Another Chunk of the Star Wars Facade Crumbles
February 6, 2010
Finished Dune Messiah (2nd time, read 6-7 years ago too?). We all recognize that Tattoine is more than a little Dune-like, and the Sarlac pit is a great nod to Shai-hulud. I'm sure I'm not the first to notice that Annakin had some level of presience. His presience warned him of his wife's death. But he accepted the bargain, became a tool. Thence the jihad and establishment of empire. Slightly twisted – Annakin is right hand, rather than Imperator, and jihad occurs post-death rather than ante-. And then I remembered the twins.
What other links exist? A number of minor things (Alia/Leia, Leto/Luke...), as pointed out at http://www.moongadget.com/origins/dune.html. That site of course reminds us what already know: "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun". So I can't really can't hold it against Lucas if he borrowed liberally from Herbert and Kurosawa.