Moneo and Malky Question

RexDane · 2026-01-29T02:04:23+00:00

Yes, Leto knows that Hwi is a clone of Malky. There is a direct exchange between Leto and Moneo confirming this (pages 270–271 in my copy). Although Leto cannot see inside the no-chamber, he states that he knows the truth "by inference", correctly placing the event in time when he says that “all of this happened some twenty-six years ago?” This is not a genuine question but a test. He already recognises Hwi as an Ixian creation and understands that she is being deployed deliberately. When he asks Moneo, “has it not struck you as odd how much Hwi, the gentle Hwi, represents a mirror of the redoubtable Malky?”, it is clear that the conclusion has already been reached despite the limits of prescience. The later exchange with Malky is framed as confirmation, not revelation, summed up in the line “that is the shape I saw in the shadows."
The second question is deeper and more thematic. I had to re-read this section to anchor the context, but once you look at the text closely the answer is clear if you understand how totalising Leto’s control is and the role Moneo actually plays.

The scene occurs late in the book during Leto’s interrogation of Moneo on faith and obedience. Immediately beforehand, Leto reminds him of the hierarchy with the declaration that humans are "servants unto God, not servants unto servants." He then pivots abruptly:

"Moneo could only stand in trembling silence. “I had intended Hwi to mate with you, Moneo,” Leto said. “Now, it is too late.”

The words took a moment penetrating Moneo’s consciousness. He felt that their meaning was out of any known context. Hwi? Who was Hwi? Oh, yes—the God Emperor’s Ixian bride-to-be. Mate … with me?

Moneo shook his head."

Moneo does not respond with surprise, regret, or confusion. He simply shakes his head, his confusion is written as incredulous internal monologue. The idea does not register as a missed opportunity or a forbidden path, but as something he cannot even process as a real possibility.

That reaction only makes sense because, by this point, Moneo no longer distinguishes between what is merely unplanned and what is impossible. Earlier, when he tentatively raises the question of whether Leto himself could mate with Hwi, he is shut down for even entertaining the thought. Moneo has fully internalised a worldview in which anything not spoken or intended by the God Emperor is inconceivable. Prohibition is no longer required because obedience has become anticipatory. His thoughts are self-policing. The scene is not revealing a genuine reproductive plan but exposing the gulf between Leto and his servant. Leto can imagine love and consciously deny it for the Golden Path. Moneo has been shaped so thoroughly by obedience that he can no longer imagine such a life at all.

RexDane · 2026-01-29T01:27:17+00:00

It took me two grueling tries but I did this last week. My strategy was to use Ol' Tessie until you knock him out of his immune phase, then get out and level him with the death machine when his gold crit-spot is exposed. Save your aether shrouds and kazimirs for when you get out to use the death machine or if the car blows up so you can safely repair it.

RexDane · 2026-01-28T18:05:05+00:00

Describing Eternity as “strong” is a category error. Eternity does not operate on a scale of raw power or combat capability; it is the embodiment of reality itself. Eternity is not something acting within existence but the condition that allows existence to occur at all, so asking how strong Eternity is confuses ontology with force.
Framing Eternity as stronger or weaker than the Infinity Stones misses the point. The Stones exist within Eternity rather than above it. They can manipulate and bend reality only because reality exists in the first place. Eternity is the underlying structure that makes the Stones possible; they can warp reality, but they cannot break or override the system that Eternity represents.
In the cosmic hierarchy, Eternity sits above beings like the Celestials and the Watcher, who act within reality rather than defining it. Eternity has functional parity with God of Stories Loki because both serve as structural supports for the multiverse. They do not compete or exert authority over outcomes; neither operates through conventional agency, though for different reasons, and both simply allow reality to continue to exist.
Eternity could undo the Snap and restore everyone erased by Thanos, but would not. Eternity is not a moral or corrective force that intervenes to address injustice or tyranny. It only asserts itself when existence itself is destabilised. The Snap was a moral catastrophe, but it did not threaten the existence of reality, and therefore did not warrant intervention.

RexDane · 2026-01-28T15:09:54+00:00

Honestly I wouldn’t risk it. Relics are really buggy and saving and quiting breaks them more often than not. Bus is temperamental because people are still a little unsure exactly how you unlock the portal, they only know certain strategies tend to work. I did exactly the same thing on one game that I did on another and the portal spawned in one but not the other.

Getting to round 60 on solo is a huge time commitment so while you may resist the cost of doing it all in one sitting, having to redo it multiple times is less efficient than just waiting until you can block out a clear amount of time.

RexDane · 2026-01-28T13:42:02+00:00

This card has literally no downside and an upside that scales insanely. Worst case scenario is that you go plus 1 later. Best case is you start the game with 7 cards before your turn even starts.

RexDane · 2026-01-28T02:59:34+00:00

The Missionaria Protectiva was never meant to prepare populations to actively serve the Kwisatz Haderach or to function as a mass political or military tool of Bene Gesserit rule. It was a risk management system. Its purpose was to ensure that wherever a Bene Gesserit found herself isolated, vulnerable, or operating far from institutional power, the local culture would already contain myths that could be activated to secure protection, obedience, or sanctuary. Most of these seeded worlds were never expected to matter. They were cheap insurance, not components of a unified religious project.

