Dune: The Darkest Possible Future | What's Worse Than the Jihad?

foreign [Music] [Music] hi guys it's Quinn here if you appreciate my content consider hitting the like button it's the only way the YouTube algorithm notices me if you'd like to do more to keep this channel afloat consider donating through the PayPal Link in the description or checking out our patreon thanks guys so much so I'm currently working on a long form video on a topic that I know you guys are going to enjoy a lot but I also wanted to take some time to go back to one of my all-time favorite sci-fi book series Dune and cover a topic that's a little bit obscure to most people now this is an aspect of the series that I find endlessly fascinating in the book Dune towards the end Paula trades says to his mother Jessica I am the fulcrum now what does this mean imagine that the universe is a wooden board a seesaw at either end of that wooden board are two possible paths for the universe Paul Atreides would be the center supporting it all the lever by which the universe itself turns because he became the quizets had Iraq granting him the ability to see the possible Futures he became the fulcrum by which the fate of the universe itself moves by simply acting he decides the fate of everything so before I go any further I just want to remind you that this video will have spoilers for The Dune Saga in the first dune book Paul is seeing visions of a terrible Jihad the legions of Freeman spreading out Across the Universe in his name killing billions of citizens of the universe this happens Paul lives through it all in his name and then we get to Dune Messiah in Dune Messiah it is revealed that far darker things are to come still and it implies that these things are set in motion by Paul's own actions he remembered his earliest divisions of the Jihad to be the terror and Revolution he'd experienced now of course he knew visions of Greater terrors he had lived with the real violence he had seen his Freeman charged with mystical strength sweep all before them in the religious War the Jihad gained A New Perspective it was finite of course a brief spasm when measured against eternity but beyond Les Horus to overshadow anything in the past all in my name Paul thought now let's Jump Ahead a little bit we all know about the God Emperor Leto II Paul's son who would undergo a several thousand years long transformation into the worm God emperor in order to save Humanity from a great threat now what many people Miss is that Paul also foresaw this threat and considered becoming the worm God Emperor himself and Doon Messiah when Paul lays Eyes Upon Duncan Idaho's clone he begins to have visions of a possible future involving a Gola of Duncan Idaho the book says old Visions surged around Paul would he have to choose that terrible way distorted time hinted at this Gola in That Hideous future would that way close in upon him no matter what he did now as you may know the god Emperor had Duncan Idaho made into a Gola over and over and over and over again for thousands of years Duncan is obviously a key component to the god Emperor's design and actually in Chapter House demon and Heretics of Dune the Benny Jesuit are trying to figure out why the god Emperor was so interested in Duck in Idaho and they begin to make goldless of him themselves but of course Paul was very very terrified of the idea of becoming the god Emperor because of what it entails you have to give up your Humanity thousands of years of loneliness with the weight of all mankind on your shoulders it's no wonder that Paul ultimately runs from this Prospect at the end of Dune Messiah leaving his son leito II to inherit that burden and take on this great enemy this great threat as the god emperor so now let's talk about this great threat now I've talked about this in multiple videos you can check out my video on Cruella Zack if you want me to go into significant detail about it basically later II and Paul the trades had foreseen a tremendous threat that would lead to the near destruction or complete destruction of all of humankind it's implied in God emperor of Dune that this threat would arrive from Human design specifically ixian design the ixians of course were technological innovators on the outskirts of the universe that constantly kind of pushed the limits of the butlerian Jihad it's implied that they were making machines that at the very least resembled the human mind that was to say they resembled Computing devices which is against one of the main tenets of the butler in Jihad Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind so we get hints in God in emperor of Dune that the ixians are already kind of pushing it and then finally it is completely confirmed that the ixians are in fact defying the butlerian Jihad and the god Emperor is buying from them interestingly enough he's not stopping them he's letting it happen now why is he letting it happen because he can't simply remove the threat but he can prepare a Humanity for the threat and that's exactly what he's doing now let's talk about the nature of the threat the book says the seeking machines would be there