History Literature / DuneMessiah

* ElectronicEyes: "Metal Eyes" are a form of augmentation wherein artificial mechanical replace damaged or lost organic ones allowing for much better vision. Farok explains some of the paranoia about them with many believing that the eyes end up controling one's mind. When Duncan Idaho is resurrected as Hayt he's given a pair.

* ScrewDestiny: Subverted. Paul tries ''oh so hard'' to be able to screw destiny, and basically falls into a DespairEventHorizon when he fails. His biggest reasons for trying are the ''jihad'' made in his name when he ascends to the throne of Emperor (with BILLIONS of people killed in his name) and the prophecies of the Bene Gesserit that predict that Duke Leto would be completely forgotten by history.

-->'''Paul''': "Cuckold me all you wish, but no child."

* FullFrontalAssault: At a non-living opponent. Alia feels the need to train while taking a bath, so she gets out and engages her sparring robot with sword and crys while still naked. She is found that way by Paul and Stilgar, who interpret it as a (rather disturbing) sign of her sexual awakening.

->''"Here lies a toppled god —''
->''"His fall was not a small one.''
->''"We did but build his pedestal,''
->''"A narrow and a tall one.''

* XanatosGambit: the Tleilaxu plan to destabilize the Atreides empire allows victory regardless of exactly how well their Ghola does his job. [[spoiler: Ideally, Hayt will regain the real Duncan Idaho's memories and prove to Paul the potential of having a ghola made of Chani after her death, giving the Tleilaxu a massive bargaining chip to leverage the Imperium away from him. But if the real Duncan ''doesn't'' return and Hayt murders Paul as ordered, a ghola of Paul will be promised to Alia and there's still a chance she'll take the offer. If either of them don't take the offer, Scytale will simply kill Paul's children and the bloodline will be ended]]. Of course, Paul is aware of most of this, so it matters a lot less than his enemies think it does.

* XanatosGambit: the Tleilaxu plan to destabilize the Atreides empire allows victory regardless of exactly how well their Ghola does his job. [[spoiler: Ideally, Hayt will regain the real Duncan Idaho's memories and prove to Paul the potential of having a ghola made of Chani after her death, giving the Tleilaxu a massive bargaining chip to leverage the Imperium away from him. But if the real Duncan ''doesn't'' return and Hayt murders Paul as ordered, a ghola of Paul will be promised to Chani and there's still a chance she'll take the offer. If either of them don't take the offer, Scytale will simply kill their children and the bloodline will be ended]]. Of course, Paul is aware of most of this, so it matters a lot less than his enemies think it does.

* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: A thrown knife is used twice to take out a target without harming others, once to hit the off-switch of a training robot in mid-battle, and once [[spoiler: to kill Bijaz.]]

* FullFrontalAssault: Alia feels the need to train while taking a bath, so she gets out and engages her sparring robot with sword abd crys while still naked. She is found that way by Paul and Stilgar, who interpret it as a (rather disturbing) sign of her sexual awakening.

* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: a thrown knife is used twice to take out a target without harming others, once to hit the off-switch of a training robot in mid-battle, and once [[spoiler: to kill Bijaz.]]

* YouNeedToGetLaid: All but invoked by name by Stilgar, when he and Paul catch Alia sparring a fighting golem...on the highest setting... nude.

* BrotherSisterIncest: Paul and Alia have incestuous overtones. At one point, Alia engages a sparring robot nude, before Paul stops her from killing herself. It's certainly not helped by the Bene Gesserit's clear intention to find a way of bargaining for Paul and his sister to produce an heir.

* DownerEnding: The book can be seen as an extended downer coda to ''Dune'', as in the end [[spoiler:Chani is dead and Paul is blind, has lost his prescience and goes into exile to his implied death.]It's also only about half as long as ''Dune'', so it may feel like a "final act" at this point of the series.

* DownerEnding: Almost from the moment he gets his prescience, Paul spends most of his time seeing visions of Fremen screaming his name as they lead a jihad across the known universe, thinking this would be a terrible idea, and trying to prevent it. Not to mention Chani's death. This is all due to another trope: YouCantFightFate... that you yourself created. Ouch.

