Duncan Idaho
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Duncan Idaho is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He is the only character to feature in all six of the original Dune novels, and is arguably the main character in the Dune series.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] The original Idaho
At the time of Dune, Idaho has already undergone the long training of being a Swordmaster of the Ginaz, before joining the service of House Atreides, and becoming one of Duke Leto's right-hand men (with Gurney Halleck and Thufir Hawat). When the Atreides take over the planet Arrakis (called Dune) at the order of the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV, Idaho becomes Leto's ambassador to the Fremen, the desert people of Dune that Leto hopes will ally with him in the coming war against the Emperor and the Harkonnens; Idaho goes to live with the Fremen, serving Stilgar and Leto both.
When the Emperor attacks Dune in the guise of Harkonnen troops, Idaho is killed by the Emperor's dreaded Sardaukar by a blow to the head, in doing so saving Paul Atreides and Lady Jessica. Even though impossibly outnumbered by the elite Sardaukar, he kills an unheard of 19 of them before finally falling.
[edit] The first ghola
Idaho returns in Dune Messiah as a ghola, a clone made by the Tleilaxu and gifted to Paul Atreides, now Emperor. The purpose of the gift is 'psychic poison': Idaho is supposed to tempt the Kwisatz Haderach Paul into becoming that which he despises. Known as Hayt in his ghola incarnation, Idaho was trained as a mentat and a Zensunni philosopher. He has no memory of his former life, but constantly feels vague hints and reminders of his previous incarnation that make him hope he can recover those memories.
Failing to destroy the Emperor psychically, Hayt is programmed to kill Paul against his will. In the stress of the attempt, Hayt recovers his memories as Duncan Idaho, up to and including his death at the hands of the Imperial Sardaukar; he stops the attempt, and becomes, once more, a loyal Atreides servant. This becomes the culmination of the plot to overthrow Paul by demonstrating that the Tleilaxu can create an exact equivalent of his dead wife Chani, but only if he abdicates his throne.
Also in Dune Messiah, hints of growing attraction between Idaho and Paul's sister, Alia are dropped. In one scene, Duncan even kisses Alia, which infuriates her but he replies that he took no more than what was offered. When Paul abdicates and wanders into the desert to die, as is the tradition for blind Fremen, Alia asks Idaho for his continued support and affection to help her get through the times ahead.
In Children of Dune, Idaho is now Alia's husband and mentat. She has assumed power as Holy Regent in the name of Paul's children, Leto II and Ghanima. Alia becomes possessed by the memory-ego of her ancestor, the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, who sets out to destroy the Atreides empire. Recognizing this, Idaho remains loyal to the Atreides, and flees to the desert to protect the children. In order to get Stilgar to join the Fremen opposition to Alia's rule, Duncan kills Javid, Alia's secret lover, on the neutral ground of Sietch Tabr. He also insults Stilgar three times, by saying to him the three deadliest insults a Fremen can hear: "You wear a collar!", "You are a servant! You've sold Fremen for their water!", and "You have no immortality! None of your descendents carry your blood!" Driven into a rage, Stilgar kills Duncan for violating the sietch's neutrality, which was what Duncan had planned from the beginning. His last gasping words were, "Two deaths for the Atreides. The second for no better reason than the first."
[edit] The God Emperor's ghola series
God Emperor of Dune reintroduces Idaho as a serial ghola: Leto II has ruled as a sandworm for around 3,500 years, and has continually had an Idaho ghola to serve him at all times. To Leto, Idaho represents loyalty, humanity and the spirit of the unknown (something which the God-Emperor, having perfect prescience, knows nothing of (it is also implied that Duncan is needed for the 'Golden Path' to come to fruition). Leto and his father also loved Duncan, which is another reason why the God Emperor wants a Duncan around. However, the Idaho gholas, with their memories restored, struggle to deal with what the Atreides have become. Where before, the hallmark of Atreides rule was justice, Leto's reign has been one of godhood and oppression. Idaho's old-fashioned conscience rebels, leading the Idaho ghola to attempt to kill Leto (who is invulnerable to all but water and extreme violence as a sandworm). Leto notes that only nineteen of "his" Duncans have survived long enough to die what is considered a "natural death". In just about all of these rebellions, the reborn Idaho gets killed by the God Emperor. After a certain time, the God Emperor will order another ghola of Duncan from the Tleilaxu. The man usually shows up strongly believing he has gone insane, in shock at how the Universe has changed since his "death" (as the Duncans have memories only of the first Duncan). If the new ghola survives his first interviews, he will serve the God Emperor until his almost inevitable rebellion.
