Amph "The Sleeper Has Awakened" - DUNE DISCUSSION-

I don’t see any stiffness in the characters, but to each their own.

 

Dune Antagonists by MattRhodesArt on DeviantArt

Spoiler

I finally gave in to the siren song of Dune and was dashed upon the rocks like so many concept artists before me. There just isn't time to render these, but I’m reasonably pleased with the linework, so here they are!

Some context: I fell into a Dune-hole recently which started by stumbling across the INCREDIBLE art from what would have been Jodorowsky’s Dune film. That inspired me to re-watch the David Lynch movie again (one of my favorites). At that point, I had to read the book again. In the middle of my read-through, I watched a couple Tarsem Singh movies and my brain made a connection that I couldn’t shake loose:

I want a 4 hour Dune movie designed by Tarsem Singh’s crew (production designer, art director, costume designer, cinematographer, etc…)

So, in order to get that thought out of my brain, I took a clumsy swing at designing the cast of Dune through the lens of Tarsem Singh’s crew. To me, that meant making each character an operatic or theatrical expression of their role in the story. Visual storytelling cranked to eleven.


Antagonists

Feyd-Rautha – His build reflects his regular gladiatorial training. I wanted the Harkonnen’s to look like they hung around in their robes all day. I also gave them a consistent jewelry motif that was part viper-pit, part “plans within plans within plans” like a diagram of nefarious connections.

The Beast Rabban – He’s an animal, even less restrained than the Baron. You can see that it’s only a matter of time before he competes with the Baron for sheer scale. He’s adorned himself with cruel trinkets, and what may have once been luxurious furs have become rank tatters through neglect and abuse.

The Baron Vladimir Harkonnen - …yup.

Piter De Vris – Like Thufir Hawat, Piter keeps his Juice of Sahpo within regular sipping distance. His “rig” is built up into a flimsy collar, meant to look arrogant and hint at his aspirations to rule.

Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV – His royal armor is designed to reflect his paranoia (the same paranoia that inspired him to us the Harkonnens to crush the Atreides). Physical descriptions compare him to Duke Leto, so I wanted him to look like a lesser version of the Duke. His armor plates are all given to him by the various guilds and houses he rules.



Sardaukar – The Emperor’s elite soldiers. Their crests reflect the emperors, but are all built from reclaimed prison bars from their hellish prison-homeworld, Salusa Secondis. I wanted them to look completely opposite to the Fremen. They’re big, bulky, heavily armored. The glimpse of armor you can see was designed to look like it would react TERRIBLY to sand.

Dune House Atreides on Caladan by MattRhodesArt on DeviantArt

Spoiler

I finally gave in to the siren song of Dune and was dashed upon the rocks like so many concept artists before me. There just isn't time to render these, but I’m reasonably pleased with the linework, so here they are!

Some context: I fell into a Dune-hole recently which started by stumbling across the INCREDIBLE art from what would have been Jodorowsky’s Dune film. That inspired me to re-watch the David Lynch movie again (one of my favorites). At that point, I had to read the book again. In the middle of my read-through, I watched a couple Tarsem Singh movies and my brain made a connection that I couldn’t shake loose:

I want a 4 hour Dune movie designed by Tarsem Singh’s crew (production designer, art director, costume designer, cinematographer, etc…)

So, in order to get that thought out of my brain, I took a clumsy swing at designing the cast of Dune through the lens of Tarsem Singh’s crew. To me, that meant making each character an operatic or theatrical expression of their role in the story. Visual storytelling cranked to eleven.


Caladan

I thought the Atreides on Caladan should look “water rich”. I wanted to design a visual language that looked like it was born out of generations of ruling a tropical paradise.

Dr. Yueh – The diamond mark of his conditioning becomes a mask, but it’s not %100 effective so it doesn’t cover one eye.

Thufir Hawat – The Juice of Sapho is held in a small vial near his mouth, always near him. He may once have fit his ceremonial armor better, but he’s no less dangerous.

Gurney Halleck – Patrick Stewart was perfect in this role, but in the book he’s described as being a pretty ugly guy. He has blades all over him, and his clothing is tied down tightly for sparring.

Paul – He wears the Atreides Hawke at his breast, with one “red wing” cape over his shoulder. He is dressed for life on his water-rich homeland.

Reverend Mother Helen Gaius Mohiam – She carries branching staff to represent diverging bloodlines. Her collar echoes the Emperor’s own crest. I wanted to design a motif for the Bene Gesserit with several meanings. Her hair is tonsured like a monk’s, but they wear a braided mohawk like a horses mane to make reference to their ongoing breeding program. They also wear fine chains connected to piercings from their eyes, ears and mouths. This is a visual representation of their constant focus on observation, listening and influence through speech.

Duke Leto – He is described as having a face like a bird of prey, so I exaggerated that. He wears the Atreides Hawke on his chest, with two red wing capes behind him.

