Why did Leto have to take the golden path? Was it simply to have enough power to confront Alia? Or was there another reason?
The alternative to the Golden Path is the eventual stagnation and extinction of the human race. I’d guess it’s much more obvious in the books (though I haven’t seen the miniseries, and I assume you are posting in reference to that.)
Essentially, Paul saw what was necessary (to embark on the GP), but couldn’t accept the responsibility/pressure of unleashing that kind of tyranny. Leto has the strength, and sets about inflicting humankind with 3000 years of tyranical rule: which serves to create a back-pressure which eventually blows its top and sends humankind across the universe (the Great Scattering), ensuring that stagnations can never set in again and cause a sort of heat-death among the human race.
This is “the Golden Path”, and Leto’s precience allows the different alternatives. He takes the path because not taking the path would be ultimately suicidal for the human race.
(any corrections from other Dune enthusiasts?)
I don’t have another view, but I never understood how Paul saw this path and didn’t take it. Paul feared his terrible purpose and feared it. But, I believe he fulfilled this purpose with his jihad. I could be wrong about that, it has been a long time since I read the books. I don’t remember Paul ever turning away from the Golden Path or even being aware of it. Only Leto ever mentioned Paul turning away.
And I thought a big part of the Golden Path had to do with creating people that were “invisible” to prescience.
IMHO creating people that were invisible served the purpose of the Golden Path. “Precient-invisible” people create chaos that the precient can’t take into consideration, they represent uncertainty, a force that counters stagnation.
(from God Emperor of Dune)
That’s part of why Leto is so happy to be surprised by anyone (well, that and being 3500 years old!)
So in order for the Golden Path to work, yes, precient-invisible people needed to be “cultivated”
Which is why Siona is so significant: Leto can’t predict what she does, and ipso-facto is the cause of his demise.
Your explanation seems lucid and convincing to me, Misery Loves Co.. I haven’t read the Dune novels for several years now, but what you said rings true according to my memory. Am I also correct in remembering that these things actually are not very clearly explained in the novels? That was one thing I didn’t like at the time, that Frank Herbert assumed the reader to be able to read well between the lines. Unfortunately I wasn’t up to the task. I did enjoy the novels anyway, though, if only for the breadth of vision of the writer.
Thanks a lot!