History Headscratchers / Dune

** He isn't motivated by fear of his wife's safety; the conditioning probably covers that obvious loophole. What motivates him is that 1.) he is angry enough to want to kill the Baron and 2.) by betraying his charge, he has a Hail Mary chance of using him to kill the Baron in a suicide attack. He knows his wife is dead, and says as much.

* Dr. Yueh has Imperial Conditioning, which is supposed to be impossible to break. Then the Harkonnens break it by... threatening his wife. Quite possibly the most obvious way to leverage someone, and the supposedly unbreakable conditioning just snaps. Did they never consider threatening someone's family as a possible danger at Imperial Conditioning School?

* Books 4, 5 & 6. 4- AuthorTract. 5- We're told a lot of things, shown very little. (at least we got to see Miles Teg kick ass) 6- There's a lot of talk about a secret weapon the bad guys have only for nothing to come of it (except some dead redshirts). The Bene Gesserit are even more [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ptitleukqnnj0yvqci elf-like than ever]]...

* Books 4, 5 & 6. 4- Author Tract. 5- We're told a lot of things, shown very little. (at least we got to see Miles Teg kick ass) 6- There's a lot of talk about a secret weapon the bad guys have only for nothing to come of it (except some dead redshirts). The Bene Gesserit are even more [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ptitleukqnnj0yvqci elf-like than ever]]...

** It's not really [[CallARabbitASmeerp calling a rabbit a smeerp]]. None of your first three examples are "rabbits" - they don't exist in our world at all, so they're going to need new names one way or another. I guess Herbert could have called them "That Semi-psychic Witch Cult", "Dunian Arabs", and "Messiah Prophet Emperor", but that would've been weird in a different way, and more confusing than simply giving these concepts a different name.

** Those words come from other languages, or from bashing other languages together. There's a good bit of Arabic.

** It's a plot hole.

** Alia was an Abomination, and the full blooded sister of Paul Atreides the messiah of the Bene Geserit, it is perfectly possible for her to have the powers she shows if you don't sink to the level of saying women are incapable of greatness, and assume that if she wasn't a messiah herself, being the sister of the supreme being enables her to show at least similar powers, and abilities. Finally, one could surmise the baron was simply a gelstat of her consciousness turned irrational that was driving her toward more insanity. Did the Harkonnen side of the familly ever strike you as stable and well grounded?

* In the appendices to the first book, ''Dune'', there's a map of Dune that shows most, if not all, the locations in the book. Its center is the north pole. It doesnt show the whole planet. So, what happened to the south pole ? Why is there people only near the northern polar region ? Obviously, the closer to the equator you are, the hotter it is, so it makes sense that there would be noone between certain latitudes, but why do we never hear about the southern hemisphere ? The climate in the southern polar regions of the south hemisphere should be similar to that of the northern region of the north hemisphere.

* What was Thufir Hawats angle in working with the Harkonnens? How did he want to bring the House down? He had both the opportunities to kill Vladimir and Feyd-Rautha, however this was just maneuvering. Was it to train some Fremen loyal only to him and to use them?

** If you find words out of the norm weird, I don't think you should be reading science fiction at all...

* Bene Gesserit. Fremen. Kwisatz Haderach. Thufir Hawat. [[CallARabbitASmeerp Am I the only one who finds all this kinda alienating?]] I've considered reading the books for a while, but it all seems just bit '''too weird.'''

** He wasn't [[spoiler: the ultimate Kwisatz Haderach]] until the very end of the series, where he did start to predict events. [[spoiler: Every time Duncan was revived, he kept improving his mind a little more each life. When Duncan somehow gained the memories of all his ghola incarnations, his mind functioned just like a Kwisatz Haderach's. Unlike other Kwisatz Haderach, who were bred into the role, and used their genetic memory, Duncan developed his own body himself, and used his own memories.]]

*** You're forgetting the Feyd vs Vladimir subplot. Hawat clearly despised the Harkonnens, and there is mention that he was still being secreted messages by Gurney (about the Fremen tactics). He played Feyd against the Baron, and visa-versa, turning them against each other, trying to bring the House down.

*** Mentats aren't quite super-duper geniuses; they're intelligent humans with a very tightly defined set of mental skills useful to the Imperium. Hawat gets sidelined because the Harkonnens make a dedicated effort to play to his weaknesses. And he isn't the only one not to suspect Yueh on account of his conditioning; it's implied that the Emperor will destroy the Harkonnens out of hand if he finds out they've suborned the only trusted medical school in the universe.

** Considering that Mentats are supposed to be [[TheChessmaster the Chessmasters]] due to their highly advanced ability to compute outcomes of events based on variables and facts available, pretty much proves that he's either holding the IdiotBall on this particular issue, or that he's just a failure as a Mentat. (Because the ''spice smuggler'' Tuek figures things out based on ''much less'' knowledge, and Hawit is [[TooDumbToLive stupid enough to be openly manipulated by the Harkonnens.]] I have no idea why this guy is so prized for his Mentat abilities when he's a ''FUCKING IDIOT!'' The only possible reason why he's so stupid about this is that he's so prejudiced against the Bene Gesserit that he can't see how supremely stupid he is actually being, and if he's that easily affected by prejudice then he's a waste as a Mentat anyway. And exposure to the spice is supposed to ''improve'' mental capacity, not hinder it. Hence, the most probable reason for Hawat siding with the Harkonnens? He's a prejudiced idiot who can't see two moves in front of his face (I'm still fuming over the fact that he dismissed Yeuh out of hand as the traitor... yes, because obviously the Imperial Conditioning can't be broken by a conflict of morals (because training to apply complete moral values based on ''saving people's lives'' ISN'T what the entire thing is based on, obviously). Hawit didn't even do a background check to find out ''his wife was a fucking bene gesserit held prisoner by the Harkonnens'' (he is completely stunned by this fact when JESSICA tells him). Furthermore he acts so goddamn surprised that Leto has been betrayed and killed when ''everyone and THEIR MOTHER knew Arrakis was a trap in the first place'' and he didn't have safeguards in place to deal with that (Yeuh just walked into the fucking shield room and deactivated it that easily...)). [[BeserkButton Thufir Hawat, YOU FAIL!]]

* What I have always wondered is how can stillsuits be so efficient, and water still be a rarity. The human body produces around 500 ml of water per day from cellular respiration, yet stillsuits allow you to lose only 50 ml or so if I remember correctly. In those conditions, it should become more important to go on finding food (which can hardly grow in the desert) than water, which you already have more than enough if properly managed.

** The Atreides were dead, and he wanted revenge on Jessica (who he calculated was a traitor) at any cost, even working with his sworn enemies. It does not quite make sense, but his beloved Duke just died, so maybe he was not thinking strait (which for a Mentat must be fairly hard to manage).

* If Duncan Idaho [[spoiler: was the ultimate Kwisatz Haderach]], then how come he didn't predict the events of the whole series?

* What I have always wondered is how can stillsuits be so efficient, and water still be a rarity. The human body produces around 500 ml of water per day from cellular respiration, yet stillsuits allow you to lose only 50 ml or so if I remember correctly. In those conditions, it should become more important to go on finding food (which can hardly grow in the desert) than water, which you already have more than enough if properly managed.

** Alia lacked the control and mental training Jessica had been given as a Bene Gesserit, so she was overpowered by the Baron's memories. Also, it wasn't merely a matter of the Bene Gesserit not being able to access their male memories. It was that they were afraid to do so, in the instance something similar might happen to them with one of their own male ancestors. The training involved shutting that part of their ancestral memories off.

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