The Lady Jessica – She has the Bene Gesserit hair (tonsured with a horses mane mowhawk) and piercings (connecting eyes, hears and mouth). She has a modified version of the Atreides Hawk crest, forming a more elegant cape.

Dune Arrakis by MattRhodesArt on DeviantArt

Spoiler

I finally gave in to the siren song of Dune and was dashed upon the rocks like so many concept artists before me. There just isn't time to render these, but I’m reasonably pleased with the linework, so here they are!

Some context: I fell into a Dune-hole recently which started by stumbling across the INCREDIBLE art from what would have been Jodorowsky’s Dune film. That inspired me to re-watch the David Lynch movie again (one of my favorites). At that point, I had to read the book again. In the middle of my read-through, I watched a couple Tarsem Singh movies and my brain made a connection that I couldn’t shake loose:

I want a 4 hour Dune movie designed by Tarsem Singh’s crew (production designer, art director, costume designer, cinematographer, etc…)

So, in order to get that thought out of my brain, I took a clumsy swing at designing the cast of Dune through the lens of Tarsem Singh’s crew. To me, that meant making each character an operatic or theatrical expression of their role in the story. Visual storytelling cranked to eleven.


Arrakis

To design the Fremen is to design the Stillsuit. To me, they were done perfectly in the David Lynch film, so I wanted to try to make a different statement. Fremen don’t care that they smell awful, they accept the realities of their lives, so I wanted to design a suit that didn't shy away from its vulgar processes. It’s designed to process piss, **** and sweat into drinkable water. Seeing a person in their stillsuit should almost feel like seeing them naked.

Stilgar – Sturdy, reliable, and pretty much a surrogate father to Paul.

Muad’Dib – I kept it simple. His outfit is just a stillsuit and the red wing cape of the Atreides.

Chani – Just draping the stillsuit with something asymmetrical and soft.

Alia – She wears little red Atreides wings and a Gom Jabbar.

Great Mother Jessica – Her Bene Gesserit mane is exaggerated in a fabric crest. She holds the water of life in a bottle that isn't meant to be put down.

Dune - The Tooth by MattRhodesArt on DeviantArt


Dune - Waters by MattRhodesArt on DeviantArt


Ambush by MattRhodesArt on DeviantArt

 

I read it in a day. Of course I was on holiday and had literally nothing else to do. I enjoyed it, but it is rather humourless and the style a bit pompous.

 

I cheat since I have it on audiobook

 

Audiobooks are great. You can read whilst doing boring stuff like walking or gardening or whatever.

 

I checked few reviews and I have no idea how some critics could find it boring or even slow.

 

Frankly, I agree, and Jacobin is also pro-imperialism.

 

it wasn’t difficult to read, it was boring to read, until the book’s tone clicked. Wonder when I reread if I’ll encounter the same problems in the first third

this is coming from someone who read fellowship when I was 10 if that says anything

 

WOW I love these and your style!!! Fantastic work!

 

Whao age 10!!! At 13 I couldn’t get through fellowship. Partly it was how different the tone was from the Hobbit and Bilbo being no longer being the main character. Also when Frodo and company get to the stone trolls - which I think is chapter 2 of hobbit.

At 21 I made it to Rivendell and loved the rest of the experience.

 

I just want to say I love the way Villeneuve does spaceships. More cylindrical spaceships please.

 

I think part of the issue of the series that people have is that you're introduced to the status quo in the first novel - the Spacing Guild, the Major Houses, the Corrinos, the Harkonnens, the Bene Gesserit - and then they are pretty much kicked to the curb. If you notice, the various video games and RPGs are all about the machinations of the Houses, not Paul's Empire or the reign of Leto II... much less the Honored Matres/Bene Gesserit ascendancy of the later books.

 

The Bene Gessirat show seems so interesting to me

 

How did the people in Dune fuel their ships before spice was discovered?

 

The same way as they do after.

The thing is that the Spacing Guild need the spice to be able to navigate the FTL travel, before that they used heretical machines

 

There’s a difference between being anti-authoritarian and being imperialist. Jacobin is right to call out Maduro, for example. It’s the weak-kneed wing of the socialist movement that’s not capable of criticizing authoritarians, socialist or otherwise, for fear of being labeled “imperialist” by their coffee shop friends.

 

Dune character art - Fremen and Imperial Sardaukar by SRegan on DeviantArt

Spoiler

A very, very long time ago I did a character sketch of Wellington Yueh, a doctor from Frank Herbert's Dune. At the time I intended this to be the first of a series of character designs from the book, which is one of my all-time favourite sci-fi/fantasy novels, however I never got around to doing more. Seven or so years later, I sketched out a few further designs to coincide with my latest entry on The Back-Up Blog - Adapting the Unadaptable, Part 2, Dune.

