Fate or Choice — about’Dune 2’

Many years ago, I asked a fortune teller: Is it fate that makes us who we are, or do we choose to align with all possible signs and thus fulfill our destiny?

Heroes in ancient Greek mythology are clearly the former — even if you throw your grandson to the wolves, he’ll still come back to seize the throne. Meanwhile, the movie Dune 2 clearly believes that the hero in all prophecies is actually the product of a grand god-making campaign.

I specifically emphasize the movie Dune, not the original novel. The original Dune was written in the 1950s and 1960s, during the Cold War and the rise of Middle East conflicts, which left a strong imprint of that era on the book. In other words, if you can’t remember those lengthy fictional ethnic names, just think of it as a medieval story where a white male protagonist goes to a desert Middle Eastern region and, with the help of religious forces, becomes the savior of people of color.

If you don’t think of it this way, it’s hard to understand why, after ten thousand years, the universe still practices polygamy and has concubines. Were all those gender equality movements eaten by dogs? Also, humans can freely travel through multidimensional space but still haven’t solved childbirth issues. Not only do they not use artificial wombs, but the female lead even dies in childbirth.

Anyway, I gave up reading the novel when the Sisterhood believed that the savior must be male. Their generations of collective memory do not include any males. (What does that mean? Is memory inherited through mitochondrial genes?) I think even non-extreme feminists would roll their eyes at this. What era is this? The heir still has to be male. The way to seize the throne is still the medieval War of the Roses method — the victorious prince marries the old dynasty’s princess. And the male protagonist’s mother becomes a saint just for giving birth to him…

Those long veils in the sand and the prayer-like manner reminiscent of a certain religion always make me feel like this is actually a modern biography of the Prophet Muhammad.

However, the movie has been altered significantly from the original. The book is purely about the male protagonist becoming the savior, saving the world, marrying the princess, and reaching the pinnacle of life as destined. In the movie, the male protagonist is still the savior, but everywhere it hints that this is just a god-making movement — like the fox cry, the brocade book in the fish’s belly, or the one-eyed stone man in the Yellow River from our history books… all to eventually crown him.

Dune 1 is like a prequel; I almost fell asleep watching it because it set up for so long without a clear theme. When I thought Dune 2 would be the same, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the plot pace greatly accelerated, and many lively and interesting characters were added.

Here I have to complain again: after ten thousand years, humanity still hasn’t solved the problem of baldness! Is this to console us bald people? Although I deeply resent the Harkonnen family’s collective baldness, I soon discovered that no eyebrows ≠ no beauty!

What Exactly Is Sexual Tension?

Or rather, what makes us, among thousands of people, see a certain opposite sex and suddenly feel the urge to push them down? Now it seems that it has nothing to do with hair. Baron Feyd-Rautha has not a single hair, but all the sisters who’ve seen the movie praise him endlessly; his popularity is even higher than that of the male lead, Timothée Chalamet. This proves that although bride-by-combat is vulgar, it’s very effective. Didn’t Lady Margot choose him after watching his duel from the stands?

It’s a certain momentary expression, powerful combat skills, the determination and courage to grab a knife and fight.

I think sisters can learn from this: don’t be confused by small benefits, don’t be swayed by sweet words, carefully choose the father of your future children; that’s what truly benefits all humanity.

In the original novel, the Sisterhood has a bunch of skills; they sound impressive but are actually quite useless. Logically, they control reproductive rights, can manipulate others with their voices, detect lies, and are capable fighters and killers. With all that, they spend generations training concubines to send to various families for breeding? I think that’s just crazy. Instead of waiting for a legendary savior, why not become the savior themselves?

But I heard the author had eight aunts, and according to him, the inspiration for the Sisterhood came from those eight aunts… Well, author, you’ve suffered.

