Alia Atreides

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Alia Atreides
Dune character
Daniela Amavia in the Children of Dune miniseries (2003)
First appearanceDune (1963–65)
Last appearanceThe Winds of Dune (2009)
Created byFrank Herbert
Portrayed by
In-universe information
Title
Hayt (Duncan Idaho
)
Relatives
As a child actress, Alicia Witt portrayed Alia in the 1984 film Dune.

Alia Atreides

ghola in the Brian Herbert/Kevin J. Anderson conclusion to the original series, Sandworms of Dune
(2007).

In the novels, Alia is the daughter of

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
.

Alia is portrayed by Alicia Witt in David Lynch's 1984 film adaptation, by Laura Burton in the 2000 miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune, by Daniela Amavia in its 2003 sequel, Frank Herbert's Children of Dune, and by Anya Taylor-Joy in a cameo appearance in Denis Villeneuve's 2024 film Dune: Part Two.

Description

The daughter of Duke Leto Atreides of Caladan and his Bene Gesserit concubine, Lady Jessica, Alia is the younger sister to Paul Atreides.[4] During the events of Dune, Alia is born on the planet Arrakis in the year 10,191 A.G., eight months after her father's death.[5] Because of the unique nature of her birth she possesses the consciousness of an adult Bene Gesserit; thus she is considered an Abomination by the Bene Gesserit.[4] The

Harah notices that four-year-old Alia "only pretends to be a little girl, that she has never been a little girl."[4] She seeks to explain Alia's unique nature to the superstitious and wary Fremen.[4] In the later years of her regency, Alia's enemies and victims among the Fremen call her Coan-Teen, "the female death spirit who walks without feet."[6]
An adult Alia is described by Herbert in Dune Messiah:

Her features lay exposed—blue-in-blue "spice eyes," her mother's oval face beneath a cap of bronze hair, small nose, mouth wide and generous.[7]

Novelist Brian Herbert, Frank Herbert's son and biographer, describes Alia as a "virgin witch" archetype.[8] William Touponce explains, "Alia is the archetypal virgin-harlot, a Reverend Mother without motherhood, virgin priestess, witch, and object of fearful veneration for the superstitious masses".[9]

Appearances

Dune

In

Kwisatz Haderach.[4]

Alia is raised in a community of

crysknife, earning her the holy epithet "St. Alia of the Knife."[4]

Alia uses her limited

Truthsayer, Gaius Helen Mohiam. Bene Gesserit Mohiam tells the Emperor that it is "Not telepathy. She's in my mind. She's like the ones before me, the ones who gave me their memories. She stands in my mind! She cannot be there, but she is!" Alia further explains that she cannot do this with everyone: "Unless I'm born as you, I cannot think as you."[10]
Alia soon communicates with Paul the same way:

Of all the uses of time-vision, this was the strangest. "I have breasted the future to place my words where only you can hear them," Alia had said. "Even you cannot do that, my brother. I find it an interesting play. And ... oh, yes—I've killed our grandfather, the demented old Baron. He had very little pain."[4]

Touponce suggests that Herbert's depiction of larval

sandtrout), which hold back water in the desert to maintain the arid conditions their sandworm vector requires to thrive, is "an analogy for a stage of consciousness Alia can feel. Some of the ancestral voices within her mind hold back dangerous forces that could destroy her."[11]

Dune Messiah

The character is further explored in 1969's

House Corrino) to seize the throne from Paul.[7]

Touponce notes that "Alia will come to sexual maturity in [Dune Messiah] and discover an ascendant desire for a mate and political power."[9] Hayt has been programmed by the Tleilaxu with three functions to be used against the Atreides, one of which is the seduction of Alia.[12]

Children of Dune

In

Mentat powers, Duncan comes to the realization that Alia has fallen into Abomination, and helps Jessica escape Alia's murderous plot.[6]

The Preacher, actually Paul Atreides, returns once more to the steps of the temple and exposes Alia's conversion to Abomination to the Fremen. Her priests soon murder him, as Alia's nephew Leto II returns from hiding, his sister Ghanima in tow. The twins offer Alia their help conquering her inner lives, as they had. Alia then loses all control over the other personalities within her and they all fight for dominance over her. Leto realizes that the Baron's hold over her is too strong, and provides two options: a Trial of Possession, an ancient ritual that would guarantee the Baron's undoing; and the open window, high above the temple steps. As a helpless Jessica looks on, Alia regains control of her body long enough to leap out the window to her death.[6]

Hunters of Dune

In the

ghola. The Baron is displeased to note that Alia's voice haunts him in his head, somehow in a reversal of the influence he had over her while she was in the throes of Abomination in Children of Dune. Although not possessing the body of the Baron, Alia taunts him mercilessly.[13]

Sandworms of Dune

In

Wellington Yueh ghola.[14]

In adaptations

Anya Taylor-Joy plays Alia in a cameo in Villeneuve's Dune: Part Two (2024)

Alia is portrayed by Alicia Witt in David Lynch's 1984 film adaptation,[15][16] by Laura Burton in the 2000 miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune[17] and by Daniela Amavia in its 2003 sequel, Frank Herbert's Children of Dune.[18][19]

