Dune: Difference between revisions

That's the first novel.

 

 

As the remaining powers in the galaxy - the Spacing Guild, the Bene Gesserit sisters who control religion in the galaxy, the Bene Tleilaxu masters of genetic engineering, and the children of the deposed emperor Shaddam, one of whom has been married to Paul for political reasons - begin to conspire against him, his visions grow darker. As the result of [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|his late father's attempt to make Arrakis temperate and verdant]], the sandworms are dying - and with their extinction will come the end of the spice, economic collapse, and the extinction of the human race. In order to try and prevent this from happening, Paul wanders into the desert to die, and his son Leto II [[Biological Mashup|merges with several larvae]] of the soon-to-be-extinct [[Sand Worm|sandworms]] that produce the Spice, becoming one himself and making himself nearly immortal.

The final two novels by Frank Herbert, ''Heretics of Dune'' and ''Chapterhouse Dune'', occur 5000 years after that. After the dark ages brought on by Leto's death, there is no Empire anymore. The sandworms have returned to Arrakis, but after thousands of years of research spice has been synthesized in the laboratory, rendering it a backwater once more. The Bene Gesserit sisters, now the dominant power in the galaxy (and whose leaders are now descendants of Duncan and Siona), find themselves in a struggle for their very existence as the legacy of Leto's tyranny comes back to haunt them in the form of the "Honored Matres" - schismatic Bene Gesserits who fled the galaxy as a result of his persecution, and who in the absence of the spice produced an entirely new culture that relies on sex as a weapon and a tool of brainwashing. The sisters' hopes rest in an attempt to recreate Arrakis on their capital world of Chapterhouse and in a new clone of Duncan Idaho who might be a new Kwizatz Haderach, or something even ''more'' powerful and frightening. Herbert died before completing the final story in the "second trilogy" beginning with ''Heretics''.

 

 

The entire series is steeped in Arabic language and culture; it is implied that, in the distant future in which the books are set, Western and Eastern culture and religion have blended together into a pseudo-homogeneous whole. Religions such as "Mahayana Christianity" and "Zensunni" are referred to though not explicitly described, and many Arabic words have found their way into the standard language spoken by the people of the Galactic Empire, especially after the Fremen crusade spreads aspects of their culture to thousands of worlds. (An extensive glossary is included in the first novel, without which many readers might find it incomprehensible) The Bene Gesserit sisterhood, an order of philosopher-nuns that considers itself the guardian of human civilization, extensively manipulate various religions over a scale of thousands of years in order to protect their agenda. Paul Atreides, through his actions in the first novel, effectively creates a religion of his own, with effects that reverberate throughout the millennia.

''Dune'' has been [[The Film of the Book|adapted into movie form]] twice:

 

** Ultimately, Jodorowsky turned the script into an original graphic novel, ''The Saga of The Metabarons''. Some elements of the plot are heavily influenced by ''Dune'', such as the [[Meaningful Name|Hooker-Nuns Shabda-Oud]] for the Bene Gesserit, with the same kind of genetic agenda.

* The producers turned to a hot new director who had been considered for ''[[Star Wars|Return of the Jedi]],'' mostly because of George Lucas' [[What Could Have Been|still-intense passion for experimental film]], mostly on the strength of his classic [[Eraserhead|first film]] and a critically and commercially successful [[The Elephant Man|biopic]] that made him a true commodity in the industry. That man's name: [[David Lynch]], who took the project and made it his own to only a slightly lesser extent than Jodorowsky would have. Due to his alien style and the sheer scale of the book, the already-complex narrative became nearly incomprehensible to some viewers; many theaters handed out [[All There in the Manual|printed plot summaries]] to patrons. Ironically, the altered cut made more understandable to be commercially viable for television was ''even longer'' than the existing film, running about '''four hours''' with commercials, and included, among other things, altered narration and a lengthier prologue. Lynch was incensed that the studio had [[Executive Meddling|recut his movie]] behind his back; he had himself credited for director as [[Alan Smithee]] and as ''[[Meaningful Name|Judas Booth]]''<ref>(as in John Wilkes; a name he has signed at least once as an autograph at the request of a fan)</ref> for his screenwriting credit. The 1984 Lynch version of ''Dune'' is the most memorable and notorious for its [[Scenery Porn|elaborate and immersive set design]], and carried some holdovers from the Jodorowsky version, including Giger's designs. Subsequent recut and extended versions have inspired [[Broken Base|varying]] degrees of critical [[Love It or Hate It|reappraisal]]. It was a complete flop at the box office and has become both a [[Cult Classic]], and an example of how ''not'' to make a blockbuster.

