Why create a kwisatz haderach

[JimCrafton]

That's right, slow day, bored, so I wondered, why were the Bene Gesserits trying to do this in the first place? The simple answer is that they wanted a male counterpart, with access to both sides of his Other Memory - male and female, to be able to touch both sides of this power. But beyond that, what was this supposed to actually accomplish? Once this person came into being, what were the Bene Gesserits trying to get done?

I should note that I just found this
http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Kwisatz_Haderach

And the stuff in there doesn't completely square with what I remember from Dune or any of the other 5 books.

I don't recall it clearly being stated that the BG were trying for the Imperial Throne. Seems a bit petty given the way the BG are described ("we live to serve"). Nor do I recall the BG as being prescient - they could see Other Memory and relive the past in extreme detail, but I don't recall prescience coming up. Guild Navigators had this in a limited form as a pre-requisite for folding space, but not BG.

[Jedi2016]

You're correct in that the BG were not prescient. The Navigators were, but only in a tiny little way, nothing like what Paul and Leto II were. They actually changed the idea of the navigators part way through the series with the idea of foldspace. Originally, they simply looked "ahead" to see the ship's path, and adjusted course accordingly, but the ship itself traveled by conventional means ("conventional" includes FTL in this discussion.. hehe).

I also don't recollect the BG were ever after the throne itself. For all intents and purposes, they already had it.. BG were advisors to everyone, and everyone listened, including the emperor.

As for why breed the KH? It was never explicitly stated as far as a concrete reason, but I think it boiled down to arrogance. They didn't like the idea that there was power and knowledge that they weren't in control of, and so they tried to create it. Talk about your all time backfires... Paul was bad enough, but they could never even have dreamed of what Leto II did.

One of my favorite series, by the way, I have all six. And yes, there are only six.

[JimCrafton]

OK glad I'm not alone in this - and yes there are only 6!

I can't believe I wasted the money *and* time to read the "new" stuff.

[JackN]

Originally Posted by JimCrafton

OK glad I'm not alone in this - and yes there are only 6!

I can't believe I wasted the money *and* time to read the "new" stuff.

I assume the following is part of what you consider a waste? I have not read these, but was intrigued by the concept of war against machines prior to Dune...:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

The Prequel trilogy called the Legends of Dune, consisting of Dune: The Butlerian Jihad (2002), Dune: The Machine Crusade (2003), and Dune: The Battle of Corrin (2004). This series is set during the Butlerian Jihad, an element of back-story which Frank Herbert had previously established as occurring 10,000 years before the events chronicled in Dune.[25] Herbert's brief description of mankind's "crusade against computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots"[26] was expanded by Brian Herbert and Anderson into a violent and generations-spanning war between humans and sentient machines.[25]

[Mikala]

They are not that bad Jack.
Just don't expect the same from a different set of (co-written)minds. The man is not his father in a writing sense of the word.
Let's just say they are no where near as bad as the prequel Star Wars movies

[Bishop]

Why?

Because, much like Aperture Science, the Bene Gesserit do what they must, because they can.

[JimCrafton]

The story ideas are interesting, and that's the only thing that kept me reading. But the actual writing itself is completely dreadful, and assumes the reader has the attention span and reading retention of a 2 year old. I don't know who's more at fault in terms of writing, Brian Herbert or Kevin Anderson, but man, the end result really stinks. And the stuff with the story post Chapterhouse Dune, is really hokey, it's hard to believe that this was the way Frank Herbert wanted to end things up. Or maybe he would have simply done a better job, who knows.

[Jedi2016]

And that's why I never bothered reading of those books.. I just stick with the ones that Frank Herbert wrote himself.

[Starbase1]

I think that of the Frank Herbert ones, the second was a big step down in quality, and the third was very poor. But the last three were stunning, very sad he never got to resolve the series properly.

I had very low expectations of "God Emperor" but it pretty much instantly grabbed me.

I gave one of the newer ones a go, and absolutely loathed it. Sloppy writing, stupid characters (and no one was better than FH at writing supremely intelligent characters). Each newly described generation were simpler copies of the original generation, stupidly powerful magic technology was developed and then just dropped.

A crime against literature.

[JackN]

eh... maybe I'll just avoid them then...

[JimCrafton]

The thing is, like you said, they have interesting story lines - the idea of fleshing out the Butlerian Jihad is great! I just wish they had gotten people who could actually write and didn't treat the reader like a retard.