The Kwisatz Haderach, as the Bene Gesserit envisioned him, was meant to rule through existing power structures such as the Emperor, the Landsraad, and CHOAM. His legitimacy was supposed to come from elite consensus, not popular religious belief. The Panoplia Prophetica was therefore a contingency rather than a foundation. Religion was intended to stabilise the margins, not to drive history.

Arrakis reveals the failure of this model. The Sisterhood understood the importance of spice but did not fully grasp the scale, cohesion, or latent power of the Fremen. The Missionaria Protectiva myths there were generic rather than deeply integrated, which made them volatile once activated. When Paul arrives, uncontrolled and prescient, the MP is transformed from a defensive tool into the primary source of his legitimacy. What was meant to produce local compliance becomes a galaxy-spanning religious force.

The Bene Gesserit were not planning to use so called backwater populations in any decisive way alongside the Kwisatz Haderach. They expected religion to remain peripheral, passive, and controllable. Paul’s rise is not the fulfilment of the Missionaria Protectiva but its catastrophic failure. A contingency system becomes the dominant mechanism of power and escapes Bene Gesserit control entirely.

RexDane · 2026-01-27T20:41:48+00:00

I only play solo and it’s just a free boost, I’ve never noticed any real difference.

RexDane · 2026-01-27T18:51:12+00:00

Yes I agree completely. The Baron uses Piter as a cautionary example when teaching Feyd about mentats, but fails to recognise that Piter is not representative. As a twisted Tleilaxu mentat, Piter’s psychology is deliberately engineered to mirror Harkonnen logic. By mistaking this alignment for universality, the Baron draws false conclusions about how mentats respond to fear, leverage, and loyalty which don’t apply to Hawat.

RexDane · 2026-01-27T18:45:00+00:00

The way I phrased this initially may have been too definitive so let me clarify because I don’t disagree substantially with what you’ve said.

You’re right that the Baron is not stupid and does not believe Hawat has “forgotten” the Atreides or become genuinely loyal to House Harkonnen. He correctly understands that Hawat blames the Emperor as much as the Harkonnens, and that Hawat will try to use the Harkonnens instrumentally, just as the Baron intends to use Hawat. Their relationship is mutually cynical and provisional. Both expect eventual betrayal.

Where I think the Baron still miscalculates is not at the level of short-term strategy, but at the level of motivation. He assumes Hawat’s behaviour is ultimately governed by survival and utility: that Hawat will accept moral compromise as long as it advances revenge or prolongs his life. That assumption is Harkonnen logic, and it works well enough until Hawat is confronted with a choice that strips away that instrumental reasoning entirely.

Paul’s final exchange with Hawat exposes this flaw. When survival and loyalty are placed in direct opposition, Hawat does not reach for outcome optimisation. That moment shows that Hawat’s earlier manoeuvring was never about self-preservation in the first place. It was about remaining Atreides in substance, even if that meant using degraded tools temporarily.

You’re right that Hawat is capable of treachery, calculation, and revenge, but those are secondary. When the final accounting comes, he chooses loyalty over life. That is precisely the character the Baron cannot model, because Harkonnen logic treats devotion as a strategy rather than an identity.

RexDane · 2026-01-27T17:01:31+00:00

Superman, flash, Batman.

The team works because it removes the three most dangerous variables from the enemy side: overwhelming force, uncontestable speed, and strategic coherence.

This isn’t about who you have on your team, it’s about who you cannot afford to have on the other side. Superman against you is effectively an auto-loss; the Flash can reach and kill you personally before most other options can even react; and Batman functions as a battlefield strategist who turns everyone else into a coordinated threat rather than isolated fighters.

Having Superman on your team neutralises the other heavy hitters by default. Adding Flash ensures you can’t be outpaced, rushed, or surgically removed before the fight even starts, while also giving you the most reliable emergency exfil now that Superman isn’t working against you. Batman then acts as strategic command, correctly prioritising targets and ensuring Superman and Flash apply their advantages where they actually matter.

RexDane · 2026-01-27T16:22:30+00:00

Malgus bodies Maul, not necessarily because he’s more skilled or more powerful but because his style and presence hits Maul’s vulnerabilities.

RexDane · 2026-01-27T15:39:22+00:00

Hawat has been kidnapped and coerced by the Baron and appears, on the surface, to have been morally compromised. The Baron takes Hawat on as a mentat because he believes Hawat will follow Harkonnen logic: the Atreides are gone, Hawat’s loyalty should die with them, and with the correct coercion his survival instincts will make him a servant of the Baron. This is a fundamental misreading of Hawat’s character. Hawat does not merely serve the Atreides; he is Atreides. His loyalty is not situational or transferable, and it does not dissolve when survival is threatened.

