Dune: Prophecy wasted relatively little time trying to differentiate itself from the films. In the first season premiere of dune In the prequel series, war is violently declared with the murder of probably the youngest person ever murdered on screen in director Denis Villeneuve’s Murder dune Universe.
Set over 10,000 years before the events of the films, Dune: Prophecy focuses largely on the invisible influence of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood under the rule of Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson). The first episode, aptly titled “Hidden Hand,” reveals the murderous origins of the Bene Gesserit and their plans to create the right family associations to keep the sisterhood in power. At this time, House Corrino was the ruling family of the Empire, having defeated the thinking machines that were feared would one day enslave humanity. Through silent communication and duplicitous advice to Emperor Javicco Corrino (played with unwavering stoicism by The penguin(‘s Mark Strong) by his fortune teller and confidant Kasha (Jihae), we see how the hidden hand of the Bene Gesserit moves the pieces on the chessboard at will, with deadly consequences.
Every event in the dune The film takes place during the war. If you walk through the dunes of Arrakis like a normal human, you can be devoured by a sandworm in moments, and a simple rebuttal to the fearsomely hairless Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen (Austin Butler) can slit your throat faster than you can slit hers be able to finish the sentence. Brutality has always been used in films to never let the audience forget that it is a matter of life and death. Dune: Prophecy takes this to a level we’ve never seen in the films.
Desmond Hart and Pruwet Richese determine the shares Dune: Prophecy
Poor little Pruvet. He just wanted to play with his absolutely adorable, potentially deadly, AI-controlled lizard. As the nine-year-old Richese heir, he is used as a pawn in the strategic alliance between his family and the imperial House of Corrino. Emperor Corrino needs the Richese fleet of ships to protect his spice operation on Arrakis from the Fremen, and the duplicitous Duke Ferdinand Richese (Brendan Cowell) wants influential proximity to the Great Houses, so a marriage is arranged between the teenage Pruwet and the full-grown man Princess Ynez (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina) is supposed to unite the families with the secret help of the Bene Gesserit.
Unfortunately for Pruwet, he becomes the victim of an invisible war that, according to Soldier Desmond Hart, is being waged against the Bene Gesserit’s manipulative influence on everyone’s actions. Just as death can come quickly and suddenly in the films, Pruwet no longer clings to every word of Hart’s war stories, instead writhing in pain as we see his skin begin to burn. Yes, apparently for the first time in Villeneuves dune In-universe, a child is murdered… and we see it happen.
Strictly speaking, this is not the first time that children have been killed in this series, as it can be assumed that some of them died when Feyd-Rautha bombed Sietch Tabr, which was inhabited by hundreds of Fremen. However, we never see any of the children’s deaths, nor was a single child the subject of a murder on screen. Children were seen in the films but rarely heard. In Dune: Prophecyeven children can be taken out when it comes to winning the war.
Why did Desmond Hart kill Pruwet Richese?
To simplify the reasoning behind this shocking murder: Pruwet was killed by Hart because of his AI-controlled lizard toy. Beyond this isolated incident, Pruwet was murdered because Hart suspected that an attack on his regime and the theft of the Corrino family’s shipment of spices were being carried out to inspire their emperor to enlist the Richese’s fleet for protection and thus bring the family get closer to the Great Houses through marriage. When Hart shared his report on the spice factory attack, which he suspiciously had not learned about from Kasha, he noted that the equipment used in the attack was from the outside world. This toy and the Richese’s practical marriage proposal were enough for Hart to believe they were behind the attack.
For this reason, we also see Kasha suffer the same burning fate as Pruvet. Hart feels that the Bene Gesserit are manipulating powerful people like the Corrino Emperor for their own ulterior motives. Pruwet’s death effectively dissolves the partnership between the families and removes them from the Corrino family, where they can cause untold damage.
We still don’t know the true consequences of Hart’s actions, nor how he was able to kill both people in the same way while only being next to one of them. But if the series premiere is willing to cross a moral line that the films never explicitly touched on, we can expect to find out in graphic detail just how brutal this war can get.