I started out with perhaps the two most iconic combatants from the book - the Fremen insurgents, and the Sardaukar, the imperial guard of the Padishah Emperor. OK, I tell a slight lie. I actually started off with Paul Atreides, the main protagonist (not a Fremen, but hiding out with them after his family get thrown out of power), then decided to go generic and do a standard Burseg officer for the Sardaukar.

My thought processes when designing these two:

- Fremen: David Lynch's Dune featured Fremen in organic-looking shiny black wetsuits with no hoods or breathing apparatus. They looked intimidating, but would fry the unfortunate wearer in an instant out in a low-moisture salt flat. The Sci Fi Channel mini-series was closer to the mark, with its hoods and cloaks, but unfortunately ended up sacrificing any sense of menace or indeed competence in the process (one reviewer called it Lounge Wear). Fanart frequently gives them futuristic exoskeletons with glowy bits, like Iron Man's suit, which feels very wrong given the low-tech, run-down feel of the setting. The only book cover art to depict them makes them bright blue and gives them KKK hoods, which while certainly intimidating does rather muddle the metaphors. I wanted to create something with just enough high-tech to indicate that this is a futuristic environmental suit, while also keeping a natural feel in-keeping with the traditional lifestyle of the Fremen. The alternate hood, though not in the book, is a lot closer to how a real stillsuit would look, with a fully enclosed face and UV-resistant goggles. This could be worn by Fremen regulars in the background and implied to be worn by the main cast off-screen.

- Imperial Sardaukar: Probably one of the most memorable enemy mooks in all of sci-fi, the Sardaukar are given a legendary rep in the book, and, unlike Star Wars' Storm Troopers, they generally manage to live up to it. Unfortunately, this hasn't carried over to previous adaptations. Lynch makes an effort to make the Sardaukar badass, even showing one dispatching several Fremen single-handedly before he at last succumbs, but chose to dress them in an industrial waste hazard suit with glowing green faces. The mini-series is even worse - in an obvious attempt to suggest the Pope's Swiss Guard they have floppy hats and iridescent chestpieces. Jodorowsky's abandoned adaptation would have given them gimp masks and mohawks. For my design I wanted something between an SS officer (as the cruel, supercilious but brutally efficient agents of a totalitarian empire), a US marine (as the technologically advanced force invading a desert world) and an Ottoman Janissary (as the elite protectors of the Emperor). The idea that they have a mask is solid, as otherwise people would start to ask why no-one recognised them if they were supposed to be levies from the existing houses (when in fact they are entirely drawn from Salusa Secundus, a 'hell world' not unlike Arrakis, but a cratered wasteland rather than desert); I went for a simple balaclava, the design recalling pulp hero The Shadow as well as more recent bogeymen including ISIS mujahideen. I left in a couple of nods to the mini-series design for the Harkonnen - the flaps of the body armour recall haidate and the helm is a fusion of a German WW2 helmet and Edo-era samurai.

I've added additional designs for the Atreides and Harkonnen.

Dune character art - Atreides and Harkonnen by SRegan on DeviantArt

Spoiler

See alternate versions with game and miniseries colour schemes here

Continuing my recent forays into the world of Dune character design, a pair of generic Atreides and Harkonnen. You can read a little about my general thought process approaching these designs in my post on The Back-Up Blog: Adapting the Unadaptable: Part 2, Dune. That said, I'm not entirely happy with these designs and may well revisit them; they straddle an odd place between the heraldic book!Dune and trying to salvage a recognisable visual language from the Lynch movie and Sci-Fi miniseries.

My thoughts specific to these two:

- Atreides: Although the Atreides are unquestionably the 'good guys' in Dune, it should be noted the seeds of their downfall lay in their insistence on imposing their own 'civilised' values on the city-dwelling Arrakeen. They are the 'better' sort of colonialist - the paternalist who believes they know best - but colonialists none the less. Accordingly, I allowed details of their uniforms to be supplied by British colonial infantry. The Atreides claim Greek descent from Old Earth, and as such Greek uniforms from WW1 and WW2 have found their way into the mix. In the book, Atreides uniforms are stated to be black, and their black and green battle flag suggests a dark green offset. This wouldn't make too much sense in a desert environment, but it might be desirable to show the Atreides as fish-literally-out-of-water. I've produced another version with a faded desert camo. The touch of red came straight from Lynch, albeit modified from odd cybernetic-looking trims to straps. As I mention in my blog entry, one of the unique features of Dune is that it's an oddly low-tech future; there are no computers due to religious taboo, with human savants (the mentats) and the mind-expanding properties of melange substituting for it. Accordingly, for me lasguns have to be big, heavy weapons, possibly even fired from a tripod in a nod to the jezail. The colour of the Atreides hawk seems rather confused in canon. For me, God-Emperor has the definitive word:

"The man wore the old Atreides uniform, black with a golden hawk at the left breast."I can see why people favour red - it's Red vs. Blue, with the red hawk vs the blue griffin of the Harkonnen - however it doesn't seem to be the case, unless the insignia is gold but the family crest is red (entirely possible).

