Maud’Dib

It is as the Princess Irulan says; to understand Paul Atreides, Mau’Dib, we have to understand him as a Fremen in context. 

This protects us from analysing him in such a way we forget that and the importance of it. Mentats compare the with- and without- assimilation of this awareness to recognise the validity of Paul Maud’Dib’s decision-making processes. 

“One cannot accurately judge a culture by the standards of a different culture.” Rakis Holy Nomad

It goes beyond “Paul is a psychopath.” All leaders bare traits of psychopathy. It is not the definitive understanding of the man. Maud’Dib was a living prophecy, a religious leader, Mahdi. He was rightly considered so for many generations after his time. 

Paul was not a Qwizard Haderach. He did not ‘come a generation too early’. Paul knew his children would be. He foresaw this both with his Mentat training and in his spice visions. Maud’Dib did manipulate the superstition of the Bene Gesserit, Fremen and Imperium alike, using the role as political leverage to attain his goals. 

In doing so, Paul’s calculations and foresight of the long-term consequences undoubtably proved his seizing of the Imperial Throne as necessary to subdue opposition from within and fragmentation of the feudal Empire, to avoid stagnation which his son LetoII later discussed in his journals and with Moneo and the Idaho gholas. Maud’Dib and LetoII both saw the same view in their spice visions. They met each other there.