#dune lore

She's perfect

Some things have been retcon'd over the decades, but the majority of its contents are still canon

It's packed w a fuckton of cool info— Great Houses, bloodlines, the "schools" (Suk, B.G., etc,) Imperium planets, plant life, contraceptive methods....

Did y'all know male Fremen are taught to separate orgasms from ejaculation as a means of birth control??

When they hit puberty, male Fremen are given detailed instruction on this technique, and they are expected to master it.

And they're not considered "men" (adults) until they have honed this skill— regardless of any other achievements he may have

Those who fail to master it, are considered a danger to themselves and others.

Why? Bc ejaculation w/o intent to breed is a waste of their body's precious water !!

Not only does wasting ones water lower chances of survival, but one also inevitably has to consume more water to make up for the loss, using more water

water is like gold, and being wasteful w the collective water of the tribe would be frowned upon, if not punishable. Maybe not as serious as stealing water 👀 Jacurutu

These men generally remain celibate by choice

But they're also treated as romantic pariahs

These not men are considered a constant risk to woman of the sketch

Bc having sex w one of these men could result in accidentally catchin a nut (jsyk)

(especially poly relationships— yes it's canon along w the spice orgies )

Pregnancy slows women down in the later trimesters, with some becoming unable to travel at all.

This endangers her, and everyone in her tribe.

[abortifacients are frowned upon by Fremen, and just across the imperium in general; they're illegal on most planets. They would likely interact negatively w melange too]

Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk on Fremen Contraception practices!!

Disclaimer: I wrote this post as an enthusiast for Dune: Part Two (2024) and the ‘seductively sick’ portrayal of Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen. Any other thoughts or comments are welcomed and appreciated! TL;DR: The aesthetic choice of Feyd’s blackened teeth aligns well with the widespread custom in ancient Vietnam — a sign of beauty, maturity, and even brutality. Read more below. Original photos belong to their respective owners.

Teeth blackening in Dune: Part Two (2024) through the lens of Vietnamese culture

One thing that mesmerizes me about Feyd in the 2024 Dune movie is his blackened teeth. Not only does this provide an impressive physical appearance for Feyd, but it also reminds me of a long-lost fashionable custom in my home country.

Original inspiration. As far as I know, the film crew creatively invented this aesthetic for the movie from the inspiration of the black mamba (a type of venomous snake in sub-Saharan Africa) and images of geisha with black teeth. Similar to folklore and legends, other countries and ethnicities also dyed their teeth black with their local traditional recipes.

Vietnam-specific. Particularly in Vietnam, teeth blackening was once a popular aesthetic choice for both commoners and noblemen. As teeth blackening was a sign of elegance and decency, it was prevalent for Vietnamese women to adhere to this practice. This custom was deep-rooted as early as 400 BCE and grew so profound as an indicator of being ready for marriage or fierce on battlefields. Side note, Vietnamese people would not dye their teeth black until they came of age; it was indeed a statement of maturity.

A clash between the East and the West. It is also hilarious that until the early 20th century in Vietnam, white teeth were regarded as barbaric; only animals, savages, and evil spirits would have white teeth. During this time, one may casually make a sarcastic remark about pretty girls with white teeth such as “Oh you’ve got a pretty face but your teeth are as white as doggo.” On the contrary, in the eyes of the French colonists, the locals had impressive straight teeth but those were “as black as sewer pipes”.

Cannibalism? In some online discussions, internet users theorize that Feyd’s blackened teeth may indicate cannibalism. This fan theory is reasonable enough, because during World War I, to curb the abuse and bullying from the larger and stronger Moroccans and Senegalese mercenaries to the smaller Annamese counterparts, a French officer spread the rumor that black-toothed people were cannibals and could devour two legs in just an hour, terrifying the African mercenaries and bringing peace to the Annamese ones.

How to? So, without the privilege of wearing an Invisalign filled with black dye like Austin, how did the Vietnamese dye their teeth? In short, one must generally undergo the following stages to dye their teeth black: mouth sanitization, red dyeing, black dyeing, polishing, and maintenance, which on average took around three weeks. It was reported that the first teeth-dyeing session would rather be physically painful due to swelling mouth and lips, stinging sensation of the dyed teeth, and strict dietary restrictions (e.g., refraining from fatty and hot food, smoking).

On another side note, I don’t know exactly what the food that Feyd chewed in the early morning attacking Sietch Tabr and degrading Rabban, but to maintain the sheeny stylish black teeth, ancient and older Vietnamese often practiced betel nut chewing.

Dear Dune fan fic writers, please consider adding this long-lost social custom into your fics; multi-cultural representation would be greatly appreciated and respected.

In the world of Dune, one thing you may notice that really differs it from typical sci-fi stories in the same vein as it is that it lacks any computers, robots, or AI of any kind. This is because 10,000 years prior to the events of Dune (which is 10,000 years into the future for us), there was an event known as the Butlerian Jihad, in which humanity freed itself from being enslaved by thinking machines and outlawed them.

Back then, AI did exist in the world of Dune and it was quite widespread. Too widespread, in fact. Now you may think that the Butlerian Jihad was some Terminator-esque war where humans fought oppressive rogue sentient robots, but that is actually not the case. The problem here wasn't the thinking machines themselves, but instead it was humanity's overreliance on them. As a quote from the book said:

"Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them".

Humanity had become so reliant and dependent on AI that it caused them to stagnate and grow decadent, which allowed all the powerful people in control of the thinking machines to use them to enslave and keep humanity under their control. As Leto II said in God-Emperor of Dune:

What do such machines really do? They increase the number of things we can do without thinking. Things we do without thinking — there's the real danger.

So it was less like Terminator and more akin to something like Wall-E. This continued until a religious movement known as the Butlerian Jihad came along where humans came together, revolted and destroyed every thinking machines in every world. After the Jihad, a religious commandment was established which said:

Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.

Ever since then, humanity never relied on thinking machines again, and any attempt to build one was met with the punishment of death. Humanity had to rely on their own mind, which caused great advancements in human thinking, such as the founding of Mentats, which are human computers who were trained to do complex calculations in their mind. That's why we never see AI in Dune.

actually