* Although another film adaptation of the first novel [http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2010/01/04/dune-remake/ was in the works], it has been shelved indefinitely by Paramount [http://www.deadline.com/2011/03/paramount-ends-4-year-attempt-to-turn-frank-herberts-dune-into-film-franchise/ over budget issues.]

 

 

Several of these games and the original [[David Lynch]] film contain [[Notable Original Music]].

*** He rejects her as wife, though, despite her pleading. Instead, Stilgar takes her.

* [[Achey Scars]]: Gurney Halleck sports a long, red scar along his face that chronically delivers residual pain due to abuse suffered from the poisonous plant inkvine during his time as a Harkonnen slave.

* [[Action Girl]] / [[Action Mom]]:

** Chani.

* [[A Father to His Men]]: Lampshaded when Duke Leto Atreides risks his life and the priceless Spice to save his men; Liet-Kynes comments that a man such as that would inspire fanatical loyalty. It's implied that this is exactly why the Emperor wants him dead, because he fears Leto will use his popularity to depose him. There are further hints that this may be a mask designed expressly for the purpose, although it's explicitly contradicted by the prequels.

* [[A God Am I]]: When Paul fully awakens his potential as Kwisatz Haderach he becomes a messiah to peoples of thousands of worlds, only to be elevated to the status of god in the millennia following his death. His son, Leto II, grinds into the people of the universe that he is a god more for the sociological outcome rather than personal lust for power. After Paul's death, his status as a god is less widespread compared to his son's.

{{quote| "He thought he could feel skin curling black on that agonized hand, the flesh crisping and dropping away until only charred bones remained."}}

* [[AI Is a Crapshoot]]

** Serena Butler's all-female guards also quality, even though they're actually loyal to Iblis Ginjo. They are strong enough to be able to break a person's neck with single kick ({{spoiler|as one of them does to Serena at Ginjo's orders}}).

* [[A Million Is a Statistic]]: This is Paul's horror at seeing the future in the first book, which [[You Can't Fight Fate|becomes true]] in the second. There's a scene where he compares himself to Hitler -- "He killed more than six million. Pretty good for those days... Statistics: at a conservative estimate, I've killed sixty-one billion, sterilized ninety planets, completely demoralized five hundred others. I've wiped out the followers of forty religions..."

* [[Ancient Astronauts]]/[[All Myths Are True]]: A variant in that humans themselves fill this role, with the Bene Gesserit purposely spreading myths based on heroic and religious archetypes throughout fledgling colonies to make use of the people there later.

* [[Ancient Conspiracy]]: Although they are more visible than most ancient conspiracies, the Bene Gesserit definitely count: they have manipulated practically all existing religions in the ''Dune'' universe to be tools for their purposes, to the point a Bene Gesserit can basically go to any planet and detect different cues and codes within the local religion's tenets to know exactly what to say and do to present herself as a paragon, prophet or even messiah of the local religion. This is how Lady Jessica insinuates herself and Paul into the Fremen culture. Of course, Jessica had no way of knowing Paul would become an ACTUAL messiah.

* [[Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism]]: There are no female Tleilaxu. This is because {{spoiler|the axlotl tanks ''are'' their females, having been engineered into being just gigantic wombs on life support.}}

* [[Black and Gray Morality]]: The novels are consistently and deliberately ambiguous about the relative morality of each of the various factions. House Atreides, the most conventionally moral of the Great Houses depicted in the story, is made to pay heavily for its idealism, and even that is called into question by the prequels. Paul slaughters billions under the godhead of the Madhinate, and his son Leto II is the greatest tyrant in history; yet both claimed their actions were necessary to avoid an even greater catastrophe -- the complete and total extinction of humanity. The Bene Gesserit are similarly portrayed as scheming witches, yet by the time of ''Heretics of Dune'' and ''Chapterhouse: Dune'', they have inherited the responsibility of safeguarding humanity's future.

