With the recent release of Dune: Part Two in theatres, I had to go back to refresh myself on Dune: Part One and the original book, as I read it the summer before the first part came out. These two movies are definitely worth seeing on the big screen with their immersive atmosphere and booming soundtrack, and there are many things I can say about their overall filming and faithfulness to the book. However, I just wanted to talk about one character today – Leto Atreides, Duke of Arrakis (and Caladan). This analysis contains spoilers for the first movie and minor references to the second movie. 

I have an internal counter of how many times I cry during a movie and what kinds of movies make me cry. For the two Dune movies, it’s only once, and for a very brief period which involved Leto. Considering the impact this series has had on me and the combined length of the two movies (over 5 hours), this is not a lot. So I wondered, why Leto? 

Who is he? 

Duke Leto Atreides is the penultimate Duke of House Atreides and the father of Paul and Alia Atriedes, with Bene Gesserit concubine, Lady Jessica. He is described as having a “thin, elegant face and sharp features dominated by cold eyes”, and having “hawk-like” features. He is put in charge of the planet Arrakis, the planet with dunes and sandworms that produce the precious, hallucinogenic “spice”, by the Emperor. As a ruler, he is described as just and kind compared to others, like the Harkonnens who were the previous rulers of Arrakis. 

There are several notable good traits about Leto, like courage, integrity, loyalty, justice, and honour. These are classic “great ruler” traits, though usually the trope is that these “soft” tactics can eventually turn into “hard” ones that lead to totalitarianism. However, we don’t get to see that change here, as Duke Leto stays the good guy. The only downfall is his inaction towards the other houses and the Emperor, who were plotting against him – to put it positively, it’s his trust in his people, and to put it negatively, it’s his hubris that is arguably inherited from his father, who got killed fighting a bull. He knew that there was a plot but did not take action. There are also less internal monologues for him compared to other characters like Paul, which lead us to speculate more about his motivations and how much he really knew. Ultimately, did he really realize he would be killed or did he still choose to believe in the good of his attackers? 

Unsatisfying death

Leto gets ambushed by the bad guy Harkonnens and the emperor’s army in the middle of the night, and his subordinate Yueh betrays him and brings him to his enemy. However, Yueh plants a fake tooth in Leto that will kill anyone and its owner with a poisonous gas when it is activated. Leto activates the tooth in the presence of his enemy Baron Harkonnen, which kills himself but fails to kill the Baron. 

At this point, it really does feel like he died too soon. There is something I find strange about dying in these kinds of duels, which is also shown later when Paul kills Feyd-Rautha in a duel. We know that Feyd-Rautha is one of the bad guys, but who is he really? His only flaw in that moment seemed to be the fact that he was slightly physically weaker than Paul, and had nothing to do with his moral qualities. Similarly, it seems that Leto only failed to kill Baron Harkonnen due to a coincidence. 

Ultimately, this death bothered me, but this story is not exactly a happy story either. Paul does succeed in the end and the bad guys all die, but as we see later, it’s not a happily ever after for him. This death could just be the first instance of the cruel events to come that are so often out of any character’s control. 

Emotional core

The only part that brought me to tears in the book/movie was when Leto confided his last words to Lady Jessica – that his only regret was not making her his official wife. Jessica was only a concubine, and Leto had left his official wife spot open in case an advantageous political marriage opportunity showed up. 

Maybe I’m just a sucker for true love that cannot be (cue sad Chinese dramas), but I think the scene where Paul and Jessica mourn Leto is done super well, both in the book and the movie. After running for their lives, Paul and Jessica finally realize the news of Leto’s death in a small tent. There’s a moment of “wait…he’s actually gone”. They begin to accept it, and we as the audience also do as well. However, I find it fascinating that although he’s dead, a part of me still refuses to believe it. Maybe he’s still alive…we didn’t see his body! Maybe someone will resurrect him! Unfortunately, there is no resurrection, no fake death unlike some other sci-fi stories (except the billion Duncan Idaho gholas – you know what I mean if you read the books). This death thus holds the most emotional weight, and no matter what, he’s still dead (just unsatisfyingly). 

I’ve been searching for reasons why I found this moment so impactful. Is it because Leto is the most “good” person in the series? Is that why I mourned him so much? Compared to other characters, his good traits do seem to outweigh the bad to a greater extent. Paul is the classic comparison, and he’s more of an antihero. He is virtuous yet leads to great destruction as a result of his choices. On the more morally ambiguous side, we have Lady Jessica, Princess Irulan, and the Bene Gesserits. It is hard to argue that they are fundamentally more “good” than Leto as Frank Herbert portrays them as more mysterious and manipulative. Lastly, there’s Chani. Although she is Paul’s partner, her role is more minor in the book and it is hard to tell. Overall, it is hard to find a character who is more morally good than Leto, which could be why his unfortunate death has such a large impact. 

Another reason could be Leto’s “father-ness”. We could look at this from the trope of a classic family revenge story. Think Hamlet, or Lion King (the parallel is close enough since Baron Harkonnen is actually Paul’s grandfather). The father figure dies, and the son mourns and takes revenge. However, this is more than a revenge story. We get to know Leto so much more in Dune, and we also get to see his love for Jessica. This was enough to take this scene to a new emotional level. 

Conclusion 

Overall, I’ve been caught up in the recent hype of Dune and remembered how Leto’s character from the first movie affected me. Although I’m not very into large sci-fi franchises, I enjoyed Dune’s story and message. Amidst the complex world-building, Frank Herbert manages to craft a raw emotional moment that stuck with me, and keeps me thinking every now and then about what we really find human.