The novel significantly revolves around the perceptions and action of a new Duncan that has just been ordered from the Tleilaxu. Like the others before him, Duncan is appalled at what Atreides rule has become, but Leto appoints him as the head of his all-female military, the Fish Speakers. He also reveals that he has repeatedly used his Duncan gholas in his breeding program to genetically improve the Atreides line. The current Duncan is intended to mate with Siona Atreides, the end product of Leto's breeding program: she is able to "fade" from prescient sight. Duncan is extremely reluctant and protests, saying that he is not Leto's "stud." He does catch the eye of Hwi Noree, the Ixian Ambassador sent to Arrakis with the explicit purpose of wooing the Emperor. Leto forbids Duncan from having any relations with her, but he disobeys and sleeps with Hwi.
Duncan eventually joins Siona's rebels and works with her to assassinate the Leto. His plan is successful, but Hwi is killed in the process. Leto reveals that he knew of their plan, and that his death is simply another step to ensuring the Golden Path. Siona, having seen the Golden Path during her trial in the desert, realizes she was bred as key figure for humanity's survival. At the end of the novel, she schemes on how to carefully seduce Duncan and mate with him, as Leto had originally intended. None of their descendants will be able to be tracked by prescience, forever free of any one person's vision and ensuring that humanity could never be completely found and destroyed.
[edit] The Bene Gesserit ghola series
The Bene Gesserit become the consumers of Idaho gholas in Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune. However, the Tleilaxu keep killing the gholas after several years. Not knowing exactly what purpose Idaho will serve, the Bene Gesserit suspect that the Tleilaxu are using the gholas to control the timing of his release upon the universe, implying some Tleilaxu purpose in addition to their own. The current ghola survives, and entraps an Honored Matre, revealing the Tleilaxu purpose: the Honored Matres, who are all female, rule by the sexual enslavement of men to the point of creating physical addiction, and Idaho is the Tleilaxu response. When Murbella, an Honored Matre, tries to sexually bond Idaho, she is also enslaved, and the two of them are confined to a no-ship on Chapterhouse. There, Idaho trains young men to go out into the universe and enslave Honored Matres. Miles Teg is able to restore the memories of Duncan Idaho to the ghola, but Duncan can feel that the Tleilaxu planted something else in his mind. When Murbella tries to bond Duncan, the Tleilaxu's plan fruits, and he becomes aware of the memories of all the other Idaho gholas. Duncan also inherits an awkward prescient vision, wherein he sees an old man and woman staring back at him. Duncan restores the memories of the Miles Teg ghola, and escapes in the no-ship, evading the trap set for him by the strange couple.
[edit] Character analysis
Duncan is portrayed in Dune and the other works as a handsome man, to whom women are easily attracted. He is a gifted soldier and general as well as gifted as an agent/ambassador. He can sometimes get drunk, and in Dune once called Jessica a "damn Harkonnen spy" whereupon she hurled coffee in his face. One of the Duncan gholas once married a woman named Irti, who strongly resembled Jessica, and it is revealed that Duncan fantasized about Jessica as well.
He is a very good fighter with a rapier and in the final fight in which he died for the first time, he killed 19 Sardaukar - a feat which all characters hold to be astonishing, given that a single Sarduakar super-soldier is the equal of a dozen standard soldiers in battle. The Sardaukar sold his body to the Tleilaxu who grew the gholas of Duncan from the original cells. The original Duncan and all of the gholas show his rebellious streak, and Duncan is aways a very opinionated, headstrong man.
Duncan's character is the symbol of newness and rebirth in the Dune universe. Leto II viewed Duncan as a symbol of the unknown, the opposite of stagnation.
[edit] Portrayal in other media
In David Lynch's 1984 film version of Dune, Idaho was played by Richard Jordan.
In the Sci-Fi Channel's Mini Series, James Watson played the character. In this version, he is killed by a bomb that is dropped on his position by a Harkonnen thopter.
In the Children of Dune miniseries, Idaho was played by Edward Atterton.
