Digdug,
no comprende
which dune versions are you talking about for d1 or d2?
movie dune? tv dune? picard Dune?
back to dune 2021:
why go through all this facade just to take down Duke Leto?
why not just wipe him out at his home planet and save the $billions$ in expense?
(i havent read the books and dont remember past dune productions)
D
1 is obviously Lynch's
1984 Dune.
D
2 is Villeneuve's
2021 Dune.
Both Gedi Prime and Caladan are off-limits to any kind of war. The current state-of-affairs of the empire is called the Landsraad, a group of houses each representing their own planet. There are complex rules in place for warfare, as a result of the period of instability following the Butlerian Jihad and the subsequent War Of Assassins.
Harkonnen invading Caladan is a no-no.
None of the .. none of the MAJOR houses actually cares - Herbert only names a few, but it is understood that there are as many as there are populated planets - but it's pro-forma, even the Harkonnen don't want to be seen breaking the rules.
Note that the Harkonnen are deeply in bed with the Emperor.
In the book, the whole reason for the hatred between Harkonnen and Atreides is a long-standing feud; in the Lynch version (praise be his name) the Atreides have developed the Weirding Module technology, which allows non-Gessertis to use the Voice, which would dominate in the aforementioned world of holtzman shields.
The Atreides are also substantially less dicks to everyone which is why some of the Landsraad would back them for a claim to the throne. The position of Emperor is elective.
You really need to go back a bit to understand the background of Dune. In the beginning, there is a sprawling universe populated by mankind, in a state of splendour. They eventually degenerate into little more than open mouths, and eventually a galaxy-wide religious rebellion explodes, called Butlerian Jihad. This results in the destruction of every intelligent machine, AI, or any sort of sophisticated computer, and plunges the gamaxy into a dark age, regressing to feudalism.
Following the Jihad, humanity starts to assemble into Houses and Guilds - although i use the term "guild" meaning a group of people, so for instance, the Bene Gesserit are a "bene", or a guild. Also, to compensate for the lack of AI, these guilds develop human talents to replace the thinking machines. So you got guilds that dedicate themselves to being human computers (Mentats), warrior guilds like the Sardaukar, the Navigator guild, etc.
Again at the same time there is a long period called the Assassin's War, where non-intelligentg but still sophisticated machines are used to target individual nobles. After several thousand years of extremely bloody conflict, the Landsraad has stabilized; therefore, general fuckery is NOT welcome because nobody wants to go back to the War. Same reason why the Hunter Seeker is important, it's forbidden technology.
The entire universe of Dune is set into a milieu of obscurantism, similar to what WH40K has (minus the orks). Ignorance abunds, technology cannot be replaced, etc.
Finally, there is a subplot where the Bene Gesserit have both been manipulating native cultures to create a common "saviour" myth, and at the same time manipulating the bloodlines of various Landsraad nobles so that at a certain time, they know the combination of genes will produce a supreme human, the Quizats Haderach, whom the Bene Gesserit want to control.
Paul was meant to be a female. B.G. have various powers, including chosing what sex to procreate. Lady Jessica was planned to birth a girl - she is a concubine, NOT a wife - but fell in love with Leto and to please him she birthed a boy. Obviously the B.G. are not at all happy about this ..