- Harkonnen: The challenge with the Harkonnen is to create an enemy you love to hate without making them too cartoonishly evil - or conversely, making them appear more competent or imposing than the Imperial Sardaukar, who are the Fremen's real opposite number in Dune. The movie's depiction, giving them fully enclosed shiny black armour made them too Stormtrooper-y (while putting the Sardaukar, inexplicably, into hazardous waste disposal suits) and failed to give them individual character. The Sci-Fi depiction went even further, turning them into Mempo-wearing samurai. My notion was to reflect their seedy, mercenary nature by giving them an almost paramilitary look. Elements from the French Foreign Legion and WW2 Italian troops combine to suggest they are stylish, showy killers, but not the faceless, disciplined Sardaukar. That said, Giedi Prime is smoggy and polluted, and a gas mask makes sense as something the Harkonnen would use to protect themselves from extreme climates; I went for a small, insectoid-looking rebreather rather than a full head mask. The final element I stirred into the mix was that of a torreador's jacket and sleeves - a nod to the Harkonnen love of arena bloodsports. The jacket contains ceramic plates that clink against the shoulder plates as they walk - allowing them to satisfy the book's line where Baron Harkonnen asks why an officer is 'rattling (his) armor' at him. He wields one of the most distinctive short-range firearms in the book - a fletchette pistol (depicted here as a futuristic officer's pepperbox rather than a semi-automatic), firing darts just below the threshold of a personal shield. A stiletto struck me as an appropriately vicious close quarters weapon. Like the Atreides he wears a half shield projector on his off-hand. I was unable to choose between the Frank Herbert blue griffin and the prequel/games' bull - my compromise is that the former is used as a crest and the latter as a mere decorative emblem. The colours of the Harkonnen uniform are blue and white, as per the book, although I do have an alternate version I'll upload in red (as seen in the games and mini-series).

Rabban Harkonnen by SRegan on DeviantArt

Spoiler

Previous work in this series:
Baron Harkonnen
Feyd-Rautha
Paul Atreides (Fremen Stillsuit), Sardaukar
Atreides and Harkonnen uniforms
Wellington Yueh

Rabban gave me some difficulty - he's not clearly described in the book and it's tempting to fall into some assumptions previous adaptations have made. Book Rabban is not clearly stated to be a tall or strong character (indeed, he is described as 'low built', which could suggest he is a rather short, toadlike character) and unlike his brother does not have any fight scenes; he is described by the Baron as a 'muscle-minded tank-brain', which is not, in fact, a physical appearance, but a comment about his personality. We also need to bear in mind that, although adaptations have made him into a glorified henchman, he is the ruler of Arrakis at the start of the novel and returned to power after the Harkonnen attack. While an incompetent ruler, this would seem to suggest some base level of capability not found in, say, the Lynch version, who I can't imagine in any kind of leadership role. He is certainly a brutal colonialist (counter-productively so - worth reflecting that none of the Dune saga happens if Rabban is restrained enough to avoid tanking spice production and the Emperor has no excuse to remove the fief from the Harkonnens), but 'incompetent due to excessive brutality' is not quite the same as 'incompetent and brutal'.

My take on Rabban is that he fancies himself a conquering warlord, and dresses himself in a (somewhat undersized and non-standard) Harkonnen military uniform paired with a traditional cloak used by Arakeen rulers and an ornate heavy executioner's sword. He's not a fighter, but all this pomp is in aid of making people think he's dangerous - feeding into our conception of the Harkonnen trait as fundamentally being about falseness and inauthenticity.

Some notes on adaptations:
The concept art from Jodorowsky's abortive Dune depicts Rabban as a comical figure in colourful robes, with what appears to be a nightcap with bells and the effeminate makeup of the other Harkonnens. He is described as "Dictator, idiot, criminal, hermaphrodite"; the last addition apparently being one of Jodorowsky's rather lurid obsessions, together with Duke Leto having been castrated in a bullfight.
Lynch's 1984 version presents Rabban as a chuckling, slimy henchman figure in the same blue-grey armour as Feyd. The designer appears to have understood the description 'gross of face and body' in the sense of 'ugly' rather than 'big'.
The Sci-Fi mini-series presents Rabban as a plausible enforcer for the Baron but depicts him as especially dim-witted. He wears a rather strange 'barbarian' outfit with partial leather armour.
The most recent version puts Dave Bautista in the role and radically plays up his physical threat, making him the main immediate antagonist of the first film, with black power armour. While not a bad idea in a multi-film franchise where you have the room to expand on the character, I've already covered my feelings on the Harkonnen redesign, apparently inspired by the Killzone antagonists.