* [[Blind Idiot Translation]] : Several translations into certain foreign languages. Especially common in first editions.

* [[Blind Seer]]: After Paul loses his sight in an assassination attempt he substitutes his precient memory of the future instead. He literally knows exactly what's going to happen moment to moment and fits his actions seamlessly into that vision. Later, he chooses to "forget" his vision when overcome with grief over Chani's death, and loses it completely when Leto II takes the oracular reins from him in ''Children of Dune''.

* [[Body Horror]]: Leto II in demiworm form, Guild Steersmen mutated by spice, the {{spoiler|Axlotl tanks}}.

* [[Break the Cutie]]: A very disturbing example from ''House Harkonnen'' is the prolonged and violent forced prostitution (and eventual [[Kill the Cutie|murder]]) of Gurney Halleck's gentle younger sister Bheth. First she is kidnapped by the Harkonnens for trying to protect her brother. Then they cut out her larynx so she can't do more than scream wordlessly. Next she is subjected to 6 years (starting at age 17) of sadistic rape and torture by a recorded 4620 Harkonnan soldiers. Rabban finally kills her in retribution of Gurney's attempt on his life.

* [[Brother-Sister Incest]]/[[Twincest]]:

* [[But for Me It Was Tuesday]]: In the Dune Encyclopedia, under "Atomics, they mentioned the first ever use of the weapons was by House Washington (the USA) in a "provincial conflict."

* [[Butt Monkey]]: Duncan is reincarnated as a ghola. {{spoiler|Again. And again. And again. And again. And killed (rather than dying of old age) only a slightly smaller number of times.}}

* [[The Caligula]]: The Harkonnens are pretty much an entire family of Caligulas. Gladiatorial death sports, hunting humans as game, [[Perverse Sexual Lust]], murdering random servants, obscenely expensive luxuries, drug addiction, torture as entertainment--they did it all.

* [[Came Back Strong]]: Paul Atreides almost dies when he drinks the water of life, and when he wakes up he is the Kwisatz Haderach.

* [[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.

** 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]].

* [[Dark Messiah]]: Paul appears to be this, but uses all his political and religious power, as well as prescient foresight, to prevent as much harm as he can. But as evidenced by the quote in the above [[A Million Is a Statistic]], this wasn't much.

** 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.

** The Corrinos, like any dynastic family, constantly reuses names. For example, the last Corrino Padishah-Emperor is Shaddam IV. His father was Elrood IX.

** One of the ''Dune'' prequel books had the Baron Harkonnen build a secret retreat with glass walls containing the decaying corpses of the construction crew. [[Genre Savvy|Evidently the builders died with resigned expressions on their faces]].

* [[Deadly Decadent Court]]: Shaddam's imperial court, which leads in no small part to its downfall.

* [[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.

* [[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.

* [[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]].

* [[Dreaming of Things to Come]]: Paul has dreams about the future (including later events on Arrakis) before gaining his full prescient ability. So does Leto II.

* [[Drop Ship]] - somewhat more literal than most cases, "Crushers" mentioned in the [[All There in the Manual|glossary]], are designed to literally crush enemy fortifications. They're also made of [[Military Mashup Machine|a bunch of smaller ships stuck together]]. Typical examples of a [[Drop Ship]] and [[Awesome Personnel Carrier]] are also mentioned (at least in the first novel, where they're used by Sardaukar and Harkonnen soldiers).

* [[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 Prophecy]]: Paul and later Leto II can see possible futures and must choose the best one to carry out.

* [[Emperor Scientist]]:

** Leto II actually becomes the God-Emperor of the Universe to continue a gigantic human breeding program personally.

** Dr. Kynes became leader of the Fremen because of his attempts to terraform the planet.

** Though not canon, the prequels state that one former Padishah Emperor, working under a false name, was an accomplished chemist that discovered the properties that made Spice so important. The original books state it was a chemist working ''for'' that emperor, so it all depends what you want to believe.