''Dune Messiah'' concludes Paul's story as he comes to realize that prescience is a trap--by seeing into the future, one dooms oneself to [[PrescienceIsPredictable live out that vision]]. In spite of Paul's best efforts to prevent it, the war he began on Arrakis has become an interstellar jihad that has sterilized entire planets and made him one of [[VillainWithGoodPublicity history's greatest murderers]].

* DeconstructorFleet: For TheChosenOne, the MessianicArchetype, and [[TheHero hero]] tropes as they were established in ''Dune''.

* AscendedExtra: Duncan Idaho, in the first book, actually ''dies'' only to become the only character to feature in all six novels of the original series.

[[caption-width-right:244:His third eye's the one that's '''not''' blind]]

''Dune Messiah'' is a science-fiction story by Creator/FrankHerbert published in 1969. It is the sequel to the popular ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' and the second of the six original [[Franchise/{{Dune}} Dune Chronicles]] by Creator/FrankHerbert.

* BlessedWithSuck: You can see the future. All of it. Every twist, turn, nook, and cranny. There are no surprises. There is no escape. You will never live something that you have not already foreseen.

* AbsentAliens: Unless you count the Sandworms, and their [[{{Precursors}} implied creators]]. Even then, the sentience was added after the fact, by Leto II.
%%* ActionGirl:
%%** Chani.
%%** Alia
* AddictionPowered: Paul, Alia, The Spacing Guild, The Bene Gesserit, etc.
* AlternativeCalendar: The calender used in the book begins from the establishment of the Spacing Guild's monopoly on space travel, with BG standing for "Before Guild" and AG being "After Guild".
%%* AmazonBrigade:
%%** Bene Gesserit
%%** Alia's female guards are also explicitly referred to as amazons.

%%* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler:Paul and Chani]]

%%* BadassArmy: The Fremen
%%* BadassFamily: Atreides

%%* BlackAndGrayMorality: Paul's jihad sure counts.
* BlessedWithSuck: You can see the future. All of it. Every twist, turn, nook, and cranny. There are no surprises. There is no escape. You will never live something that you have not already foreseen. It's even worse for Alia: she has access to the genetic memory of all her ancestors. Unfortunately, this includes her grandfather, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.
* BlindSeer: After Paul loses his sight in an assassination attempt he substitutes his prescient memory of the future.

%%* BrotherSisterTeam: Paul and Alia
%%* BureaucraticallyArrangedMarriage: Paul and Irulan
%%* TheChainsOfCommanding: Paul feels their weight.
* TheChosenOne: Paul's status as this is secured in ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' and played out to its conclusion in this installment.

** ''Dune Messiah'' brings up a dose of realism when Stilgar informs Muad'Dib of the various difficulties that the Fremen, himself included, have had on other planets, especially water-rich planets. Since the Fremen have adapted to an extremely arid and desiccated environment, it makes sense that they would suffer illness and weakness in water-rich environments.
* DarwinistDesire: The Bene Gesserit actually have Darwinist Desire ''Matchmaking.'' They've been secretly manipulating the marriages of all the members of the noble houses to produce the Kwisatz Haderach, a being capable of omniscience. Paul and Alia however aren't easily manipulated, though their scheme does cause problems for Paul and Chani.

* DemotedToExtra: Happens quite a fair bit over the course of the series, with Jessica, Gurney, Stilgar and Harah as a few examples (although some of them, like Jessica, are only temporarily demoted).

%%* TheEmperor: Paul

* GenderBender: Face Dancers are described as "Jadacha hermaphrodites" (a term with an unknown meaning) and "mules" due to their sterility. They are able to change appearance and gender at will, and perform the role of either gender, but cannot reproduce.
* HotConsort: Paul ends up marrying Princess Irulan for political reasons, but keeps his true love Chani as royal concubine. This is a source of tension and the reason for Irulan’s scheming as she loves Paul as well and is being pressured by the Sisterhood to bear his child.
%%* IKnowYouKnowIKnow: Whoooooooooo boy...
%%* IntrinsicVow: Gholas

