Shaddam's Heir Dilemna


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Entik
Posts: 7
Joined: 20 Jun 2010 01:50
Location: Montréal, Québec

Re: Shaddam's Heir Dilemna

Post by Entik »

So here's what I was talking about:

Family life of the Royal Creche is difficult for many people to understand, but
I shall try to give you a capsule view of it. My father had only one real
friend, I think. That was Count Hasimir Fenring, the genetic-eunuch and one of
the deadliest fighters in the Imperium. The Count, a dapper and ugly little man,
brought a new slave-concubine to my father one day and I was dispatched by my
mother to spy on the proceedings. All of us spied on my father as a matter of
self-protection. One of the slave-concubines permitted my father under the Bene
Gesserit-Guild agreement could not, of course, bear a Royal Successor
, but the
intrigues were constant and oppressive in their similarity. We became adept, my
mother and sisters and I, at avoiding subtle instruments of death. It may seem a
dreadful thing to say, but I 'm not at all sure my father was innocent in all
these attempts. A Royal Family is not like other families. Here was a new slave-
concubine, then, red-haired like my father, willowy and graceful. She had a
dancer's muscles, and her training obviously had included neuro-enticement. My
father looked at her for a long time as she postured unclothed before him.
Finally he said: "She is too beautiful. We will save her as a gift. " You have
no idea how much consternation this restraint created in the Royal Creche.
Subtlety and self-control were, after all, the most deadly threats to us all.

-"In My Father's House" by the Princess Irulan
pcqypcqy
Posts: 111
Joined: 07 Jun 2017 05:54

Re: Shaddam's Heir Dilemna

Post by pcqypcqy »

There's also this passage in the final chapter when Paul becomes emperor in Dune:
"They have a narrow vision of time," Paul said. "They can see ahead to a
blank wall marking the consequences of disobedience. Every Guild navigator on
every ship over us can look ahead to that same wall. They'll obey."
Paul turned back to look at the Emperor, said: "When they permitted you to
mount your father's throne, it was only on the assurance that you'd keep the
spice flowing. You've failed them, Majesty. Do you know the consequences?"
"Nobody permitted me to --"
"Stop playing the fool," Paul barked. "The Guild is like a village beside a
river. They need the water, but can only dip out what they require. They cannot
dam the river and control it, because that focuses attention on what they take,
it brings down eventual destruction. The spice flow, that's their river, and I
have built a dam. But my dam is such that you cannot destroy it without
destroying the river."
The Emperor brushed a hand through his red hair, glanced at the backs of the
two Guildsmen.
My take on it was that Shaddam was scheming to kill Elrood and take the throne because, simply, that's what you do when you are a royal. I think the other power players could see this, and decided to make a pact for their own ends. The Guild, to re-agree that the spice must flow. The BG, to schem towards their end of putting a KH in power.

I'd be interested to know that if Shaddam had done this on his own, whether he would have succeeded, and if so, whether he would have retained power. I always had the feeling that he'd have been replaced somehow
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Freakzilla
Lead Singer and Driver of the Winnebego
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Joined: 05 Feb 2008 01:27
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Re: Shaddam's Heir Dilemna

Post by Freakzilla »

There was no Shaddam on his own, useless speculation.
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Paul of Dune was so bad it gave me a seizure that dislocated both of my shoulders and prolapsed my anus.
~Pink Snowman
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