Dune Prophecy - Episode 3 " Sisterhood Above All" Review

Guys, welcome back to the channel. I'm filming from a different location this evening, so I'm hoping that the sound comes through okay. You don't get too much background noise in a different location, uh, in my— or what will be my new studio. So bear with me. So this episode, this is Dune Prophecy episode 3. Sisterhood Above All, right? So of all the episodes so far, this is probably going to be my least favorite episode, right? This is detailing about the Harkonnen, um, uh, homeworld, right? Which I believe is referred to as Lankovich. Lankovich, right? So this doesn't sound like Giedi Prime. Uh, I, I'm assuming that they moved to, uh, they moved to, uh, Giedi Prime. Uh-oh, sorry about that, gang, forgot to turn off my notifications. But this seemingly is about, um, uh, the homeworld of Linkovich. Uh, it's not Giedi Prime, but it seems like Remember, these are— this is like 10,000 years before the events of Paul Atreides and, and in that era of the House Harkonnen under Vladimir Harkonnen, right? Right now it's under another Harkonnen. I think Howland is his name or something like that. Um, and, uh, so ecologically Uh, even if these are the same planets of the present day, they have changed drastically. Uh, even, uh, how the episode starts, uh, they're on a planet inhabited by the Atreides clan, the Atreides family, and this looks like a woodland planet, right? I'm not sure if the episode refers to what planet this is, but we know at the time of Paul Atreides they're on a planet called Caladan, which is a water planet, right? It's pretty much water. Um, and this planet seems like, from what we can see so far, you know, there's these woodland areas, uh, and I don't hear it referred to as Caladan. So in 10,000 years, the Atreides family could have moved. Um, now what's going on here, you know, as we got to see in the episode, and I believe her name is Tula I hope that's her name. I'm gonna get better with the name, guys. But this is the sister of Valya Harkonnen, right? The Reverend Mother, uh, kind of her right-hand person, uh, of the Sisterhood, right? And at this stage, she's not part of the Sisterhood, right? It's only Valya who's been sent off to, uh, the, uh the, um, planet where the sisterhood encounters, uh, Wakovole, I think it's called. Um, and, um, uh, so there seems to be a plot going on, as we got to discover, between Valya's sister and this Atreides clansperson, this Atreides, this, uh, member of the House of Atreides, right? Uh, there seems to be a very, um, uh, uh, interesting romantic relationship between these two because it looks— it seems very authentic, uh, and I'm starting to believe that it probably was, right? Uh, but we got to see a very interesting turn of events that this was nothing more than a plot to avenge the present-day, uh, Baron of the Harkonnens who had pledged a different path forward for the Harkonnen family. So let's, let's take it back a little bit to what's happening with the Harkonnen family at this particular stage in the, in Dune events. The Butlerian Jihad has just happened, right? That was that robot war. We saw in the beginning of the first episode, where machines had kind of become conscious with human hosts and, uh, ruled the planet, right? And humanity had to fight these machines back. Um, now, uh, Harkonnens were shamed in this war, uh, as cowards. Apparently they fled from a certain battle, if I'm not mistaken, and their name was shamed by the Atreides family, and it becomes this, this, this, uh, century-long feud, right, between Atreides. Even up to the present day, we see the Atreides and Harkonnens are still fighting, right? So they don't know Valya's sister is a Harkonnen. And, uh, you know, as we got to see, she plays along, but it seems very authentic. Now she's learned poisoning from a variety of methods that she's— maybe they could have been taught to her by Valya and Valya's knowledge at the Bene Gesserit schools or the sisterhood. However she obtained this information, she's gotten good at how poisons work, right? So she's preparing a feast for the Atreides family. Uh, they think she's okay, and of course they all end up getting poisoned, right? Now in this week's episode, we don't get to see Desmond Harkonnen. Uh, I'm, I'm very much so, um, into that particular story, what's happening at the palace. I can tell I was far removed from this week's episode, what was going on with the Harkonnens. Uh, I didn't like the planet they were on. The wells were disgusting. This is obviously a, a big part of their sustenance and life and diet and living, right? They're wearing whales' furs. They're kind of like Inuits, right? They're living off these whales, a very big part of their economy, especially given the circumstance with their kind of exile to this planet Linkovich, right? Now, all is not lost on this week's episode because who do we have here to the right corner? That is right, Bobby B himself, Robert Baratheon of Game of Thrones. Remember I had been saying in previous episodes that I was looking forward to, uh, Robert Baratheon's inclusion? Mark Addy's his actual name. He's playing a Harkonnen. Right? It's kind of like the head of the family, uh, kind of like what we saw with Vladimir Harkonnen in the present day, uh, Dune movies with Villeneuve. Uh, you see, uh, the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, that's the big, the big huge floating big guy, and then you see, uh, he kind of bestows baronial powers to Feyd-Rautha, right? That's the one who fought Paul Atreides, if you're familiar with the Villeneuve movies and the Dune books, right? But he kind of gives him this baron-like— it's almost like a, uh, uh, a baron regent kind of title, right? I think they call it Na Baron or Nubian or something like that. But he's kind of still under the present-day bearer but kind of ruling in his stead, right? And, uh, that seems like kind of what happens in the