* TheNavigator: An entire guild of them, who depend on spice to guide their ships.
* NoWomansLand:
** Farok tells Scytale that Fremen sacrificed virgins to Shai-Hulud (a practice Farok wants to see return) before Liet-Kynes abolished the practice.
** Some Fremen men have no qualms about rape through force or deception. In ''Dune Messiah'', Farok's son gives semuta to Otheym's daughter "in the hope of winning a woman of the [Fremen] for himself despite his blindness." Farok speaks casually about the conquest of Naraj and his son's forced impregnantion of Naraj women.
--->'''Farok:''' I find it curious, though, to know I have grandchildren on Naraj that I may never see.
* OccultBlueEyes: The influence of Spice turns people's eyes an unnatural bright blue. The turning blue is implied to be a normal biological reaction of humans exposed to spice. However Spice also gives psionic abilities to at least some humans which links the two together in people's minds.
* OnceAnEpisode: The Litany Against Fear, which is recited in its entirely at least once in every one of the original books

%%* PraetorianGuard: The Fedaykin
* PrescienceIsPredictable: One of the core themes of the main series. Indeed, this could be the TropeCodifier for all modern uses.
* ThePromisedLand: The Fremen believe they can turn Arrakis into this with some ecological engineering.
* PropheciesAreAlwaysRight: Justified -- prophecy actually controls reality.
%%* AProtagonistShallLeadThem: Paul
* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: The Fremen, deliberately contrasted with the Sardaukar who are more of a PraetorianGuard. Both in turn start out badass but end up succumbing to arrogance and pleasure, allowing them to be overcome by a superior force -- Fremen for the Sardukaur, and, well, ''Leto II'' for the Fremen.
%%* PsychicPowers: Prescience (precognition), Other Memory and memory transfers.

* ScryVsScry:
** Bonus points for the foresight itself being a trap; seeing a future locks it in among all the possible futures, so it's avoidable ''unless'' you know it's coming.
** Or rather, past events have set up a collision of mutually exclusive forces, and the only place free will has in all that is in how these predestined events will be handled. Paul always refers to the Jihad as necessary, but he usually follows that up by saying that he at least chose the way with less killing.
** An important point of the early novels is that those that see the future can't see each other, or those directly involved with them. Much of the second novel involves a conspiracy that is kept from Paul by a Guild Navigator's own scrying. It is implied that this is why [[spoiler:Paul could not see his future son in his visions, as he is an oracle like his father]]
* SendInTheClones: [[spoiler:Duncan Idaho]] dies in the first novel, only to return over and over again first as a ghola, then as a ghola-clone.

* StalkerWithATestTube: This is basically the Modus Operandi of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood -- breeding together people with the right genes in order to produce the Kwizatch Haderach... whether that means matchmaking, blackmail, or outright rape is of little concern to them as long as the right children result.
* StandardTimeUnits: Years are known as "Standard years", or SY, and are described as being about 20 hours less than the "so-called primitive year".
* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: Chani. Though she dies relatively late in ''Dune Messiah''.

* TrilogyCreep: An interesting example. ''Dune'' was actually conceived as one long book, with the sequels ''Dune Messiah'' and ''Children of Dune'' fitting directly after the first. ''Messiah'' was fleshed out while writing ''Dune'' and eventually became its own novel, which due to its expansion then warranted ''Children'' to be expanded as well and also became its own book.
* TwoPartTrilogy: Dune was originally conceived as one large masterwork, with the two sequels of ''Dune Messiah'' and ''Children of Dune'' entwined into the story. Considering the original is 412 pages, the second 222, and the third 592, they were obviously split. This creates an interesting case of the first book being easily stand-alone, while the two sequels are more closely connected but can still in a way also be stand-alone. Just kinda hard to say where TwoPartTrilogy begins and TrilogyCreep ends, or even what was intended to be a simple, ''honest'' trilogy.

%%* UnwantedFalseFaith: Paul’s ‘godhead’ and the Qizarite.
* ViewersAreGeniuses: The universe features wheels-within-wheels plots and dense mythology, although the poetic descriptions can make the book enjoyable even to those who fail to understand it.
* VillainBall: Done deliberately by the Tleilaxu. They ''mean'' to leave exploitable loopholes in their schemes, because they believe that perfection can only come from God, and therefore a person attempting perfection would be blaspheming, so therefore they deliberately include flaws in everything they create, just to make sure.
%%* VoluntaryShapeShifting: Face Dancers
%%* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Alia.
* YouNeedToGetLaid: All but invoked by name by Stilgar, when he and Paul catch Alia sparring a fighting golem...on the highest setting...nude.

