Whose Eyes Do We See In Valya’s Vision?
One of the main drivers of Dune: Prophecy has been the titular prediction, the coming of Tiran-Arafel, who will enact a reckoning on the Sisterhood. For most of the first season, that reckoning has come from Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel), the abandoned son of Tula Harkonnen and Olly Atriedes. But in the finale, Valya sees inside Desmond’s mind to get a glimpse of the threat.
There, the same glowing eyes that have haunted the Sisterhood changes into scientific equipment that gives Desmond the fear-eating nano-machines he uses to burn people alive, but not much more. There’s a hooded figure running the equipment, but we never see its face.
However, the books do give a few ideas about the person behind the eyes. The idea of a nano-virus, combined with the series’ interest in the use of nano-machines, points to Omnius or Erasmus, major Thinking Machine villains in the prequel books by Brian Herbert and Anderson. Omnius is the collective hivemind of all the AIs in the universe, and did use a virus to debilitate the human armies before the Battle of Corrino. Erasmus started the human resistance when he killed Serena Butler’s child, and still exists in the Mentat School during the Schools Trilogy.
However, the Dune movies take place 10000 years after Prophecy, and there aren’t many Thinking Machines around any more. The powers that be at Warner Bros. may prefer for their TV show to help do world-building for the movies, which would suggest that Ixians or even the Bene-Tleilax transformed Desmond Hart. We’ve heard talk about the Tleilaxu in Prophecy before, an order devoted to genetic engineering, but the Ixians are relatively new (though one did help Keiran Atreides rebellion).
Ixians continue to study technology, despite the fallout of the Butlerian Jihad. As such, they tend to be ostracized from the rest of the universe, which means that they don’t do quite as much plotting as other groups. Still, they do get involved with universal conflicts and play a role in later Dune stories, so they cannot be counted out.
The Folly of Natalya’s Reign
By the end of Prophecy‘s first season, Javicco (Mark Strong) is dead and Natalya (Jodhi May) reigns as Empress, with Desmond Hart as her bashar. On one hand, the change makes sense, as Javicco showed himself to be a weak emperor. But for all of her confidence, it’s not clear that Natalya understands the larger forces controlling Hart, nor that the Sisterhood still plans to put Ynez on the throne.
