{"id":25296,"date":"2024-03-25T11:50:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-25T18:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=25296"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:50:38","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T18:50:38","slug":"nics-flicks-how-star-wars-copied-dune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2024\/03\/25\/nics-flicks-how-star-wars-copied-dune\/","title":{"rendered":"Nic’s Flicks<\/em>: How Star Wars<\/em> copied Dune<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most notable things I experienced while reading Frank Herbert\u2019s Dune<\/em> saga and watching both of Denis Villeneuve\u2019s newest adaptations of the popular science fiction novel (both are really good and quite worthy of your time, especially the second one) is how much George Lucas stole from Herbert\u2019s work when he created the Star Wars<\/em> world. Here are just some of the ways that Star Wars<\/em> can be seen as a direct copy of Dune<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Corruption<\/strong><\/p>\n

The biggest similarity between Lucas’ Star Wars<\/em> franchise and Herbert\u2019s Dune<\/em> franchise is the theme of power. Throughout the first two Dune<\/em> books and the first Star Wars<\/em> trilogy, both Paul Atreides and Anakin Skywalker are seen as powerful messiahs that are destined to bring peace to their worlds (even if things don\u2019t turn out that way in the end). Thanks to the power they obtain and abuse throughout, they not only end up bringing more war and chaos to their homes but end up destroying themselves as well.<\/p>\n

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Nic’s Flicks<\/em> is a column about movies (photo by Nicolas Ihmels\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Anakin\u2019s case, during the events of the first trilogy, he is constantly referred to as the chosen one, the one who will bring balance to the force. When he decides to become Darth Vader, he\u2019s able to save the life of Padme; he does it because he believes that becoming powerful will make life better for everyone and solve all of his problems.<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t happen. Instead, He ends up plaguing the whole galaxy into a war, bringing more destruction to the same worlds he was prophesied to help. He also loses most of his humanity, his pregnant wife, his best friend and mentor, his skin and numerous body parts, and his unborn children because of the power he takes.<\/p>\n

In Paul\u2019s case, during the events in the second book, Dune Messiah<\/em>, Paul also becomes corrupted by the power he receives in the closing chapters of the first Dune<\/em> novel. In fact, I think the second book should have been called The Self-afflicted Suffering of Paul Atreides<\/em> because it’s nothing but 300 pages of Paul getting curb-stomped due to his abuse of power. He turns into a complete dictator and demands that all of Arrakis bend to his will, killing anyone who dares to question him. (Just like the Harkonnens do in the first movie.)<\/p>\n

This leads to a lot of scheming by the different houses to overthrow Paul. Then, in retaliation to his brutality, he becomes victim to a power struggle that ends in atomic weapons being launched on his home, literally blinding him from the flash. He then loses his first wife, Chani, in childbirth and dies at the end of the novel by walking into the unforgiving desert pre-Fremen tradition.<\/p>\n

Arrakis\/Tatooine<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the main similarities between these two works is the description of the planet Arrakis (Dune<\/em>) and the planet Tatooine (Star Wars<\/em>). For example, although Lucas does not go into detail in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope<\/em>, it\u2019s shown that the planets are separated by class. This is evident by observing Luke Skywalker and Atreides, who live well in houses, while others like Star Wars<\/em>‘ Jawas and Dune<\/em>\u2019s Fremen tribe are forced to live in the hostile desert. Tatooine is also implied to be under invasion by the empire, like Arrakis, which is invaded by the Harkonnen at the beginning of Dune<\/em>. The only difference is that Dune<\/em> dives into the political atmosphere of Arrakis more than Lucas did in the first Star Wars<\/em> movies; everything else about Tatooine is basically ripped from Dune<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Voice\/The Force<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another similarity is how Star Wars<\/em> uses the Force, which is very similar to the Voice in Dune<\/em>. In Star Wars<\/em>, the Force can only be used by the Jedi, and it takes years of training to use it properly. In Dune<\/em>, the Bene Gesserit are given the power of the Voice, which can only be used by their people, and it takes years of training to learn how to use it properly. Another similarity is how the Voice and the Force manipulate minds. In Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope<\/em>, Ben famously utters, \u201cThese are not the droids you\u2019re looking for.\u201d Then, he uses the Force to take control of a stormtrooper guard to let them into the occupied base. In Dune<\/em>, when Lady Jessica and Paul are under capture by the Harkonnens, Paul uses his untapped knowledge of the Voice to possess one of the Harkonnen\u2019s minds to take over the plane they\u2019re in. These two similar tricks that Ben and Paul use to get them out of tough scraps are one of the key ways that Star Wars<\/em> stole from Dune<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most notable things I experienced while reading Frank Herbert\u2019s Dune saga and watching both of Denis Villeneuve\u2019s newest adaptations of the popular science fiction novel (both are really good and quite worthy of your time, especially the second one) is how much George Lucas stole from Herbert\u2019s work when he created the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25296"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25298,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25296\/revisions\/25298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}