It goes like this.
Ill stick to info you can glean from the 3rd book and previous, so no spoilers.
The changing of Arrakis from a desert planet will eventually kill all the worms, and therefore all the spice, leaving humans without the ability to travel interstellar distances. Every single planet would be completely cut off.
You cant just stop the desert changes, its too late, it WILL happen. The sandtrout are related to the worms, they are the little-makers. Worms before they turn into worms. This mentioned in the movies.
The only way for Leto to save the worms, and therefore the spice, was to absorb the sandworms into a protective coat. Only in this way, according to his vision, could humanity avoid being cut off on their own planets, and vulnerable to their ancient enemy, which I wont go into.
The sacrifice was losing his humanity in the process, but he sacrificed this to save the entire human race.
And yeah its unclear.
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bikebryan
17 years ago
You have a very limited view though.
The Golden Path was about keeping mankind from ever being dominated from one source ever again. To keep humans from being exterminated.
It was known that Dune would become green, but it was because of PEOPLE's actions, not just Leto II or the Fremen and dumping water onto the planet. They actively kept the sandtrout from locking up water. Had they not done this Arrakis would have always been desert.
Nor was this about Spice. Under the Tyrant (Leto II) travel was severely restricted, fueling the people's desire to leave their planets when they could. He opressed them, fueling their desires to ever be opressed again. Once he died, and his pearls of conciousness fueled a new race of worms, the people finally were freed from his tyranny and burst forth from the old empire, hence the scattering. They travelled so far that it was guaranteed that mankind would never be exterminated or dominated by one ruler ever again.
Do you doubt any of this? I know I'm leaving the first three books here, but in Chapterhouse they transported the last worm to Chapterhouse and there allowed it to disintegrate into sandtrout, which they turned loose on the rich green planet. That planet was being converted to desert by those very sandtrout with no help from the population - it's just what sandtrout do.
They also do not need worms for Melange. The Axlotl tanks produce all they could need, and the Guild Navigators no longer hold a stranglehold on transport as Ix has produced machines capable of navigating foldspace.
These books were never really intended to be read separately. To truly understand the entire thing, you really need to read the ENTIRE series. Heretics really provided the best glimpse of what Leto meant by setting humanity on the Golden Path.
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Worhsipper
17 years ago
Going on about the rest of the dune books when someone is asking a question about the miniseries, which go up to Children, is not that helpful.
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bikebryan
17 years ago
Yes, I agree.
I was just brining up that you can't just read a "few" of the books and see the bigger picture, especially if you want to understand Leto II and the Golden Path.
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maniacmatt89
16 years ago
I agree completely with you on the reason's for Leto's oppression AKA Leto's Peace, which led to the scattering to ensure humanity will never be under one beings control again. Also do not forget though when Leto took the sandtrout onto him, ensuring that all future sandworms would be his "children" Leto changed the worm so that it will be able to adapt on other planets, otherwise the worms would never have thrived on Chapterhouse.
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