Dune

[Spike]

54 minutes ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

Yeah as a book reader that was a HUGE failure of the film

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Paul's mom was supposed to birth a daughter, but for 2 reasons she had a son. 1, Leto wanted one, and she loved him more than her role permits, and 2, she felt how close the Bene Gesserit were to the kwisatz haderach, and she hoped to be the mother. 

That daughter was supposed to bang Fayd, and birth the kwisatz haderach.

As Spike said, they're supposed to be near equals, certainly in terms of potential destiny, but other than a throwaway scene where we see Feyd will undergo the Gom Jabbar, it's not touched on in any way. Feyd is also supposed to be a messiah figure on Arakkis, as the plan is for Rabban to juice the planet for spice to a brutal degree, with max oppression, then for Feyd to take over and the people will love him for lifting the boot of Rabbans oppression, which is a plot established in the first book. He should have been in the first film.

 

In general the relationship between Leto and Jessica is very undeveloped, they skip the whole traitor subplot, they glance over the fact that Bene Gesserit's have supreme control of their physiology to the point of controlling their own fertility cycles. It's such a dense book with nearly every scene being very important to the world building, characters, and plot; but some of it just doesn't translate to film. I do think they cut some great scenes like the banquet scene, the nobility of Arrakis just throwing water on the ground upon entering a building.   I do think the gom jabbar scene with Feyd is actually a really smart addition to the story, I don't think it happened in the book, it definitely gives legitimacy to Feyd's potential. The Harkonnens look cool and so does Geidi Prime but it's kinda awkward that they have such a drastic appearance change but no other humans do. Reducing the importance and changing the character of Dr Kynes as a mistake, I had the impression of Kynes being an Imperial judge that went native, but kept the later secret, as far as everyone knew they were just a liason to the fremen, not actually an active part of their society. i don't give a fuck they changed Kynes gender and appearance though, but I dislike how they aren't Chani's aunt/uncle; on the same token I don't like they didn't do the time skip with Chani/Paul's child being the reason for his venture south.  I don't like what they did with Dr Yueh, who I feel is a very compelling character in teh book, and I also strongly dislike the absence of mentats and what they did with Pieter and Thufir. I do like how they made Duncan Idaho a badass invincible swordsman, that also gives legitimacy to the gholas.

As an adaption it is a mixed bag, I do think they did a pretty good job, I have a lot of issues but not to the point of ruining the film. They are however better films than they are adaptions really.