Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show, I’m your host Paul, and in this video, we’re breaking down Dune Prophecy.
Hot off the heels of our 2-hour breakdown on Part 1 and 2, I’m diving back into the Dune-iverse with this new teaser. There’s a lot going on with it, and in this video, we’re going to be going through the hidden details, things you missed, and genuinely just explaining the story and characters.
It’s basically about the origin of the Spice Girls.
Please hit the thumbs up if you enjoy it and make sure you subscribe for videos on the series when it drops. With that out of the way, thank you for clicking this, now let’s get into Dune Prophecy.
DUNE PROPHECY TRAILER BREAKDOWN
The trailer begins with us in space, travelling through a gas cloud that appears to be an eye. Eyes, of course, represent sight, and sight is something laced throughout the Dune saga. Prescience is the ability to see the future, which is something that Paul possesses. Beyond that, though, the Bene Gesserit are attempting to look to the future and create the Kwisatz Haderach. This will be known as the supreme being who will rule over all.
Now they’ll do this through a number of ways, with them first mating the bloodlines of key houses. Over generations, they’ll create a family tree in which certain members of certain houses will mate. These will then have children that mate with others, and over time, it’ll refine the children.
Eventually, this will lead to the Kwisatz Haderach, which was believed to be Jessica’s grandchild. The original plan was for her to have a daughter who would then mate with Feyd Rautha. However, she decided to have a son, and thus their well-laid plans were put to an end. Bene Gesserit can control the gender of their children, and this is how they can select the bloodlines themselves. Often, they’ll put themselves forth as a mother and will reproduce with certain people. For example, Margot Fenring had sex with Feyd to secure the Harkonnen bloodline, and Jessica was born through this as well. I know some people see the books by Brian Herbert as not being canon, but I actually like them. Well, the one I read anyway. Finished House Of Atreides the other night, and that explains Jessica’s conception. Helen Mohiam went to the Baron and demanded they bear a child. She was born but considered too weak, and thus Helen was made to go back. This time, though, the Baron wanted to be sadistic, and he ended up paralysing her with the help of Piter De Vries. Upon forcing himself on her, she released a toxin from her body that eventually led to his extreme weight gain.
So it’s that sort of system, and this show will explore the origins of the Bene Gesserit. Why they’re so desperate for this plan to be carried out is because they aren’t allowed to rule. Women in general cannot sit on the throne, and at best, they’re wives, concubines, or advisors and council. Planting their pawn on the throne, though, will mean that they rule over all, and ultimately, this is a grand power play.
As we hear, this is 10,000 years before the birth of Paul Atreides. That sets this at 191 AG. I think. The first Dune movie is set 10,191 AG, so yeah… roughly then. Now AG stands for After Guild, which means after the Spacing Guild was formed. The Spacing Guild are capable of travelling… well, space, and they consume spice in order to do this. Time and space are warped through wormholes, which this eye effect also seems to solidify.
WHEN IS DUNE PROPHECY SET?
With the timeline, we have about 34,000 years of history, with there being both BG and AG, much in the same way we have BC and AD.
Before this time, we have things like the Butlerian Jihad, which was basically a war against machines, and the age of 10,000 Emperors. The first Mentat order formation was 1234 AG, with the first Reverend Mother in 6600 AG. However, they might change things up for the show as there’s so much stuff that they really could tap into.
Now from this eye, we then transition into what I think is a bowl of water. Water is sacred on Arrakis, though at this time I believe it was a lush green paradise. Might not be, because if they have spice, then it’s been harvested extensively, but yeah… bit you’ve learned there anyway, mate. Comments are where you can call me a mug.
The Bene are centred around this praying, and this idea of circles is carried on in the next shot when we see a ship landing.
The Bene can be seen in a circle, and we hear Valya Harkonnen talking about the founding of the Sisterhood. Now, you kids at home, you might be wondering how she’s able to narrate things about Paul even though she was alive generations before he was born.
Well, you see kids, this all ties into the genetic memories that the characters tap into. Upon consuming the water of life, someone is able to tap into the genetic memory of their bloodline and see all of their ancestors. This helps them plan with strategies, and at points, they can even communicate with them. Alia ends up talking with one of her ancestors quite a lot, and eventually, this leads to a lot of trouble. Leto II also constantly switches personalities in God Emperor of Dune, with him even going back to the ancient Romans in his bloodline.
