Why A Dune Character Design Change Hides A Major Book Secret
Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Dune
One of Dune’s character design changes brought attention to an array of undisclosed facts from the original book. By changing the distinctive mentat lip marks, a.k.a mentat lip tattoos, Denis Villeneuve pointed at a clandestine part of the Dune mythology. As it turned out, the mentat lip tattoos were a consequence of terrible occurrences that shaped the entire Dune universe.
In Frank Herbert’s original book, the mentat lip tattoos were not tattoos at all, but marks of addiction. Initially, these marks were said to resemble wine-stained lips, but Villeneuve went for a stronger display of the mentats’ addictive behavior. It was an apt change since it emphasized how significant the mentat lip tattoos were; they pointed to some of the biggest unanswered questions in Villeneuve’s Dune. First and foremost, the lip tattoos were a part of the mentats’ story and how they came to replace computers altogether in the known universe.
The mentat lip marks came from extensive consumption of the Juice of Sapho. The mentats claimed that the Juice of Sapho enhanced their mental capabilities and helped them execute their duties as so-called human computers. They were specifically trained for this task after a devastating war between humans and machines. The war led to a universal ban on all thinking machines and necessitated a need for computational replacement. Enter the mentats and their enigmatic appearance. Making the mentat lip marks sharper was Villeneuve’s way of underlining a key piece of the Dune mythology which directly influenced Frank Herbert’s unique vision.
Some 10,000 years ago, a human crusade called the Butlerian Jihad finally managed to overthrow the thinking machines. The following ban of all AI paved the way for mentats to develop their skills and take powerful political positions. In essence, the mentats were an order of mind-expanders whose members possessed supreme cognitive, mathematical, and perceptive skills. This made them valuable pawns in the power feuds between the great houses. Though Villeneuve did not elaborate on the mentat mythology in his version of Dune, he gave the audience ample time to get acquainted with the human computers and their new character designs. The most notable mentats in Villeneuve’s Dune were Twisted Mentat Piter de Vries of House Harkonnen and Mentat Master of Assassins Thufir Hawat of House Atreides.
Without prior knowledge of Frank Herbert’s books, Villeneuve’s Dune easily became confusing. The powers of the mentats and the Bene Gesserit were not clearly differentiated, which was perplexing since Paul was a mentat who also had the gift of prescience. In addition, he was trained by a reverend mother of the Bene Gesserit. His power combo was as complex as the history of the mentats was long and convoluted. But the unanswered questions were part of the reason why Villeneuve’s Dune was so fascinating. The ending left audiences hanging, but clues to the Dune mythology and the events in the upcoming sequel were scattered throughout the film. While waiting for Dune 2, the community can explore hidden secrets and changed character designs in the first Dune that do the original book justice.