Description from the book:
"The man who stood outside the doorfield of the Baron's bedchamber was low built, gross of face and body, with the Harkonnen paternal line's narrow-set eyes and bulge of shoulders. There was yet some rigidity in his fat, but it was obvious to the eye that he'd come one day to the portable suspensors for carrying his excess weight."
"A muscle-minded tank-brain, the Baron thought."

Piter de Vries, Twisted Mentat by SRegan on DeviantArt

Spoiler

The last of the Harkonnen character designs.
Previous work in this series:
Rabban Harkonnen
Baron Harkonnen
Feyd-Rautha
Paul Atreides (Fremen Stillsuit), Sardaukar
Atreides and Harkonnen uniforms
Wellington Yueh

The future presented by Dune sees computers outlawed following the Butlerian Jihad; only simple mechanical automatons are permitted (we read of 'servoks' which include simple watering arms which move on clock-set schedules). In consequence, much of the work previously done by computers is handled by highly trained savants, the Mentats, capable of holding in their minds huge amounts of information relating to the operation of their Houses and making dizzying calculations regarding logistics and interplanetary trade near-instantly. Mentats are hugely valuable to the extent that even major Houses might only have one. Twisted mentats such as Piter de Vries are said to be recruited from the failures of the main Mentat schools and altered through unknown means; making them capable of unorthodox thinking at the cost of their sanity.

Piter is the Baron's personal Mentat; he is a spice addict and the Baron complains about the expense of his 'pleasures'. Noteably he is the only Harkonnen said to have the blue schlera of habitual spice use - perhaps surprising given that the Emperor is said to have had his lifespan dramatically extended through spice consumption (he's 72 but described as looking 35) but does not have blue-within-blue eyes. We might also presume that like Thufir Hawat he uses Sapho juice, which stains the lips and teeth cranberry red, but this isn't outright stated in the book. Giving him actually red teeth looked pretty ridiculous so I went with a more understated look for the staining.

Some notes on adaptations:
- Giraud drew two versions of Piter for Jodorowsky' abortive publication; both, oddly, giving him red circles around his eyes. The first design is reminiscent of a court jester (an interesting nod to his role), with striped leggings and yellow face paint; the second is, in line some some of his more lurid depictions of the Harkonnen, a Rocky Horror Picture Show-style crossdresser with thigh-highs, a codpiece, and facepaint reminiscent of a Japanese geisha, with long black hair in a tonsure and what I think is meant to be some kind of computing device mounted on top of/in his head (this seems to have informed the 'shaven stripe' style we see in the 1984 movie on other Harkonnen).
- In the 1984 Lynch film, Mentats are given bushy eyebrows as a visual cue. Brad Douriff's Piter also has stained lips but no Spice-addict eyes. The juice seems to take the place of his Spice addiction, with an invented Mentat mantra that mentions it and seems to caution against addiction ("It is by the juice of sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, the stains become a warning.").
- In the Sci-Fi miniseries, neither blue eyes nor sapho stains are present; Piter wears a military-style uniform together with that unfortunate affliction of the mini-series, a silly hat.
- The Villeneuve 2020 movie nods to the 1984 film by giving Piter a stylised Sapho lip stain. Like the rest of the Harkonnen he is completely bald and pale with a black robe, and curiously has thimbles on his little fingers.

Descriptions from the book (including two contradictory ones):
"The other held a slender, short man with effeminate face...His voice came out tenor with a sweet, musical quality."
"The Baron stared across the room at his Mental assassin, seeing the feature about him that most people noticed first: the eyes, the shaded slits of blue within blue, the eyes without any white in them at all."
""Truth without fear surprises the Baron," Piter said. His face drew down into a caricature of a frowning mask."
"Piter took five curiously mincing steps into the room"
"Piter said. He straightened, assuming an odd attitude of dignity -- as though it were another mask, but this time clothing his entire body."
"She studied him--hawk features, blue-ink eyes that suggested he was a native of Arrakis, but subtleties of movement and stance told her he was not. And his flesh was too well firmed with water. He was tall, though slender, and something about him suggested effeminacy."
"The voice was tenor. It touched her spine with a wash of coldness. She had never heard such a chill voice. To one with the Bene Gesserit training, the voice screamed: Killer!"
"Piter touched finger to forelock in his mocking salute ... (The Baron) studied the somber mask of villainy on Piter's effeminate face. And the eyes: those shaded slits of bluest blue-in-blue."
"Piter's blue eyes took a glazed look. His movement was catlike in its sudden fluidity. The knife in his hand glistened like a claw as it flashed into Yueh's back."

Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen by SRegan on DeviantArt

Spoiler

Doing some more Dune concepts. Previous examples:
Paul Atreides (Fremen Stillsuit), Sardaukar
Atreides and Harkonnen uniforms
Wellington Yueh

This time I'm taking on the Harkonnen named characters, starting with Feyd-Rautha. Over on The Back-Up Blog I make the controversial case that while Baron Harkonnen is the film's *villain*, Feyd-Rautha is its *antagonist*. He's our viewpoint character with the Harkonnen - the first Harkonnen scene is literally the Baron giving Feyd, and thus the reader, a lecture in galactic geopolitics. And ultimately, the Baron is killed off by a (with apologies to Alia fans) minor character, while it's Feyd who engages in the climactic duel with Paul for the fate of Arrakis.

What we have is a story of two princes in two Great Houses - both brought up by their House's patriarch with an eye to take over one day. We have Feyd the false saviour, being groomed by the Baron to 'rescue' Arrakis from his brutal older brother, while keeping the real power structures intact, and Paul the true saviour, cast out into the wilderness and left for dead, only to return with supernatural power. Paul survives real assassination attempts, while Feyd schemes with Thufir Hawat to create a fake attempt on his own life to increase his popularity; Paul suffers to achieve his powers, while Feyd-Rautha uses deception and subterfuge (poison, hidden needles, implanted hypnotic triggers). The dichotomy is extremely strong and eliminating or playing down the character would appear to be a mistake for this reason alone.

• In the abortive Jodorowsky version, Feyd-Rautha is presented as an extremely effeminate cross-dresser, adding an implied incest plot between him and his uncle. A later design by HR Giger (apparently after Mick Jagger was tapped for the role) tones back this aspect, presenting him instead as a vain, muscular poppinjay with exaggerated shoulderpads and peacock feathers. This is an interesting angle; Feyd as the Prince Charming-esque 'superhero', furthering his 'false saviour' aspect; the problem being that it's almost now cliché, to the point of being parodied in Shrek 3.
• The version of the character in Lynch's 1984 version - played by Sting - captures the power hungry and sadistic aspects of the character, but almost to absurd levels. Inkeeping with the Harkonnen visual style of the film he has the red hair of the other Harkonnen and wears a corrugated blue armour. His viewpoint scheming and attempt on the Baron's life are absent, making him, together with his brother, simple henchmen.
• The RTS's version of Feyd, Gunseng Harkonnen, is heavily influenced by the 1984 movie, with blond spiky hair, black leather armour and a high collar. He is also presented as much more strongly opposed to his brother Copec (the Raban equivalent), fighting a civil war with him (which you get to choose the outcome of) after Rakan's (the game's version of Vladimir's) death.
• In the miniseries we get much more focus on the character; his scheming is present and even expanded on with a romance subplot with Irulan, though the gladiatorial combat is oddly toned down. The Harkonnen aesthetic is an odd Japanese-meets-industrial style and Feyd wears a variety of silk pyjamas.
• The 2021 Villeneuve movie does not feature Feyd, with Bautista's Raban taking the active villain role, although the follow-up is said to include a Feyd scene. Likely if he appears he will follow the visual language of the Villeneuve Harkonnen, which is sickly and completely bald, with black armour.*

In my design I tried to hew closest to the book description, combining several of his outfits and taking the mysterious 'giles' from the gladiatorial scene as some kind of reinforced leggings (it has since been pointed that it probably means something like a leather cuirass).

Book description:

"a dark-haired youth of about sixteen years, round of face and with sullen eyes"
"The sullen-faced youth stirred in his chair, smoothed a wrinkle in the black leotards he wore"
"He glanced at Feyd-Rautha, noting his nephew's lips, the full and pouting look of them, the Harkonnen genetic marker, now twisted slightly in amusement."
"There was a sharpness to the boy that the Baron enjoyed . . . a ferocity."
"At the Baron's elbow walked Feyd-Rautha. His dark hair was dressed in close ringlets that seemed incongruously gay above sullen eyes. He wore a tight-fitting black tunic and snug trousers with a suggestion of bell at the bottom. Soft-soled slippers covered his small feet.
"Feyd-Rautha was emerging in giles and tights--the black glove and the long knife in his right hand, the white glove and the short knife in his left hand"
"The short knife in white-gloved hand (white, the sign of poison) went first into its sheath. Then the long blade in the black-gloved hand--the pure blade that now was unpure, his secret weapon to turn this day
into a purely personal victory: poison on the black blade."
Lady Fenring, noting the young man's poise and the sure flow of muscles beneath the tunic thought: Here's one who won't let himself go to fat."
"Feyd-Rautha went pale, took a step forward. "But, Uncle, I --""
"the dark-haired Feyd-Rautha pressed against a barrier lance on the left. "The one with the squinting eyes there on the left. As evil a face as I ever saw."
"A sense of failure pervaded him, and he saw through it that Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen had slipped out of the torn uniform, stripped down to a fighting girdle with a mail core."
"The Emperor was studying Feyd-Rautha, seeing the heavy shoulders, the thick muscles. He turned to look at Paul -- a stringy whipcord of a youth, not as desiccated as the Arrakeen natives, but with ribs there
to count, and sunken in the flanks so that the ripple and gather of muscles could be followed under the skin."

