milly macaulay

Because i'm real life, not every person you meet is going to have significance in your life. Not everyone is going to change that plot. Think about the teacher that takes over when Julian leaves. Or the farmer who claims to have seen Bunny. Or Richard's one night stand. Even the man stalking Henry and Bunny in Italy doesn't show up later.

And not only does this fill the gaps in the world, it absolutely helps build suspense. You never know if a character might have significance later, because there's simply no pattern to follow. It keeps you guessing.

oh 100% @hauntedmoors and paul stabs him back because he’s a boy and it’s all wrong, nothing is as it should be and everything is an echo of what could have been but never will be and everything is happening all at once in his head

The world of the Dune books does technically-as far as Paul and Leto II can be trusted- need a messiah to push and squeeze and prune humanity into a mass that can survive forever.

And what we learn is that to do that, to follow Any messiah figure, The Worst of Atrocities must be committed at unimaginable scale. Billions dead, suffering, relocated, imprisoned, whole peoples slaughtered, and then the whole empire forced into isolated planetoid islands. Thats the cost of a messiah. Is it worth it? Paul started the path and decided it wasn’t. Leto stuck with it and everyone was saved, but he sacrificed everything he had to fulfill the role.

If humanity’s only hope is a messiah, we’re fucked, the cost in human blood will be unimaginable. Any so called messiah would be a devil for leading people through that path. So, it’d be a lot better if everyone figured out how to get by without one instead, because looking for a messiah will lead to ruin.