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The novel is set approximately 16,000 years in [[The Future]], in a [[The Empire|galaxy-spanning empire]] [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|loosely based on the Holy Roman and Ottoman Empires]], ruled by [[Feudal Future|feuding nobles]], arcane religious sects, and Byzantine corporate monopolies. Its five sequels by the original author, and further prequels and sequels by Brian Herbert, span nearly 20,000 years of galactic history overall.
 
Much of the action throughout the series takes place on the eponymous planet, Arrakis, commonly called Dune by the native Fremen. Arrakis is a [[Single Biome Planet|desert planet]] largely populated by the nomadic, xenophobic Fremen and inhabited by giant [[Sand Worm|sandworms]] that destroy anything caught out in the open, and would be of little interest to the rest of the galaxy if not for one thing: it is the only source in the entire galaxy of "[[Spice of Life|Spice]]", an [[Super Serum|all-purpose chemical]] that triples the human lifespan, unlocks or enhances the capacity of humans for telling the future, and therefore makes [[Faster -Than -Light Travel]] possible in a culture where computers have been made illegal by religious fiat.
 
As the story opens, the Atreides family have just gained control over the Arrakis fiefdom from their longtime rivals, House Harkonnen - but this turns out to be [[Xanatos Gambit|a cunning plan]] by the Harkonnen and the Emperor to eliminate the Atreides, whom the Emperor has come to see as a threat to his own power. [[False -Flag Operation|Wearing the uniforms of the Harkonnen,]] the Emperor's undefeatable Sardaukar stormtroopers assault the Atreides compound on Arrakis and destroy it, leading the way for the Harkonnen to retake the planet and capture Duke Leto Atreides, who [[Better to Die Than Be Killed|commits suicide rather than let his rival have the satisfaction of killing him.]] Leto's fifteen-year-old son Paul Atreides, sole heir to the family line, escapes into the desert with his mother (who is pregnant with his sister) and takes refuge with the Fremen, where, upon adopting their ways and their religion, he becomes the [[You Are the Translated Foreign Word|Kwizatz Haderach]], a long-awaited [[Messianic Archetype|Messiah]] with the power to see into the future. Taking the name Muad'dib (a kind of desert mouse of Arrakis whose name means "he who teaches manners" in Arabic), he unites the Fremen tribes into a jihad that eventually defeats both the Harkonnens and the Imperium, and Paul declares himself Emperor.
 
That's the first novel.
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Several of these games and the original [[David Lynch]] film contain [[Notable Original Music]].
 
Notable for having a [[Shout -Out]] directed at it in almost every videogame with a [[Shifting Sand Land]] area in the form of [[Sand Worm|sandworms]], possibly an example of [[Popcultural Osmosis]].
 
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** Mentats as well are "human computers". They are trained to possess photographic memories and deduce perfectly logical conclusions from the barest minimum of information. A Mentat Advisor is one of the most valuable assets that a noble house can have; when he first landed on Arrakis, Paul had just found that he had potential Mentat capabilities himself -- to quote Duke Leto, "a Mentat ''Duke'' would be formidable indeed". And, later, a Mentat Kwisatz Haderach. Miles Teg in the later novels is a mentat generalissimo. But just try using one as an iPod.
* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: "Princess Irulan," the lady who's writing the [[Encyclopedia Exposita]] about Paul from which the novel's [[Epigraph|Epigraphs]] come. Even though her name has been on every fifth page of the book, she doesn't show up ''in person'' until the last 20 or so, and we don't learn until the very last page (or, if you prefer, for another two books) just ''why'' she's [[All Love Is Unrequited|so interested in chronicling him]].
* [[The Chessmaster]]: Practically every named character originating from the Imperium and not from Arrakis, to varying degrees. Every single one of whom is [[Out -Gambitted]] by Paul, and later Leto II.
* [[The Chosen One]]/[[Messianic Archetype]]: Paul as the Kwisatz Haderach, Leto II as his successor, Sheeana in the final two books, {{spoiler|though she doesn't get to fulfill that role, being instead set up for it as a decoy to get the Honored Matres to destroy Arrakis}}. Her ability to command sandworms is still useful, though.
