I wasn't happy they maintained that silliness that Herbert's son wrote about how there were actual "AI Overlords" who conquered Humanity until the Jihad, because Frank's idea wasn't your typical "Terminator future" thing but just about how humans had become too apathetic and let machines do everything for them.
Yes and no. Not sure which book specifies this since it's been an age since my last re-read; but as I recall the general idea was that the thinking machines were used as tools of mass oppression and enslavement by a small of powerful humans. At least initially. There may have been a point where even those became unwittingly ensnared into the control of the thinking machines though sheer decadent indolence. Point being that by allowing the machines to do much of their thinking for them, humanity left itself vulnerable to whomever controlled those machines. Either way, yeah; the silly and rather dim AI super-villains from the prequel novels most certainly wasn't what Frank Herbert had in mind.
Somewhere between 'The Matrix' and the the Reapers from 'Mass Effect' is probably much closer to the path humanity was on before the war. Personally I've never really bought into the idea of a fully independent AI having any interest in killing all humans, much less bothering to exterminate them. Most likely they'd just take off for deep space to go create a Jupiter Brain Dyson Swarm around a black hole or something, and let the dumb monkeys have their tiny, damp, meaningless rock.
In fairness to the show, what little they showed/explained is vague enough to be interpreted either way. Whether those stompy death machines were ultimately serving distant human overlords, or Space Skynet seems immaterial to the show thus far.
And Hart...does he have some kind of Pyrokinesis powers? Is that how he killed the boy?
I assumed it was some kind of delayed poison; maybe contaminated spice. The nobility are all addicts, so it wouldn't shock me if they're starting them young.
Personally I was more bothered by the fact it was even possible for *anyone*, much less a soldier that looks like he just stumbled arse backwards out of a pub at 3am get within spitting distance of the Emperor's new son-in-law without contending with a small army of personal bodyguards. But then it also felt dumb that any kind of thinking machine device could be smuggled into the Imperial Palace, much less in a room with the Emperor of The Know Universe without being detected, much, much less by a damned 9 year old. This is after all a culture where concealed poisons sniffers built into personal jewellery is par for the course. So it's just dumb all the way down.
However, I also feel like it's trying too hard to be overly complex a la Dune (and yes, Game of Trhones) with a plethora of characters, all with their own little plots and machinations
I'd say it's more busy than complex. Indeed so far it's been almost asininely simple in terms of the plot.
So the Bene Gesserit want to install one of their own on the throne?*
Dumb, but OK. And to do that they need to position the Princess (who they haven't trained yet, much less control) to marry into House Richese (anyone else bothered by how they were pronouncing that?), and the Emperor is letting Richese essentially roll him like this because he needs their warships to control Arrakis? That's it!? That's the whole plan? The Imperium's Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe can't think of any other way of leveraging *one* shipment of warships from one of his own subjects than marrying off his daughter and effectivly handing Richese the Corrino dynasty?
There's no feints or counter-feints here. No giving Richese enough rope to hang themselves with and making off with the prize. No offering them a partial fief of Arrakis in exchange for their ships, forcing them to choose between turning down extreme wealth, and becoming a convenient skape-goat for the rest of the Landsraad if spice produciton continues to drop on their watch.
Richese even tries to push their luck by demanding a whole damn wing of the Palace to themselves. Why make such a blatant move? Getting one of their own on the throne is all the victory they need. Once he's of age, it's a fait accompli. Hell, that little incident with the robo-lizard was the perfect oppertunity for an easy win! House Richese smuggled a *thinking machine* into the Emperor's presence! That alone should have given him more than addiquare cause to declare Richese a heretical renegade House; take their entire ruling family (who are all *right there* in the room) hostage, order all of their assets seized, (including those damn ships!) and install some other house on Richese. Problem solved! It's not even a deliberate move by Richese to make the Emperor overreact. It comes across as totally random, and just an excuse to show how weak the Emperor is that he can be cowed before his own court.
These aren't chess moves, it's checkers with half a board and most of the pieces missing.
* I can't even begin to express how very un-Bene Gesserit this idea is. Their whole thing is being the power behind the throne. Directly grabbing the reigns like that is something they wisely avoid like the plague until Leto II forces them to with The Scattering. Just like the Spacing Guild, the Sisterhood recognises that openly taking power like that will doom whoever holds it. Better to make themselves both indispensable and ostensibly neutral, so they can pull the strings without taking any direct fire. And so what if they get one of their own on the throne? What does that even get them? They're trying to breed a super-being that can transcend time and space to ensure humanity's future for all time, not making a grab for power for power's sake.
Well, it's apparently based on the Waldorf & Stadler series of books so expectations have to be significantly lowered when you have read Frank's books. I have and was not immediately repulsed by it so it worked. They have some top talent in the show, i hope the writing will match the talent and if it does we will get a decent show out of it.
I assure you my
expectations of the source material were suitably low. That doesn't mean I'm willing to lower my standards just because the spin-off books were crap. The onus is on the showrunners to improve on poor source material, not maintain a low level of quality.
No signs of Mentats or Navigators.