* [[The Emperor]]: The first book starts with Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, who is overthrown by Paul by the time the novel ends. Then {{spoiler|Leto II takes the throne as ''God''-Emperor after ousting his aunt Alia, whom was acting as regent}}.

* [[Environmental Symbolism]]: Arrakis, Caladan, and Giedi Prime seem to be designed with this in mind. Caladan is a green, soft world to reflect the humanity of the Atreides family; Giedi Prime is portrayed as a mechanical, desolate place to reflect the inhumanity of the Harkonnens. Dune, of course, is pretty much a planet-sized Holy Land. It is a theme that planet of origin effects the mindset of the groups that live there, or vise versa. Every planet is a reflection of the ruling house (including the Fremen with Dune).

* [[The Epic]]: Exactly.

* [[Evil Chancellor]]: Subverted thoroughly with Dr Wellington Yueh and Thufir Hawat. Dr Yueh looks almost exactly the part of the evil chancellor - tall, blade-thin with a drooping moustache and cold, intellectual manner. He even betrays the Atreides, and the readers find out about it right from the start. He's only doing it because the Harkonnens have probably killed his wife, but he's ''not sure'' - and for the chance to get a bit of revenge. Hawat on the other hand looks like the grandfatherly mentor, but is the Duke's [[The Spymaster|''Master of Assassins'']], and employs methods that horrify Jessica.

* [[Evil Matriarch]]: In the prequels, Duke Leto Atreides' mother, Helena, is generally a thorn in the side of the Atreides household, {{spoiler|and hatches a plot to kill her husband, the Old Duke Paulus. She is eventually exiled to the Sisters in Isolation to spend the rest of her life.}} She is also a Bible-thumper and hates the Ixians supposedly due to their (alleged) violations of the no-AI rule, but mostly because House Vernius (the rulers of Ix) beat her own House Richese in the technological and economic game. Anything bad that happens to the Ixians is God's will in her mind.<br /><br />When Paul shows up on the doorstep of the Sisters retreat, Helena at first wants nothing to do with her grandson, even though he is being hunted by assassins.

 

== I-P ==

* [[Ice Cream Koan]]: The phrases of the Zensunni sect from ''Dune'' are said to intended to be [[Ice Cream Koan|Ice Cream Koans]], similar to Zen as mentioned above. Instead of providing enlightenment though bypassing rational thought and accepting paradox; they're intended to teach the student to recognize nonsense and obfuscation, regardless of how logically-constructed and reasonable it may appear, and to see through to the "true" underlying reality. Zen emphasizes acceptance of the irrational. The Zensunni philosophy underlying most schools of thought in ''Dune'' emphasizes the extremes of rationality and mental development (eg. the Mentat human computers, and Bene Gesserit observation techniques).

* [[Identical Grandson]]: The Atreides "look", which is so distinctive Miles Teg looks like his ancestor Duke Leto I, ''5,000'' years later.

* [[Junkie Prophet]]:

* [[Kill and Replace]]: A favorite tactic of Tleilaxu Face Dancer [[Shape Shifter|Shape Shifters]].

** The Fremen regularly drowned juvenile sandworms.

** In a prequel novel, Glossu Rabban uses conventional explosives to kill a sandworm. Unfortunately for him, sandworm bones are very brittle and only held together by a living being's bioelectric field. No trophy there.

* [[Mama Bear]]: Jessica

* [[Manchurian Agent]]/[[Trigger Phrase]]: In the first book, the Baron breaks Dr. Yueh of his Suk conditioning, thus allowing him to act as a traitor against his royal charges. The later books elaborate on a barely mentioned act in the first book, where Bene Gesserit condition males through psychosexual techniques (a process called hypno-ligation) to act in a specified way on a given code word. In ''Heretics'' and ''Chapterhouse'', the Tleilaxu are capable of delivering gholas custom-programmed to act out any desired behavior on the appropriate trigger.