** The series as a whole shows [[Deconstructed Trope|just how disastrous these tropes would be]] in [[Reality Ensues|reality.]]
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* [[Cyanide Pill]]: Yueh gives Duke Leto a poison-gas tooth so that he can kill the Baron Harkonnen. This makes Leto something of a kamikaze -- but an unsuccessful one, as the gas only kills Piter.
* [[Cyborg Helmsman]]: The Navigators rely on spice in the absence of thinking machines to be able to travel safely.
* [[Damn You, Muscle Memory!]]: Rare literary example; Paul is accustomed to attacking slowly while sword-fighting in order to circumvent the deflector shields that are common in the empire, which have a stopping power proportional to the inertia of the object impacting them (The faster an object is moving the harder it is to penetrate the shield). However, when he finds himself in shield-less combat his attacks are sluggish and too slow to draw blood; this is unintentional, but because his defenses and reactions are so quick in comparison the viewing Fremen believe that he is simply toying with his opponent, and comment with disgust.
* [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]]: Yueh, who anticipates the Baron having already killed his wife and planning to kill him [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|once he outlived his usefulness]], devises a plan to [[Taking You With Me|take the Baron with him]]. It doesn't kill him, but it does kill Piter.
** Baron Harkonnen, when informed that Paul and his mother must have escaped into the desert and that [[No One Could Survive That]], insists that his men find the bodies, just in case they make the [[One in A Million Chance]].
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** Dune Messiah brings up a dose of realism when Stilgar informs Muad'Dib of the various difficulties that the Fremen, himself included, have had on other planets, especially water-rich planets. Since the Fremen have adapted to an extremely arid and dessicated environment, it makes sense that they would suffer illness and weakness in water-rich environments.
* [[Days of Future Past]]: Set cca 10,000-12,000 years in the future, the Empire is based off the Holy Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire - with feuding noble houses, an emperor, mercantile trading, monastic church-like organizations...
* [[Dead Guy, Junior]]: Paul named not just one but ''both'' of his sons after their late grandfather, though one (son) had died by the time the other came along. Oddly, they're both named Leto II.
** Paul himself is named after his grandfather Paulus Atreides.
** Abulurd Harkonnen II (later Abulurd Rabban), Baron Vladimir's half-brother and the father of Glossu "Beast" Rabban and Feyd-Rautha, is named after his distant ancestor Abulurd Butler, who changed his family name Harkonnen after finding out the truth about his grandfather Xavier. Coincidentally, both Abulurds were some of the few decent guys in the Harkonnen gene pool.
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* [[Death Faked for You]]: Dr. Yueh made it easy for Paul and his mother Jessica to escape into the desert and presumed dead.
* [[Death World]]: Both Arrakis and Salusa Secundus are so deadly that simply surviving them develops the two most feared fighting groups in the universe, the Fremen natives and Sardaukar soldiers.
* [[Deflector Shields]]: Subverted, as shields [[Phlebotinum Overload|explode when contacted by an Energy Weapon, specifically lasers]]. Not to mention that they only stop fast things like bullets; according to the glossary, objects moving "6 to 9 centimeters per second" will still get through, and it's a plot point that, for Paul, [[Damn You, Muscle Memory!|counterattacking at this slower "shield" speed has become force of habit that he has to overcome. (On the spot.)]]
** It's mentioned during Paul's fight with Gurney that the air was becoming stale because it couldn't be exchanged. (A deflector shield which keeps out fast-moving objects would isolate the wearer from things like, well, oxygen -- individual molecules of which drift around at [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_theory:Kinetic theory|several hundred metres a second]] even at room temperature.)
** The shields are also useless in the desert of Arrakis. First of all, it cannot stand up to the desert's powerful storms. Second, the rapid oscillations of the shield drive any sandworm into a murderous frenzy.
** In one of the prequels, it is mentioned that activating a shield while the heighliner is folding space can throw off calculations and result in a [[Blind Jump]]. There are safeguards to abort the jump if a Holtzmann field is active (this includes shields and suspensors).
