What is Spice in Star Wars and how is it different from the Dune version?

There is a great deal of similarity between Frank Herbert’s “Dune” series and the “Star Wars” series created by George Lucas. Both draw from writer and literature professor Joseph Campbell’s idea of ​​a “hero’s journey” from his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, both feature a “chosen one” narrative, and both have giant teeth. Worm monsters that live in the desertThey both contain lots and lots of sand. Desert planets play a big role in both Star Wars and Dune, and they also have something in common between the series: spices.

In both “Star Wars” and “Dune,” there is a substance called “spice” (not to be confused with “high-risk”). Synthetic hempcalled “spice” in our world), but are they the same thing? Let’s take a deeper look at the spice mix in the movie “Dune” and the illicit substances collectively called “spice” in the movie “Star Wars” to determine the differences once and for all.

Of the two novels, Spice plays a much larger role in Dune, which begins with Herbert’s 1965 novel of the same name. In Dune, the spice mixture is the most important substance in the universe, and whoever controls the spice controls the universe. It’s less than subtle Symbolic of our dependence on oil And the conflicts that arise because of it in our reality, but it is a little more complicated than that. Not only is the spice, well, an actual spice used to flavor food that tastes like cinnamon, but it’s also a life-extending medicine, can grant prophetic visions, and powers everyone’s spaceships. It’s oil and then some, an almost magical creature that affects every aspect of life not just for the Fremen, who live on the desert planet Arrakis Where the spices are extractedbut for most people in Padishah’s vast galactic empire. In fact, in the novel Children of Dune, Lea Atreides, younger sister of the Chosen One, Paul Atreides, explains that even the middle class of the empire ate a little diluted spice at least once a day to promote and extend health. Their lives.

The spice can only be extracted from Arrakis because it is the excrement of sandworms that live there. Yes, the spices in Dune are sandworm droppings. Very strong and expensive sandworm tube. It is also what gives frequent spice users such as the Fremen and the powerful religious order Bene Gesserit their “blue-within-blue” eyes (so-called “iPad eyes”), which were memorably depicted in David Lynch’s 1984 film Dune and in the films of Denis Villeneuve “Dune” and “Dune: Part Two” as shocks of cool colors in warm environments. It also gave “Dune” one of its most powerful pop culture staples: “the spice’s gotta flow.”

Due in part to its startling self-seriousness, “Dune” is incredibly meme-able. The ‘Mystery Science 3000’ guys made a million jokes with just Sting’s line deliveries like Feyd-Rautha in Lynch’s much-maligned 1984 adaptationand the film led to another easy-joking moment by introducing it via Virginia Madsen’s Princess Irulan. “The spice shall flow,” she says in the introduction, referring to his importance within the universe. “The spices must flow” became a huge internet meme in the early 2000s and has never gone away, rising in popularity again with the release of Villeneuve’s films. But this is not the only reference in popular culture.

Spice, as used in Dune, has been mentioned in everything from an episode of King of the Hill to an episode of The Simpsons in which Lisa eats food so spicy that it allows her to see time through time. Many comedies have made some sort of reference to “whoever controls (insert anything here) controls the universe,” even 2016’s “Trolls,” which may mean the joke is officially dead. “South Park” also placed great emphasis on the combination of spice and blue-within-blue eyes in the film Episode 2019 “Poop Thieves” Where football star Tom Brady’s poo becomes as in-demand as the mash-up of the movie “Dune.” Tom Brady poop, sandworm poop…same difference, I guess?

Meanwhile, in the more family-friendly “Star Wars” film series, the spice is actually just an illicit substance used to arouse users, but there are multiple different forms and strains of it. Although many are only mentioned in supplementary materials such as the Smuggler’s Guide book, there are strains called Ryll, Booster Blue, Moon Gold, Sansanna Spice, and more. (There is also Glitterstim, although this is mentioned in the books that are part of The former Extended Universe, now called “Star Wars Legends”, That is, no longer canon.)

While spices can be a very popular commodity in “Star Wars,” they don’t have the same uses as their counterpart in “Dune.” There are some medical applications for various forms of the drug, including pain relief, but it does not give entire populations psychic abilities or keep people young. It’s much closer to something like opium than the delicious oil that creates the telepathy in “Dune,” but that doesn’t mean it’s still largely unimportant.

Since “Star Wars” is mostly kid-friendly, we don’t see a lot of spice users in “Star Wars” other than a handful of pipe smokers in Disney+ series “Obi-Wan Kenobi”, Although one of its biggest heroes once tried to smuggle it across the galaxy. In “Star Wars: Episode VI – A New Hope”, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) gets in trouble with Jabba the Hutt because he dropped a shipment of spices when the Empire boarded his ship, which ultimately ended up trapping him in carbonite. In “Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi.” (It’s worth noting that Jabba’s hookah pipe is very similar to the one smoked in the “Obi-Wan” series.)

Spice ended up playing a role in several “Star Wars” films and shows beyond the original trilogy, including plot threads in the animated shows “Star Wars: Clone Wars” and “Star Wars: Rebels,” part of the “Star Wars” film series. “Star Wars: Clone Wars”. Crime Syndicate vs. The Mandalorian and Lawmen Story In the live-action series “The Book of Boba Fett”, and an exciting sequel to the prequel film “Solo: A Star Wars Story”. In Solo, we finally get to see the origin of Kessel Run, where young Han (Alden Ehrenreich) was. Pilots on the infamous Kessel Run In just 12 parsecs, we reach the heavily guarded planet Kessel, where spices are extracted using slave labor, and then back down again. Spice isn’t as integral to a Star Wars film as Dune is, but he still plays a surprisingly large role in the storytelling.

Fans who paid careful attention may have discovered that Herbert’s “Dune” predates “Star Wars” by about 12 years, but did Lucas draw directly from “Dune”? It is very likely that it was, although he has never commented on it publicly. There are a few things in A New Hope that connect to things from Dune, from the desert planet of Tatooine with its moisture farms to the similarities between… The Golden Boys Paul Atreides (Kyle MacLachlan/Timothée Chalamet) and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), but there are small tweaks that suggest they’re more of a loving homage than an outright rip-off. Not only that, but since both men were drawing from Campbell and the history and politics of our world, some of it is likely just a matter of a little creative confluence, when two ideas are unintentionally similar.

“Star Wars” and “Dune” take spice in completely different directions despite being expensive drug-making substances, showing that even ideas that seem indistinguishable at first can truly be transformed into something unique in the hands of the right storyteller. . Let the spices flow, baby.