The Sardaukar Aren't Dune's Best Soldiers | Here's Who Actually Is

Comments · 540

• EA

  @earthknight60 · 4 months ago

  There is another aspect to this.  It's mentioned in the first book that Duke Leto had trained his own troops up to a hair's breadth of the level of the Sardaukar.  Ths combined with his popularity meant that he was also potentially a major military threat if his house expanded, and could make the Sardaukar obsolete as it showed that you didn't actually need the dehumanizing and cruel selection and training process the Emperor used.  Paul knew this as he had been trained in the system that Leto and his advisors developed, and he applied some of that to the Fremen, mainly in the realm of tactics and large scale organization.

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• PA

  @padams7638 · 4 months ago

  The swordsmanship of the Sardaukar does not rival Duncan Idaho. From Children of Dune: &quot;The reports of his death were in the library. The Sardaukar who’d slain him reported his prowess: nineteen of their number dispatched by Idaho before he’d fallen. Nineteen Sardaukar!&quot; <br><br>Yet, Gurney Hallock was even better. Again, from Children of Dune: “Not quite, My Lady. Gurney could best me six times out of ten.” <br><br>As for the Fremen, from the novel Dune: “Hawat said, “... You say the Sardaukar accounted for another twenty thousand [Fremen], possibly a few more. And I’ve seen the transportation manifests for their [Sardaukar] return from Arrakis. If they killed twenty thousand, they lost almost five for one.&quot; <br><br>Later on in the novel Dune, the Emperor states: “I only sent in five troop carriers with a light attack force to pick up prisoners for questioning. We barely got away with three prisoners and one carrier. Mind you, Baron, my Sardaukar were almost <br>overwhelmed by a force composed mostly of women, children, and old men.&quot; The Sardaukar suffered 80% losses. Shortly thereafter the Emperor repeats this saying: &quot;...Sardaukar forced to retreat in confusion from women and children and old men!”

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• AT

  @atto1355 · 3 months ago

  “God created Arrakis to train the faithful” nuff said

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• VO

  @vortexgen1 · 4 months ago

  The sandworms were eating the Sardaukar, like Tic Tacs on the Arrakis&apos; surface, when they didn&apos;t turn off their shields.

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• ST

  @stevemphillips1971 · 8 days ago

  In the books it is staed that the Sardaukar had lost their edge after 10,000 years of dominance. By the time of Dune (first novel) they are largely living from reputation - at their peak they were a match for all of the great houses combined.

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• NI

  @NickdeVera · 4 months ago

  there&apos;s a wonderful layered compliment in dune, one of the fremen asks thufir hawat, there are some different soldiers mixed in with the regular harkonnen, what do you call them? the sardaukar? ah, sardaukar, they&apos;re good fighters. and hawat&apos;s boggled that the fremen relish the challenge of fighting the dreaded sardaukar

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• BA

  @BarryKennedy · 4 months ago (edited)

  The best of the Fremen - Paul&apos;s Fedaykin death commandos - were not just survivors of the harshest environment of the Imperium, they were the elite in that environment. Combine natural Fremen fighting ability, Atreides (within a hair as good as Sardaukar) combat training, and Bene Gesserit Prana Bindu with religious fanatic devotion to the Mahdi...and you have a force that taught Sardaukar what fear is.

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• LO

  @looopy2u · 4 months ago

  The first novel shows that one Fremen warrior could kill approximately 3 to 5 Sardaukar in direct military conflict.

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• GR

  @grimmata · 4 months ago

  As soon as Baron Harkonnen mentioned to Count Fenring that he was thinking of making Dune into a prison planet, like Salusa Secundus, the Emperor immediately started sending spies to make sure that this would not happen. Thufir Hawat advises the Baron to not attempt to turn Dune into a prison planet because the Emperor would do the same thing to the Harkonnens.

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• WC

  @wcg66 · 2 months ago

  It’s worth noting that the Bene Gesserit created the original mythology of the Kwisatz Hadarach and fuelled Fremen fanaticism for centuries before the timeline of Dune. You have to think that was an intentional attempt to create something they would manipulate once they bred their very own Kwisatz Hadarach (not Paul). “Plans within plans.”

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• AL

  @alexanderspeer2902 · 2 weeks ago

  This passage goes through my head at least twice a year and every time it does I giggle about how the Fremen perceived encountering Saudaukar<br><br><br>Beginning of short passage:<br>&quot;Liet wished to see one of the weapons for himself.&quot;<br>&quot;Then you should take one,&quot; Hawat sneered.<br><br>&quot;Yes,&quot; the Fremen said. &quot;We took one. We have it hidden where Stilgar can study it for Leit and where Liet can see it for himself if he wishes. But I doubt he&apos;ll want to: the weapon is not a very good one. Poor design for Arrakis.&quot;<br><br>&quot;You . . . took one?&quot; Hawat asked.<br>&quot;It was a good fight,&quot; the Fremen said. &quot;We lost only two men and spilled the water from more than a hundred of theirs.&quot;<br><br><b>begin italics</b> There were Sardaukar at every gun <b>end italics</b> Hawat thought. <b>begin italics</b> This desert madman speaks casually of losing only two men against Sardaukar! <b>end italics</b><br><br>&quot;We would not have lost the two except for those others fighting beside the Harkonnens,&quot; the Fremen said. &quot;Some of those are good fighters.&quot;<br>End of short passage.<br><br>End of page 342 and beginning of page 343, 2010 Ace publications edition<br><br>Particularly &quot;It was a good fight&quot; being spoken so casually makes me laugh every time

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• MR

  @MrSpleenboy · 4 months ago

  Certainly in the timeline of the first 3 books, the Fremen are the most effective fighting force in the known universe. At this time, the Fish Speakers and Honored Matres don&apos;t exist, and the Bene Gesserit have never fielded an army in battle.<br>After the death of Leto II and the diaspora, one could argue that the Fremen are surpassed by those forces I&apos;ve mentioned above

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