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* [[Deus Est Machina]]: The backstory suggests humanity once created machines so advanced that life became incredibly easy and comfortable. It is implied that humans (or at least a large number of [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|fanatics]]) became so abhorred by their perceived over-reliance on intelligent machines (and advanced computer technology in general) that they initiated the Butlerian Jihad, a violent purge of all Artificial Intelligence and advanced computers. When the Jihad ended, it became a crime by religious and secular law to create advanced computers (the chief commandment resulting from this war is that "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of the human mind"), with all of their functions in calculation and space travel adopted by specialized humans (who arguably become a human form of this trope). The prequel novels which detail the Butlerian Jihad as a more straightforward [[Robot War]] against oppressive ruler [[A Is]] did, of course, piss off the fans most mightily.
* [[Deus Sex Machina]]: In the final two books, an offshoot of the Bene Gesserit called the Honored Matre arise whom use sex as a form of hypnosis. Numerous galaxy-spanning, [[Xanatos Roulette|wheels within wheels]] plots are derailed when it is discovered that there is a man with the same power. And this man trains other men to use that power. Leading to a feud carried on mostly through ''sexual guerrilla warfare''.
* [[Did You Actually Believe?]]: A heroic example, where Thufir Hawat (the Atreides mentat) betrays the Emperor and Harkonnens by refusing to kill Paul:
{{quote| "Did you think that I, who have given my life to the service of the Atreides, would give them less now?"}}
* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: A (nearly) orphaned young man, begins receiving visions, becomes an exile from a desert-based center of commerce and religion, marries a notably older widow, granting him status among his adopted tribe, becomes a powerful religious leader by uniting a nomadic people with a history of in-fighting, and eventually leads an army of the faithful to claim control of the city from which he was exiled by political rivals. After solidifying this base of military and mercantile power, the new religion sweeps across most of the known world (often violently, but with many civil reforms in their wake), eventually playing an essential role in discovering and then preserving caches of precious knowledge through a dark age of human history.
** For those unfamiliar with early Islamic history, Paul parallels Muhammed (p.b.u.h.) in some rather obvious ways (but without being a heavy-handed expy by any means). The prevalence of Arabic phrases, and the similarity between "Muhammed" and "Muad'dib", isn't accidental.
* [[Doing It for The Art]]: ''Dune'' contains a sprawling universe adorned with myriad details and complicated histories, economics, and ecology. Frank Herbert loved to [[Shown Their Work|show his work]], as detailed below. It began as work for a newspaper article ("They Stopped the Moving Sands"), but he became so enthralled that it became a passionate epic. He never even got around to finishing that article.
* [[Doorstopper]]: While none of the books in the series are especially long individually, a [[Two -Part Trilogy|loose trilogy]] is formed between the first three books to clock in at 912 pages with appendixes. There's still three more books after this.
* [[Downer Ending]]: Almost from the moment he gets his prescience, Paul spends most of his time seeing visions of Fremen screaming his name as they lead a jihad across the known universe, thinking this would be a terrible idea, and trying to prevent it. Not to mention Chani's death. This is all due to another trope: [[You Can't Fight Fate]]... that you yourself created. Ouch.
* [[The Dragon]]: Subverted with both Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen and Hasimir Fenring. Feyd-Rautha fought Paul Atreides on behalf of the Emperor, but only because he saw killing Paul as a stepping-stone to the throne; and Fenring was such a deadly fighter that the Emperor knew he could kill an exhausted Paul after his previous fight with Feyd -- only for Fenring to realize that he and Paul are [[Not So Different]].
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* [[Duel of Seduction]]: With technique and counter-technique.
* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: Say what you will about ''[[Fanon Discontinuity|Sandworms]]'' there's no denying Paul and Chani earn theirs. Leto II's Golden Path is set up so the entire human race can earn theirs.
* [[Either or/Or Prophecy]]: Paul and later Leto II can see possible futures and must choose the best one to carry out.