the smell of blood and entrails the cowering humans in their Burrows aware only that they could not Escape while all the time the mechanical movement approached nearer and nearer louder louder everywhere she searched it would be the same No Escape anywhere he felt her life ebbing fight the darkness siona that was one thing the Atreides did they fought for life and now she was fighting for lives other than her own so a few things are revealed to us here the seeking machines this is clearly a reference to Hunter Seeker devices which have been appearing since the first dune book Hunter's secret devices are programmed with a specific prey in mind and they hunt and seek and kill the target the implication here is that something went quite wrong with a particular ixian Hunter Seeker model let's say this model got out of hand and it was a little too good at hunting and seeking humans it was perhaps so good so intelligent that it manifested a kind of prescience it was an oracle it could predict the future it could seek out humans no matter how well they hid and as dune Messiah mentions the only thing that can Shield something from an oracle is another Oracle so essentially if everyone had the power of the quiz atarak or at least some rudimentary form of crescience like the guild Navigators possess they could Shield themselves from these prescient Hunter Seeker devices but Leto also saw the danger in prescience and prescience wasn't something that he wanted to spread to all of humanity so instead he created a new Gene a no Gene a gene that gave anyone that possessed it the ability to hide from prescience they could not be seen by the prescient eye that is what siona was and as long as siona spread her genes throughout Humanity ultimately humans in the long run would be fine that's why leito is allowing the ixians to continue their work he says at the end of God emperor of Dune do not fear the ixians they can make the machines but they can no longer make arafel I know I was there we've discussed what rfl means in other videos it's essentially a reference to the Bible Psalm 97 verses 1 through 3 the Lord reineth let the Earth Rejoice let the multitude of Isles be glad thereof clowns and darkness are round about him righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne essentially leito is saying the ixians cannot make the final judge of humanity they cannot make God do not fear the ixians now as I said it's arguable that Paul set these things in motion but I think it also can be argued that something like the ixians going too far with their technology might have been inevitable but regardless Paul chose not to act to save Humanity he couldn't bear the weight the responsibility of the horrors that that were ahead of him and make no mistake even when later II becomes the god Emperor Humanity still suffers a lot and he says that Humanity will continue to suffer survival is painful lato has saved humanity and yet a very dark future still lies ahead of them and yet it is not the darkest possible future there's a darker future that was waiting for Humanity if lato had never stepped in in the book God emperor of Dune leito has this conversation with siona what makes you do what you do the question was well framed he said my need to save people what people my definition is much broader than that of anyone else even of the bini Jesuit who think they have defined what it is to be human I refer to the Eternal thread of all humankind by whatever definition you're trying to tell me her mouth became too dry for speaking she tried to accumulate saliva he saw the movements within her face mask her question was obvious though and he did not wait without me there would have been by now no people anywhere none whatsoever and the path to that Extinction was more hideous than your wildest imaginings it's not clear if this destruction of humanity would have been the result of an early version of the ixian rfl that later slowed down or if Humanity would have met its destruction by other means what is clear is that for all the tyranny of lato's rule all the Death that would come following his Reign during the famine times and the scattering for the sake of the golden path was actually necessary if survival is the goal of humanity Paul would have left Humanity to fend for itself in the chaos live or die I personally think that what later II did was pretty noble to save all of humanity to be the hero he had to become the villain the greatest villain that ever lived the duneside is always endlessly fascinating if you've enjoyed this video make sure you like this video And subscribe for more content and don't forget to check out my new podcast Cosmic Chronicles if you enjoy long form content Link in the description thanks so much for watching as I said you can check out our patreon if you would like to support this Channel or use the PayPal Link in the description thanks guys [Music]

Channel: Quinn's Ideas

Views: 665,215

Keywords: Sci Fi, Science Fiction, Books, Lore, Explained, Dune, God Emperor, Kralizec

Id: dxcLWBRl7Ag

Length: 13min 24sec (804 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 12 2023