* To my mind, no adaptation has yet got the Harkonnen 'right'. They're certainly cruel and brutal, but they aren't faceless killing machines - that's closer to the Sardaukar, the Emperor's elite troops - and it undermines a major theme of Dune to make Giedi Prime a polluted hellworld. To whit; the harshness and purity of such worlds creates great soldiers but also people who are true to themselves. Arrakis is ultimately harsher than Salusa Secundus, and the Sardaukar have grown soft, so the Fremen win. As Arrakis is slowly terraformed, the fear is that their edge will be lost. We read that Giedi Prime is "A median-viable planet with a low active-photosynthesis range," which to me suggests dark, rainy and overcast (in contrast to Arrakis!), not necessarily a toxic wasteland. We get glimpses at Harko, the planet's presumed capital, where the defining trope seems to be, again, fakeness - surface level gloss and coercive manipulation masking inequality and squalor:
"In honor of the na-Baron's nativity and to remind all Harkonnens and subjects that Feyd-Rautha was heir-designate, it was holiday on Giedi Prime. The old Baron had decreed a meridian-to-meridian rest from labors, and effort had been spent in the family city of Harko to create the illusion of gaiety: banners flew from buildings, new paint had been splashed on the walls along Court Way.

But off the main way, Count Fenring and his lady noted the rubbish heaps, the scabrous brown walls reflected in the dark puddles of the streets, and the furtive scurrying of the people.

In the Baron's blue-walled keep, there was fearful perfection, but the Count and his lady saw the price being paid--guards everywhere and weapons with that special sheen that told a trained eye they were in regular use. There were checkpoints for routine passage from area to area even within the keep. The servants revealed their military training in the way they walked, in the set of their shoulders . . . in the way their eyes watched and watched and watched."

Later, when Feyd has won the hearts of the crowd in the arena by defeating the Atreides 'assassin', we are told:

"He could walk unarmed and unshielded through the poorest quarters of Harko tonight," the Baron said. "They'd give him the last of their food and drink just for his company."

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen by SRegan on DeviantArt

Spoiler

Continuing my work on the Harkonnen named characters, here's my take on the Baron himself. Previous examples:
Feyd-Rautha
Paul Atreides (Fremen Stillsuit), Sardaukar
Atreides and Harkonnen uniforms
Wellington Yueh

With the release of the 2021 trailer for Denis Villeneuve's take on the franchise, I thought this was as good a time as any to go over some of the main characters - starting with the villains, as I think they're the characters (other than perhaps the Bene Gesserit) who have been handled poorest in previous adaptations.

Baron Harkonnen is perhaps one of sci-fi's most immediately recognisable pop-cultural villains, although what people generally seem to think of is some variant on the 1984 film adaptation. The book Baron does not, for example, float - it's stated several times that the suspensors merely counteract his excess bulk, which is stated to be 200 kilos or 31 stone, and allow him to move with 'dancing lightness' (or elsewhere 'a peculiar waddling-glide', which sounds less graceful).

Looking through the adaptations:
Alejandro Jodorowsky's version would have cast Orson Welles, although HR Geiger's concept art goes with a radically different and questionable look, presenting the Baron as an androgynous, lipstick-wearing being in what appears to be bejewelled chainmail (perhaps vaguely inspired by the book's mention of opals sown into his robe), or else near-nude with the suspensors floating around him, chained to piercings (!).
Lynch's Baron is physically vile - covered in sores which are lanced by his personal physician ("You are so beautiful, my Baron (...) Your diseases, lovingly cared for"), and his chin covered in slimy spittle at all times. The book Baron's cruelty is jacked up to absurd levels, with Harkonnen slaves fitted with 'heart plugs' the Baron can pull at any time, apparently to great personal gratification. The 1984 film appears to have originated the idea that the Baron can actually fly with his suspensors. It's hard to see why the Harkonnen follow him, as he seems more of a danger to his immediate staff than the Atreides (though this is a problem with many other movie villains) and he seem genuinely unhinged rather than a calculating schemer. Like the rest of the movie Harkonnens he has ginger hair and his suspensors are a full-body suit, resembling a straitjacket.
The game's version of the Baron (Rakan Harkonnen) is clearly inspired by Kenneth McMillan's, but dials back some of the insanity - to my mind making him a better villain. He is still clearly a sadist; one of the first scenes we see with him is him executing your predecessor with the heart plug, clearly exhilarated when he is splattered in blood. His style is slightly modified, with dark leather robes and a warlord-like standard with a stylised bull's skull on his back.
We should mention the version of the Baron who appears in the Hellsing manga as the personification of Ceras Victoria's weapon, the Harkonnen Cannon. Distantly reminiscent of the 1984 version, he wears the straitjacket-like harness under a long robe and has grey, Thomas Jefferson-esque hair.
The Sci-Fi mini-series Baron, played by Ian McNeice, copies some elements of the previous movie, like the red hair (not mentioned in the book where it's a Corrino trait) but overall hews much closer to the novel. McNeice's Baron is scheming, wheedling, and generally a character you love to hate. He's charismatic despite his obvious ruthlessness and you can see why people fall in line and trust his plans. He has the rather strange trait - apparently supplied by McNeice himself - of finishing his speeches with a Shakespearean rhyming couplet. Inkeeping with the mini-series Harkonnen's sartorial style (which is vaguely Japanese) he wears a lot of silk pyjamas and kimono-like robes, but it works well for him as a character who seems prone to lounging around.
The Villeneuve's film gives us Stellan Skarsgård, channeling Heart of Darkness Marlon Brando as a dimly lit brooding Baron in a black robe. Inkeeping with the other Harkonnen, he's bald, pale and sickly-looking but not visibly diseased like the 1984 version. His ability to fly is kept, but the long robe, which reaches the ground, means he appears to be freakishly tall; he is framed and scored like a horror movie monster.*

