this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2025
1 points (100.0% liked)
TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name
5518 readers
48 users here now
/c/TenForward: Your home-away-from-home for all things Star Trek!
Re-route power to the shields, emit a tachyon pulse through the deflector, and post all the nonsense you want. Within reason of course.
~ 1. No bigotry. This is a Star Trek community. Remember that diversity and coexistence are Star Trek values. Any post/comments that are racist, anti-LGBT, or generally "othering" of a group will result in removal/ban.
~ 2. Keep it civil. Disagreements will happen both on lore and preferences. That's okay! Just don't let it make you forget that the person you are talking to is also a person.
~ 3. Use spoiler tags. This applies to any episodes that have dropped within 3 months prior of your posting. After that it's free game.
~ 4. Keep it Trek related. This one is kind of a gimme but keep as on topic as possible.
~ 5. Keep posts to a limit. We all love Star Trek stuff but 3-4 posts in an hour is plenty enough.
~ 6. Try to not repost. Mistakes happen, we get it! But try to not repost anything from within the past 1-2 months.
~ 7. No General AI Art. Posts of simple AI art do not 'inspire jamaharon'
~ 8. No Political Upheaval. Political commentary is allowed, but please keep discussions civil. Read here for our community's expectations.
Fun will now commence.
Sister Communities:
Want your community to be added to the sidebar? Just ask one of our mods!
Creator Resources:
Looking for a Star Trek screencap? (TrekCore)
Looking for the right Star Trek typeface/font for your meme? (Thank you @kellyaster for putting this together!)
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The name Harkonnen (though Finnish) was chosen because it sounds Russian. However, no, it isn't really a US VS Soviet story. It's about systems. It's about ecology, power, and freedom. If you only read Dune then I can see how you could think that, but the other books give you a lot more information.
Arrakis is terraformed, and this disrupts the ecosystem of Shai-hulud, which destroys spice production. It also destroys Fremen culture, with people teaching what the Fremen were like, but not really knowing.
Paul and, to an even further extent, Lato II are aggressive dictators. They destroys people's freedom, with the end goal to create people who can't be predicted who rebel, because that's the only way (that they can see) to guarantee freedom for humanity.
I addition to this, the Harkonnen are really just there as a subversion. Paul's grandfather, as he learns in Dune, is the Baron Harkonnen, so he is a Harkonnen. This really destroys any message about it being one side VS the other.
It's about systems. Paul was systematically bread. The Harkonnen and Atreides were used by the emperial system to maintain control and order (although this failed). The system of ecology keeps Arrakis in balance, and the people live in harmony with it. Systems of control prevent people from being free.
That was an interesting analysis, thanks! I feel it also reinforces my original observation. The East India Company was nothing, if not a system of control that ultimately failed.