* [[Emotions vs. Stoicism]]: The Bene Gesserit stress emotional control at all times as both proof of humanity and a basic survival tool with the [[Survival Mantra|Litany Against Fear]]. Unlike [[Star Trek (Franchise)|Vulcans]], they're more than happy to use emotion as a tool to manipulate others - their emphasis is control, not denial. And it later turns out to be a weakness that Odrade (and {{spoiler|Murbella}}) must reverse.
* [[Emperor Scientist]]:
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* [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]]: More like [[Culture Chop Suey]].
* [[Fantasy Gun Control]]: Firearms exist in large numbers but they have been rendered as secondary weapons due to the prevalence of personal [[Deflector Shields|force shields]]. Force shields can, however, be penetrated by close combat techniques, so those are the dominant means of warfare. Laser weapons are also highly limited since a laser beam hitting a force shield cause both the gun and the shield generator to explode with enormous power. Which means that some uses of shields are only practical because shooting them with lasers is physically equivalent to using nukes.<br /><br />[[Subverted Trope|Subverted]], however, when it turns out that using personal force shields on Arrakis attracts sandworms. One of the common Fremen weapons is the "maula pistol", essentially a spring-loaded slugthrower. And also when Baron Harkonnen uses old-fashioned artillery to trap the retreating Atreides soldiers in caves.
* [[Faster -Than -Light Travel]]: In the main ''Dune'' novels, achieved exclusively via the use of the Holtzman generators, folding space nearly-instantaneously to the destination. However, in order to avoid getting atomized on the way, Spacing Guild Navigators are required to envision the safe passage (since computers aren't allowed). The prequel novels show that a more conventional means of FTL travel was used before the invention of space folding, which took weeks-to-month to get from star to star. It was largely phased out after space folding became common, although it's mentioned in ''Sisterhood of Dune'' that non-critical cargo is still sent by (relatively) slow ships (i.e. using conventional FTL drives) in order to cut costs (this is before they start building the enormous Heighliners). Additionally, when Josef Venport sends warships to secure {{spoiler|a re-discovered Thinking Machines' shipyard}}, his ships first fold space to the target system and then use conventional FTL drives to quickly approach the planet before they're discovered.
* [[Feuding Families]]: Feuding families are so prevalent in the Dune universe that it has evolved into an art form. There's "Kanly", which is an officially sanctioned House-to-House vendetta, and the all-out War of Assassins, which is just what it sounds like. The rules are codified in the Great Convention, which sets out exactly who are the acceptable targets and what weapons or poisons are permitted. Noble families in the Dune universe accept the fact that you can be knifed in the back at any time as just another hazard of the job.
** There are even separate words for poison in food and poison in a drink.
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* [[Gossip Evolution]]: At one point in ''Dune'' Paul is with a force of Fremen warriors which is ambushed by several Imperial [[Super Soldier|Sardaukar]], which the Fremen decimate. Paul somberly notes that as his reputation as the Fremen's [[The Messiah|holy savior]] grows, the stories will say that he singlehandedly killed scores of Sardaukar, even though he didn't even draw his knife.
* [[Go Through Me]]: Subverted in a way in ''Dune'': After Chani dispatches a would-be challenger to her lover Paul/Muad'Dib, she says that fewer people will try to challenge him if they learn that first they have to go through (and suffer the possible disgrace of being killed by) his woman.
* [[Gratuitous Foreign Language]]: The ''Dune'' universe is positively riddled with words seemingly inspired by or derived from Arabic and Farsi (most of the future religions have some Islam in them). Even Hebrew shows up once or twice. Amongst other things, ''K'fitzat ha'derekh'' (compare to Dune's ''Kwisatz Haderach'') is a magical ability ascribed to some real-world Chassidic holy men -- specifically, the ability to teleport. The twins speak French, because it's a dead language at this time, so nobody else could possibly understand them.<br /><br />The name of the hunting-language Chakobsa just might be the only time a [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Circassian_language:Circassian language|Circassian]] language has ever been used in Western fiction of any genre. It's taken from the Adyghe word ''Ch'ak'webze'' or ''Ch'ak'obze'', "hunter's language", which refers to a special language register used in the course of a hunting expedition.
