Regarding the ongoing debate of Why Leto went to Dune, let’s quote it:
Thufir Hawat : Now, remember, the first step in avoiding a trap - is knowing of its existence.
Leto, Thufir, and everyone around them are incredibly smart. So they fall into the trap of believing they can turn the trap around and triumph despite the risks. And as @Horatius did a wonderful job of summarizing - Dune is too tempting a gift to ignore. For that matter, NOT taking it would have made them look weak as well.
And, if it weren’t for the steps @Smapti laid out, Leto would likely have won his bet. Being willing to work with the Fremen, while bringing even a semblance of justice to Arrakis, he would have been able to use the immense wealth to strengthen his own house beyond the likely reach of the Emperor or Harkonnens.
Back to answering the OP questions though.
Dune is arguably the center of the Human Empire. It is granted as temporary fiefs for fixed periods, as to never allow any one house to gather too much wealth. And of course, the Empire rakes off the biggest share, with whomever running it squeezing as much as they can for their own purposes, both above and below board. The Harkonnens shouldn’t have been allowed to retake the fief but it was part of their payoff to do so. And they needed too, because the Spacing Guild charges a fortune to move troops, and the Harkonnens had to foot the bill for both their own troops AND the Sadukar.
Has been answered, and well, so I’ll skip it.
Has been answered, and well for the books written by Herbert (pere), but I will mention the prequels and sequels. Although many have claimed the “detailed notes” upon which they were based were far from, they do try to establish that there was a far more detailed prehistory and planning (similar in ways to Tolkien’s detailed legendarium, writings, and early drafts) that informed the published works. While I consider the sequels rather flawed, it does seem to tie semi-intuitively into the the circumstances of the later works.
Overall, I felt the ‘House books’ worked better in building upon the histories of the characters in the generation immediately prior to Dune (especially how Leto’s father and his earlier relationships made him semi-dysfunctional about Jessica). And the Butlerian Jihad novels were tons of fun, but probably worked too hard in trying to tie everything together.
Remember, Arrakis had belonged to the Harkonnens. Taking it over meant taking it away from their old enemies. Thus depriving them of an immense source of income.
And like others have said, the Atreides thought they were smart enough to beat the obvious Harkonnen traps. They didn’t realize that to survive on Arrakis you must think outside the box. The Baron knew it and defeated them with conventional artillery which would have been useless anywhere else due to shield technology.
The Atreides were vulnerable on Arrakis in a way they weren’t on Caladan.
The Freman weren’t better fighters until Paul and Jessica came around and trained them in the Weirding Way. In the first book, Paul, an unseasoned fighter, easily bested Jamis who was a skilled fighter. Jamis was so outmatched that Stilgar thought Paul was toying with him instead of just killing him. Stilgar suspected he had brought a “scorpion” into his sietch, but Jessica abated his fears when she explained that Paul had never killed before and didn’t understand the nature of the duel.
Paul is both Bene Gesserit- and Ginaz-trained, I don’t think you can use him as a baseline for the skill level of the average soldier of the Imperium. From what we’re told, the Fremen could hold their own even before the Atreides came - recall the scene when Pardot Kynes first encounters the Fremen, where it was 6 (shielded) Harkonnen against 3 Fremen youths. The youths were losing before Kynes weighed in, but those youths had taken out 2 of the 6 trained soldiers already.
That’s something else that’s discussed. The Atreides had the choice between going to Dune, or going “rogue”, which appears to involve moving their whole household outside the Imperium entirely. There’s not much detail as to what this involves in a practical manner, but they way everyone discusses it, it’s pretty clear that no one would accept this fate unless they had no other option. Even a clearly dangerous option like taking Dune was preferable to exile.
And we see that in the first book - Some of the Fremen refer to a fight they were in, and allow as to how “some of those men could actually fight”, when they were fighting Sardaukar. The Fremen were always tough and dangerous; Paul and Jessica just made them even better. Part of the reason the Fremen are so loyal to Paul is that they’re impressed at how he’s improved the Fremen.
Basically, the Guild takes them to some undisclosed-outside-the-Guild planets, collectively known as Tupile. A treaty to ensure continuation of this secrecy under Paul’s rule is a plot point in Dune Messiah.
I always got the impression that the Fremen were more along the lines of the Comanche or Afghans- very fierce and brave, but not necessarily all that disciplined, organized, or directed in the sense of a “modern” fighting force. That’s what Paul & Lady Jessica provided.
Actually, one point Paul notes early on is that they are exactly this - disciplined and organized as a group - because of the lifestyle they have to live to survive Arrakis. Every time they make or break camp, and move across the desert, they all know exactly what role each plays, and they all understand the necessity of cover and concealment, to avoid both the sandworms and the Harkonen. Everyone knows that all their lives rest on the least capable of them, and so they set high standards for themselves. And they also spend a lot of time and effort making sure their equipment is in proper working condition, because even a small loss of water adds up quickly.
