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Why Does The Sisterhood Not Give Up the Spice?

Posted: 22 Mar 2008 17:53
by Freakzilla
We know from Dune that the BG can use other poisons, and of course they did before the discovery of the spice:

"Even your Bene Gesserit Truthsayer is trembling," Paul said. "There are
other poisons the Reverend Mothers can use for their tricks, but once they've
used the spice liquor, the others no longer work."


It seems like they could tough it out for a couple of generations and go back to what they were using before.

It seems like they would have done this durring Leto's reign or durring the Famine Times.

Any thoughts?

Re: Why Does The Sisterhood Not Give Up the Spice?

Posted: 22 Mar 2008 19:05
by Tyrant
Freakzilla wrote:We know from Dune that the BG can use other poisons, and of course they did before the discovery of the spice:

"Even your Bene Gesserit Truthsayer is trembling," Paul said. "There are
other poisons the Reverend Mothers can use for their tricks, but once they've
used the spice liquor, the others no longer work."


It seems like they could tough it out for a couple of generations and go back to what they were using before.

It seems like they would have done this durring Leto's reign or durring the Famine Times.

Any thoughts?
i think the spice is so potent .... that the other poisons used are inferior .... yeah maybe they work...but what is the success rate ....what is the death rate .... can u share other memory with those?..... those are probably saved for times of possible extinction ..... and the other poisons do no good to current reverend mothers or any other bg's addicted to the spice..... why drink wine coolers when u can have some crown royal

Posted: 23 Mar 2008 03:32
by orald
I concur with Tyrant here, spice seems more potent than the others(hence probably why they switched to using only spice in the first place, even though it's bound to a single planet, which they undaoubtably recognized as not so good).

And as it seems from their actions, moving to non-spice "production lines" would wreak so much havoc that it's better to live under God Leto's just and wise iron rule instead of reverting to other drugs.



*Some may notice I only call him God Leto and always praise his reign...well, if you don't do the same then you're a dirty infidel!

Posted: 23 Mar 2008 03:58
by inhuien
As above really Freakzilla.

Posted: 23 Mar 2008 16:15
by Mandy
I don't understand why they didn't switch to something else either. Doesn't make much sense that they wouldn't use whatever means necessary to keep their numbers up, even if the other drugs were inferior. The only reason I can possibly think of that they didn't would be that perhaps Leto II also controlled those other drugs.

Posted: 23 Mar 2008 16:42
by orald
Evidently, whatever the reason was(infiriority, incompatability wtc), they didn't, which can only mean doing so would wreak so much havoc that it's better to live under God Leto's just and wise iron rule instead of reverting to other drugs.

*You may notice I just coppied and pasted the last sentence. It was good then and it's good now. :P

Posted: 23 Mar 2008 17:57
by Freakzilla
Not only under Leto's reign, so much in the last two books depends on them reproducing the spice cycle.

Posted: 23 Mar 2008 18:57
by Mandy
I hate to say it, but maybe the other drugs were conveniently forgotten about because they didn't fit with the direction FH wanted to go.

Posted: 23 Mar 2008 19:22
by Freakzilla
Without the spice cycle, it's just common sci-fi, isn't it? But I don't think FH was that shallow. I think he had something important in mind for it that would have come up in Dune 7.

Posted: 23 Mar 2008 20:54
by SandChigger
Ultraspice maybe? :roll:

Posted: 24 Mar 2008 00:41
by Crysknife
I would say that the spice had prescient properties and the others didn't. While the BG weren't adept at using visions, they did have them from time to time. Paul, Leto, Navigators, Tau orgies....all that stuff might be missing from the other drugs.

Plus, without spice, every RM that was alive in the last two books would die a very painful death...and that wasn't a small number of RMs. Rebecca had to have an implant in her body that delivered spice into her blood. This shows how important it was to keep a healthy supply running. They were already so dependent on the stuff that to stop it, the whole Sisterhood might perish.

Posted: 24 Mar 2008 15:16
by Mandy
After Leto II the BG were afraid of prescience, so I don't see that as a plus for the spice.

Obviously those already addicted would have to continue taking spice, but there really isn't an explanation for them not to use the other drugs on acolytes. I'm sure they worked to open OM, else why bother with them in the first place?

Posted: 24 Mar 2008 15:50
by Crysknife
We can just take Frank at his word and say it's just "better". Maybe OM opened with Spice was clearer. Plus the longer life and greater health the drug provided. Along with the prescience, it also seemed to open up more psychic abilities. Maybe Sharing was a result of Spice and the other drugs didn't work, or were less powerful.

Posted: 24 Mar 2008 18:48
by Serkanner
My suggestion would be that perhaps with the use of spice the chances of the Reverend Mother surviving the agony was higher then with other drugs?

Posted: 24 Mar 2008 20:39
by orald
No, no, no. You all fail to realize the simple, elegant truth(which is no surprise since I'm so much smarter than all of you combined):
The reason the BG use the spice malange is to fool Omnibus Prime&Erroneous into believing they're totally dependant on it and it alone, thus forcing them to come up with their elaborate, time and resource consuming plan to subjugate mankind, when all the while the BG have been conspiring with the BT to revive gholas of all the main characters from the old Imperium to crush the unthinking machines once and for all! :o

'Tis brilliant! FH lured all of you into this false debate just like the BG and BT lured Omnibus Prime&Erroneous, and he's been planning it all along! Brilliant! :D

Posted: 25 Mar 2008 20:40
by Rakis
Pfffff...that's complete and total ultra heresy...GOD LETO would have seen it comin in prescience... :roll:

Posted: 26 Mar 2008 07:36
by orald
Of course he has, he just didn't feel like commenting and explaining it to lame mortals such as...everyone.

Posted: 26 Mar 2008 10:00
by SandChigger
Actually...he likeD to spoil himself...and chose not to see it...not even peek. :D


(Jeez...dropping affixes right and left...mostly right. :( )

Posted: 26 Mar 2008 14:30
by orald
Infidel! You take that back! The Church of The God Emperor has already made it's views clear and you're in contrast to them! :evil:

Posted: 26 Mar 2008 21:09
by SandChigger
Watch carefully as I give the fig to your Church. :lol:

Posted: 26 Mar 2008 22:39
by Rakis
SandChigger wrote:Watch carefully as I give the fig to your Church. :lol:
A donation? :shock:

Oh...you mean just show the fing...HEY !! :x Don't point at my Church... :(

Posted: 27 Mar 2008 06:06
by inhuien
SandChigger wrote:Watch carefully as I give the fig to your Church. :lol:
Did you forget to type the word leaf after the word fig there Chig old bean? Are you making online allusions to flashing your bollocks at structured religion?

Posted: 27 Mar 2008 10:31
by SandChigger
Like Ricardo Montalbán...I yam what I yam.

Posted: 27 Mar 2008 11:51
by Freakzilla
What kind of M&Ms does Tatoo like?

Posted: 27 Mar 2008 12:23
by Fantômas
Blue?