* [[Master of Your Domain]]: See [[Charles Atlas Superpower]]

* [[Master Poisoner]]: Poisoning is almost an accepted science in the world of Dune.

* [[Master Swordsman]]: Duncan Idaho is the archetypal example, identified as such by name, but many of the characters in the first book are skilled with the blade. This is also the [[Planet of Hats|hat]] of House Ginaz, the allies of the Atreides.

** House Atreides is named after [[Classical Mythology|House Atreus]], and are even implied to be the [[Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory|same family]].

** "Patrin" or "pattaran" means a path-marker in Romani. {{spoiler|Patrin showed Teg the way to the Harkonnen no-globe.}}

* [[Mind Probe]]: Many, many variations, including the Ixian Probe, its successor the T-Probe, and the abilities of Face Dancers to take a memory imprint of their victims even after death. They are so common by the time of ''Heretics of Dune'', in fact, that anyone with secret knowledge takes a special drug named "shere" that is designed to foil mental probes.

** 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.

* [[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.

* [[Never Found the Body]]: [[Genre Savvy]] villain Baron Harkonnen, upon receiving news that Paul and Jessica Atreides were dead after flying into a sandstorm, asks explicitly, "You've seen the bodies?" He was right to doubt. This series also provides the pagequote for that trope.

* [[Never Speak Ill of the Dead]]: When Paul kills Jamis in a duel, the other Fremen refrain from speaking ill of Jamis, even though he had a history of violence and unethical actions (i.e., killing Harah's first husband so that he could marry her). However, Harah's nonchalant reaction to Jamis' death, combined with her sons' delight at having Paul as their new father, suggests that they did not think well of Jamis.

* [[Noble Savage]]: The Fremen, backed up by a number of quotes in the [[Encyclopedia Exposita]], are intentionally set up to be perceived this way. Even their essential cruelty is explained as the cold necessity of survival in a harsh environment, combined with a carefully nurtured desire for revenge against their oppressors. This is reinforced by the decline of the Fremen culture in later novels; as they lose touch with the desert and become "civilized", their power and nobility decline.

** 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.

** Subverted. The scientist ''had'' plans hidden in his own no-chamber aboard a space station. They are discovered by his fellow scientists who try to recreate the no-field. Unfortunately, the station is raided by the Sardaukar and destroyed with atomics.

*** Despite these setbacks, the technology is re-invented independently, this time with prescience shielding.

* [[No Transhumanism Allowed]]: Both subverted and played straight. Deliberate breeding programs are used to create humans with intelligence, reflexes, lifespan, capacity higher consciousness and physical capabilities far beyond those of current-day humans, but a religious taboo is kept in place on genetically engineering anything recognizably inhuman or unable to interbreed back into the larger human population. Thus, the characters and societies remain human while simultaneously having greater advancements over modern man than modern man has over homo erectus. The Tleilaxu, however, have no religious taboo on inhumanity and gleefully make a living selling inhuman humans genetically-engineered for specific purposes.

* [[Not Quite Dead]]: Paul and Jessica. And Leto II. Gholas are a subversion in that the original does explicitly die, but the cloned replacement can be awakened to its [[Genetic Memory]].

* [[Polluted Wasteland]]: The dark world Giedi Prime, the home planet of the Harkonnens, is heavily pollluted from over-industrialization. One of the final two books makes a point that this was so bad, that now, over 8,000 years after the Harkonnens were overthrown, the ground will ''never'' lose its greasy texture.

* [[Praetorian Guard]]: The Imperial Sardaukar. For Paul, the Fedaykin.

* [[Prescience Is Predictable]]: One of the core themes of the main series. Indeed, this could be the [[Trope Codifier]] for all modern uses.

{{quote| '''Leto II''': "It has occurred to me more than once that holy boredom is good and sufficient reason for the invention of free will."}}

** Other changes that might be considered a [[Retcon]] within the first 3 books included the appearance of Guild Navigators (at the end of ''Dune'', they were perfectly normal-looking humans except for the blue-within-blue eyes that they hid behind contact lenses), and the factors that make a child "pre-born" ("No no no, Alia wasn't pre-born because she downloaded the dying Reverend Mother's memories while she was still in the womb, she was pre-born because her mom was addicted to the Spice!")

