To enjoy Dune: Prophecyyou don’t have to have watched Denis Villeneuve’s Dune or Dune: part twoor read Frank Herbert’s Dune novels (incl Sisterhood of Dunereleased in 2012 and written by Herbert’s son Brian Herbert with Kevin J. Anderson). Having some knowledge of the world is certainly a bonus, but the new HBO series – set 10,000 years before the birth of Paul Atreides – imbues the story with intrigue that will feel familiar to fans of other recent streaming adaptations of major genre works: fellow HBO shows Game of Thrones And House of the Dragonof course, but also Foundation And Wheel of Time.
But just because it’s familiar (power struggles in the ruling class; a shadowy religious order that puts its own interests first; a rugged stranger who suddenly comes from a faraway land to disrupt everything) doesn’t mean it’s not entertaining. And the fact that it is Dune gives almost everything a certain overlay of sci-fi gravitas. It’s a prequel, so we know where it will end up. But after 10,000 years, it might take an awfully long time for Paul to penetrate the universe, let alone climb a sandworm and approach his fate.
Another element that makes Dune: Prophecy easy to climb on board is that it’s not exactly subtle. As with the Villeneuve films, at the very beginning of the first episode we get an epigraph, ‘The Hidden Hand’ (it reads: ‘Victory is celebrated in the light, but won in the darkness’), followed by a exhibition. loaded opening flashback introducing Valya Harkonnen – a surname that makes us shudder – and background information Prophecy‘s main plot arc.
After humanity emerged victorious from the “thinking machine” war, the common understanding was that the Atreides family were heroes and the Harokonnens were cowards. But was that right – or was that just the result of who got to tell the story first?
To this end, Valya (played as a young woman by Jessica Barden, and in Prophecy‘s main timeline by Emily Watson) gives us another neon-bright theme to ponder (“Which holds more truth: history or prophecy?”) as we glimpse the Bene Gesserit formation led by Raquella ( Cathy Tyson), a war hero who becomes the group’s first Mother Superior.
Women who join the sisterhood learn to distinguish truth from lies, and are assigned to the great houses to assist (and influence) their leaders in making decisions. As we see, the enhanced powers that Lady Jessica taught Paul are in the Dune films – ‘the voice’, for example, which we apparently see used here for the first time – are soon incorporated into the training, thanks in no small part to Valya, who becomes the leader of the Sisterhood after Raquella dies.
But she does not ascend peacefully; Valya and her sister Tula (Emma Canning in her younger version; Olivia Williams in the main story) are major supporters of the Sisterhood’s eugenics program to “breed better leaders” – rulers the group can manipulate to prevent a doom-laden prophecy gets out of hand. become reality. Valya’s ultimate prevention plan is to maneuver an actual member of the Sisterhood onto the throne. Not everyone agrees, including Raquella’s own granddaughter Dune: Prophecy wastes no time in showing us how ruthless Valya can be when it comes to getting her way.
When Dune: ProphecyAs the main story begins (30 years later, 116 years after the robot war – but still 10,148 years before Paul), we meet the chess pieces Valya works with. Mark Strong plays Emperor Corrino, the weary and cautious leader of the Empire, whose biggest concerns revolve around the growing troubles on Arrakis (hey, we know that place!), where high-end spice mining operations are threatened by Fremen attacks or an uprising. from within, depending on who you believe. It takes about twenty minutes, but the line ‘the spice must flow’ indeed finds its way Dune: Prophecy.
Emperor Corrino also has to deal with/fear the wedding of his daughter Ynez (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina) with a lot, a lot of younger suitor – a match made for political reasons, but also so Inez can go to the Sisterhood homeworld after she gets married. There she will train for ten years before returning to her royal duties, eventually rising to power and becoming ‘one of us on the throne’, according to Valya’s plan to the letter.
Also in the mix: the outspoken Empress Natalya (Jodhi May); Inez’s flirty half-brother Constantine (Josh Heuston); and handsome royal swordmaster Keiran Atreides (Chris Mason), who sparks with Ynez as well did you notice his last name? You should definitely keep an eye on that man.
Another character whose goal is to stir things up is Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel), a soldier who rushes in from Arrakis claiming to be the sole survivor of a catastrophe in the spice mines, which he blames on insurgents , but whose motivations go far beyond “man with a remarkable survival story.” We don’t yet know what drives Desmond’s intentions, but we do know that he has some opinions about the level of control exerted by the Sisterhood, calling them “witches” – and he’s not afraid to tell the Emperor that he’s not so sure all the technology was the best course of action.
He also brings up a very good point about the fact that the profits from spices are claimed by the big houses and never shared with the common people who risk their lives to harvest it.
Desmond’s wedding crash brings tragedy: he causes the painful deaths of both the young groom-to-be and the Emperor’s personal truth-teller, who is killed after she returns to the Sisterhood homeworld. The purpose of her visit: Valya and Tula recount a horrific nightmare that seemingly revealed the nightmarish consequences that could result from Ynez’s impending marriage.
Valya may be all about prophecy, but she rejects the dream – and she doesn’t predict the chaos Desmond unleashes. It will be left to a future episode to determine her next move, now that her carefully orchestrated matchmaking has gone up in smoke.
While there was quite a bit of setting and character introduction in “The Hidden Hand,” and we also got some high-stakes marital drama (George RR Martin would approve), the episode’s most intriguing scenes were those set in the movie. Sisterhood’s training ground. “If you like arid landscapes and minimalism, you will be very happy,” Constantino jokes to Ynez about her future home, but while the images may be bleak, the characters are incredibly colorful: apart from the Harkonnen sisters, the place is mostly populated by acolytes with various problematic backgrounds and equally varied personalities, who will clearly come into play as the series progresses.
It’s no small feat to train yourself to become an almost super-powered being – as young Valya puts it, to “push the boundaries of what it means to be human” – and it’s really the Sisterhood that makes this show distinguishes. In a landscape of fantasy series that have followed similar storylines – and in a world where two blockbusters exist Dune movies have already established what will happen to Arrakis, the Harkonnens and Atreides, and that crazy royal breeding program – here’s the hope Dune: Prophecy spends most of his screen time on the secrets of science fiction wizardry.
New episodes of Dune: Prophecywhich will be released in six episodes, arrives on HBO and Max on Sunday.
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