Help me understand Children of Dune. Spoilers! (1 Viewer)

DustinLC · Jul 1, 2003

I really enjoyed the miniseries but couldn't get an important plot point. Spoilers ahead.........

What's the Golden Path that Paul(his father) couldn't take and Leto must? All I saw was that Leto went through a storm after gaining some desert creature that seems to give him super speed then reached a group of people (forgot their names) and came back to defeat Alia, his aunt.

So how does the Golden Path suppose to demystify the religion of Muad'dib (the religion that worship Leto's father, Paul)?

What's that about and why did Paul (Muad'dib) leave after the birth of his twin children?

Paul seems to have lost his sight for real after the death of his wife...but how's leaving suppose to help. Then later he returns as a blind old man. What's the point of that?

Final question: who was the hottest babe in the show

? My vote goes to the princess Arulan played by Julie Cox. Next is Leto twin sister, Ghanima. 3rd place goes to Chani.

Chris · Jul 1, 2003

Final question: who was the hottest babe in the show ? My vote goes to the princess Arulan played by Julie Cox. Next is Leto twin sister, Ghanima. 3rd place goes to Chani.

Easy for me. Ghanima.

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DustinLC · Jul 1, 2003

He loses his sight for real after running into a weapon called a "Stone Cutter" think of it like atomics.. but not quite. .

I guess what I meant "for real" is that he no longer have visions. The Stone Cutter turn his eyes black and appear blinds but he still seems to see... somehow. After Chani dies, he cries to Duncan "I'm blind I'm blind" so I gather that he loss his other special sight, "for real."

So he's the Emperor. He could have done more by staying than leaving. Like Chani told him, he can demystify himself. But I guess it's like you said, he saw that it wasn't his destinty to do so but his son.

I have seen Dune sometime ago. I guess I have to watch that mini series again to help clear some things for me. Perhaps check out the original Dune which I haven't seen at all.

So did Ghanima become the emperor while Leto went around running?

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Chris · Jul 1, 2003

No.. Leto II will be emporer for a very, very, very long time in the book series. The running effect is very much for the benefit of filming, not for the necessity of the story.

Yee-Ming · Jul 1, 2003

The running effect is very much for the benefit of filming,

Haven't seen the show yet, it airs starting 13 July out here, but since I've read the books spoilers don't worry me -- it's already "spoiled"...

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Jeff Kleist · Jul 1, 2003

Book 4 real title : God Awful of Dune

Also known as "100 pages of plot shoehorned into 1200"

Sarcastic sample paragraph

"Into the throne room walked Princess Wickiewoo. Now Princess Wickiewoo was the 137th descendant of the House of Woo, a very important house that traded Bavarian Wingnuts to all corners of the known galaxy for 3 centuries, until they changed to Mandolorian Wingnuts. Now Mandalorian Wingnuts are different from Bavarian because 200 years prior to the changeover....."

(skip next 8 pages)

"....who made the dress Wickiewoo has on today. On her arm is Prince Hadil Habib who is 13th in line from the previous emperor Shaddam IV......."

on and on and on and on

Chris · Jul 2, 2003

Now now.. some of us (like myself) have always found "God Emporer of Dune" to be the best book of the series; I've always viewed "God Emporer of Dune" and "ChapterHouse Dune" as the two best books within the series.

Shane D · Jul 2, 2003

paul could still see when he lost is eyes because he was so deep into the visions, that his eyes were unneeded. He knew about the golden path, but was unable to make that decision, because of the sacrifice it entailed. 2000 years of boredom, which Leto also realized, but knew that for the human race to survive even a 1000 years, it had to be done.

Paul also knew that the birth of his child (his visions only saw one) would end chani's life. That is why he allowed Irulan to continue to poison her, because it allowed Chani to live as long as she didn't conceive, and he was jealous of the time he had with her, and didn't want to lose her. When the children were born, a surpise enterered the equation and the visions stopped. Hence blinding him for good.

To me, alot of the gist of the story is about not knowing your fate. To know what comes, removes all suprise and all choices from living. Leto II's only hope in life (of what life he did have as emperor), was to be surprised, when something would fall outside of what he knew would happen.

