Before we get into it, I feel the need to preface everything I’m about to say by confessing that I liked the series premier.

After Disney’s disastrous handling of Star Wars, I was afraid that HBO would create a similarly shallow product, trying to capitalize on the popularity of Dune and ignoring the generations of fans that know and care about this universe.

I’ve pressed play with clenched cheeks and was happy to relax thanks to the great design, the production value, the CGI reminiscent of Villeneuve’s movies, etc. I loved (almost) all of the cast, especially Mark Strong’s subtle portrayal of a weak ruler and Emily Watson’s ability to contain arguably the most powerful character of this time.

I know, understand and am happy to overlook combining and compressing characters and story lines - the writers are obviously constrained by both the medium and the six episode run of the season. (I do have some notes on the rather long exposition in the first five minutes, which reminded me of Irulan’s exposition dump in the ‘84 Lynch movie, but hey, we got through it.)

All this to say: I’m a fan.

And so I’m not trying to split hairs when I say that there was one thing that didn’t make sense.

“More and more people question if we were quick to discard the machines” - says zealous bearded person, Desmond Hart.

I’m sorry, what? I dare him to show us a single person who thinks that in the known universe.

Here’s why.

Before the machine wars, humanity was oppressed and ruled tyrannically by thinking machines for almost 1100 years. The machine wars themselves (or as they’re known throughout the books, the Butlarian Jihad or the Great Revolt) lasted 93 years. In those 93 years billions have died.

One of the last and most deadly attacks by the thinking machines was a biological weapon that decimated the human worlds - 20 years after humanity was able to suppress the virus, only about one third of the population remained.

I understand that the events in this series play out more than a century after the conclusion of the machine wars, but I don’t believe that this would be enough time for anyone to pine for the “good old days.” Twelve centuries of human suffering across all the worlds of the Imperium and you’re telling me people want their robot AI geckos?

Doubt it.

If anything, we know from the books that there’s an extremist minority that would see all technology destroyed - think interplanetary Luddites. So yes, House Richese might be the technological power house of the Imperium at this time, but not even they would dare to venture into AI territory.

There are plenty of reasons why a relatively new empire might be unstable, but nostalgia for robot overlords wouldn’t be one of them. The commandments of the Butlarian Jihad are part of the Orange Catholic Bible:

Heresy = Death

“And why only the great houses profit from spice” - says zealous bearded person, Desmond Hart.

Much smaller detail and by far not as world-breaking as the one above, but this is a gross oversimplification of the established rules of economics. Interplanetary commerce in the Dune universe is controlled by an organisation called CHOAM.

Imagine a galaxy-wide corporation with the Great Houses of the Landsraad as major shareholders and the Emperor as CEO. Economic power is determined through one’s role in CHOAM.

This is why it was a big deal in Paul’s time that House Atreides received a CHOAM directorship when they were tasked to take over Arrakis. And this is why Muad’Dib demanded Shaddam’s CHOAM shares at the end of Dune. He not only wanted political but also economic control over the known universe.