* [[Genetic Memory]]: Bene Gesserit Reverend Mothers (and Wild Mothers such as the Fremen's and Rebecca) get genetic memories of all their female ancestors, the Kwisatz Haderach gets them for ''all'' his ancestors, as do children of these two. [[Cloning Blues|Gholas]] can gain past life memories this way too, by being manipulated into doing something their original self would never have done.
* [[Gender Bender]]/[[Hermaphrodite]]: Face Dancers are described as "Jadacha hermaphrodites" (a term with an unknown meaning) and "mules" due to their sterility. They are able to change appearance and gender at will, and perform the role of either gender, but cannot reproduce.
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* [[Hufflepuff House]]: A fictional example that actually has ''Houses''. House Atreides and House Harkonnen take center-stage with every other mentioned House relegated to background mentions. House Corrino would be a true example of this, but their role of filling the position of the Imperial court makes them important.
* [[Human Resources]]: Fremen reclaim water from human waste through their stillsuits, and from the dead by draining them in "death stills". The Tleilaxu really top them, though, by {{spoiler|using ''all'' their females as artificial wombs for their genetic products}}.
* [[Hundred -Percent Adoration Rating]]: House Atreides is portrayed as having this on their native Caladan in the prequels, and have for generations. This more or less contradicts the original series.
* [[Hyper Awareness]]/[[Sherlock Scan]]/[[Spider Sense]]: The Bene Gesserit use their hyper awareness as a tool for manipulation. Descriptions of Bene Gesserit thought processes in the novels are often comparable to chess masters watching the world around them like one big chessboard, and calmly noting their accruing advantage. At one point a Bene Gesserit correctly deduces that there is a hidden room on the other side of a large banquet room by noting the subtle geometry of the walls of the room and the objects in it as being specifically designed to produce a slight echo where those in the hidden room can listen in.
** Even with mental processing as incredible as that, the Bene Gesserit still only learn those abilities as a ''supplementary'' skill for their main areas of expertise. The mentats, however, specialize specifically in [[Hyper Awareness]] and so are infinitely more adept then even the best Bene Gesserit. Then you take a Bene Gesserit and train her (or occasionally him) as a Mentat...
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** Shere doesn't work with post-God-Emperor Face Dancers: the only way to stop '''them''' memory-printing you is to destroy your own head before you are captured.
* [[Mind Rape]]: In the Bulterian Jihad Trilogy the cymeks take brains from their human bodies (literal mind rape?), stick them in [[Brain In A Jar|jars]] and turn the "thoughtrode" settings to make the minds feel pain. And then they are [[A Fate Worse Than Death|left on a shelf]] in their own little [[I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream|silent]] hell ... for centuries.
* [[Mix -and -Match Critters]]: One of the Bene Tleilax' most popular exports are sligs, hybridized pigs and slugs. The combination supposedly makes for tender, succulent meat. Goes well with Caladanian wine.
* [[Mobile Factory]]: Harvester factories move across the desert refining spice from sand.
* [[Modest Royalty]]: Emperor Shaddam IV, who prefers spending most of his time in the war room rather than in the court, and wears the military uniform of a Sardaukar instead of any royal pomp. Politics really isn't his thing, and he only flaunts his wealth when he has to.
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** "Have you not considered how much easier it is to control a walking population?"
* [[My Death Is Just the Beginning]]/[[Heroic Sacrifice]]: Leto II's Golden Path.
* [[My Master, Right or Wrong]]: Count Fenring, except at the very end, when he refuses to kill Paul.
* [[National Weapon]]: Crysknives, made from the tooth of a sandworm, are sacred to the Fremen.
* [[Necessarily Evil]]: Leto II makes himself the most terrible tyrant in history deliberately, so that when he is dead humanity will scatter and never be controllable by a single power ever again.
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** Depending on your perspective, the Fremen could be a deconstruction of the Noble Savage trope. Their society is characterized by senseless internal violence, such as duels, inheretance of women by duel victors, and [[Klingon Promotion|succession through killing]]. When Paul assumes the role of Emperor, the Fremen descend on recalcitrant planets, [[Rape, Pillage and Burn|slaughtering and ravaging]] the inhabitants. This from a people who lamented their own unjust oppression for centuries.
