The Backstory Of Dune's Bene Gesserit Explained

the benny jesuits are one of the most formidable powers in dune this mysterious sisterhood can see the future hypnotize others into submission and pull the strings of power with ease this is their entire story told across thousands of years multiple planets and a whole lot of spice author frank herbert imagined a world in which a particular group of powerful women tap into their powers of creation at the most primal level they don't just take control of themselves they take control of the universe and guide it down a very specific path while holding no legal power themselves through rigorous training and the use of the spice melange a substance which grants them tremendous degrees of prescience the benny gesserate develop incredible powers of observation control and focus with these skills they steer kings powerful families and the common man towards what they believe to be the ideal design for the universe a charitable reading of the benny jesserot's goals would say they're seeking stability but in truth what they are seeking is control over the galaxy's governmental and economic affairs the many jesuits insert their followers into powerful families by a marriage allowing them to control the movements of the government's key players the religious aspects of the benny jesuits emerge largely from their breeding program a messianic order they work in the hopes that their machinations will eventually lead to the creation of a chosen one called the quisats hatarak the sisters of this order contain great powers but know that there is a portion of prescience that they cannot reach what keeps them from this last little bit of power is their female nature thus they hope to direct bloodlines until such time as they can create a male capable of learning their powers of observation and control while the many jesuits mission is spread by teachers throughout the universe only adepts trained at the central school by the most talented leaders called reverend mothers are deemed fit to marry into the most critical bloodlines they are the best of the best and having won as one's wife is a major status symbol it's not all etiquette and marriage for the benny jesserit however they are also trained in the use of violence and outright mind control sisters of the benny jesurite are phenomenally skilled fighters trained in the weirding way of combat moreover they are able to control people with their voice and can shift the most minute processes in their own bodies to halt poisons and illnesses they can also become truth-sayers these incredibly perceptive women are a valuable commodity for galactic leaders as they can detect when a person is lying beyond making their trainees desirable to powerful families via unique skills the beni jesured also seed prophecies among people of the galaxy to ease the implementation of their own goals throughout the galactic frontier the benny jesserit missionary spreads stories of a coming champion who is remarkably similar to their own cuisates hatarak this way if the benny jessura's king of kings appears and the order attempts to overtake the galaxy the common people will see it as the fulfillment of their own religious beliefs one will come the voice from the outer world bringing the holy war the so-called missionary of protectable also provides cover to benny gesserat followers in the short term should an adept find themselves on a strange world or in hostile territory she can feel out the people around her to see if benny jesserood ideas have reached that place a benny jessup familiar with the myths that have been seated can cast herself as a prophet or religious teacher to ensure her own safety these myths are typically seated only on incredibly dangerous planets for the benny jesuit fear that even their advanced powers of perception and control would not be enough to stay safe after centuries of breeding and scheming the benny jesser would finally stand on the precipice of creating their messiah in doom they hope that the lady jessica atreides will bear a daughter with duke lido atreides who can then be married to a son of their rival family the harkonnens this final bit of stability and peace coupled with the noble bloodlines of the two families and the guidance of the benny jesuit sisters in both houses will create a son who can be made into the cuisat's cataract benny jesuit adapts extreme control over their bodily processes means that they can decide whether or not to supply x or y chromosomes to their unborn child but lady jessica goes against the ruling of her benny gesserat elders and opts to have a son with the duke she deeply loves him and he wants a male heir to continue the atreides bloodline this betrayal coupled with jessica's training of her young son creates a quissat's hatarak who is not under the sway of the benny jesseritt order in fact her son paul atreides is the worst possible outcome for the order he's a messianic figure with god-like powers born to someone viewed as a traitor after lady jessica and her son escape an assassination attempt by the harkonnen clan they were taken in by desert dwellers on the planet deracus colloquially known as dune jessica uses her knowledge of the missionary of protectiva to ingratiate herself with the planet's desert nomads known as fremen paul's incredible powers oppressions coupled with her knowledge of fremen culture and the production of the planet's all-important spice melange turned him into a revolutionary figure on the planet he leads a friendman in a revolt that threatens to the production of the galaxy's most important commodity the quisat's cataract shows himself to be entirely outside of any controls placed on him by the benny jesuit or the galactic empire rather than allow the spice to be destroyed the emperor steps down and paul atreides takes the throne his friend and warriors carry out a crusade across the galaxy and paul becomes the god-king of millions of worlds seeing their power diminish the benny jesuit conspired to kill the new emperor with the help of disgruntled veterans of his wars and the guild of space navigators a nuclear attack on the capital city leaves paul blind but his prescience allows him to function as if you can see permanent superstition