This put up comprises spoilers for the Frank Herbert-written “Dune” books.
The “Dune” e book sequence, which extends far previous the place the at the moment deliberate film trilogy expects to finish, veers off into unusual territory. There are main forged shake-ups, important shifts in thematic focus, and big time jumps. By the point you get to the fourth e book, “God Emperor of Dune,” practically each character within the first e book has been lifeless for nearly 3,500 years. By the point you get to the fifth e book, “Heretics of Dune,” practically each character within the fourth e book has additionally been lifeless for about 1,500 years.
Regardless of all these shifts and adjustments, creator Frank Hebert nonetheless gave the sequence a number of constants to carry onto. The primary was Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa within the motion pictures), the one character to exist in all six books, albeit in clone type. The second and most essential fixed, nonetheless, was the concept of the Golden Path. It is a idea that is somewhat elusive and rarely outlined with the readability readers would need, nevertheless it’s the factor that subtly drives the protagonists from the primary web page of “Dune” to the ultimate web page of “Chapterhouse,” and continues even into lots of the books written by Herbert’s son Brian after Frank’s loss of life.
The Golden Path, defined
At its core, the Golden Path is a imaginative and prescient of humanity’s future, spanning hundreds of years, that might solely be seen by somebody extremely educated and gifted in seeing the long run. Paul Atreides (performed by Timothée Chalamet within the current movies) solely absolutely grapples with the Golden Path after ingesting the Water of Life, a really harmful substance taken from the bile of a dying toddler sandworm.
That is the purpose within the e book/film the place Paul concludes that his path to the throne is unavoidable, that his rise to energy and the destruction that comes with it’s a essential worth for the nice of not simply his household, however the universe general. Paul is ready to see that billions of individuals will die in a Fremen Holy Conflict spreading all through the universe as a direct results of his rise to energy, and but he chooses to undergo with it anyway — partly as a result of he thinks the choice will probably be worse.
So, what’s the different? Properly, stagnation. Humanity at the start of “Dune” had been caught in a millennia-long rut; that is a part of why the world of the HBO sequence “Dune: Prophecy,” happening a full ten thousand years earlier than Paul’s rise to energy, appears so much like the world Paul’s grown up in. All of humanity is actually dominated beneath a single authorities, the Imperium, and that lack of range (genetically, socially, politically, geographically) was a long-term existential menace. There are additionally hints that Paul and Chani’s eventual son, Leto II, fears an exterior menace; perhaps he feared a return to hostile considering machines (which had been banned through the Butlerian Jihad lengthy earlier than the sequence started), or maybe he feared humanity’s first correct encounter with an clever alien species.
Both approach, Paul and Leto II believed that humanity was not able to face both of these exterior threats, and even with out them they appeared doomed to inside collapse beneath the present trajectory. So, to be able to defend humanity, they felt they wanted to radically shake up this universe’s established order.
Paul started the Golden Path, however Leto II completed it
For lots of causes, maybe the chief one being that Paul was born a technology sooner than anticipated and subsequently was not fairly the last word Kwisatz Haderach as predicted, Paul didn’t fairly comply with by way of on his quest to meet the Golden Path. The second e book, “Dune: Messiah,” which focuses on Paul’s downfall, is somewhat obscure about what Paul would wish to do to realize it, nevertheless it’s clear that the Golden Path would entail much more human struggling and for Paul to lose much more of his humanity. He decides to surrender his energy and get lost into the desert, by no means to retake the throne once more.
However though Paul provides up the Golden Path, his younger prescient son Leto II (arguably the true Kwisatz Haderach) decides to comply with by way of with it in his place. He does this figuring out full properly that the trail requires him to show into an enormous immortal worm creature (sure, actually) and rule over the universe with an iron fist. Hey, it is a lonely life, however somebody’s bought to do it.
Leto II takes over on the finish of “Youngsters of Dune” (the third e book), and offers us an thought of what his rule will probably be like. Most notably, he plans to proceed the de-desertification of Arrakis, slowly making the sandworms that produce the universe’s solely spice provide extinct. Within the meantime, he’d provide the shrinking spice provide largely to his shut allies, whereas the remainder of the universe must make do with out it. This was a really powerful change for lots of people all through the universe, lots of whom relied on the spice to reside unnaturally lengthy lifespans, however Leto II believed it was essential to wean humanity off its spice melange dependancy to be able to make it stronger and extra self-reliant.
The opposite essential issue is that Leto II, by advantage of being basically an enormous sentient worm, was mainly indestructible in addition to immortal. Sci-fi writers have typically grappled with the character of absolute energy, however hardly ever has a ruler given a personality the sheer scale of energy Leto II enjoys. He is not simply near-invincible, however he is practically all-knowing, too.
How the Golden Path continues after Leto II’s loss of life
Leto II lets himself be slain on the finish of “God Emperor of Dune,” after over 3,500 years of steady rule. This was all a part of the plan, nonetheless, as his loss of life creates an intentional energy vacuum that results in the human race now not being dominated by a singular, coherent empire. It helps that humanity’s spice dependancy has been largely killed by this level; even when the Bene Tleilax (a significant political faction chargeable for all these Duncan Idaho clones) have lastly realized to fabricate spice on their very own, it is nonetheless not sufficient to forestall the decentralization of humanity. So comes the Nice Scattering, the place humanity begins to traverse once more by way of the celebs to unknown areas of the universe, precisely as Leto II deliberate.
Leto II’s rule had additionally led to a fantastic interval of technological innovation, not simply because planets now wanted to discover ways to preserve functioning with out the spice however as a result of factions against Leto II’s rule knew that they’d want higher know-how to be able to overthrow him. This additionally clearly benefitted society in “Heretics” and “Chapterhouse,” because the readers see with the invention of no-ships (star-ships that may’t be detected by somebody with prescience) in addition to the introduction of extra superior Face Dancers (spies who can change their look). Humanity usually actually appears to have stepped up a notch because the begin of Leto II’s rule, each bodily and mentally.
Tragically, Frank Herbert handed earlier than he may end the sequence, so it is unclear what precisely he had in thoughts for the deliberate seventh and closing e book. All we’ve to work with are the books his son wrote, which are divisive to say the least. We’ll doubtless by no means get to see the precise finish purpose Leto II envisioned for humanity, assuming that was even what Herbert was planning for us to see in any respect. The Golden Path feels so much like the reply to the which means of life in that it is arduous to outline, arduous to image, and we’re undecided we would even like the reply if we bought it. In a approach, it feels becoming for the “Dune” sequence to spend so lengthy traversing the Golden Path, solely to by no means fairly attain it in the long run.