Dune: Why Become A Worm?

this is what your girlfriend means when she asks "would you still love me if I were a worm?"

"I kid you not, he turns himself into a sandworm. He's sandworm Leto. Funniest thing I've every seen."

One of the basic aims of the God Emporer was to burst the fearful stagnation humanity fell into after the rule of the machines was overthrown in the Butlerian Jihad. He squashed humanity and restricted travel so that people became restless and angry. Then when he died, humanity immediately scattered all over the universe and flowered into a diversity which could defeat the machines when they eventually returned. This took several thousand years so he had to live that long. And he had to know every aspect of every planet. That took a brain which surpassed human capacity. He had to become the most hated person in history, so he had to be immune to assassination.

Dune has one of the weirdest sets of lore I have ever seen. I still havent even finished the first book, but I love watching videos like this about it.

I think he also became a worm to guarantee the survival of the worms while giving the Fremen the paradise they had longed for. Without him, sandworms would have become extinct.

My take is that Paul saw humanity's extinction in his visions but could not sacrifice himself to prevent it. Leto looked into the possible futures and believed that becoming a human/worm hybrid was the only way to prevent our extinction. Unlike his father Leto was willing to sacrifice his body to save everyone else. To save humanity in the long term Leto had to become a tyrant for thousands of years. After his death humanity spread out from the world's in the empire to every corner of the universe. That would prevent any future event from killing every human at once.

Reading this book at the moment. I definitely feel that Leto's willingness to sacrifice himself physically where Paul wasn't, was because he'd effectively already sacrificed himself mentally as a pre-born. He declared himself abomination after all, and as a community of inner lives and memories rather than having a sense of individuality, there was less to let go of.

Most theories here talk about in-universe reasons, but for the themes of the book its also highly relevant. One theme of Dune is the evolution of humankind. Leto evolving into a worm is the antithesis of that concept. It is done on sacrifices (human stagnation, Letos life) and with the goal to further humans evolution. Another factor I havn't seen discussed is the spice production. By producing spice in his own body he has a permanent and highly increased access to spice. Therefore his prescience should also be much stronger in his worm body. That enables him to see thousands of years ahead and ensure the Golden Path is successful.

It's pretty obvious why he did it: the Golden Path required thousands of years to implement, and this was the only way he could extend his life for that long. In truth, Leto II is the most heroic of all the characters in the Dune universe, although virtually no one in the saga considers him much more than a ruthless tyrant.

Not only does he deny himself a life and all of it's meaning... he also denies himself a death because his consciousness is fractured and trapped in a thousand sand trout bodies and become the seeds of the next generation of sandworms. That part of the story is really almost cosmic horror level awful. It is also crucial to understand that Paul saw the Worm in his visions but refused the burden, leaving it to his son. The relationship between Paul and Leto in terms of prophecy is a bit like John the Baptist and Christ.

Leto did it, because of the golden path. The golden path that will ensure the survival of the human race and lead to the true Kwisatz Haderach. This why Leto kept bringing Duncan back and why he took the breeding program. The sisterhood vision was too small and Paul's too confining. Leto knew the destination, but refused to know how to get there, because human ingenuity was important. That is why he was happy to be surprised. He set up his empire like a balloon filled with water so with his death the would pop and humanity would go in all directions. He also knew that the sisterhood was egotistical enough to keep bringing Duncan back which was what needed for the Kwisatz Haderach to appear at the critical time to save humanity.

Leto II was also heavily saturated with spice, by orders of magnitude higher than before in the series. When I read the book, years ago, I gathered that that is why he was able to merge with the sand trout. Not so much because he could control hos internal chemistry, as because he was experiencing a sort of mega spice trance.

I subtly hinted at the God Emperor to some friends who had just seen the Villeneuve film, but hadn't read the books. One of them guessed a human-worm hybrid as a joke and the entire group felt a combination of horror and laughter at Leto II's transformation

I think you also forgot to mention the aspect of Leto paying for the sins of his Father, because of the bargain Paul made with the Fremen, to make Arrakis a paradise, and subsequently killing off Shai Hulud. Spice was the key to Humanities survival, and without the worms, there would be no spice. Remember, it wasn't until after the death of the God Emperor that the Tleilaxu found a way to artificially create the spice.

To find out if his wife would still love him.

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Leto II is hands down my favorite fictional character, and that's saying something because I love a ton of fictional characters. lol. But his story, his sacrifice, his pain, his unexpressable power and authority and his alienation from his own species create a pathos that is heart rending. Herbert crafted the perfect balance between hero and villain in Leto II. I can only offer posthumous thanks to the author for giving us this character.

Good succinct point. Sidenote, Paul was prescient to see some of the scope of Leto's Golden Path (the worm god thing); and rejected it so completely he foresook all the wealth and status of a Galactic Emperor to become a religious hermit. Paul was fundamentally unable or unwilling to destroy himself, the universe, and the imperium he loved, as Leto methodically does. Very relatable, even if the books insist Paul is weak or wrong for doing this. The fact that his character arch starts as a noble prince, rises to the dominant hegemon of the universe, then falls to mad preacher is one of the reasons I love him so. The books never state it outright, but part of what might have pushed him, aside from the StoneBurner and the death of Chani, might have been the realization one of his beloved family members would willing become... the worm god.

Leto II didn't manipulate his body chemistry when he put on the sandtrout skin. He was SO saturated with spice at that point, the sandtrout didn't recognize the water in his body any more and reacted as though he were a worm, more or less. Jessica and Alia both but separately did it to him as a test, forced the spice trance on him over and over to see what would happen. They had no idea what they would unleash in the form of an amalgamation of the benign but powerful ego memories instead of just being Leto himself. He became kind of a colony organism. Ghanima was able to control her inner ego memories via intensive self-hypnosis as she built up a false memory of Leto's death in order to hide from others, including Truthsayers, what they were doing vis a vis the Golden Path; a timeline their father couldn't bring himself to do even though he had the vision to do it. My personal opinion on that was that maybe Paul's vision of the Golden Path was incomplete, that Leto's version was more fully complete than Paul's.

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