Chapter 24


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Freakzilla
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Chapter 24

Post by Freakzilla »

We say of Muad'dib that he has gone on a journey into that land where we walk
without footprints.

-Preamble to the Qizarate Creed

Duncan stands at the edge of the Sietch Tabr plantings looking out at the desert. Tandis had lead Paul there where he then walked into the desert alone like a true Fremen. He had said that the future no longer needs him and that he was now free. Idaho regrets leaving him alone for even a minute. The Fremen refused to go looking for him, rescue is against custom, and chanted for a worm to come. He worries that Gurney will blame him for this. The Fremen said he would never die, he would enter a world where all possible futures existed, the alam al-mythal. Stilgar comes out and comforts him and tells him Alia wants to see him. Stilgar and Alia whipped the soft Naibs into line and they now follow her orders. Alia has ordered the traitors, Edric, RM Mohiam, Korba and a few others executed. Stilgar admits that he killed RM Mohiam against Paul's wishes, just as Alia said he would. Idaho says he will be in shortly and Stilgar leaves. Idaho makes mentat projections of the vortex Paul left behind, nothing will stand in its way. The Guild and Tleilaxu have lost and been discredited, The Qizarate shaken by Korba's treason and Paul's walk into the desert ensured Fremen loyalty to House Atreides. Alia comes out and calls Paul a fool, to which Idaho objects. She explains that his whole life was spent trying to escape the Jihad and it's diefication. He can see that there is no longer Vision in her since Chani's death. She tells him that she will spare Princess Irulan, she mourns Paul and says she loved him and promisses to teach his children. Alia trusts her. Irulans defection leaves the Bene Gesserit with no leverage. They confess their love for each other and Duncan promisses to to follow where she leads.
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Demerzel
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Re: Chapter 24

Post by Demerzel »

"Such a fool!" Alia gasped, her control breaking. "He'll live forever while we must die!"

---

The way Paul managed to trump the BT, the Guild, the BG and the Qizarate was remarkable.

This chapter and the one where Paul loses his physical eyesight are the only ones in the Dune series which nearly brought me to tears.
When Paul was three I found him wearing lingerie I was planning to wear for my Duke. I asked him: "How can this be?" and he answered: "For I am the Kwisatz Haderach!" I was proud since these were the first words Paul ever spoke, but now I knew for certain that my Paul was a special boy. I brought him to Duncan's room while he was busy "training" a young maidservant in the Art of Sword-Handling. My Paul shall be the best! - Tleszer
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Freakzilla
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Re: Chapter 24

Post by Freakzilla »

Revised, clean.

I never really thought about it before but Alia loses her prescience at the same time Paul does. Of course, it makes sense.
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Re: Chapter 24

Post by georgiedenbro »

I think that Paul's prescience was tied to Alias somehow, with his being the dominant mind. She blamed the tarot, but as her power to see her visions waned I think it was because Paul was coming closer and closer to the point where the possible futures would diminish until there were only a few options coming up to another nexus. Paul's lock on time was locking Alia out. His visions came to a single nexus in this chapter, and it was passed by Paul killing Scytale. Then when he lost contact with Leto's mind his visions were gone for good, as were Alia's. Did she lose the sight for the same reason that Paul did, because Leto II would be the next oracle and his visions cut hers off? Or is it because Alia relied on her simpatico with her brother for the power to have her visions, and without him she had no ability of her own?

The "he'll live for ever while we must die" line is interesting. Does anyone thing this might imply what I think it might imply? (I'll say no more on it here)

But I now understand the problem Paul faced. If his children were born earlier it would raise the question of whether they were really Fremen, since was Paul really Fremen? Paul was both Fremen and Atreides, Emperor and Muad'dib, and had balanced those two roles. But things with the Fremen would have come to a head with the children born and if the Naibs had argued that Paul was really an Atreides Emperor and not one of them then they'd turn on him, kill him, and put Chani in chains with the children. For Paul to claim, at that time, that he was truly Fremen would have met with rebuke, mostly likely, and they may have asked him to renounce his godhood since a man can't be both a god and a normal Fremen subject to law. Paul knew all along that the Fremen had to support him and if this ever stopped he would lose everything for his family. So Paul had to wait and delay Chani's pregnancy. He delayed it until precisely when he did, because he needed both to have Hayt,to have given Hayt sufficient chanced to catch glimpses of himself and prepare for the birth of Duncan. I think Paul foresaw the exact moment of Duncan's awakening and uttered the words he knew would trigger the change and get his man back. The fancy Tleilaxu weapon - Paul knew all about it and was ready for it and wanted it. Finally, I think Paul had earlier been training Stilgar to disobey him, knowing that Stilgar would have to be at his best to serve Alia properly, and to try to keep her in line.

In the end, going off into the desert after allowing himself to be blinded allowed for a fully legal Fremen rule to require he go into the desert, and he did it. He saved his children, he saved the Atreides name, he proved to the Fremen that he was Fremen, and therefore that so were his children by extension of having (now) two bona fide Fremen parents. He could neither die some random way, not could it be suicide, murder, abdication - all of these would lead to his family being killed since it would show he wasn't ever really Fremen in the first place. Going off into the desert even prevented Alia considering sending him off to the Tleilaxu. Paul won on all possible grounds. I really do see now how Paul had no other options.

As a side note it must be a real joy for Paul to walk into the desert, blinded, unable to know what's coming or if he'll even live the night. It must be a thrilling experience after the life he had just led.

I also like the passage about Duncan's brief prescience. Maybe it implies that he, himself, will make this happen.
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Re: Chapter 24

Post by ᴶᵛᵀᴬ »

Why are you merging the last chapter and the epilogue ? I think the epilogue stands by itself.

The original Dune Messiah edition shows a distinct prologue ("The Weird of Dune") and epilogue ("The Ghola's Hymn").

For some mysterious reasons, the prologue was deleted from the second edition (1975) and replaced by the deathcell interview. But the epilogue remains and IMHO shoud be considered as an autonomous chapter.
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      Freakzilla
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      Re: Chapter 24

      Post by Freakzilla »

      I believe the Death Cell Interview is the prologue in the version I did these summaries from. I don't remember why I did it that way, that was over eight years ago! Maybe because they were both short? I don't have a problem breaking them up.
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