''Dune Messiah'' concludes Paul's story as he comes to realize that prescience is a trap--by seeing into the future, one dooms oneself to [[PrescienceIsPredictable live out that vision]]. In spite of Paul's best efforts to prevent it, the war he began on Arrakis has become an interstellar jihad that has sterilized entire planets and made him one of [[HeroWithBadPublicity history's greatest murderers]].

** ''Dune Messiah'' brings up a dose of realism when Stilgar informs Muad'Dib of the various difficulties that the Fremen, himself included, have had on other planets, especially water-rich planets. Since the Fremen have adapted to an extremely arid and dessicated environment, it makes sense that they would suffer illness and weakness in water-rich environments.

As the result of [[NiceJobBreakingItHero their attempt to make Arrakis temperate and verdant]], the sandworms are dying--and with their extinction will come the end of the spice, economic collapse, and the extinction of the human race. In order to try and prevent this from happening, Paul wanders into the desert to die.

-->'''Farok:''' I find it curious, though, to know I have grandchildren on Naraj that I may never see.

%%Zero-context examples are not allowed on wiki pages. Please add context before removing the comment tags.

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* ActionGirl:
** Chani.
** Alia

* AmazonBrigade:
** Bene Gesserit
** Alia's female guards are also explicitly referred to as amazons.

* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler:Paul and Chani]]

* BadassArmy: The Fremen
* BadassFamily: Atreides

* BlackAndGrayMorality: Paul's jihad sure counts.

* BrotherSisterTeam: Paul and Alia
* BureaucraticallyArrangedMarriage: Paul and Irulan
* TheChainsOfCommanding: Paul feels their weight.

* DarkMessiah: Paul appears to be this, but uses all his political and religious power, as well as prescient foresight, to prevent as much harm as he can. But as evidenced by the quote in the above AMillionIsAStatistic, this wasn't much.

* TheEmperor: Paul

* IKnowYouKnowIKnow: Whoooooooooo boy...
* IntrinsicVow: Gholas

--> "There are problems in this universe for which there are no answers. Nothing. Nothing can be done."

* PraetorianGuard: The Fedaykin

* AProtagonistShallLeadThem: Paul

* PsychicPowers: Prescience (precognition), Other Memory and memory transfers.

* UnwantedFalseFaith: Paul’s ‘godhead’ and the Qizarite.

* VoluntaryShapeShifting: Face Dancers
* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Alia.
* YouNeedToGetLaid: All but invoked by name by Stilgar, when he and Paul catch Alia sparring a fighting golem....on the highest setting....nude.

* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Alia

%%* ActionGirl:
%%** Chani.
%%** Alia

%%* AmazonBrigade:
%%** Bene Gesserit
%%** Alia's female guards are also explicitly referred to as amazons.

%%* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler:Paul and Chani]]

%%* BadassArmy: The Fremen
%%* BadassFamily: Atreides

%%* BigBad: The Guild/Bene Gesserit/Tleilaxu conspiracy
%%* BlackAndGrayMorality: Paul's jihad sure counts.

%%* BrotherSisterTeam: Paul and Alia
%%* BureaucraticallyArrangedMarriage: Paul and Irulan
%%* TheChainsOfCommanding: Paul feels their weight.

%%* DeathByChildbirth: [[spoiler:Chani]]

%%* TheEmperor: Paul

%%* IKnowYouKnowIKnow: Whoooooooooo boy...
%%* IntrinsicVow: Gholas

%%* PraetorianGuard: The Fedaykin

%%* AProtagonistShallLeadThem: Paul

%%* UntoUsASonAndDaughterAreBorn: Leto II and Ghanima.

%%* UnwantedFalseFaith: Paul’s ‘godhead’ and the Qizarite.

%%* VoluntaryShapeShifting: Face Dancers
%%* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Alia

* UpToEleven: Alia Atreides engages in a sparring match with a mechanical swordsman, which gets faster, and creates more lights (which reflect off its prismatic body to distract its opponent) every time it is struck. Its noted that the greatest swordsmen in the universe can strike it seven times before it becomes too fast to safely continue. Alia manages to strike it eleven times, before Paul stops her by throwing a knife at the off switch, ''which is on the machine''.