Dune: Prophecy is a really sophisticated present. Certain, a part of that’s the truth that it has so many characters, plots, and counterplots commingling in every scene. However extra straightforwardly, it’s simply very tough to clarify to individuals whether or not or not I like this present. Put merely: Watching it seems like a chore, the line-to-line writing isn’t notably enjoyable, attention-grabbing, or partaking — and but, for each thudding character or boring line, the present has additionally launched a short strand of plot or Dune universe-building that I can’t assist however be fascinated with.
However the present can’t preserve working on the fumes of those concepts perpetually, and with the season 1 finale approaching, it appears to me that there are two paths ahead for Dune: Prophecy. And in becoming franchise vogue, solely a slender and sophisticated path will let it come out the opposite facet clear.
[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for Dune: Prophecy season 1 episode 5.]
Picture: HBO
The present’s future — or a minimum of our indications of what it may be — all hinge on Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel). The primary choice, and the one I worry the present is shifting towards, is the straightforward choice that Desmond Hart is the proto-Kwisatz Haderach; the primary glimpse the Bene Gesserit have of a male with supernatural skills and the direct, said inspiration for them to work towards a equally highly effective man that they’ll management as a substitute.
This model of the present can be easy and clear, and method too pat for a world like Dune. If that’s all Desmond Hart actually is, it will be extremely simple to see how the remainder of the present would possibly fall into place. The battle on Arrakis that episode 5 teases would see the Fremen declare victories due to the Bene Gesserit, and Mikaela (Shalom Brune-Franklin) would look on sadly as her persons are fed a lie about Lisan al Gaib. The Sisterhood would be taught to harness the Voice and be completely recognizable to followers of the Denis Villeneuve motion pictures by the tip of the present. In different phrases, Dune: Prophecy can be the Solo: A Star Wars Story of the Dune universe, a short journey that one way or the other utterly explains the backstory of everybody concerned, shrinking the universe and robbing it of its thriller within the course of.
The opposite model of Desmond, and the present as a complete, is extra messy. We’ll name it the midi-chlorians path. For this one, the present would wish to cease connecting the dots. Let the reveal of Desmond’s shared Harkonnen and Atreides blood be a reveal purely for Tula and the viewers, moderately than one thing extra important to the universe. Certain, these two bloodlines have a job to play within the Bene Gesserit plan to create the Kwisatz Haderach, however that doesn’t should be a part of this present’s plot.
This may provide the possibility for Dune: Prophecy’s season 1 finale to open the door to the bigger, stranger elements of the Dune universe. It might present us the Spacing Guild and its weird Guild Navigators; it might open up the concept of a posh, huge battle on Arrakis, and little hints of the form of struggles that will power the Bene Gesserit to evolve into the clandestine group we all know them as when the collection begins in earnest. Like The Phantom Menace’s one-off point out of midi-chlorians, what Dune: Prophecy wants now could be world-building by unanswered and unanswerable questions, moderately than by too-simple info. If this season is all desk setting for a weirder universe, then its clunkiness may very well be simple to forgive.
Clearly, midi-chlorians have a little bit of a unfavorable connotation for sci-fi followers as a betrayal of the elegant world-building of Star Wars’ unique trilogy; Dune: Prophecy was by no means going to be that. What I’m saying is that at this level what we will actually hope for is the ambition of Star Wars’ prequels, which continuously expanded its galaxy in methods each good and unhealthy, as a substitute of the tight company squeeze of Disney’s time with the collection thus far that has merely made it smaller and extra tightly wound with each entry.
However to step away from all of the Star Wars analogies: Dune is a collection that’s at all times been at its greatest when it’s at its strangest and most formidable. The unique ebook is a masterpiece with top-of-the-line and most attention-grabbing sci-fi worlds ever created. It isn’t nicely made due to how fastidiously related all of its threads are, however moderately due to the messiness that Frank Herbert left at its edges, little threads to be pulled at later at any time when the flowery struck him.
And Dune: Prophecy, for all of the boring scenes and too-important strains it’s had thus far, remains to be in a spot to create these splendidly frayed edges in its first season. However to try this, the finale should be huge and messy and bold in methods the present has solely gestured at thus far.