Isn’t there a scene in the book where Thufir is with some Fremen and he sees them take out some Saudaukar in close combat? This is during his escape from the Harkonnen attack but just before his capture. Thufir is stunned by one of the Fremen saying, “Did you see how well they [the Saudaukar] fought?” Thufir can’t believe how well the Fremen can fight. This was before Paul and Jessica have trained anyone.
You’re right, you can’t use Paul as a baseline. And Dune is so full of little tidbits that it’s easy to forget little things like the Freman youths kicking some butt.
Paul and Jessica also provide the necessary religious motivation for the Fremen to bother to go out and conquer the empire. They may have always been able to defeat the Saudaukar, but they had no reason to leave their homes to do that.
This is because the Bene Gesserit influenced the Fremen religion and primed them to be ready for the coming of a prophet. Jessica (and maybe Paul) are aware of the prophecies, and use it to their advantage, but to me it seems that they fulfill them even when they don’t intend to—some sense that the prophecies were real, or at least were about the future Kwisatz Haderach, so Paul fulfills the prophecies.
How much are the Bene Gessrit able to see the future? Yeah, clearly, they couldn’t have “coded” the Fremen to respond exactly to Paul, but how much of what he does is accident? maybe we’re not meant to know.
The BG and the Navigators have precognitive abilities, but not to the same degree as Paul when fully grown into it, or even more so his future son Leto II, do. For one the BG did not see coming that Jessica would throw a wrench into the experiment by bearing a firstborn son. And after his victory they insist in trying to get the upper hand. They may see where this is going but they think they can control it.
That was part of the point in seeking to breed a Kwisatz Haderach, one who could perfectly see both past and future, under BG tutelage.
The sisterhood plants myths in order to be able to exert control locally to protect themselves . Among the Fremen they plant that an outworlder BG’s son will be a messianic leader figure. Because they think that way they will be positioned to have a client among the Fremen. But Paul realizes that the fight in Arrakis will mutate into a fanatical jihad that shitmixes the known galaxy, and no one can’t stop it.
As to the Fremen, Duncan found out they are far more numerous, advanced and powerful than anyone gave them credit for, and could be the “desert power” that makes Atreides secure, but until these events their cause is simple liberation. Which they know they can’t achieve if they bring the whole Empire down on them at once. So, resist one feudal ruler at a time, coexist at a distance with the “nice” ones, make life hard for the beastly ones, you all stay in your colony cities and away from us. The Duke does not have the time to enlist the Fremen as an ally before the trap is sprung; Paul’s use of the planted myths is a tool, but it’s the change of perspective of the struggle from local to galactic-holy that is one of the game-changers.
Clearly the Comanche were disciplined and organized in whatever ways were necessary to thrive on the Plains, but like most tribal people, their warfighting style was more centered around individual warriors and individual heroics than about group goals.
IIRC the Fremen were similar in that regard, and that’s what I was getting at. Being fierce individual warriors and being part of a people living in a harsh landscape do not a modern military force make, without more training and coordination.
Partially correct. Regardless of the considerable Fremen prowess, and lack or presence of notification, the reason Paul’s Jihad of conquest was so successful is that he was able and willing to demand obedience from the Guild Navigators. Previously, all wars had been limited by the immense cost that the guild applied to all travel, but especially to military forces. It was one of the key reasons that warfare was frequently on a limited basis away from the strongholds of the Landsraad. Even the Emperor has to pay to move the troops, something I mentioned upthread.
Paul instead demanded the Guild move his troops or he’d destroy the spice - regardless of the cost to himself and others. And they’d rather obey than die. Until the events post-God Emperor, when melange could be artificially cultivated, the spice was a single point of failure for the entire civilization. And since Paul and Leto II were willing to hold it hostage, they controlled the power, above and beyond the considerable might of their armies.
So, Fremen excelled at precisely the type of combat that a Shield-using society favoured. No use for volley fire or even artillery, never mind modern small unit tactics. It comes down to single combat or at worst a loose brawl most of the time in their universe, it seems.
Although given how shields work, I would think the Push of Pike would be revived, but polearms aren’t mentioned at all AFAICR.
Not really a question, but I was intrigued by Hasimir Fenring and the fact he was a failed Kwisatz Haderach and that they seem to say he could have killed Paul at the end of the book. Are there more of them? I wish he’d gotten more backstory. Maybe in the movie?
Granted, I haven’t read past the first three books, but I don’t remember it being very clearly laid out how larger scale combat actually worked. I think the shields and weirding way were kind of MacGuffins intended to change the setting sufficiently for the purposes of the story, but not really well thought out beyond that.
Like you suggest, larger scale combat would end up being something pre-gunpowder, and probably involving close order drill of some sort. Whether it would be pike squares, shield walls (especially if they can overlap/link their shields with each other), or something else, I don’t know.