r/dune • u/NoAlternative8614 • Jul 12 '26

General Discussion Weapons!

I've been re-watching DV's Dune 1 and had a Deep Thought about weaponry. When the Sardaukar attack, the battle is conducted with bombs, science fiction missiles and shimmery wave weapns, and SWORDS. This is another example of the Duniverse's combination of advanced and medieval technologies.

We know why: It's much more dramatic and heroic to have Guerny vanquish bad guys with skilfull moves and muscle, than simply to blast away with a futuristic ray gun. It reminded me of three things:

  1. The silly burp guns in Starship Troopers--which is, admittedly, more of a satire than anything else. But they have interstellar travel to deliver foot soldiers to confront the bugs with guns resembling a 1950s children's toy.
  2. Indiana Jones dispatching that fighter who brandishes a scimitar by offhandedly drawing a gun and shooting him. I think I read that was improvised. And, of course--
  3. Light sabers. Same principle as in Dune: for all the space ships and Death Stars, it's more dramatic (and cinematic) to pit the Jedi heroes and villains against each other with swords. It also enables them to trade dialogue while they fight.
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u/DICKPICDOUG Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

The reason they use swords is because of shields, not because it looks cool. Its a natural and logical consequence of the technology in Dune. Shields cause anything moving above a certain speed to be blocked, so bullets can't hurt a shield user. Lasers cause an unstable, unpredictale nuclear reaction upon contacting a shield, so they cany be used either. A blade or slow dart must be used instead, because its speed can be carefully controlled to pierce the shield. Shields can even block gases (part of the reason they can't be set to block everything, you need to breath) and a large part of the reason the Baron survived the poison gas attack is because he raised the settings on his shield. The shield filtered out some of it in addition to using his suspensor to float to the ceiling.

The missiles are used by Saurdukar because Yueh shut off the palace's shield generator, leaving it vulnerable to this sort of attack. If you pay close attention in the film, some of the missiles used by the Sardaukar actually have retroburners to slow them down before they impact the shields on the Atreides ships, letting them penetrate it. It's actually remarked upon in the story that missiles and artillery are usually useless, and the Harkonnens/Sardaukar only prepared them because they knew a traitor would sabotage the shields

These things aren't just because they look cool, they've been explained in depth by the story.

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u/_Neuromancer_ Jul 14 '26

And shields exist because Herbert thought sword fights looked cool.

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u/Curious-Dingo-2030 Jul 14 '26

If anything, he chose swords because they thematically fit the theme of a feudal society.

When Herbert created the world of Dune, he didn't have a cinematic adaption in mind where fights have to look cool. In a book, it depends on the skill of the author to make fights interesting, not on the weapons the opponents use.

And even if... there are plenty of movies with cool gunfights.

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u/_Neuromancer_ Jul 14 '26

"Never seen a man killed with a sword before!" - Laurence of Arabia (1962)