? thank you for the vid!

[MrMannyfresh]

When I learned that the great enemy was a sort of grey goo scenario with the hunter seekers, I thought “it’s only a matter of time.”

[spencers]

I seem to remember the face dancers being a huge part of the last two books, so much so that they even try to rebel against the machines.

[joshuamitchell]

Been years since I read the original books but I remember the distinct feeling that face dancers with prescience was shaping up to be the big bad. Possibly with gholas of Paul and leto, along with facefancers absorbing / imprinted on said gholas. It would make sense with letos plan of breeding prescient invisible genes. And the golden path delaying the evolution of the face dancers to give him time. it also fits in with the repeating theme of creating something and losing control of it, like humans losing control of machines, bene gesserit losing control of the kwisatz haderach, bene theilaxu losing control of face dancers etc.

[chrisl]

I always took the idea of staving off humanities enemy was that it was entirely self inflicted and not an external threat. Kind of like when you see a toddler carrying a fork and aiming for an electrical socket. If you stop the toddler and redirect them then you have some time before their next calamity. However if you did nothing then it would be over faster.

Leto II had to get humanity to evolve so that their actions could not be 100% controlled, even by him. There wasn’t an external problem - it was all an internal one.

[From-North-Jersey]

The Frank Dune books refer to the Honored Matres fleeing "the ancient enemy" the face dancers are an enemy, but not an ancient one.

[Yarnater]

Perfect Saturday morning start!!!! Ty Quin! Love your reading recommendations- I never saw sci-fi as a topic I could digest but I really dove in after coming across your channel!

[christianguerrero]

I know I’m late on this video. You posted it 10 months ago, but I love your content Quin you go in-depth into the world of Dune, which which is very complicated to understand and I really appreciate the time you take to make these videos.

[yodasmomisondrugs]

The great enemy of Leto II sounds like a murderous version of a Von Neumann probe. Imagine there really ARE alien killer Von Neumann probes and they haven't reached Earth yet.😳

[Zarcondeegrissom]

interesting and good point at the end. A machine need not 'sentience' to become a "paperclip maximizer", hmm.