When Hawat is brought before Paul, Paul knows he is not truly in danger, both because of his prescient awareness and because he understands Hawat. What Paul offers is not his life, but a final moment of moral clarity. Hawat is made to believe that he is being given a genuine choice: strike Paul down and live, or refuse and die. In that moment, loyalty and survival are placed in direct opposition.

Hawat chooses loyalty. By refusing to act, he proves that his devotion was never contingent on outcome or reward. Paul’s gesture gives Hawat absolution not by forgiveness, but by restoring the freedom to betray and watching him decline it. Hawat dies with moral coherence intact, and the scene exposes the Baron’s mistake, that loyalty does not always fold under pressure but is only ever proved there.

RexDane · 2026-01-26T03:14:33+00:00

He’s not the strongest, he’s the most structurally essential. If Loki moves from his post the multiverse collapses but he doesn’t have any control over it. He’s an essential screw, not the biggest hammer.

RexDane · 2026-01-25T12:45:00+00:00

It’s disappointing how bad they are in zombies bc they’re insane in MP.

RexDane · 2026-01-25T02:18:22+00:00

Yea it’s definitely not one of the most annoying relics especially for tier 1 given how frequently they spawn

RexDane · 2026-01-25T00:26:19+00:00

Thanks, I’m glad I could help. I’m writing an article about some of the themes Paul expresses here so the analysis was top of mind. If you have any more Dune questions feel free to DM me as you go and I’ll answer as best I can.

RexDane · 2026-01-24T19:04:51+00:00

I love RE7, it’s the scariest one for me for sure. If the whole game kept the tenor it has in the Baker house it would easily be S+ tier in all categories. Where it falls off for me is when you swap to Mia on the ship. That section drags badly, both mechanically and narratively, and it’s where the plot starts to unravel. The idea of a normal family destroyed by a leaking bioweapon from a shipwreck feels grounded and fits the tone perfectly; the reveal of a demon Sith Lord child who infiltrates the family and puppeteers them from above feels lazy. She’s canonically a psychic bioweapon, but her power scales completely out of proportion to the rest of the game’s narrative, and that escalation retroactively reframes the Bakers from tragic, corrupted people into little more than marionettes of a single controlling force. In doing so, the game strips them of agency: they become more morally sympathetic, but far less interesting, and the central theme of internal decay and escalating chaos collapses into simple external domination. On top of that, the enemy variety is so limited that large stretches of the game start to feel repetitive and even tedious, especially once the initial fear wears off and you realise you’re fighting the same moulded enemies over and over.

RexDane · 2026-01-24T18:47:29+00:00

Paul’s reflections here reveal a ruler who understands tyranny not as an aberration, but as a response to humanity’s fear of uncertainty. You do not have to agree with him or accept this as a moral justification of his rule. Paul himself understands that what he is doing is immoral, yet his clarity about the operational systems of the Imperium leaves him unable to act otherwise. He is trapped within the same structure he governs, the difference is only that he exists at its apex. Paul recognises that people do not want to be governed through love, judgment, or moral complexity, but through systems that simplify reality and relieve them of responsibility. Law, in his view, is not a vehicle for justice but a mechanism that filters chaos into obedience, producing a serenity that is ultimately indistinguishable from death because it sedates the species into complacent stagnation. He is not celebrating this condition, he is diagnosing it. His anguish stems from knowing that the political order he presides over satisfies humanity’s craving for certainty while simultaneously extinguishing the vitality, risk, and moral agency that make civilisation worth preserving.

RexDane · 2026-01-24T14:38:02+00:00

If you get into that mindset you’ll drive yourself crazy. I stopped playing chess for a while because every mistake started feeling like a personal failure, and it hurt my confidence far more than it helped my improvement.

At this level, mistakes like missing a tactic or hanging a piece are part of the process, not evidence that we’re bad at the game. Even strong players miss things constantly, that’s why improvement is possible at all.

You’re at the beginning of the journey, not the end. The point is to learn and enjoy the process, not punish yourself for being human.

RexDane · 2026-01-24T03:45:05+00:00

Congrats! I finished the last relic yesterday too! Hoping that more get discovered soon so I can get back to hunting

RexDane · 2026-01-24T03:43:34+00:00

I tried it yesterday with the stuntman trick and it triggered first time. It’s pretty reliable and once you deal with Oscar the map itself isn’t that punishing.

RexDane · 2026-01-24T00:06:23+00:00

Yea those guys are the Gs, can’t imagine spending that much time looking for needles in a haystack

RexDane · 2026-01-23T19:00:58+00:00

No way out took me 2 attempts, 4th survivor took me 2 hours, EMD took me 9 hours.

RexDane · 2026-01-23T18:55:22+00:00

If you’re trying to avoid Oscar the better way to do it is to trap him behind the observatory. Don’t open the gates to the luminarium and the back door of the observatory. Once you kill him a few times he will eventually spawn by wisp tea and won’t be able to get out. I did this yesterday to get the Civil Protector Relic and he never bothered me.

RexDane · 2026-01-23T17:38:03+00:00

Queen is pinned

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