What is the golden path in dunes?

This post includes spoiler For “Dune” books written by Frank Herbert.

The “dune” book series, which extends far from where the Film trilogy is currently designed Expect to end, deviate into strange territory. There is a large cast shaking, significant thematic focus shifts, and huge time jumps. By the time you reach the fourth book, “God Emperor of Dune,” almost all characters in the first book have been dead for nearly 3,500 years. By the time you reach the fifth book, “Heretics of Dune,” almost all characters in the fourth book have also been dead for about 1,500 years.

Despite all those shifts and changes, author Frank Hebert still gave the series a few consistent consistent. The first was Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa in the movies), the only character to exist in each of the six books, though in the form of a clone. The second most important constant, however, was the idea of ​​the golden path. It is a concept that is a little difficult and the readers rarely want it, but the thing that moves the main characters sparingly from the first page of “Twyn” to the last page of “Chapterhouse,” and continues even to In many of the books written by Herbert’s son, Brian, after Frank’s death.

At the heart of it, the golden path is a vision of the future of humanity, spanning thousands of years, only someone who has been trained and talented could see him when seeing the future. Only with the golden path enters the gold path after Paul Atreides (played by Timothée Chalamet in recent movies) the ingestion of lifeA very dangerous substance taken from dying baby worms bile.

This is the point in the book/film where Paul concludes that his path to the throne is inevitable, that his rise to power and the destruction that brings him is a necessary price for the benefit of not His family’s only, but the universe in general. Paul can see that billions of people die in a holy war Fremen will spread across the universe as a direct result of his rise, and yet he chooses to go through it anyway – partly because he believes the The alternative will be worse.

So, what is the alternative? Well, stagnation. Humanity at the beginning of “Twyn” had still been stuck in a millennial groove; That’s part of why the world of HBO series “Twyn: Prophecy,” which takes place ten thousand full years before Paul’s rise, looks so similar to the world Paul has grown up. Essentially, humanity is all controlled under one government, the Imperium, and that lack of diversity (genetically, socially, politically, geographically) is a long -term existential threatening threat. There are also suggestions that Paul’s son and singing eventually, LeTo II, feared an external threat; He may be afraid to return to hostile mental machines (which had been Banned during the Butlerian Jihad Long before the series begins), or may be afraid of the first right encounter of humanity with an intelligent alien species.

Either way, Paul and LleTo II believed that humanity was not ready to face either of those external threats, and even without them they appeared doomed to an inner collapse under the Current trajectory. Therefore, in order to protect humanity, they felt that they needed to radically shake the status quo of this universe.

For many reasons, perhaps the main one was that Paul was born a generation earlier than expected and so the Haderach Kwisatz was not quite as anticipated, Paul did not follow through his attempt to achieve the golden path . The second book, “Dune: Messiah,” that focuses on Paul’s collapsea little vague about what Paul would need to do to achieve, but it is clear that the golden path would mean even more human suffering and Paul lost even more of his humanity . He decides to surrender his power and wander away into the wilderness, never to re -take the throne again.

But while Paul surrenders the golden path, his young conscientious son LeTo II (probably the Kwisatz Haderach) decides to follow in place. He does this knowing that the path requires him to become a huge immortal worm creature (yes, frankly) and govern the universe with an iron fist. Hey, it’s a lonely life, but someone has to do it.

LleTo II takes the lead at the end of “Children of Dune” (the third book), and gives us an idea of ​​what his rule will be like. Most notably, he intends to continue the de-anion of Arrakis, making the sand worms that produce the sole supply of the universe has disappeared. In the meantime, it would supply the spice supply that is largely shrinking to its immediate allies, while the rest of the universe would have to do without it. This was a very difficult change for many people across the universe, many of which relyed on the spice to live unnatural life lives, but LleTo II believed that humanity needed to be weaned off his melange spice addiction to make him Stronger and more self -reliant.

The other important factor is that LleTo II, by virtue that it is essentially a huge feeling worm, is essentially irresistible as well as immortal. Sci-Fi writers have often addressed the nature of absolute power, but ruler has rarely given character to the pure scale of the power that LleTo II enjoys. It is not just invincible, but is almost all-knowing as well.

LeTo II lets himself be killed at the end of “God of Emperor Twyn,” after over 3,500 years of continued rule. This was all part of the plan, however, as his death creates a deliberate power vacuum that leads to the human race no longer controlled by a single, cohesive empire. It helps that the spice of humanity has been largely killed by this point; Even if the Bene Tleilax (a large political cohort responsible for all that Duncan Idaho clones) has finally learned to produce spice on their own, it is still not enough to prevent the devolution of humanity . So the great dispersion comes, where humanity begins to pass again through the stars to unknown areas of the universe, just as Lleo II planned.

The LleTo II rule also led to a great period of technological innovation, not only because planets now need to learn how to still operate without the spice but because cohorts opposed the Lleo II rule know they would need better technology in order to demolish it. This was also of obvious benefit to society in “heretics” and “Chapterhouse,” as readers see with no shipping invention (star ships that someone with presence) as well as introducing more advanced face dancers (spies who are ‘ n be able to change their appearance). Humanity in general seems to have increased a notice since the beginning of Lleo II’s rule, both physically and mentally.

Tragically, Frank Herbert passed before he could finish the series, so it is unclear what he had in mind for the seventh book and the last planned book. All we have to work with are the books that his son wrote, who are divisive and say the least. We will probably never see the exact end goal forecast for humanity, assuming that is even what Herbert was planning for us to see at all. The gold path feels very similar to the solution to the meaning of life in the sense that it is difficult to define, difficult to illustrate, and we’re not sure we would even like the answer If we got it. In a way, it feels fit for the “dune” series to spend so long crossing the golden path, just to never reach it in the end.