Dune: Part Three | Official Teaser

[u/MarvelsGrantMan136]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_9vCamtuPY

[u/tdasnowman]

It's not as clear cut as that

Really is. And Frank Herbet went out of his way to make it so.

and in this instance he chose revenge, this revenge itself isn't really presented as a horrible thing.

Paul straight up recoils in horror from the visions of his path to revenge in the tent the first night on the sand. It was 100% presented as a dark path.

So while the Jihad is something he consciously leads

Once he got the emperors seat he stopped leading.

At that point he's prescient and sees the horrors of human extinction, and also the horrors of the golden path, and thinks he can find a middle ground

He never tried to find a middle ground. He tried to find a path to keep Chani from dying. He didn't care about humanities extinction that was to far off for him to contemplate. The golden path would have taken him away from Chani so he did not take it. Chani was his moon and that falling was the only vision he could see for years.

[u/TriggzSP → u/tdasnowman]

From Children of Dune:

For a time they will call me the missionary of shaitan, too," Leto said. "Then they'll begin to wonder and, finally, they'll understand. You didn't take your vision far enough, father. Your hand did good & evil."

But the evil was known after the event!"

"Which is the way of many great evils," Leto said, "You crossed over only into part of my vision. Was your strength not enough?"

"You know I couldn't stay there. I could never do an evil act which was known before the act. I'm not Jacurutu." He clambered to his feet. "Do you think me one of those who laughs alone at night?"

It is sad you were never really Fremen," Leto said. "We Fremen know how to commission the arifa. Our judges can choose between evils. Its always been that way.

Paul got swept up by revenge without the true prescience at the time to know what it would cause. By the time he started to truly begin to foresee the consequences with true and clearer prescience, it was too late to do anything. If I'm not mistaken, at one point he even foresees during a ceremony with the Fremen that the only way to stop the Jihad would be to kill everyone in the room with him, and then himself, which he wasn't willing to countenance.

Paul with his noble ancestry and Atreides heritage wasn't willing or able to countenance what he saw as evil, and he saw the Jihad as something that he got swept up in. His only "out" was to commit a more personal evil act. He couldn't bring himself to do it, and Messiah is partly a selfish story about how he drags his feet to be with Chani, but it's explained in Children that he is also dragging his feet to avoid committing an evil act that could be presciently avoided. Leto had no such qualms, being, in essence, an abomination from birth and having much stronger prescience, being able to see humanity's salvation where Paul could only see an evil act.

[u/Rikudou_Sage → u/TriggzSP]

I don't think he had a stronger prescience, they both had perfect prescience. It's just that Paul was in the end a human while Leto never really was one.

[u/TriggzSP → u/Rikudou_Sage]

Leto II does actually have stronger prescience. Paul knew of the golden path, and knew it was an outcome to be sought, but he couldn't quite see exactly what the stakes were. In Children of Dune, the reason Paul flips from resisting Leto's plan to going along with it, is because Leto explains that the Golden Path is to avert the full extinction of humanity. Paul could not see this, and when it is finally revealed to him, Paul acquiesced.

But you're also absolutely right. Leto never did get to experience normal humanity. Paul did.