** The Butlerian Jihad. Originally, a reference to Samuel Butler and his ''Darwin among the Machines''. Retconned - possibly unintentionally - by Brian Herbert to refer to the death of one "Manion Butler" instead.

{{quote| "You think... you have defeated me? You think I did not know... what I bought... for my Wanna?"}}

** Poor old Wellington kinda gets the short end of the stick in the universe; despite his best-of-intentions betrayal, in subsequent books it is made clear that history remembers him as ''[[Finding Judas|worse than Judas]]'' and for thousands of years his name serves as a byword for unconscionable treachery.

* [[Second Hand Storytelling]]: Interesting scenes or important plot points, such as the initial journey to the planet Arrakis in a spaceship of the mysterious Navigators Guild or Paul Atreides drinking the lethal Water of Life, are either touched on only fleetingly or narrated by characters in retrospect, several weeks later. The chapter simply ends and cuts away from the action about to unfold to a different scene in the next chapter, with characters sitting around their camp fire and telling each other what happened.

* [[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.

* [[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''.

** Advanced Face Dancers at the time of ''Heretics of Dune'' make a memory-print of their victim's mind and therefore mimic them perfectly. Too perfectly, as it turns out. Leave one in the job long enough and {{spoiler|he forgets he's a Face Dancer.}}

* [[The Spock]]: Mentats. Although not all of them are by any means moral and logical.

* [[Standard Time Units]]: Years are known as "Standard years", or SY, and are described as being about 20 hours less than the "so-called primitive year".

* [[Standard Sci Fi History]]: The background history of the Imperium tends to follow this trend. The Buterlian Jihad serves the role of World War III by resetting the political and technological situation. The Corrino-led Imperium serves as the First Empire, and the Paul/Leto II regimes as the Second Empire. It's one of the few examples in which the Second Empire follows up the first without an Interregnum. There is an Interregnum (referred to as "The Scattering"), but it occurs only after the collapse of the Second Empire.

** Also inverted in ''Dune'' - shields attract the worms so they can't really be used (at least by ground forces) and Baron Harkonnen successfully uses conventional artillery in his takeover to seal Atreides forces in caves to die. (The Fremen turn this to their own advantage later.)

* [[Take Over the World|Take Over The Universe]]. This is what the ''hero'' does. By threatening to destroy civilization, no less. Of course, the alternative is far, far worse.

* [[Talking Through Technique]]: The [[Hand Signals]].

* [[Talking Your Way Out]]: Thufir Hawat, captured by Baron Vladimir Harkonnen's forces and forced to work for him, plays him off of his nephew, Feyd Rautha. Feyd makes a rash attempt (suggested by Thufir) to assassinate his uncle, and the Baron is forced to consider executing his only legitimate heir. Thufir does this more for vengeance and loyalty to his prior liege than for escape, which the Baron ensured would be a fatal endeavor; the Baron barely manages to work his way out of the dilemma by denying Feyd the governorship of the planet the Harkonnens took from Thufir's old master. Earlier in the book, Paul and Jessica use the Voice to get their Harkonnen guards to kill each other.

* [[They Were Holding You Back]]: What's done to Thufir Hawat.

* [[Thrown Out the Airlock]]: Josef Venport to {{spoiler|Arjen Gates}}.

* [[Too Kinky to Torture]]: In the sequels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson, a group are trying to reawaken the memories of a ghola of the Baron Harkonnen, which is usually accomplished by pushing someone to breaking point with some great trauma. However, he proves [[Too Kinky to Torture]] and the only thing that eventually works is {{spoiler|sensory deprivation}}.

* [[Totally Radical]]: In the ''Dune'' prequels there are things called 'Cymeks,' apearently trying to combine 'cyborg' and 'mech' with a [[Xtreme Kool Letterz|Xtremely Kool Letter]]. Cybernetic ''and'' mechanical.

* [[Unobtainium]]: The Spice.