Alia appears briefly as an infant in one of Paul's visions of the future in the 2021 film Dune, which covers the first part of the book.[20] The casting of Anya Taylor-Joy in Dune: Part Two as an adult Alia in a cameo appearance was kept secret until the February 2024 film premiere in London.[21][22]

Laura Fries of

Tor.com called Amavia's portrayal of Alia a "highlight" of the miniseries, and praised the attention paid to Alia's character development.[24]
Asher-Perrin praised the miniseries' departure from the novel in regard to Alia's fate:

And rather than have Alia throw herself out a window to end her possession once and for all, the miniseries does something devastating—Alia stabs herself, and as she lies on the floor dying, Jessica takes her into her arms. In a moment of exact parallel between her child self in the Dune miniseries, Alia reaches up to touch her mother's tears, tastes them, then whispers, "I want my brother," before joining him in death. It is one of those rare moments that makes the book seem clumsy and frail by comparison.[24]

In the scripting of 2024's Dune: Part Two, director Denis Villeneuve opted to compress the timeline of events in order to keep Jessica pregnant throughout the film, explaining that he considered it "really fresh and original to have a character who is pregnant and still a powerful woman, a central figure of the story."[25] As a result of the change, the adaptation assigns aspects of Alia's role in the book's climax to Paul. Instead, Jessica communicates with the sentient fetus throughout the film, while an adult Alia (played by Taylor-Joy) appears in one of Paul's visions of the future.[26] Villeneuve acknowledged "it's a strong curve that we took, but I felt that it was very close to the spirit of the book."[25]

Family tree

References

  1. ^ "Audio excerpts from a reading of Dune by Frank Herbert". Usul.net. Archived from the original on 11 November 2010. Retrieved October 6, 2010.
  2. ^ Dune: Creating the Audiobooks (Official promotional video, includes images of Frank Herbert's pronunciation notes for some terms). Macmillan Audio. December 23, 2008. Event occurs at 4:04. Archived from the original on 2021-12-12. Retrieved January 23, 2010.
  3. ^
    ISBN 0-7653-1295-6
    .
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-441-17271-7
    .
  5. ^ Herbert, Frank (1965). "Appendix IV: The Almanak en-Ashraf (Selected Excerpts of the Noble Houses) Lady Alia Atreides". Dune.
  6. ^ a b c Herbert, Frank (1976). Children of Dune.
  7. ^ a b c Herbert, Frank (1969). Dune Messiah.
  8. Penguin Publishing Group
    . p. 875.
  9. ^
    ISBN 0-8057-7514-5
    .
  10. Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy
    by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson (1999-2001).
  11. ^ Touponce, William F. (1988). "Dune: Herbert's Polyphonic Novel". Frank Herbert. p. 19.
  12. ^ Touponce, William F. (1988). "Dune Messiah". Frank Herbert. p. 38.
  13. ^ Herbert, Brian; Kevin J. Anderson (2006). Hunters of Dune.
  14. ^ Herbert, Brian; Kevin J. Anderson (2007). Sandworms of Dune.
  15. ^ Maslin, Janet (December 14, 1984). "Movie Review: Dune (1984)". The New York Times. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
  16. ^ McArdle, Tommy (February 19, 2024). "Cybill Star Alicia Witt Shares Throwback Photo of Her at 7 in Original Dune Movie: 'Changed My Life'". Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
  17. ^ "Dune: Cast & Details". TV Guide. 2000. Archived from the original on December 13, 2013. Retrieved December 9, 2013.
  18. ^ Wertheimer, Ron (March 15, 2003). "Television Review: A Stormy Family on a Sandy Planet". The New York Times. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
  19. ^ Berger, Warren (March 16, 2003). "Cover Story: Where Spice of Life Is the Vital Variety". The New York Times. Retrieved January 26, 2010.
  20. ^ Britt, Ryan (October 7, 2021). "Why Dune's most iconic villain isn't in Denis Villeneuve's movie". Inverse. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
  21. ^ Jackson, Angelique; Yossman, K.J. (February 15, 2024). "Surprise! Anya Taylor-Joy Confirms Dune: Part Two Role at London Premiere". Variety. Archived from the original on February 15, 2024. Retrieved March 1, 2024.
  22. ^ Saksena, Sanchay (February 27, 2024). "Dune 2: Director Explains Why an Important Cast Member Wasn't Revealed Till the Last Minute and More". IGN. Retrieved March 1, 2024.
  23. ^ Fries, Laura (March 11, 2003). "Review: Children of Dune". Variety. Archived from the original on August 21, 2015. Retrieved August 21, 2015.
  24. ^
    Tor.com
    . Retrieved February 20, 2019.
  25. ^ a b Holub, Christian (March 1, 2024). "How Dune: Part 2 handles the character of Alia — and why there isn't a time jump". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on March 2, 2024.
  26. ^ McHenry, Jackson (March 1, 2024). "Decoding Dune: Part Two's Ominous Visions of the Future". Vulture. Archived from the original on March 2, 2024.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alia_Atreides&oldid=1219137415"