DUNE Paul Atreides Explained: Full Dune Story, Character Origins, Biography, Powers And What Happens Next

Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show, I’m your host Paul aka the guy who’s been Dune, Du-ne your mom and in this video we’re breaking down everything you need to know about Paul Atreides.

Paul has quite a complicated backstory and though the character is pretty much portrayed early on as being a saviour, his legacy is actually far more complicated than that and he’s not the messiah figure that everyone thinks he is.

In this video, we’re gonna be going over it all but we need to drop a spoiler warning first as this will be covering the characters entire biography.

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With that out the way, thank you for clicking this, now let’s get into Paul Atreides.

Ok so in order to talk about Paul, we have to talk firstly about the Bene Gesserit. They’re very complicated characters and the religion is pretty as much out for power as much as the rest of the characters in DUNE are.

Dune is very much about the idea that following messianic figures can actually be somewhat foolish and the Bene has used the idea of prophecy as well as superstition in order for lots of people to follow them without question.

In the book, it’s explicitly stated that they use religion in order to control the masses however the tv and film adaptations tend to gloss over this and instead paint Paul out as basically being the chosen one. This is pretty much a lie though and as we learn he was very much manufactured through science experiments carried out the religious order.

Kwisatz Haderach Give The Dog A Bone

Now throughout the saga, we very much question whether Paul is actually the Kwisatz Haderach or if he simply fit that role and thus everyone kinda followed behind him.

It was said that the Kwisatz Hadarach would have incredible abilities but as we see throughout the saga this is very much brought on by Paul’s upbringing and the copious amounts of spice that he’d been subjected to.

It was a kwisatz hadarach give a dog a bone everyone’s spoiling No Way Home.

As we discover more about the Bene Gesserit we learn that for centuries they’d secretly performed selective breeding processes which basically narrowed down the bloodlines so that they could prop someone up as a new leader of the people in order to control them all.

The Gesserit believed that the daughter of the Atreides should marry the son of the house Harkonnen and that this would bring the two sides together and usher forth a supreme bloodline that would very much be seen as the chosen one.

However, Jessica went against this and she chose to have a son instead because that’s what Duke Leto wanted.

Thus Paul was born and he spent his early years on Caladan which is the ancestral home of the Atreides.

The Bene Gesserit were furious over this but they didn’t want to completely scrap the breeding processes that they’d gone through for centuries and thus allowed things to continue whilst they kept a close eye on Paul.

Paul was trained by his mother in the ways of the Bene Gesserit and his father also selected the best teachers from his ranks in order to instil knowledge within him. Now originally it was hoped by Leto that Paul would become a Mentat which are basically the human version of a computer.

In DUNE you might notice that the high ranking officials don’t really have any PCs or Apple Macs with them but what they do have is people who have black markings on their lower lips. These are very much extremely knowledgable people that are used as living computers in order advise and help the house leaders. However, it was hoped that Paul would go beyond this and that he’d basically be a leader with these capabilities which would make him a formidable threat.

Now on the other side of this, the Bene Gesserit wanted to see if Paul could indeed be the Kwisatz Haderach and thus they tested him with the Gom Jabbar. Paul was subjected to more pain than anyone ever had been prior to it and he passed which made the Bene start to believe that he could indeed be fulfilling their prophecy.

Paul had visions of the future and these prophetic powers would come to be very important to how events would play out.

Now during these years, The Emperor had grown fearful that the Atreides were gaining power and he worried that they could one day overthrow him and his family. Thus he withdrew the Harkonnen from the planet Arrakis and instead tasked the Atreides with mining spice from the planet. Paul’s father wanted somewhat of an alliance with the natives of the planet and this would massively go onto influence Paul as he grew older.

Upon arriving on the planet it wasn’t too long before he encountered spice for the first time and this massively altered his perception and it opened his mind to the world around him. It was predicted that the Kwisatz Haderach would be able to see all-time at once and this somewhat opened his ability to foresee things.

Now another thing that the TV shows and films don’t really get across is that the book very much feels like an ensemble piece in its early chapters. However over the years as people have tried to streamline the story so that it could be adapted for the screen a lot of this has been dropped by the wayside so that the sole focus can mainly be on Paul. If I had to draw up comparisons I’d basically say it’s what would happen if you tried to adapt Game Of Thrones into a two and a half hour movie. You’d probably put Jon Snow as the main character even though there are so many other people around him who have important plots as well.

Paul does experience a lot of the major events first hand though so I can see why he’s very much always getting put forward as the main main character.

Now after an assassination attempt on him failed, The Bene Gesserit leader Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam went to Baron Harkonnen and said that in the upcoming planned ambush that Paul and his mother should be spared.

The Baron agreed to this and along with the Emporers forces, known as the Sadarkar, they launched an attack on Arrakis. The Baron had captured the wife of Doctor Yuey and the Baron blackmailed him into lowering the shields on the planet and also into betraying Duke Leto.

He did this but he gave the Duke a fake tooth that would release poisonous gas when bitten into.