around blind people and their harsh traditions surrounding those who might slow down a tribe turn paul into a simultaneously revered and reviled figure among his most about followers rather than allow these feelings to fester paul completes his own messianic myth by walking out into the desert in accordance with bremen tradition he appears to sacrifice himself to show that he is not above the rules that govern his people a regeneration of goodwill takes place which carries over to his son leto ii over the course of his 3 500 years as ruler lido ii brings to benny jesuit to heal by a tight-fisted control of the spice lido ii is quite a lot like the benny jesserot however he sees that humanity needs to be guided along the proper route he uses his complete control of the spice melange to force various orders and families to carry out his plans he also reinvigorates a benny jesuit's breeding program under his own watch after becoming a human sandworm hybrid lido ii follows a similar path to his father he allows himself to be killed seeing that it will propel humanity down the path he has chosen the many jesuits are very nearly wiped out by the all-seeing leto the second however myths and legends like the missionary of protectora have a funny way of sticking around for years the benny jesserood hold on is a diminished cult and are able to regain a bit of their power after lido ii allows himself to be assassinated leto the second's plan is to suppress the intermingling and easy travel of the potassia empire and his brother's own rule siloing off the many settled worlds in his imperium over thousands of years reconfigures humanity as distinct cultures thrive on far-flung worlds after his death these disparate cultures begin to interact and grow beyond the confines of the empire in a period called the scattering in forcing humanity to diversify and evolve lido ii hopes they'll become more able to face the approaching threats he's seen in his prescient visions he calls this way the golden path and he spoke of the golden path frightens me after leto's death the benny jessery gained access to the spice in a way they haven't had for thousands of years as the only presence left in the universe with a gift of prescience they can see the contours of the timeline that lido ii created thus they know that the tyrant emperor sent humanity on an intentional path but they have to decide among themselves whether to carry it forward the many chesser would face a complex choice in the wake of lido ii's death on the one hand they might reassume control over the flow of history as they had before paul atreides changed their plans forever on the other hand they might have to follow the ideas of the two men who did more damage to their order than any other force person or ruler in the galaxy they ultimately allow the golden path to carry on setting their powers on establishing a world on which they won't be dependent on noble families and royals for power though these times are entirely different for the benny chesser it's compared to their prior rule many things haven't changed for them chiefly the spice is still crucial to their way of life and is still only available on the desert planet of auracus the benny jesuit managed to regain enough composure to relocate their base of operations to a new world called chapter house knowing full well what can come if someone seizes control of the spice melange the reverend mothers hatch a plan to begin a spice operation on their new planet they are ultimately successful in bringing a sand worm to chapter house and begin the spice production cycle on a world they can control setting up spice production on their own planet might seem like a perfect outcome for the benny jesseret but things are not well outside their own planet a new matriarchal order of powerful adapts crops up in the far-flung parts of the galaxy and they are not at all reliant on the spice to obtain their powers the honored matres have earned a reputation as brutes destroying or enslaving nearly every planet they come across the soft power of the benny jesuit thus faces a true threat from a mystical order that can overpower them in multiple ways after several encounters with the leadership of the honored matres the reverend mothers realize that the matres are themselves fleeing a destructive force from outside the known universe they hatch a plan to ensure the survival of both orders the highest reverend mother tells her order to train a captured matre in the ways of the benny jesserit after she is fully assimilated into their program the benny jester at picker is a champion to fight the leader of the matress when the matress commander is defeated the benny jesserod take control of the enemy faction and christen it the new sisterhood while this is technically the end of the benny cessarid the order carries on in its new form to fight the revived threat of artificially intelligent computers thought to be expelled from the universe in the buttlery in jihad the ultimate fate of the benny jesurite at least as frank herbert intended is not known in the last full dune book he wrote chapter house dune the benny gesserate are consumed with considering the fate of their aeon's old order however herbert's final book never makes clear what exactly the future might hold it is clear that mysterious god-like figures who exist outside of the known universe are about to come into play nameless powerful entities appear at the very end of chapter house dune promising a massive conflict to come in two sequels reportedly drawn from herbert's notes on dune 7 his son brian herbert concludes the story of the benny jesseret the benny jesuits are able to restart their breeding program with a goal entirely opposite to their original one now they'll work to ensure that nothing like the cuisat cataract ever comes back into the universe check out one of our newest videos right here plus even more looper videos about your favorite movies are coming soon subscribe to our youtube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one [Music]

Channel: Looper

Views: 342,836

Keywords: looper, dune, dune movie, dune 2021, bene gesserit

Id: bWyvATXwvNc

Length: 10min 43sec (643 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 23 2021