* [[Unreliable Narrator]]: ''The Dune Encyclopedia'' is very much an example of this. It is framed as an encyclopedia within the ''Dune'' universe, purportedly 5,000 years after the events of the first novel and after the historical record has been greatly altered or lost. Several of the entries either contradict or give a different perspective on the events of the novels. It is up to the reader to determine what account, if any, "really" happened.

* [[Unusual Euphemism]]: ''Dune'', at least on one occasion, replaced the f-bomb with "floggin'". Frank was perfectly happy to use other cuss words through the series, but even "flog" isn't used again for the rest of the series.

** "Beefswelling" is used as a rather... ''unfortunate'' euphemism for "erection" in ''Children of Dune.''

* [[Voice of the Legion]]: The billions of ego memories within genetic memory-awakened individuals can appear like this, especially to the pre-born.

* [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]]: Face Dancers

* [[Warrior Poet]]: Gurney Halleck. He is a musician and philosopher with seemingly infinite supply of witticisms for any occasion. He is also a remorseless killer, perfectly willing to cut any Harkonnen he comes across (or anyone who gets on the wrong side of Duke Leto for that matter) into pieces.

{{quote| Duke Leto: "Someday I'll catch that man without a quotation and he'll look undressed."}}

* [[Weaponized Exhaust]]: The Emperor is both enraged and terrified when he hears that his [[Super Soldier|Sardaukar]] only just ''barely'' escaped with their lives by doing this against a settlement of women, children, and elderly.

* [[We Have Reserves]]: The Butlerian fanatics use no tactics and simply rush into the fray, most wielding nothing more than clubs. If their numbers are high enough, they might win but at great cost. During the space battle between the Butlerian and Venhold forces, Manford Torondo told mentat Gilbertus Albans to assume all his forces (200+ ships with thousands of people) are expendable. This was the only they manage to win that battle despite numerical superiority.

** Their justification for slavery in the prequels is flimsy at best. They primarily enslave Zensunnis and Zenshiites, as they claim their ancestors refused to fight the Thinking Machines.

* [[What Is This Thing You Call Love?]]: The Bene Gesserit Question Book in ''Dune: House Harkonnen'':

* [[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 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.

 

 

=== Adaptations with their own trope pages include: ===

 

* ''[[Emperor Battle for Dune]]''

 

* [[Dead Star Walking]]: William Hurt gets top billing as Duke Leto Atreides in Sci Fi Channel's Dune Miniseries, despite his character getting killed at the end of part one (of three). Susan Sarandon as Wensicia does as well in the sequel, though they did elevate her character more from the books.

* [[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.

* [[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]}}

* [[Re Cut]]: The 1984 theatrical version was not direct or [[David Lynch]]'s Director's Cut--the producers not only made him cut a lot of material from his script, they also cut a lot of scenes that had been shot out as well--but it's the only one he's very happy with. Then in 1988, an Extended Cut was made to be shown on TV, referred to as The [[Alan Smithee]] Cut. It used deleted scenes, but reused more footage than ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]''. David Lynch hated it, demanding his name be removed from the writer and director credit. ''Then'', in 1992, a San Francisco TV station made a mix of a cut between the original theatrical version of the movie and the Alan Smithee cut, which kept the new scenes but also put the violence back in. Finally, a cut known as the Extended Edition came out on DVD, which was a 177-minute edit of the Alan Smithee version. David Lynch is now a bitter arthouse director. Go figure.

* [[Training Montage]]: a short one is used in [[The Movie]] to show Paul Muad'dib training the Fremen to fight against the Harkonnens.

* [[Women Are Wiser]]: The reason the Fish Speakers are an [[Amazon Brigade|all woman force]] is because of Leto's assertion that men, conditioned to violence and deprived of an outlet, will turn on their own populace; while women, deprived of that outlet, will turn to maternal instincts. Leto understands this because he has both male and female [[Genetic Memory]]. Thousands of years after Leto, the remnants of the Fish Speakers (and their ultimate descendants, {{spoiler|the Honored Matres}}), have degenerated into megalomania and bureaucratic corruption.

* [[Words Can Break My Bones]]: The 1984 film turns the Weirding Way into a martial art and turns "My name is a killing word" into something much more literal.