With this, the Duke managed to kill a vast number of the Baron’s forces but the Baron himself was able to escape because of his shield and levitation technology.

Now whilst this was going on, Paul and his mother were captured by the Baron’s forces and they were flown out into the Desert to be abandoned there to the elements. This would still keep up the Baron’s word but it would very much banish them to a fate that would kill them pretty quickly.

However, Paul and his mother were able to escape and overpower the Baron’s forces and they flew out into the Desert before crash landing.

Now it’s during this that Paul encounters more spice and he starts to become aware of his origins and what he was bred for. It’s also during this that he has visions of living amongst the Freman and it very much puts him on a path to joining their forces.

Depending on what you watch or read depends on what happens next but it is important to bear in mind that Duncan Idaho and Dr Liet Kynes are killed whilst Gurney ends up wandering out into the desert and joining another tribe.

Paul also learns that his mother is pregnant and the child becomes very important as we get further into the story.

Paul and Jessica come across the Freman and after fighting to the death with a member called Jammis, he and his mother are accepted into the group.

In the source material the Freman gain a lot of respect for Paul because he cries after killing Jammis. Because moisture and water is so sought after in the desert they realise how much Jammis’ death means to him and it’s not too long before they start to follow him.

Now it’s at this point that he meets the woman of his dreams Chani but Paul’s love life is very complicated in the book. If the Freman kill another member of the tribe then they have to look after that person’s family and he also has to take responsibility for Jammis’ wife and kids.

Add to this the wife he ends up getting later on and it all gets a bit complicated.

Family Connections

Now Chani in the books is actually the daughter of Liet Kynes and we also discover that Baron Harkonnen is Jessica’s father making Paul his grandson.

He and his mother start to teach the Fremen a fighting technique known as the weirding way which allows them to use sound as a weapon. They also discover that Liet Kynes had found a way to create reservoirs underground and we witness the Freman’s great supply of water. Paul ends up adopting the named Muad’dib which is a desert mouse and Jessica undergoes a ritual to become a Reverand mother.

This involves drinking the water of life which vastly opens up someones conscious and because she’s pregnant her baby ends up getting these powers too. The child, named Alia is pre-born and she ages extremely fast and carries a high level of intelligence.

In the desert, Paul starts to slowly build the Freman up as a formidable force and word of this reaches the Emporer and Baron Harkonnen. His nephew Raban has been put in charge of spice mining on Arrakis but the Freman constantly destroy the operations and this leads to the house having a lot of issues. Paul and The Freman realise that if one has the power to destroy the spice then they are the ones who control it and they carry out several raids.

During this Paul comes across Gurney which is hilarious in the 1984 version as he just kinda stumbles across Patrick Stewart in the desert. Stewart has a bald mullet and they just are like ‘Woah bro long time no see.’

Now Gurney is still torn up about the betrayal and he actually believes Jessica to be the one who was behind it. Gurney attacks her but he’s stopped by Paul who then worries that because he didn’t foresee it that his abilities aren’t strong enough.

Paul too drinks the water of life and because it’s only meant to be for women he’s knocked out for about a month. However, when he awakens he’s able to see across all time and space and he truly becomes the Kwisatz Haderach.

Sensing that the Emporer and Baron are coming to Arrakis to crush the Fremen Rebels Paul starts to train his army even harder and he learns how to ride on the back of sandworms. The Barron’s forces launch an attack and they capture Alia and take her to both the Emporer and Harkonnens.

Paul and The Fremen then storm the capital and during this ambush, Alia kills the Baron. Paul comes face to face with the Emporer and he fights the Baron’s nephew Feyd who’s played by Sting in the 1984 film. Someone call the police because he’s doing Blue Steel to an illegal extent throughout the whole movie.

Now Paul kills him and he forces the Emporer to abdicate the throne. The Emporer makes him promise that he will marry his daughter Princess Irulan and this kinda adds to the complicated love triangle between Paul, Chani and her.

From this point on Paul becomes the Emporer and he makes Arrakis the capital of the universe.

That’s pretty much the end of the first book and we go into Dune Messiah for the next part of his story.

Now, this was combined with the following book Children of Dune in order to make the Sci-fi mini-series of the same name. We will be using clips from that but all the characters look vastly different so yeah…try to keep up.

Messiah itself takes place roughly 12 years after Dune and we learn that Paul’s forces have all gone on crusades throughout the galaxy. Carrying out a Jihad they’ve exterminated 61 billion people and Paul is pretty much powerless to control the religious extremists that are destroying the universe.

He’s now fully going under the name Muadib and there are lots of unintentionally funny moments in Children of Dune where people cry out MUAAADDDIIIB in anger.

This is what I was talking about with Paul not really being all that heroic and though he’s not carrying out the bad acts himself, many people do so in his name.

Now because of this the Bene Gesserit, Spacing Guild and Princess Irulan all plan to dethrone Paul and they bring in a clone of Duncan Idaho which is known as a Gola. Upon a trigger word being said this will activate and kill Paul but the backstabbing don’t stop there.

