More like the Mr. Bill, the Super Dave or the Kenny of the Dune universe.
Or Timmy from Dinosaurs.
"Duncan is crushed by an 800 pound mutant walrus*
“SAY IT!”
“We need another Duncan!”
Yes, the final Duncan was for sure better. The Tlielax would not do any modifactions to Duncan lest they incure the wrath of the tyrant. However, the last Duncan ghola was ordered from the Tlielaxu by the Bene Gesserit and they requested that his pranu-bindu (whatever) be enhanced to possibly exceed modern levels. Plus, remember Moneo was an Atreides and Duncan found it hard to stand against them.
I disagree. When Hayt, the first Duncan ghola, was given as a gift to Paul, nobody but Paul believed that it was actually Duncan - at least not until the memories were restored. Before that, IIRC, most people thought he was a face dancer.
Leto II made use of him because he needed something in Duncans genes that, like I said before, the Tlielax wouldn’t have messed with since they didn’t want to have GEoD destroy them. The last Duncan did for sure have some tweaking done above what the Bene Geserit had asked for. Duncan Omega had been conditioned as a male honered matre so to speak, based on what the Tleilax had learned from their Scattered brethern. After Duncan Omega had his memories restored he said he was supposed to kill the Bene Geserit imprinter who was supposed to imprint him. He didn’t kill Murbella because she wasn’t an imprinter, but the sisterhood learned that a male equivilent of the Honored Matres could cause them problems, via mutual addiction.
Ah yes, the weird sex scene from Heretics of Dune. It was like Ayn Rand writing sci-fi.
Lol.
How does Count Fenring figure in here?
At the end of the first book, after Paul has killed Feyd, the Emperor wants Fenring to call Paul out.
The Count has seen Paul fight, yet still thinks the he could kill Paul–“and he knew this as truth”.
So were does Fenring rank as a fighter?
High enough to be confident that he could kill Paul. That doesn’t necessarily mean he could, just that he’s not gonna get psyched out thinking that he might not be able to. Of course, it’s entirely possible that he WAS better than Paul, but we never got to find that out.
To let Feyd speak for himself…
“I WILL kill you!”
Of course, we all know how much good that did him!
Paul recognised him as the blind spot in his future visions, a possible diverging point between his dead body lying in a pool of his own blood and him leading the coming Jihad. Since the Count was a sort of failed attempt at the KH, and factoring in Paul’s death wish psyche and his being physically drained, well… I think Count could’ve taken him. But I also think both Paul and the Count realised that a dead Maud’dib would lead to a much bloodier and vicious jihad than if Paul remained alive.
Another thing to remember, Fenring refusing to fight Paul was the only time he had ever not carried out the emperors wishes.