* [[No Blood for Phlebotinum]]: The Atreides and Harkonnens end their millennia-long feud over the control of Arrakis, though there were many subtexts.
* [[Nobody Here butBut Us Birds]]: Played straight in ''Dune''. The Fremen use bird calls to communicate with each other: "Jessica heard... the distant bird calls that Stilgar had said were the signals of his watchmen."
* [[Nonverbal Miscommunication]]: Duke Leto makes an offer to Stilgar, and in response Stilgar spits on the table. Leto's men rise to defend his honor, before Duncan Idaho tells them it's a cultural sign of respect due to the importance of water.
* [[No One Could Survive That]]: Paul and Jessica are able to escape their Harkonnen pursuers by piloting an aircraft into a Coriolis storm, a massive sandstorm with winds over 400 kph. Everyone agrees (with good reason) that they are "certainly dead", which turns out to be a huge mistake.
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** Played even straighter with tidal dust basins, basins of dust so deep they have tides, which an unwary traveler can wander into and die.
* [[Sand Worm]]: Possibly the [[Trope Maker]].
* [[Schizo -Tech]]: Many of the apparently anachronistic elements of technology are justified by the book's extremely-detailed backstory.
* [[School of Seduction]]: Although it's not the entire curriculum, it features in Bene Gesserit training. The Honored Matres later on are this full-throttle.
* [[Science Is Bad]]: This is the view of the Butlerians, whose goal is to force humanity to go back to manual labor and destroy any advanced technology. While they claim to only be following the tenets established during the Butlerian Jihad (i.e. no computers), they actually destroy any technology they feel is wrong and will burn down a medical school because they believe that if you're sick, then it's God's will that you die. Even though the leader of the movement would have died without advanced medical care when his legs were blown off. The Butlerians also have no qualms about using starships to achieve their goals, even though they admit it's a necessary evil.
* [[Sci -Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale]], timewise: Justified, as there is [[Genetic Memory]] that allows the denizens of the past to inform the future (not to mention a millennia old absolute despot worshipped as God who intentionally holds things in stasis). Not so much justified in the prequels, where there is no such explanation yet the elements of the later series leap fully formed into existence and apparently remain unchanged for over ''ten thousand years''.
* [[Screw Destiny]]: This is the major theme of ''Children of Dune'' and ''God-Emperor of Dune'' novels. The main character's goal of the novels is the creation of what he termed, the 'Golden Path' - A future completely free of destiny with unlimited choices. The ironic thing is, to do this, Leto messes with peoples futures for the next 3000 years. This is also a direct subversion of the original novel, where one of the main themes were "you can't fight fate."
** Paul tries ''oh so hard'' to be able to screw destiny, and basically falls into a [[Despair Event Horizon]] when he fails. His biggest reasons for trying are the ''jihad'' made in his name when he ascends to the throne of emperor(with BILLIONS of people killed in his name) and the prophecies of the Bene Gesserit that predict that Duke Leto would be completely forgotten by history.
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* [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy]]: ''Dune'' takes this trope quite literally. "True" prophets (Paul Atreides and his descendants) don't predict the future so much as create it, locking themselves (and everyone else) into an inescapable destiny. It takes {{spoiler|Leto II}} almost four thousand years to break humanity free from the consequences of this.
* [[Send in The Clones]]: {{spoiler|Duncan Idaho dies in the first novel, only to return over and over again first as a ghola, then as a ghola-clone. ''God-Emperor of Dune'' even has several Duncan gholas throughout the story, though all but one were played with through flashbacks and mentions}}.
* [[The Shill]]: Kevin J. Anderson does this, and quite publicly. His site, aptly named the "KJA Special Forces", asks members to post blogs, links, discussions, and reviews on online stores such as Amazon in support of both him and his work. Doing so can land you "points", and in exchange for those points you can "earn" prizes and money. Enough points can even earn you a [[Shout -Out]] in a future ''Dune'' book.