Leto would only go out running for short bursts. He would never be gone for more than a day. He would run until the point of exhaustion, because it was the only reminder he still had of his humanity. I think in the books it implied he was actually trying to run himself to death. Which wasn't possible, but he had to make the effort.

DustinLC · Jul 2, 2003

He knew about the golden path, but was unable to make that decision, because of the sacrifice it entailed. 2000 years of boredom

Shane are you saying that it will take 2000yrs to complete the path and that Leto II was super fast so only he could do it in shorter time?

Yee-Ming, your spoiler makes me want to go grab book 4. So the first Dune series and Children of Dune covers book 1-3?

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Jeff Kleist · Jul 2, 2003

Basically there was only enough filmable material in books 2 and 3 for 1 TV movie. Book 2 ends with Paul going into the desert. It'll take 3-4 books for another movie

Shane D · Jul 2, 2003

I wont tell you how God Emperor of Dune goes, but it begins 2000(i may be off on years, i dont remember the exact number, somewhere 2000-4000) years AFTER children, and Leto II is still emperor of the universe.

And the 'Speed' of Leto really has nothing to do with what he becomes. The transformation he undergoes is he is becoming Sha-Halud, Worms will die off of Arrakis and spice production practically becomes non existant.

The reason Paul didnt' follow the Golden Path is because he didn't have the guts to do it. He wouldn't sacrifice his humanity.

In the books, the sacrifice Leto makes is much more profound, because in them, he and Ghani are only 10 years old, physically, while thier minds are thousands of years old. Leto gave up his entire 'human life' to ensure that humanity would survive what Paul started.

And as far as the sci-fi series goes, the first 3 (original trilogy) covers the first dune book, the second series, night one is Dune Messiah (which is my favorite of all of them, when the stone burner went off, and at that point I realized Paul had LET it all happen, I was just flabbergasted that he knew he was going to be crippled), and then the 2nd and 3rd night cover the book Children of Dune.

I highly recommend reading all 6. I enjoyed them all immensely reading them right after one another. I've not read any of the 'new' books by his son and Kevin J. Anderson, and I have desire to read them. The way I look at it, It was Frank Herberts universe, and only he could write them.

David Forbes · Jul 2, 2003

I read the first of the "new" Dune books out of morbid curiosity, and it was so bad I couldn't believe it was published. Just a travesty.

Shane D · Jul 2, 2003

Thats Kevin J. Anderson for ya =)

Plus that is also letting others play in someone else's universe. That is why so many of the AD&D books suck. Someone comes up with a a great story, and then they put out 30 books in one year by other authors.
I'm talking mostly of Dragonlance, the Margeret Weis and Tracy Hickman books are some of the best fantasy ever, but all the other books are pretty much crap.
TSR was gonna do the same thing to R.A. Salvatore with his dark elf books, he didn't have enough time to do one one year, so they said fine, we'll have someone else write one. Not realizing it was HIS writing that people bought, not just the character. Luckily they realized that and the fact he basically said thats fine, you own the property, but if you do that, I will no longer write books for you.

I wish they would have had the sense to do that with Dune and left it alone after the 6 books.

I even read that his son is gonna write actuall 'sequels' that follow the last Frank Herbert book. Talk about a travesty.

Yee-Ming · Jul 3, 2003

Since we're going down the spoiler-ish (of the books) route, Shane, I'm fairly certain it was 4,000 years.

Dustin, no, not because he had super speed, simply that Leto II had lived the entire 4,000 years; he was by then basically a sandworm with human face. Everyone else had of course died by then. Although IIRC he had a clone of someone from the old days to keep him company.

To me, part of the problem was precisely that everyone else, all the other characters we cared about, were long gone into ancient history. Oddly enough, for Heretics of Dune, my view of it (although I can't remember any details anymore) was that once you got past the fact that there wasn't anyone from the older books, on it's own it wasn't bad. I still haven't read Chapterhouse though, even though I borrowed it from a friend at least 3 years ago and it's buried in some box somewhere due to my changing jobs and moving offices... :b

Jeff Kleist · Jul 3, 2003

Well, Herbert ran out of ideas after Children

Any books his son writes are just cashing in

Chris · Jul 3, 2003

Although IIRC he had a clone of someone from the old days to keep him company.

And once again, just to say it: I've always found God Emporer of Dune & Chapterhouse Dune to be the most well thought, socially relevent books of the series.

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