this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2026
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Here's a list of tons of leftist movies.
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it's weird to me when I see (and you haven't done this) people complain about the white savior thing in Dune. Paul is an unmitigated disaster for the fremen and it's really explicit that he's destroying their culture before he leads them on infinite war (I did not read the following books)
edit: realized this was possibly off topic cause I can't remember the movies vs the book, let me know if I should delete.
I’ll have to reserve any detailed comment about the white savior thing since I barely remember part 2. But from memory I remember it depicting the Fremen as being uncritical religious fanatics rather than a planetary civilization motivated by political economy. It doesn’t make sense to me that they can, at once, be responsible for perfect adaptation to the harsh desert environs, but lacking the collective intelligence to liberate themselves without a savior.
The books do a much better job of depicting this, but if I remember correctly, part of how the Fremen survived the occupation of Arrakis by the Imperium (who have massive spaceships capable of orbital bombardment) was by being fractured, secretive, and isolationist. I don’t think their lack of revolt, which ends horribly and is actually a condemnation of the white messiah trope, is meant to show their lack of collective intelligence, it is simply a byproduct of their survival methods and the technological gap between them and the Imperium.
Also, prior to Paul, I think their ultimate goal was the terraform Arrakis to a lush green planet, which is why they store water in their sietches. They did not have any ambitions beyond Arrakis, which is what it would ultimately take for them to secure the planet ironically.
The Fremen are portrayed with more agency and intelligence in part 2. But it's just the believers and non believers.
Yeah my critique of it isn't that vellenevue wants to make a white savior, and Herbert didn't either. But that the gaps left by subtext and lacking material explanations leaves a gap which can fill its opposite intended narrative easily. We can blame conservatives and libs for misreading art, or get serious that responsible art shouldn't allow itself to be useful in any way by enemies. Andor has no way to be read as positive to empire or settlers.