* [[Shout -Out]]: A "cone of silence" shields Count Fenring's conversation with Baron Harkonnen. A reference to a 1960 British film, ''Cone of Silence''.
** There's a [[Rush]] shout-out in "Hunters of Dune" with a familiar named philosopher reworking the lyrics to "Freewill" (pg. 427). Not so surprising, considering Anderson is a big fan of the band and has actually worked with drum god/lyricist Neil Peart before on a short story.
** There are at least two to [[Poul Anderson]]: an appendix to ''Dune'' mentions a biography of Alia written by "Pander Oulson"; and in ''God Emperor of Dune'', Leto II asks Hwi Noree if she's familiar with the philosophy of Noah Arkwright<ref>a [[Meaningful Name]], when you consider that "-wright" means "maker" or "builder."</ref>, a philosopher/explorer mentioned (but apparently never actually appearing) in several of Anderson's stories.
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* [[Truth Serum]]: Verite, a will-destroying narcotic from the planet Ecaz that renders a person incapable of falsehood.
* [[Turned Against Their Masters]]: The {{spoiler|Advanced Face Dancers against the Lost Tleilaxu, and then the Old Empire Tleilaxu in ''Heretics of Dune'' and ''Chapterhouse: Dune''}}.
* [[Two -Part Trilogy]]: Dune was originally conceived as one large masterwork, with the two sequels of ''Dune Messiah'' and ''Children of Dune'' entwined into the story. Considering the original is 412 pages, the second 222, and the third 592, they were obviously split. This creates an interesting case of the first book being easily stand-alone, while the two sequels are more closely connected but can still in a way also be stand-alone. They also allowed for ''God-Emperor of Dune'', basically a midquel that set up the last two books in the series to be written. It's just kinda hard to say where [[Two -Part Trilogy]] begins and [[Trilogy Creep]] ends, or even what was intended to be a simple, ''honest'' trilogy.
* [[Ubermensch]]: Paul-Muad'Dib. "I am the Kwisatz Haderach. That is reason enough." His son takes it up a few thousand notches.
* [[Underdogs Never Lose]]: House Atreides and the Fremen in the first book.
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** "k'fitzat haderech" translates literally to "shortcut".
** He is also the Mahdi for the Fremen, which is the same word Muslims give their awaited messiah.
* [[You Can See Me?]]: The Honored Matres get a nasty surprise when {{spoiler|Miles Teg}} pinpoints and eliminates all their supposedly undetectable no-ships in the final battle.
* [[You Kill It, You Bought It]]: Fremen can challenge each other to duels to the death, with the winner being entitled to the loser's water and their wife. This extends to the responsibility for caring for the widow and her children. Also, any Honored Matre who kills the Great Honored Matre becomes Great Honored Matre herself.
* [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]]: The Baron Vladimir Harkonnen [[I Have Your Wife|has Yueh's wife kidnapped]] to coerce him into betraying the house of Atreides, then [[I Gave My Word|fulfills his promise]] to [[Released to Elsewhere|"reunite"]] [[Rewarded As a Traitor Deserves|the two of them]].
* [[You Shall Not Pass]]: In the original ''Dune'' book, Duncan Idaho sacrifices himself to hold off a flood of Imperial Sardaukar elite troopers, while Paul Atreides makes good his escape. In the sequel, it's revealed that while he did indeed die, the surviving Sardaukar were so impressed with his [[Implausible Fencing Powers]] that they preserved his body, later having it resurrected as a "[[Cloning Blues|Ghola]]"... and that, as it turns out, has some [[For Want of a Nail|extremely far-reaching effects]] on the ''Dune'' universe.<br /><br />It is later revealed in ''Children of Dune'' that during his last stand in ''Dune'' Idaho slew ''nineteen'' Sardaukar -- and at the height of their power and training, a single Sardaukar was reportedly a match for ten ordinary house regulars and even a Bene Gesserit adept.