There are also rebel groups within the Fremen who despise what Paul has done to Arrakis as he’s slowly started to Terraform the planet and bring water and rivers to it. They see this as destroying their way of life and they conspire to kill him.

Now whilst all going on The Princess attempts to have a child with Paul but he refuses to touch her. He doesn’t want to have one with Chani either as he forsees that it will bring about her death.

Paul is almost killed when an enemy sets off a bomb known as a stone burner which completely blinds him upon looking at it. However, because of his clairvoyance, he’s still able to see and he has a lot of visions about his future children and those who wish to wrong him.

He also starts to see things through Chani’s eyes and this helps him to get around.

Paul ends up getting Chani pregnant and she gives birth to two twins that were pre-born like Alia. We learn that the Princess has been slowly poisoning Chani and this finally takes its toll on her as she gives birth. Paul utters the words ‘ she’s gone’ which triggers Duncan into activating but upon remembering his entire life he decides to go against his programming and he helps Paul instead. An assassin attempts to kill him but using the sight of his children he’s able to murder them instead.

Now according to Freman tradition, if someone is blind then they must wander into the desert in order to no longer be a burden to the people. This is because the Freman would simply be wasting water keeping them alive and they see the person as being a drag on society which…is a nice message I suppose.

Anyway due to his legacy being secured with his children Paul wanders into the desert whilst Alia becomes the new ruler of the Empire.

Now, this takes us into Children Of Dune in which we follow Paul’s kids Leto the second and Ghanima.

Children of Dune

After another big-time jump, we join them as Teenagers and learn that Duncan has now married Alia.

Alia is pretty much continuing Pauls somewhat tyrannical reign and due to being pre-born, she has strong psychic abilities.

This enables her to possess all the memories of her ancestors which actually manifests the ghost of the Baron who constantly haunts her. She’s pretty messed up due to constantly being bombarded with things from the past and it massively affects her personality.

Now the capital is constantly visited by a mysterious Preacher figure who talks about how bad the Muad’Dib rule was and how it has damned them all.

Normally Alia would kill this man however there are rumours that it might be Paul and dun dun dun…turns out that it actually is him.

Lady Jessica returns to the planet and here she too sees the preacher and starts to realise just how dangerous that Jessica is.

Whilst all this is going on Leto and Ghanima escape into the desert after an assassination attempt is made on them.

Now whilst there’s fall out in the capital Leto the second ends up bonding with baby Sandworms and this gives him superhuman speed and invulnerability. He pretty much becomes the next stage of evolution and that’s not an X-men pun because James McAvoy is playing him.

Out in the desert, he encounters his father which is where the truth is revealed. Leto very much becomes another Messiah figure and the pair have visions that he can lead humanity on a Golden Path of transcendence.

Paul warns against this as he saw the same thing but Leto believes that doing this is the only way to avoid the extinction of humanity.

Now it’s during this time that Jessica arranges a marriage for Ghanima. This is to a character called Farad’n who I’ll be here all day talking about and I kinda wanna remain on Paul for the meantime.

It’s a grand event and all of the Freman including Stilgars forces swarm the capital on the back of giant sandworms in order to bring an end to Alias reign. Paul arrives and gives a final speech that shuts down the religion that worships him and it also denounces his sister. During this Paul is stabbed in the back by a local Freman man and he dies at the scene in Leto’s arms.

His last words are ‘it’s in your hands now, son’ and he passes away.

Alia returns to her throne and Leto arrives with his sister. Leto ends up denouncing her and he states that he’s there to seize the throne. He defeats her forces and takes her on, easily besting her in the process.

This sends her brain into overdrive and she’s possessed by the Baron for a moment which takes a heavy toll on her. She begs for help and Leto then gives her a knife and says help yourself.

It’s really dark and though she initially goes to stab Leto she ends up turning the blade on herself. Alia’s last words are ‘I want my brother’ and she passes away in her mother’s arms.

Leto goes to Stilgar and he gives him not only Alia’s water but also the ring that was passed down through the Atreides family. He says it’s a symbol that will remind them of Mua’dib and to remind them that all humans make mistakes and that all leaders are human.

It very much shuts down the idea of the messiah and the dangers that can come from following a figure like this, especially because humans aren’t all-knowing.

Leto disappears into the desert running at supersonic speed and Ghanima prophesies that he will return to her and ask that she help him die to spare everyone.

From this point onwards Ghanima takes the throne and though she doesn’t marry Farad’n she says that one day they may fall in love. Much in the same way that Lady Jessica was never Leto the firsts wife, she doesnt think that they should wed either.

Now that’s basically the life and death of Paul Atreides, The Mua’dib and Christ-like figure of Dune’s story.

I really hope you enjoyed the video and I tried to keep things as simple as possible but let us know below what your favourite aspect of the character is.

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With that out the way thank you for sitting through the video, I’ve been Paul and I’ll see you next time. Take care, Peace