Now we come to the penultimate Dune review. One thing I need to address before I go on, this review breaks one of my rules. By this, I mean this miniseries covers the second and third books. According to my own rules, I would separate this into two different reviews, but last year I put off all the books I wanted to review onto the next year. This led to me to scheduling the entire year in one sitting. So, this is what we are doing.

“The 2003 SYFY miniseries Children of Dune adapts Frank Herbert’s second and third novels. Set years after the events of the original Dune, it follows Paul Atreides’ superpowered twin children as they navigate an unstable empire, face political assassination attempts, and confront a rapidly terraforming Arrakis”

This was an incredible adaptation of these two books, and I truly enjoyed seeing most of the actors coming back to continue their roles.

Episode 1, They made two changes from the book in order to make these two stories work together as one miniseries. Firstly, it is making Princess Wensicia Corrino the villain and main conspirator for this episode. In the book, Princess Irulan is part of the conspiracy against Paul. But in this adaptation, we have Princess Wensicia Corrino from the third book to be behind this one, too. Also, we see that she has always been a bad Mom.

Secondly, Leto II: this is an interesting example of “this is a change from the book, but I don’t care because it’s done well.” By this, I mean in the book, Paul cannot see people who have some sort of prescience; this is why, when Paul looked into the future, he didn’t see his son. But they didn’t make this rule in the show. And seeing that Paul’s abilities mean he can communicate with his ancestors, it is really cool to see him get contacted by his son, who hasn’t been born yet.

I enjoy the impressive way that Channi and Princess Irulan are portrayed. In this episode, we see Channie work out why she is having trouble conceiving and confronts Princess Irolan. On that same note, we see our princess regrets what she did.

When it comes to Paul’s blindness, in the book his eyes melted, but in the show, they just go with black contacts. I have heard this referred to as a drawback, but I prefer the choice this show has made.

Now, on a more critical side, we don’t hear the damage that his crusade has caused. All we see is one war scene, unlike in the book, where Paul compares his rule to Genghis Khan and Hitler. The fact that we do not see this comparison makes Paul and his rulership much less complicated.

Episode 2, I find it a bit creepy that Leto and Ghanima act like they are one person, both because they talk like one person and the way they change emotions at the same time.

Ok, now I need to talk about how they aged up the twins in the show. They are 17 instead of 10. This gives an explanation for all the urgency. After all, if the twins are abominations, Jessica needs to stop them from taking the throne. It also makes the idea of a wedding feel less gross.

The Preacher is completely obvious that he is Paul, they killed the revel. It is a mystery for most of the book, but in the show, he is recognised by his voice and face.

Episode 3, so these episodes do not have any nudity. But who decided that James McAvoy would be shirtless 70% of the time? I mean, I’m not complaining, but it makes it a bit more obvious that he is way too pale for someone who is supposed to live on a desert planet.

The fact that we see the conversation between Paul and Leto is very sweet because this is the first time since Leto was born that they have met in real life. But also the awareness that they have, they are the only people in the universe that could hope to understand each other.

Something that I find interesting is that we see that the worm transformation is taking longer than in the book. After all, the sand trout covering his whole body would look a bit too horrific. On the other hand, it does mean that people can see something is changing instead of looking like a weird stillsuit.

The Baron speaking to Alia is completely weird in the way that he is moving around her and speaking in her head. Throughout the series, we have Alia hearing the voices constantly, even before he showed up. This explained why the Barons’ offer of protection makes sense.

Thank you for joining me; it was so much fun to look at the only adaptation of these books until December. Until next week.

Happy reading to all, and to all a good night.