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* [[Adaptation Expansion]]: The Lynch film introduced many elements that influenced later works in the Dune universe. Examples include the Mentat Mantra ("It is by will alone that I set my mind in motion" sounds similar enough to the Litany Against Fear that it feels like a line from the book, but never appeared there), the Atreides research into sound-based weaponry (again, never mentioned in the book. Sonic tanks and the like have turned up in subsequent works), heart-plugs (only briefly mentioned in the book as some sort of filtration device, but turned into something entirely more sinister by the Harkonen), the Baron Harkonen's skin conditions (never mentioned in the book, the Baron is only ever described as morbidly obese with no references made to skin problems), and many elements of the film's "look and feel" are aped by the works that followed (It's very rare to see the Emperor depicted without a neat little beard these days, for example, and Bene Gesserit are often depicted as bald).
* [[Alan Smithee]]: David Lynch had his name removed from the extended cut of the '84 film, replacing it with this. And then had his script credit changed to "[[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Judas Booth]]", in case anyone didn't get the message.
* [[All -Encompassing Mantle]]: In the Sci-Fi miniseries, the Spacing Guild representatives wear purple velvet-ish capes. However, these just keep going up and up into giant purple-velvetish cones.
* [[Ascended Extra]]: Princess Irulan gets an expanded role in the [[Sci Fi]] miniseries.
* [[A Storm Is Coming]]: "A storm is coming... our storm." -- ''Dune'' (1984 Version).
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* [[Death Wail]]: Inverted in the 2000 film, where {{spoiler|Rabban}} does this when he realises that ''he'' is about to become the metaphorical ex beloved ally.
* [[Deleted Scene]]: Several scenes were cut from the theatrical release of the 1984 film and later restored to the extended versions, which is part of why they're so much longer. Of these, one of the most significant is the death of Thufir Hawat, a powerful scene in which Paul separates Thufir from the captured Harkonnen and offers him his life, only for Thufir to commit suicide rather than kill Paul. This omission creates something of a [[What Happened to The Mouse?]] moment in the original cut, as Thufir--one of the film's more important characters--can clearly be seen standing among the prisoners (between the Emperor and Gaius Mohiam) in one shot, and simply vanishes in the next; his disappearance is never explained.
* [[Did You Actually Believe?]]: The '84 film has a heroic example, where Thufir Hawat (the Atreides mentat) betrays the Emperor and Harkonnens by refusing to kill Paul:
{{quote| '''Thufir Hawat''': [He turns to Feyd and the Emperor]... Did you actually believe, even for a moment, that I would fail my Duke ''twice''? [He commits suicide]}}
* [[Distant Reaction Shot]]: The mini-series has a dead-serious one of these with a spice-blow right after Liet-Kynes realizes that he's right on top of it and begins screaming, "I am a desert creat-"
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* [[Monochromatic Eyes]]/[[Technicolor Eyes]]: A result of high-level Spice addiction, when enough ingestion saturates the blood stream and stains the eyes. Turned into [[Glowing Eyes of Doom]] in both live-action adaptations.
* [[Mr. Fanservice]]: Feyd's utterly gratuitous speedo scene in the film. Sting's running five miles a day really paid off.
* [[Nice Hat]]: In the [[Sci Fi Channel]]'s production of ''[[Dune]]'' there were several [[Nice Hat|Nice Hats]], mostly notably the Bene Gesserit, [http[wikipedia://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ghm.jpg |seen here]] (the hat is the thing extending back from her head).
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: The final scene of the 1984 film shows Paul using his incredible psychic powers as the Kwisatz Haderach to make it rain on Arrakis for the first time in eons. However, the film omits a key plot point from the novel: water is highly toxic to sandworms, which are the source of the spice. In the novel, Paul instead blackmails the Spacing Guild into surrendering to him; he threatens to pour the Water of Life into a pre-spice mass, which would cause an extinction chain reaction that would destroy all spice production forever and throw the galaxy into a new dark age. Had Paul actually made it rain in the novel, it would have obliterated the life cycle on Arrakis, having the same net effect; in fact, it isn't until ''Children of Dune'' that the disruption of the ecological balance by the terraforming effort is fully explored. The film completely ignores this.
* [[Non Actor Vehicle]]: [[The Movie]] by [[David Lynch]], with Sting.
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