So I believe in order to tie this into the main films, that we will see a character from them at some point tapping into their genetic memory. Valya will then explain the creation of the Sisterhood, and this could then segue into the show. Just a theory time there, but I think that would be a good way to tie it all together.
Anyway, this ship could potentially be landing in order to join the funeral procession that we see being carried out. A body is shifted along, and when it’s taken to the top, we can see the two pillars from when the ship landed. As we hear, the Bene have been assigned to the great houses, and we see this when we meet the Emperor.
Played by Mark Strong, this is Emperor Javicco Corrino. His descendant Shaddam was who we met in Dune Part 2, and we have someone Christopher Walken towards him.
I believe this is Travis Fimmel, who is played by Desmond Hart.
Described as “a charismatic soldier with an enigmatic past, who seeks to gain the Emperor’s trust at the expense of the Sisterhood.”
Now, beside the Emperor, we can catch one of the Bene, and over the top of this, the voice-over says they’re there to help sift truth from lies.
This likely means this figure is a Truthsayer, aka a human lie detector. In the Dune-iverse, Truthsayers are employed to make sure that people who come before the houses are being truthful, and this is why we often see the Bene with Emperors. You cut to Part 2, and at the end, when Shaddam questioned the Baron… that’s why one Helen Mohiam was there.
Now, this is also why in Part 1, the Baron didn’t just out and out kill Jessica and Paul. He said he wouldn’t touch them, and thus they were led to the desert. I know at the time, people thought that was pretty stupid, but doing this meant he could pass a Truthsayer.
We then see her use what I believe is the voice and then tap her fingers together. This is known as battle language, and it’s basically signing so that people can communicate with each other silently. It was often used during the fog of war, but with Jocanno ushering in an age of peace, it’s now elevated to the houses.
Now the Bene is also getting it on with the Emperor, I believe, which we see in the next moment.
However, if we cut to 40 seconds, we can see that the guy has a wife. This is Empress Natalya, who is described as being a formidable royal that has united thousands of worlds with her marriage to the Emperor.
So I think this shot might be the Bene securing the bloodline, but let me know what you think.
Either way, it’s a sexy sexy little scene in the next shot, and then we get more eye imagery.
Now, after this eye, we see Valya at the centre, who is looking ahead and planning things out. Now, though she’s the ancestor of Vladimir Harkonnen, it’s also important to bear in mind that she’s Paul’s ancestor as well.
She talks about how they’re trying to get a sister on the throne, which ties into this whole power play. This will be Princess Ynez, who is described as an independent young princess dealing with the pressures of her responsibility as heir to the Golden Lion Throne.
In case you don’t know, the Golden Lion is the Corrinos sigil.
Now, we see these pressures playing out as her marriage ceremony plays in the trailer. The guy she’s marrying is super young, and he even has to stand on a box to be level with her.
There are clearly some Bene that don’t want to go through with it, and they believe that it’s playing god. However, power is what matters here, and thus things go ahead.
We then get some sparring shots involving shields and can catch the actor Chris Mason. He’s playing Keiran Atreides, with the character being a swordmaster. It says he forms an unexpected connection to a royal family member, which disrupts things, and my guess is he gets too close to Ynez.
HOW DOES DUNE PROPHECY CONNECT TO THE FILMS?
This scene is also, of course, riffing off the one from the first film visually, with the lighting and so on being similar to that.
We then get some epic HBO shots, mate, and they bloody, they bloody spent money here. Amongst this, you can catch a fire burning, and I believe this is the formation of the Bene in ancient times. There are men there though, so who knows, but yeah, I think this might be a flashback.
We also see a frozen wasteland and the beginning of the Sardaukar forces. They’re as deadly as usual, with them being trained on a prison planet to be the best of the best of the best, sir. Lastly, we have a woman writhing and shooting up, and it’s possible that this may be the water of life ceremony. She writhes kinda similar to Jessica, and yeah, maybe they’re doing that.
However, like we said before, the first Reverend Mother was 6600 AG. So this could instead be a Bene giving birth to a child. I think it’s more likely to be that, and we close out with Valya sitting on a throne. Obviously, this carries a lot of symbolism to it, and it shows the true extent of what she wants. This is the same throne that the Emperor sat on in the beginning, and it perfectly sums up what the plans are.
Anyway, that’s everything I noticed in the trailer, and hopefully, this has helped to clear things up. If it has, then please smash the thumbs up, and don’t forget to leave your comments below.
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