Harkonnen family here. You have the father, uh, Harkonnen here, but the Landsrats meeting is going to be, you know, be conducted by his son who is representing the family. Uh, he has a plan And you can tell he's very close to Valya Harkonnen, and he's planning to make things better for the Harkonnen family, to set the record straight on what's happened through their legacy, right? The false information spread. Unfortunately, he's murdered, right, at the Landsraad meeting. And this just puts Valya and the family into a tailspin. But no one's willing to act like Valya. Valya's willing to go all the way, and so she concocts this plot, as we got to see, with Tula, her sister, right, to go into the Atreides camp, fall in love, or pretend to fall in love with the, uh, Atreides, um, I'm assuming he was— I seen his signet ring on his hand. I'm assuming he was the kind of like the head of the Atreides family at that time, right? I'm just assuming, or he could have been someone up there, but, uh, he actually is murdered by her, right? Looks like she uses the gun Jabbar, right? That's that poison dart that they use when, uh, the Reverend Mother tells Paul to stick his hand in the box, um, and, um, you know, she kills him, but you could tell it hurts her as she does it. So basically, this is a, uh, uh, one of those deep cover moves where the person's not pretending, right, that, uh, you know, that wasn't part of the plan, maybe, for her to fall in love. But, uh, she— I believe she does, uh, but she has to carry through, uh, what's happening. Now, of course Uh, uh, the father, Hard Corner, here is very upset. He's telling them they don't understand the kind of heat that can bring down upon them, right? Uh, that this could even further destroy their family, right? Can wipe them out, uh, if this plot is discovered, right? And she, uh, there's a thing that happens where she lets somebody survive as part of that family, and that person could end up being the one that's going to come back and, and be a problem to them in future episodes, right? Uh, interesting enough, he was a House of the Dragon alumni. He actually played the Tully, the new Tully lord in House of the Dragon. Again, if you're not familiar with the Game of Thrones books and novels and such, and the House of the Dragon show, it is probably going to fly over your head. Just keep in mind that Many of these shows, uh, take, uh, influence from Dune, right? Dune is like political intrigue, but it happens in a kind of distant future, uh, with intergalactic travel, uh, space travel, whereas Game of Thrones is kind of medieval, uh, but the— there are certain elements that stem from Game of Thrones from Dune. And that goes to a lot of the science fiction genre as well. Even Star Wars, great influence from the Dune series, right? But the reason I say that is because, you know, these stories have very similar things happening to them. And so when I see these actors kind of crossing over into them, it's kind of interesting to watch. But yeah, if you're familiar with House of the Dragon The Dance of the Dragons, which is the actual book the show is taken from. You probably remember in season 2 meeting the River Lord, which was, I believe he was not Oscar Tully because they're actually named after the Muppets, right? So you had Grover, Grover Tully, you had Oscar, and there's another one I can't think of his name. I, I think that might have been the name of the, uh, Lord— the young Lord Tully. In any event, he's the character that she lets escape. She's actually— he's actually the character she's teaching about the poisons as they're preparing the feast, right? Um, and so Robert Baratheon doesn't disappoint the father Tully. Uh, Mark Addy is just a great actor, and he is basically, uh, you know, said, hey, you sorceress, you this. And so they're at odds. Now, interesting enough, by the end of the episode, uh, we get to see Valya's been kicked out of the palace, right? Remember Desmond Hark, uh, got his plot going. He got rid of them. He doesn't like the Bene Gesserit. He doesn't like the Sisterhood. He got her kicked out of the palace and got her away from the Emperor's ear. Right? They don't want to be under the power and influence of the Sisterhood. So now she has to find another way to make her plans work. Bobby B is still very much alive in the future because remember, these events took place I think about 30 years prior to where Dune is at. It's either 15 or 30 years. I think it's 30 years, right? Uh, We, you know, we're still getting these prequels of Valya and the current Reverend Mother, uh, and her daughter, right, as they were all vying for who will become the leader of the Sisterhood, right? So that's all happening 15, 30 years prior. Fast forward to present day, for some reason the Harkonnens are in, uh, are still um, and, uh, on Carino, right? They're still at the palace now. They're just kind of hanging over from the events of the palace. I mean, of the, uh, you know, what happened. Uh, maybe they're there for a meeting, right? I'm not sure why they're there still. I don't know if they live there. They could be just visiting there. Um, but they're there. And so Val is able to go meet with them, it looks like, in Corrino, right? She's able to still go meet with them, and she's hoping for a plan or a way for her family to help her, right? And I don't know what their relationship is, and we know that it was bad several decades prior, but I'm glad— I hope— I'm glad they're giving Mark Addy something to do because he's such a powerful actor. You don't want to get rid of him too fast, right? So he's going to have a big part to play as a Harkonnen against the palace, against the Emperor, right? And that's going to be interesting to watch. So that part of it I was interested in. The rest, just the, you know, the history of what happened with Valya and, you know, the Harkonnen dynasty, you know, for some reason I don't care. For some reason I would