For my version I've been most closely influenced by the mini-series version, playing more to the 'scheming embodiment of greed' than the 'lunatic screaming madman' versions. I pictured him with the 'dark robes' he's initially described with, under the yellow cape (using the colours I used for the Harkonnen officer's armour); I have another version with the orange robes mentioned later but frankly it doesn't look great.

My notion is that the suspensor globes glow faintly through his clothes, giving a bigger visual cue that his gliding is due to technological assists than the book's 'subtle bulges'. The tall collar lets him loom over other characters without needing to float, and lets the imagination fill in greater bulk than might actually be practical. The chain with the Harkonnen insignia is a personal invention; surprisingly no-one seems to have included an actual baronial chain in the Baron's bling.

Descriptions from the first book:
"As he emerged from the shadows, his figure took on dimension -- grossly and immensely fat. And with subtle bulges beneath folds of his dark robes to reveal that all this fat was sustained partly by portable suspensors harnessed to his flesh. He might weigh two hundred Standard kilos in actuality, but his feet would carry no more than fifty of them.
"I am hungry," the Baron rumbled, and he rubbed his protruding lips with a beringed hand, stared down at Feyd-Rautha through fat-enfolded eyes."
"She looked up at the Baron. He wore a yellow cape that bulged over his portable suspensors. The fat cheeks were two cherubic mounds beneath spider-black eyes."
"He adjusted one of the little suspensors that guarded his fat body against the pull of gravity. A smile creased his mouth, pulled at the lines of his jowls."
"Those touching fingers! Leto watched the fat hands, the glittering jewels on baby-fat hands--their compulsive wandering."
"The Baron turned with that dancing lightness the suspensors gave him."
The Baron moved down the length of the hall with that peculiar waddling-glide imparted by the necessities of guiding suspensor-hung weight. His jowls bobbed up and down; the suspensors jiggled and shifted beneath his orange robe. Rings glittered on his hands and opafires shone where they had been woven into the robe.
"turning his baby-fat face toward Feyd-Rautha, he said, "The Count and Lady Fenring of whom I've spoken."

* Further to my comments on the Feyd piece, I disagree with making the Harkonnen into, effectively, the Helghast from Killzone. There's a certain political cowardice in making the villains faceless or dehumanized 'monsters' rather than human beings who, for whatever historical or social reason, have ended up a threat to you and the people you love. The 1984 movie did this to some degree by giving the regular Harkonnen gas masks and thick black armour (which also reduces the impact of the masked Sardaukar, who are meant to be more elite and intimidating than the Harkonnen mooks); the mini-series went further by making them identical demon-masked futuristic samurai (!); and the Villeneueve movie does the same by making them near-identical pale, bald clones (and literally contains the line 'They're not human, they're brutal', in a remarkable hot take on all of human history).

House Harkonnen by SRegan on DeviantArt

 

The only socialists "calling out 'authoritarians'" are coffee shop socialists in Western countries. Jacobin is garbage that peddles western foreign policy against AES states.

 

Can't believe I haven't posted in here, but I saw it opening night. Loved it. My only real complaint is that I found the Baron underwhelming, but he's probably still the best version to date compared to what we've had before i.e. Proto-BOB (Lynch version) and guy who's too bored to be menacing (mini-series).

 

Atreides and Harkonnen designs - alternate version by SRegan on DeviantArt

"Alternate versions of the Atreides and Harkonnen designs - featuring desert camo-style Atreides (perhaps more suitable for the tattered remnants of the House who have been surviving on the edge of Arrakis's habitable zone for years at the end of the novel) and red-wearing Harkonnen, á la the games. Useful visually, but gives up the rather cool feature that in the book the good guys have a red, green and black colour scheme while the bad guys have blue and white."