Ill-advised emperors: Paul Atreides and Jacen Solo
Looked at Paul of Dune in a bookstore today, and thought, wow, let's not be subtle with milking as much money as we can out of dead author's saga. (Surely if Frank Herbert wanted to write the story of Paul's conversion from godlike saviour to omnipowerful tyrant he would have, I don't know, chosen to set the sequel to Dune straight after it instead of X number of years on?) But it got me thinking about the potential similarities between Paul and Jacen -- both fell from an esteemed 'saviour' role to the role of a tyrant through an obsession with something only they could see, trapped in the martyrdom they'd created for themselves, willingly isolated, tainted by their egocentricity.
At least I think that's what Jacen's fall was supposed to be about, even if it had the strange problem of being both too drawn out and occurring over too compressed a timeframe. He and Paul aren't that far apart in terms of core personality, from the decent beginning to the ruthless end. Of course, this being Star Wars EU, Jacen's fall had to involve epic stupidity and pointless gestures to make it clear Jacen is unmistakably evil, because subtlety and shades of moral grey might be too confusing for the poor readers.
I'd ponder this more in depth, but it's been an age since I last read Dune and Dune Messiah is a few hazy memories of Paul considering hooking up with his sister to protect the purity of the line (there was more to the book, I know, but that stuck out for some reason -- seriously, Paul, get out more). I was thinking about re-reading because it's been so long, but, well, light reading the Dune series is not. Maybe in a few weeks once assignments are done, unless procrastination calls.
At least I think that's what Jacen's fall was supposed to be about, even if it had the strange problem of being both too drawn out and occurring over too compressed a timeframe. He and Paul aren't that far apart in terms of core personality, from the decent beginning to the ruthless end. Of course, this being Star Wars EU, Jacen's fall had to involve epic stupidity and pointless gestures to make it clear Jacen is unmistakably evil, because subtlety and shades of moral grey might be too confusing for the poor readers.
I'd ponder this more in depth, but it's been an age since I last read Dune and Dune Messiah is a few hazy memories of Paul considering hooking up with his sister to protect the purity of the line (there was more to the book, I know, but that stuck out for some reason -- seriously, Paul, get out more). I was thinking about re-reading because it's been so long, but, well, light reading the Dune series is not. Maybe in a few weeks once assignments are done, unless procrastination calls.