Character Analysis - Paul Atreides
Background
Name: Paul “Muad’dib” Atreides
Title: Duke, later Emperor
Other Names: Kwisatz Haderach, Lisan al-Gaib
Born 10176 AG, age 17 during the War on Arrakis (15 in the 2020s movies), 29 in Dune Messiah
Heir to House Atreides
Leader of the Fremen
Tens of thousands of years into the future, humanity became scattered across the galaxies. In an event known as the Butlerian Jihad, computers, artificial intelligence, and the like have been utterly eradicated across the universe, leaving beings only known as Guild Navigators to assist humanity in traveling across the cosmos. Due to their nature, Guild Navigators are utterly obsessed and rely on the material melange, otherwise known as spice, found only on the planet Arrakis.
Lady Jessica, a daughter of the Bene Gesserit and concubine of Duke Leto Atreides, was not supposed to have a son. But in defiance of her order and in love with her Duke, she gave him one. The inheritor to his mother’s powerful sorcery and his father’s title, Paul Atreides was destined for greatness beyond even his wildest dreams.
In the year 10191 AG, the Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV gave the order to House Atreides to take over production of spice on Arrakis, taking over from their sworn enemies, House Harkonnen. Though the Duke had a feeling that it was a trap, he was compelled to accept the offer regardless, weighing his losses with the potential power that he could have on the planet and an alliance with its mysterious natives, the Fremen. Not long after the Atreides arrived, the Emperor and Harkonnens revealed their treachery, sending in their collective forces to decimate House Atreides and kill the Duke. Despite being left in the desert to die, it was through a lucky few preparations beforehand that Paul and Jessica managed to survive and be taken in by a Fremen camp.
Centuries ago, the Bene Gesserit planted rumors among the Fremen that an unknown messiah would come and make Arrakis a more hospitable place for humans. To the Fremen, Paul was that messiah; the Lisan al-Gaib, the Voice from the Outer World. Paul himself was the early result of a plan centuries in the making by the Bene Gesserit, a plan to create the Kwisatz Haderach, an immensely powerful clairvoyant who would unite humanity and lead it to a better future.
Armed with this knowledge, Paul took the lead of the Fremen, and not only defeated the conspiracy that wiped out his family, but also regained his throne as Duke of Arrakis, and also Emperor of the Known Universe. Unfortunately for him, his actions to prevent humanity’s destruction also resulted in the deaths of several billions, something that weighed heavily on Paul. Many years later, his political enemies took advantage of his faltering and conspired to dethrone him, a plot which would fail on all fronts. Blinded from his injuries and with the future of his bloodline secure, Paul escaped becoming a deity by following Fremen tradition and walking into the desert, never to be seen again.
Sources
Dune and Dune Messiah. Yeah, that’s basically it. Visual references from the original Lynch movie and Villenueve’s movies will be utilized as well, though the latter generally begins to deviate slightly by the second act/movie.
Why not the other books, you may ask?
Putting it simply, the sequel to Messiah, Children of Dune by Frank Herbert that involves Paul in a non-combative role, and his other books don’t even have Paul in them at all.
The books written by his son Brian are dubiously canon at best, not even mentioning that they don’t provide anything of substance for Paul either.
Equipment
Crysknife
A standard knife created from the tooth of a sandworm, utilized by the Fremen and sacred to them. It is tipped with a poison that near instantly coagulates blood to conserve moisture.
Holtzman Shield
A protective field of energy that will resist any fast moving object, permitting only anything that moves slowly to bypass it.
Stillsuit
A suit that cools the body and recycles water lost to sweat. It is essential to survival on Arrakis, as any person sitting out in its unforgiving desert would be dead within less than two hours.
Maula Pistol
A pistol that fires poison darts, effective on Arrakis due to the lack of Holtzman shields.
Abilities
Kwisatz Haderach
Also known as the “shortening of the way”, Paul was to become someone who could bridge space and time. Even before his full potential manifested, Paul would see visions of the future and incredibly tiny details that even his mother didn’t notice. After consuming the Water of Life, Paul can quite literally see an infinite amount of possible futures and call on the memories of his ancestors.
Even after being blinded, he could still see by following a path set in his visions.
Weirding Way / Prana-Bindu
Paul is trained in prana-bindu, also known as the weirding way. This technique is everything to the Bene Gesserit and was taught to him by his mother Jessica, allowing him to control every little muscle and fiber in their body. This gives Paul certain abilities such as poison resistance and lie detection.
Was already better than Jessica by 15, who took down multiple Fremen warriors at once while cornered
The user is able to slow down their heart beat in order to reduce their need for oxygen
Sensed a secret exit in a room from feeling the air currents
The Voice
“SILENCE!”
Paul’s Bene Gesserit training gives him usage of “The Voice”, a technique in which he alters the tone of his voice to one of someone superior to his victim and forces them to his will. Unlike most other Bene Gesserit, Paul can speak in a monotone voice and the victim would still be manipulated.
