Why Are There No Guns in ‘Dune’?

HBO Max’s Dune is about in a future the place planets have been conquered, interstellar journey is a snap, and there are — for some cause — no weapons. Yeah, there are not any weapons in Dune! Nicely, really there are weapons in Dune, however the principle characters appear to desire to wield a crysknife, sword, or quaint blade. So what provides? Why are the characters in Dune so anti-gun?

Dune is about within the yr 10191. Noble households run complete planets and a mysterious substance generally known as the Spice can enhance mental abilities to superhuman limits. Nonetheless for all of the technological advances, the equipment people like Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa) use is fairly analogue. There’s an excellent cause for that. On this future, humanity waged an epic warfare for survival in opposition to A.I. known as the Butlerian Jihad (because it was a holy warfare led by a girl named Serena Butler). When the mud settled, the survivors determined that it might be a grave sin to create any pc that functioned like a human mind. As a substitute, individuals ingested Spice to develop their very own psychological capacities to function human computer systems known as “Mentats.” Stephen McKinley Henderson’s Thufir Hawat and David Dastmalchian’s Piter de Vries are two such beings.

So excessive tech is a no-no and tripping balls on area mud is what people do. However how does that specify why there are not any weapons in Dune? It sort of doesn’t! To grasp why there are such a lot of rattling blades in Dune, you’re going to must make like a Mentat and use that previous logic…

Why Are There No Weapons in Dune? (Really, There Are, However…)

So if you happen to’re questioning why there are not any weapons in Dune, cease. Please. You’re embarrassing your self. There are actually weapons within the opening montage. The Fremen use sniper rifles to choose off Harkonnens and later Paul steals a small pistol off of Jamis (Babs Olusanmokun) in a melée.

That stated, there aren’t many weapons in Dune. The primary characters desire to make use of swords, knives, and crysknives in shut hand-to-hand fight. Now why would these tough and tumble people desire that to an excellent old school gun filled with bullets? As a result of high-born and high-ranking officers have these nifty physique shields that shield them from fast-moving objects and…projectiles.

The early observe struggle scene with Paul and Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin) establishes that physique shields are helpful, although not foolproof. A slow-moving, shut blade can penetrate the defend. (Or a slow-moving dart in a later vital Dune scene.) So if you wish to kill an opponent carrying a physique defend, like a Sardukar or high-ranking noble, it’s important to stand up shut and private with a blade. Your gun isn’t as helpful as you assume!

Additionally some knives, just like the Fremen’s crysknife, is a sacred object. Crysknives are taked from the enamel of the good sandworm, giving them an additional oomph of honor and non secular status.

In order that’s why there are “no” weapons in Dune. It’s as a result of it’s smarter, and objectively cooler, to struggle in shut quarters.

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