I Just Watched DUNE And I Have Many Questions
Spoiler alert: Fear is the mind killer, there’s other killers too
Questions
The house of Atreides is a royal dynasty. But in this galaxy, they wisely breed with, rather than burn, witches.
Isn’t that refreshing? Other than that, they seem very human, downright American with all the weapons, betrayal, authoritarian worship, military fetish, and mistrust stuff.
Jessica is Bene Gesserit. It’s a religious order of women who snuck away from a clearly patriarchal hierarchy of relentless war and death. To show they are still pretty bad-ass, the weirding women test any dude who steps up with the Gom Jabbar. I think this could be a mispronunciation made by a Shai Halud (Dune worm) when a worm tooth was being removed from him under Novocain, and the name stuck.
The Lady Jessica is barely a decade older than her son, Paul Atreides. My husband assures me this just more “witchery” stuff and has nothing to do with ageism in Hollywood casting.
Jessica is also a concubine to Duke Leto Atreides, Paul’s daddy, but she’s invested enough woo woo stuff into her son already that he can almost move a glass of water.