Even while inexperienced, Paul had his mother under control of the Voice for a brief moment
Forced a Sardaukar captain to submit with the Voice, said captain soon after killed one of his subordinates to protect Paul
Sardaukar are infamous for their fanatical loyalty to the Emperor
Used the Voice on Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam and claimed he could kill her with a single word
Mentat Intellect
Thufir Hawat getting the best head
As a result of the Butlerian Jihad many years before the events of Dune, computers that could replicate the human mind are all non-existent. In their place are Mentats, human computers who can process incredible amounts of information and incredibly precise calculations in their mind, only limited by unknown data. Paul is one himself, and though not as experienced as someone like Thufir Hawat, he is still able to use his intelligence effectively.
When a Mentat enters a trance, they are entering a place where time doesn’t exist
Analyzed every complex detail of an incredibly heavy dust storm to guide an ornithopter
Detected his mother buried underneath a sandslide by recalling the pattern of the sand’s movements
Takes 3 seconds to process a computation with thousands of informational bits
Feats
Resisted the Test of Humanity, a test that generates pain from the genetic memories of his ancestors and would have resulted in his death had he failed
Because the Bene Gesserit is a matriarchal order, men have never been subjected to this test; Paul has endured more suffering than anyone else went under the same test
Fought on par with Gurney Halleck, one of the best fighters in the known universe
One might argue this is a mere training session, but Gurney has no reason to hold back because he’s training him against Harkonnens, an incredibly brutal fighting force
Caught a tiny Hunter Seeker in the palm of his hands while it was mid-flight
Crushed the right ventricle of a man’s heart with his toe, instantly killing him, while handcuffed
Defeated and killed Jamis, one of the Fremen’s best fighters
The Fremen thought Paul was toying with Jamis; he was only hesitating because he had never killed before that point
Survived drinking the Water of Life (although he was left in a coma for some time), a poison that is deadly to males
Fought and killed Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in a ritualistic fight
Weaknesses
Not many physical feats
The Crysknife must be kept in close proximity of a human so that it won’t disintegrate
The Holtzman shield being struck with a laser-based weapon would cause an explosion
Summary
Possible Matchups
Luke Skywalker (Star Wars)
The big one and for pretty good reason ever since Dune: Part Two boosted the popularity of this matchup by a metric ton. They’re both sci-fi heroes with incredibly similar powers who were destined for something greater by prophecy. This is personally my favorite matchup for the both of them just for the writing potential alone, since I don’t think I fancy Luke’s other popular matchup. If you’re looking for a “debatable” matchup, however, this is definitely not the fight that you are looking for.
Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars)
(thumbnail by Zealousideal-Row6571)
It’s practically the same as Luke VS Paul, just with a few more connections seeing as they both fell from grace. I don’t think this vibes as much as Luke does, but the option is there if you’re looking for it.
Eren Yeager (Attack on Titan)
Two young men who were forced into a destiny that required them to become genocidal monsters in order to secure a future for their people. I’m more familiar with Attack on Titan than I am with Star Wars, so this is 100% my favorite alternative matchup for Paul, though Eren has Ken Kaneki which I also enjoy so that does clash a bit. There’s definitely an aspect here when it comes to writing, especially when you think about the regrets these two have after being forced to kill as many people as they did by the end of their paths. Fighting dynamic is probably much harder to lock down though, since the only thing that reaches the scale of anything like the Titans in Dune would probably be sandworms.
Now that I think about it, maybe I should do a blog on this.
Closing Notes + Updates
I stumbled upon this document while digging through some old stuff (it’s been sitting there since January!) and realized it was practically already decent enough for release with what I determined was good source material to use. This is my first time doing a character analysis blog and definitely is not as in-depth as I thought it’d be in comparison to the works of my peers, so don’t expect me to do something like this very often.
If I did choose to do this again, though, I think I’d like to do a full comprehensive document on Team Fortress from Team Fortress 2. Now that the comics have finally ended and the storyline is over, I think it’s well past time to do a comprehensive look at everything for them. Thankfully I didn’t have to do anything major for RED Team VS Sinners (you should read it still), but there’s a lot in there that I feel like I didn’t explain well enough because I was trying to push it out as fast as I could, especially with a franchise as contentious as Team Fortress in terms of statistics.
Onto my own blogs, Pyrrha VS Kakyoin is going smoothly so far. I invited a special guest to help me with Kakyoin’s side but I still need to go through RWBY in order to research Pyrrha, though it shouldn’t take me that long I figure since… y’know. I have a few matchups in mind that I want to do in the future, though I’d like to gauge them based on the interest of you, the viewer, so please feel free to provide input if you can in the comments or on Discord, wherever I’ve posted this. Enjoy the holidays and new year!
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