this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2026
67 points (100.0% liked)
Funny
314 readers
1 users here now
Funniest content on all Lemmygrad
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Dune = White Man Saviour (literally turned into a god) + ludditism + coopting west asian aesthetics, on the background of real world imperialist mass murders for oil (the allegory that spice stands for isn't really that deep). Herbert was a reactionary orientialist and it shows in his works
(Still enjoyed the series when I read it before becoming an ML)
Honestly my biggest gripe with the series is it does the "feudal monarchy in space" trope unironically, which I hate because a feudal-style monarchy could not actually function at any scale on even a planetary level never mind a multi-planetary level.
I really really really wish sci-fi writers would stop trying to make space monarchies a thing.
I wish writers would stop trying to inject royalty into any and every theme in general. Partly because they often end up whitewashing what monarchy is like to present kings or queens as troubled leaders facing dire threats who are trying to do right by their people. (To be clear, I'm not saying this happens in Dune. It's been too long since I read it to remember. It's more so modern stuff that I'm thinking of.)
True.
Even as someone writing a medieval fantasy setting right now I'm trying to avoid filling the world with nothing but monarchies - with those monarchies I am depicting being more accurate to history and less romanticized.
From my ttrpg experience, you can deromanticize aristocrats to the point where damn near every one of them enthusiastically shows off his prized PeasantGrinder9001 with live serfs thrown in for extra effect and people will still act as if they are ultimately well intentioned, legitimate leaders who are just a little out of touch maybe and they just need some gentle persuasion to do better for their subjects that they obviously care about. Monarchybrain runs deep.
I find it strange that so many monarchies in the West were overthrown by literal violent revolution and yet the revolutionaries kinda wimped out when it came to anti-monarchy propaganda thereafter.
Like, look at the "No Kings" rallies. Look how they phrase it: "No Kings in America". Kings are fine elsewhere, just not here. These same people will gush over the Windsors and obsess over the royalist drama from the UK. It's perfectly fine if its over there as long as it's not here. Just bizarre. Liberal republicans really went half-way on this shit.
In its defense, Dune was written in the '60s, so if anything the explosion in the genre is due to its success. The later books are also lighter on those themes and more bizarre, but very fun to read.
Space monarchies were a thing well before the 60s or Dune was written. It's an old trope going all the way back to the early days of sci-fi.
I dunno, for me it was hard to see paul as a part of the classic white savior trope when he was the result of a thousand year's eugenics program laid out by the same people who planted the superstition that allowed him to command the fremen.
Had the series ended after just one book I'd be more likely to agree with you, but Paul and his empire go on to sterilize / murder billions of people for an abstract goal only realized by his son who becomes a human-worm hybrid.
I appreciate the franchises lack of emphases on technology and the politics are entertaining even if the feudal monarchy in space thing is, well goofy to put it best.
Of Paul's son according to the wiki:
not to mention sexist AF:
I mean, whose perspective is this in the story? Writing about something in fiction does not automatically mean endorsement for the viewpoint. It could be he was sexist, but quoting a passage from a fiction story that reads like character POV is not evidence on its own.
then it's several characters across several stories that are sexist and definitely not the person who created them. lol