have preferred the focus be on the, uh, the Atreides family, right? I just wasn't interested in it. Now there is a scene after Tola kills, uh, Tula kills the Atreides clan there, where a bull, uh, it's just kind of overlooking her. Now I've, I've heard some people online talk about what that symbolized. I'm kind of in the dark on this part, so maybe you guys can help me in the comment section. But my assumption was the sigil of, um, of House Atreides was the eagle, right? It was the eagle. So this bull, uh, as far as I remember, is not part of the Atreides family, with the exception of it being of Paul Atreides' grandfather, Duke Leto's father, fighting bulls. Remember, he was a bullfighter, right? Now, is that some kind of symbolism to say that the Atreides will rise again to fight you Harkonnens? Probably so, right? But they could have just as easily— I would have thought— done it with an eagle. I think it would have made more sense to have like an eagle swoop down, maybe even eagle attacker. I think that would have been better. Because this bull thing, you know, I might be missing something. Unfortunately, I haven't read all the Dune books yet, and so I think what I'm gonna end up doing is similar to what I did with Game of Thrones. When I got into Game of Thrones, I started the following year to read all the books until I read them all, and maybe this will happen with this. But yep, that's this episode, Sisterhood Above All. Uh, the least favorite for me of them all. Uh, in saying that, it still wasn't a bad episode, right? But it felt kind of filler-ish to me. Uh, this is episode 3, remember? It's only 3 more episodes left, right? And I get it, Dune is— you know, uh, I was watching Dune, uh, The, the Dune movies, the second Dune Part 2 yesterday, because I actually have only seen that movie once, right? So I was watching it again yesterday and, um, some people were saying this is a boring movie, right? They were saying Dune 2 was a boring movie. And, um, I'm sitting there and I'm going, well, you know what, I'm thinking to myself, I'm going, I could see why people will find this boring. Uh, you gotta really be into Dune not to find it boring, right? This is a, this is a mental exercise, right? Doing, doing the action thing— this is all about human advancement, human consciousness, right? If you're maybe one of these people who meditate a lot, you're into Buddhism, you're into Eastern philosophy, uh, you're intellectual, uh, you like to read, you're gonna probably love Dune. But probably as your average watcher who's trying to watch good cinema, Dune is gonna be a slow burn for many people. And so as I was watching Dune, you know, Dune Part Two with the big cinema production, and people were talking about it was boring, I was like, yeah, just imagine if they watch Dune Prophecy, they're going to think the same thing. But when you compare the two together like that Uh, you have a lot more grace for Dune Prophecy, seeing that even the— what some people would believe to be the more exciting part of Dune, uh, you know, with the, uh, with the fights and the wars and the battles. Because you got to remember, Dune Prophecy, they're not at war, nothing's happening, right? But even in the Dune movies when they're at war, people were finding that boring, right? So it just goes to show you the type of production this is, right? That this isn't going to be for everybody. I think it's a masterpiece so far, uh, even though it's slow. Again, it's my type of genre, it's my type of show. I like thinking shows with a little action, uh, you know, I'm, I'm that guy who, if you play a Marvel film, you know, that's just got a lot of comedy relief and got a lot of cartoonish behavior in it, kind of like how Guardians of the Galaxy was, I'm going to probably like that less than maybe something like Captain America: Winter Soldier, you know, or something like that. Uh, so that's just— this is kind of my genre, right? So I'm going to like stuff like this, but I understand why people won't like this. And again, this is going to be my least favorite of them. I'm, I'm also going to just say I wasn't going to do episode by episode, right? I was actually going to stop, uh, at this episode, but when Robert Baratheon showed up, I had to do it. I said I got to give Robert Baratheon credit, uh, I gotta do it now. And seeing that it's only 6 episodes, why not? I might as well push on through, uh, and finish the series. So I'm gonna finish the remaining Uh, but anyway guys, tell me what you think. Again, I know if you're a Dune person, you're probably automatically gonna like this. Is there anything I left out? Yeah, I left out, uh, and I might be saying Tula, calling Valya's sister Tula. Tula is actually— might actually be the, the young Bene Gesserit who underwent the Agony. We get to find out she's still alive, of course, and, uh, this is very interesting. I've heard this through the novels that spice can sustain life, right? It can— it gives longevity to life. So I kind of, I kind of like them adding that to keep her alive. This isn't something just for the plot that they throw it in there just to keep the actress from dying off. This actually goes with the novels of— do the spice can prolong your life, right? They're using computers and machines illegally, I imagine, as a machine saying, hey, you can't, you know, you can't do that, to stimulate her brain cells to keep her alive. Apparently spice can do a lot of stuff, right? A lot of stuff. And again, the novel says it can, it can, uh, not only expand your consciousness, it can extend your life, right? But anyway, I'm gonna leave it there. Tell me all what you thought of this week's episode. Doom Prophecy Episode 3, Sisterhood Above All. Um, yeah, if you like the show, let me know. Um, and, uh, if you're gonna finish the show, I think I'm gonna go ahead and finish. We're halfway there anyway, guys. Until next time, as always, take care of yourselves and each other.