Children of Dune March 16th on Sci-Fi (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

The question is how do they know? And how do we, the audience, know that they know? I didn't get it, and it damned sure was not for want of "paying attention".

Because it is a major part of Fremen lore. We know that they know because the Golden Path is mentioned by several characters prior to Leto II going down it.

 

[David Forbes]

Leto explains the Golden Path when he talks to his father in the desert. He will free humanity from the vision of Muad'dib. Paul/Muad'dib's visions of the future and the religion that have grown up around them have trapped humankind into following that course. Leto's Golden Path will free humanity from this "tyranny" and allow them to have a truly unknown and surprising future.

The Golden Path was never followed before because no one could consume enough spice to allow the sandtrout to merge with them and still survive. That is stated explicitly in Jakurutu when we hear two of the Cast Outs talking about how much spice they are feeding him. Leto also says this when he comes out of his trance and says the spice can no longer harm him as he drains a cup of it.

Rex, you apparently didn't like it, and that's fine. Watching something you don't like can make the mind wander. All of what I just said was in the series, so if you didn't get it you weren't paying attention, plain and simple. It has nothing to do with slavish devotion to the books. Anyone who was watching and paying attention should have understood these things.

Herbert's writing is deliberately obtuse and vague about a lot of these things -- they are implied rather than explicitly stated. But the series was quite clear and deliberate about all of these things at several different times.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

David Forbes wrote (post #82):

I didn't say so. I said I didn't like the story or some of its characters as much as those of the original miniseries. It was certainly a disappointment for me after having seen the previous part. I found myself concentrating on the "politics", and the politics seemed a bit . . . . well, . . . washed-out, while the sections on the transformation didn't seem quite plausible to me. (Obviously, I didn't understand them.)

 

[Jeff Kleist]

I found myself concentrating on the "politics", and the politics seemed a bit . . . . well, . . . washed-out, while the sections on the transformation didn't seem quite plausible to me. (Obviously, I didn't understand them.)

Good thing you dind't try to read the books then The politics are 100x more involved (and dull)

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Does their prophecy say "he who survives will become a big worm and free us all"?

That's pretty much the jist of it, from what I gathered.

 

[David Forbes]

Saying "You will go the path and free your people (or whatever)" /= necessarily "you will become a giant (or a man-sized) worm in order to do this (and, of course, we know this even though it has never happened before)", now does it?

The fact that Leto will become a giant worm is irrelevant. It's an offshoot of the sandtrout. And I've already pointed out the explicit conversation between Leto and his father in which he explains the Golden Path. Listen to it again if you can. He doesn't just say he will "free his people"; he says he will free humanity from the tyranny of Paul's vision, so that they will no longer have a future that is "predestined" for them. That's not the word Leto used, but it was something with a similar meaning.

I honestly don't know why that's so hard to understand. It was stated directly in the series.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

It's taken me a little while to get around to this after reviewing the whole second miniseries last week, but here it is . . . .

David Forbes wrote (post #86):

Again, it's the dialect problem for interpretation . . . .

 

[Kami]

I finally got around to seeing this. After being a huge fan of the original I am left awe-struck. I enjoyed this 10 times more than the original. It's also nice to see them giving it a larger budget (aside from those tigers...*cough*)

Can't wait for the next chapter!

 

[Yee-Ming]

Finally watched this -- it was just aired over three Sundays. Assorted thoughts:-

Anyone else think the music in this sounded a lot like Terminator, but just a tiny bit shy of the iconic "Dum duh DUM, duh DUM" (if you know what I mean)? Although there were quiet passages where I seemed to detect similarities to Toto's score for the Lynch movie -- but I think I should really write that off to a psychosomatic thing...

AFAIR, in the book, sandtrout weren't exactly larvae, they were flat things, and Fremen children played with them by dipping their hands in, where the sand trout would wrap around etc, but they'd always remove them fairly quickly. Leto, on the other hand, left them on until the cilla had "invaded" his body such that he couldn't remove them at all, and of course over the course of the centuries preceding Book 4, he transformed into a worm himself. Anyone else read the book more recently (or has a better memory than me)?

Certainly the ending scene seemed to have incestous connotations initially, but Ghanima ended by saying that whilst they (she and her "husband") might in time have love, for her brother there was none. This suggests to me, no monkey business a la the Egyptian pharaohs and their sisters, rather Leto will live his (lengthy) life completely alone, considering that he isn't exactly human anymore.

I certainly enjoyed it anyway, chalk me up as one who's eagerly awaiting the SE and will buy it upon release. Now to find some time to revisit the first series SE, in between all those other DVDs piled up on my shelves...