Heavy in Your Arms

So spoiler warning for the 2000 Dune miniseries here, and also the books as I think its where the plot comes from, but in the miniseries Chani and Paul have a son called Leto who is tragically killed in the attack of Sietch Tabr. Obviously this wasn't in the 2024 Dune part two adaption. But it did make me think, what if Chani is pregnant with Leto and that's what makes her come back?

Here's my reasoning for why she may be pregnant and just not know it yet. The first is the blue scarf. I saw some posts talking about how in the movie it represents her love for Paul, which is really beautiful and I love how they use the scarf in the movie to show her shifting feelings about Paul and what he is doing. But I also found out that in the books Fremen women would wear a blue scarf when they had newborn sons, making it also a symbol of motherhood. So maybe this blue scarf wasn't just a way of symbolising the love Chani had for Paul but also a little hint that she would become the mother of his son and that she is secretly pregnant.

Another reason, or hint, for her possibly being pregnant is that there is a moment in Dune part two where we see a shot of Alia in the womb and then it cuts to Paul and Chani's love scene. I could be reading in to it too much, but I also couldn't help but think maybe that was some symbolism, we are shown a baby in a womb and then Paul and Chani being intimate, maybe hinting that this was the moment their son was conceived. This is also the moment when Chani asks if he will always be with her. He replies as long as he breathes but sadly we know this isn't true because come the end of the film they are separated. But this line could again be to show that they will be together again and with it positioned as it is, with the clip of a in-utero baby and their intimacy, maybe that's a hint that what brings them back together is their child.

I could see a situation where Paul finds out Chani is pregnant and then tries to use that to convince her to come back to him. Whether he finds out through one of his dreams or because they run into each other some how and he can see she is pregnant, it would be understandable that he would want to be in his child's life and so he would try to talk her around. I could also see Jessica trying to manipulate Chani into returning if she is pregnant as Jessica would see the baby as an heir to the House Atreides.

But the interesting part of Paul's line in the movie about Chani coming back is that he says 'she'll come to understand' which makes it sound like at some point Chani is going to fully jump on the bandwagon with Paul and what he's doing. But again I keep wondering how they are going to write that considering how against his actions she is right now. But after watching the miniseries and seeing the plot with baby Leto I wonder if that'll be the trigger. So here's what I am thinking.

Chani is pregnant and she reluctantly returns to Paul, feeling a bit conflicted but wanting her child to know their father. Maybe the baby also makes Paul re-evaluate things and it seems like he is turning back to the right path and this makes Chani feel like maybe he isn't as lost as she first thought. Kind of like a bit of a fake out where you think oh maybe he's been saved from going down this dark path and he'll actually going to turn things around.

Then tragedy strikes and in some kind of attack, whether that's an assassination attempt that mirrors the attack on the Atreides in Dune part one, or an attack similar to the one on Sietch Tabr, their son is killed. In the miniseries its the death of their son that seems to push Paul into overthrowing the emperor, there is a moment when a messenger calls him crazy for threatening the spice fields and challenging the emperor and Paul screams at him that they killed his son, indicating that he was angry and grieving enough that he would have done pretty much anything to get revenge. In the miniseries though the plot line isn't that fleshed out, their son is barely in it and there are a couple of scenes showing their grief but the whole plot point kind of gets lost in the rest of the narrative. But one thing Villeneuve has done really well so far is taking characters and plot points that aren't overly present in the book/other adaptions and giving them a lot more depth and complexity that gets an emotional response out of the audience. I feel like this plot point of them losing their child, if written well, could be a really gut-wrenching and heartbreaking plot that has a big impact on the story and characters. I could see how losing their child could push both Paul and Chani down a path of no return. Chani's grief could be what makes her 'come to understand' that this holy war and waging battle against the houses is the 'only path' forward. It would make the war personal for her and I feel like it is something that is a big enough emotional event that it would cause her to change her way of thinking. I could also see this being the final straw for Paul and what causes him to go full dark side in his rage and grief. It would be a horrifying and tragic story to watch but I do think it would fit in with darker tone of Villeneuve's adaption.