Popularity Rankings

In terms of popularity, the male lead’s mother and the bald Baron Feyd-Rautha are neck and neck, while the male lead, Timothée Chalamet, is slightly inferior. Although they added background sound to his shouts later on, a monarchial aura isn’t something you can roar out. I could never get into the chemistry between him and the female lead, Chani — maybe because of the casting; she always seems like a schoolgirl, frowning at every problem. How they got together and suddenly decided to roll in the sheets is abruptly transitioned. In other words, if you replaced the female lead with a male actor to portray brotherhood and changed the bed scene to drinking sweet wine at night, it would still work.

The sexual tension between this couple, in my opinion, is less than that in the scene where Baron Feyd-Rautha kneels to Lady Margot. They have a chaotic evil vibe but somehow match each other inexplicably.

Symbolism in the Factions

The Fremen planet is clearly the Middle East, from their veils to their religion. The Harkonnen family is interesting; whenever the camera cuts to them, even the colors disappear, turning into black and white. Considering the novel’s Cold War background, look at those infinitely grand domes, collectivism, and authoritarianism, with arms raised and slogans shouted. It seems the author projected his imagined Soviet empire onto the Harkonnen family.

The Spacing Guild obviously adopts the ancient Roman political system, so the princess can only become the queen — just like the queens of Rome’s Five Good Emperors were all nieces or daughters of the previous emperor. Anyway, the idea that political systems adapt to productivity doesn’t exist in the novel, and we vaguely call these incongruous parts “space opera.”

Romance Woes

Speaking of which, many male-oriented novels on Qidian are excellently written, but for some reason, when it comes to romance, the quality drops sharply. I don’t know if the authors feel awkward, but the comment sections are full of criticism. This book has the same problem. In the original, the male lead marries the princess and Chani, and like in our ancient romance novels, only lets Chani, the concubine, bear his children. Loving her means letting her have children — damn, author, you truly are a person from the old times. (And the female lead dies in childbirth.)

But times have clearly changed. If the movie dared to portray it that way, Dune 3 might not happen. So, in the movie, when the male lead says to Chani, “I will love you forever, until I die,” and then decides to marry the princess, Chani unhesitatingly chooses to turn and leave.

She leaves, partly because of the disillusionment of love, but more because of the divergence due to the disillusionment of ideals. From the beginning, she didn’t believe in the existence of a savior, nor did she believe that through the male lead, this place could become an oasis. She kept reminding her people not to become pawns in the male lead’s quest for the throne; there is no savior, only oneself can save oneself.

By the way, some reviews actually say this is a sign of the male lead’s growth, knowing how to weigh pros and cons and choose the important (princess) over the beloved (Chani). I think this is a sign of his incompetence. Only the weak and powerless weigh pros and cons. Even King David in the Bible would rather work hard for fourteen years to marry his sister. If he weighed pros and cons, he could have married the older sister after seven years and saved time to become king.

As my best friend said, everyone is human; who needs him to weigh pros and cons?

Subverting the Savior Narrative

In traditional Western movies, it’s always an outsider white person saving the local tribe, forming a bond with the local daughter (note, not marrying, to avoid bloodline mixing), leading them to prosperity (and completing the plunder) in a deus ex machina savior manner. But who can say whose faith is wrong? All religions are just parallel flowers; to denigrate others because of one’s advanced technology is actually greater arrogance and nothingness.

Dune 2 itself is an anti-prophecy, anti-savior story. Sometimes, seeing the male lead’s mother mumbling like a fox (Wu Guang), it feels like watching a cult performing rituals, which is absurd. Especially when they kneel and bow to the male lead, the Middle Eastern attire and religion make it extremely uncomfortable. Sometimes I think, if this is what humanity is like in ten thousand years, it really makes one have no expectations for the future.

Final Thoughts

Lastly, I strongly recommend watching it in IMAX; the visuals are worth it. For those who like sandworms, you can order a Fujian dish called “tu sun dong” (frozen earth bamboo shoots) tonight; it’s very crunchy. As for that initial question, years later, someone answered me, and his position was sufficient to answer it.

He said — “The Hero always uses the masses to rise.”