Dune: Part Two, starring Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, and a host of other stars, has become a huge hit – crossing $80 million in only its first weekend at the box office. It’s no surprise that people love the second installment in Denis Villenueve’s adaptation of the 1965 Frank Herbert novel given how much we all loved the first one. But Paul Atredies’ story is a lot darker than most Chosen One characters we see get the big screen treatment. So how has Paul changed in part two, and what does that mean for what’s to come in his story? (And how might audience reactions cause a bit of a problem?) Let’s dive in!
Embracing the Darkness
The Dune films split Paul’s coming-of-age story from the book into two parts (check out our previous video to find out why.) Part one saw him seeking to follow in the footsteps of his noble father, Duke Leto.
“Mining spice, keeping the Fremen in their place? We’d be no better than the Harkonnen.” “No, by making an alliance with the Fremen.”
We began to see the extent of his powers, like his adeptness at fighting, ability to withstand great pain, and his ability to use The Voice to compel those around him. But even in that first installment, we began to see a possibility of darkness taking hold of Paul – he sees visions of the future, but only takes the violent, terrifying visions that also show him as being all powerful as the ‘true’ future that he ‘must’ follow.
“Do you often dream things that happen, just as you dreamed them?”
Paul of Part 1 was more passive – he acts as if he can’t change the future, when in reality he is deliberately moving toward this future where he is the one in complete control. When his father is murdered, he becomes consumed with desire for revenge above all else. He begins to accept that that violent vision of the future he sees is in fact his way to enact that revenge.
“The Fremen speak of the Lisan al-Gaib.” “Careful.” “The voice from the outer world who will lead them to paradise.”
The ending of part one could almost feel a bit uplifting or hopeful, like a hero finally coming into his own – but as we begin to see in part two (and are even more aware of if you’ve read the books), Dune is not the story of a hero.
“A war in my name! Everyone’s shouting my name!”
In Part Two, the truth begins to become more clear – Paul is obviously special, but not necessarily in a good way. That’s not to say that he’s an inherently bad person – his inner kindness is obvious in both films, and in two we get to see it even more on an interpersonal level as his relationship with Chani blossoms – but Dune is about the nature of choice, and Paul’s story arcs towards a very bad choice. He has so many skills and innate powers, and is in fact the result of centuries worth of noble blood line cross breeding by the Bene Gesserit (we’ll dig more into that in a minute.) But all of this doesn’t on its own make him good or noble – he has to choose if he’ll use them for good or evil. And at the end of Part One, it does seem like he’s made the choice to go towards the good side – instead of seeking to oppress the Fremen, like his father he joins with them. But, as we come to find out, this wasn’t a choice made out of kindness at all – it was just a means to an end, a way for him to get closer to his goals of revenge and total power.
“My road leads into the desert. I can see it.”
We see his growing power in part two, like his ability to command the giant sandworm and surviving the Water of Life and gaining the ability to see the past and future. And he does attempt to push back against this destiny others (especially his mother) are attempting to foist onto him, even saying that he’s “no messiah.” But actions speak louder than words, and we can see through what he does and the choices he makes that he is very intent on making sure this vision he has of the future where he’s in control comes to pass, even if it means billions of lives will be lost along the way. At the end of Part Two, his win in the duel against Feyd-Rautha isn’t the end but instead the beginning of something much worse. The Great Houses make it clear that they do not accept him ascending to become the leader of the known universe, and so he orders the Fremen to attack – finally igniting that prophesied Holy War of his visions. He also makes it clear that he cares about revenge above all else when he murders the Baron. Villeneuve said, “This hunger for revenge that resides in Paul resurfaces and gives him the strength for this final attack, knowing it will open the door to chaos and ultimate catastrophe. There will be a holy war fought in his name. It’s a match into a gasoline tank, a very high price to pay for this revenge.”
“I see a holy war spreading across the universe like unquenchable fire, a warrior religion that waves the Atreides banner in my father’s name.”
Chani has a very important part to play in Paul’s story. In Part One, she was mostly a vision he saw; he knew that she was important for some reason because of that, and so when they finally met near the end, he knew he needed to get close to her. In Part Two, we see that she isn’t on board with the whole idea that he’s a prophet – or that the Fremen need some messiah to save them at all. But they grow closer as she teaches him the way of the Fremen, and she eventually comes to respect him. And it’s through Paul’s choice in his treatment of Chani that we can really see that she was right not to trust him – while he tells her he loves her, he chooses to agree to marry Princess Irulan when she offers herself to him if he’ll spare her father’s life. Paul is more interested in becoming part of a galactic power couple and ruling the universe than he is in being with Chani, because his priority has always been himself and his own arc toward power.
The Chosen One, But Not A Hero
Paul’s story across the books, and as we begin to see in these two films, flips the ‘chosen one’ trope we’re used to seeing in a main character.
“Your grandfather said, a great man doesn’t seek to lead. He’s called to it, and he answers.”
Most ‘Chosen One’ characters use their great powers in a quest to help those around them and save the world, but Paul goes in the other direction: as his power grows, he only becomes more and more concerned with himself and attaining even more power. His story is loosely inspired by the Greek myth of Atreus (Atreides is actually a patronymic form of his name.) In the Greek myth, he and his twin brother were exiled for killing their half-brother in their quest for the throne. They continued to battle for power, eventually leading to Atreus cooking his brother’s sons and feeding them to him in an attempt to get him exiled. Atreus ends up getting murdered by his adopted son who has a dark story of his own) and his two biological sons went on to cause the Trojan War.
Paul wasn’t actually even meant to be the chosen one – as we learn, the Bene Gesserit had planned for it to be Jessica’s grandchild, but then she had a son instead of a daughter and threw everything off course. And because he neatly fits into the religious lore already in place when he arrives on Arrakis, he is accepted as the messiah immediately by many without any real proof. Instead of using this great power to do good, he instead decides to use it for his own advantage. He shows the problem with holding ‘special’ people up as perfect idols who will single handedly save us – putting all of our eggs in their basket can really screw us over big time. His story highlights the dangers of blindly following charismatic leaders – they can lead to the light, but also into extreme darkness if we’re not careful. And if we don’t stop them before it’s too late, their quest for complete control can destroy us all.
“You were the chosen one! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them! Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!“ Revenge of the Sith
Being split into parts allows the films to slowly show his descent into darkness, giving up more and more of his humanity in his quest for power each time. This is effective in helping us see the how and why of his turn – like in the books, we have more time to come to understand his choices, instead of having to feel like we’re speed running his entire arc in one film. This helps his change feel less out of the blue or forced, like we’ve seen with some other turns towards evil on screen… And having us start out rooting for him only to come to see that he’s actually a huge problem could really get people to think about their own connection to and reverence for idols in new ways. But… there’s also the concern that audiences won’t think about things that deeply, and will just continue to assume that because he’s the main character, he must be ‘correct’ and we’re supposed to be on his side, as has become a bit of a problem in recent years. Take the percentage of people who don’t realize that Homelander is clearly meant to be a bad guy, for example. Some audiences see an all-powerful character doing whatever they want and being in control as always a positive, even when it harms everyone around them. So there is a concern that even if it is made extremely clear that Paul is not a hero, some will still latch onto him as such just because he’s the protagonist and played by a movie star.
But Paul was always very explicitly meant to be a cautionary tale; Villeneuve said, “Frank Herbert was very concerned that people saw ‘Dune’ as a celebration of revenge and of Paul Atreides as a great leader. He wanted ‘Dune’ to be a warning against charismatic leaders and messianic figures. Paul is not the hero, but the antihero.” And this is why the choice to have Part Two end on Chani’s rebuking of him is so important. She’s the only one left with her moral compass still intact, so the fact that she refuses to bow to him and leave makes it clear that her hope for him being able to overcome the darker part of his nature is gone. He is not anyone’s hero.
CONCLUSION
Dune: Part Two is a great exploration of the beginning of a could-be hero choosing to go the other way and instead seek out power only for themselves. It will be interesting to see how they choose to play out Paul’s story over more films – Villeneuve is allegedly already working on a script for the third installment, and though he says it will be his last at the helm, if that film is as successful as the first two there will surely be more to come to cover the rest of the books. It will also be interesting to see other narrative threads come to life on screen – we got a sneak peak of Anya Taylor-Joy as the grown version of Paul’s in utero baby sister, and now that the movies have made Chani more of an active player in the narrative, we’re excited to see what her character does in the next films. There is still so much left to explore in the world of Dune, and we can’t wait to see how it’s all brought to life!