The Tleilaxu are like the Yuuzhan Vong

[Y200J]

The Tleilaxu are the most evil. Even worse than the Harkonnens.

They kind of make the Harkonnens seem like good vikings, or warriors.  The Tleilaxu do vile things, like making emperor worms, and turning vehicles and people into monsters.  They try to get rid of all technology.  That's my experience with the Tleilaxu in Emperor Battle For Dune, are they like that in the books too?

[MrFlibble]

Emperor: The Battle for Dune is not the best way to get introduced to Frank Herbert's Dune universe. I suggest that you read the books and judge for yourself. Dune Messiah and Chapterhouse: Dune are the two that have a great deal of focus on the Tleilaxu, so they're a must read if you want to explore that.

One thing I can assure you of is that the books never go into the black-and-white morality stuff as you have described.

On a side note, you forgot to bring up any argument in support of your statement made in the topic title that the Tleilaxu resemble something from the Star Wars universe (some kind of villain race? I don't remember).

[Y200J]

Yes, I did forget.  It was the Yuuzhan Vong from Star Wars that resembled the Tleilaxu.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Yuuzhan_Vong

I'm interested to know, if the Tleilaxu are not like the Yuuzhan Vong in the books, what would you say they are more like?

Edited February 6, 2016 by Y200J
forgot to add something

[MrFlibble]

I briefly skimmed through that Wookiepedia article and there's really no similarity between the Tleilaxu of the books and that Star Wars race. You should note that the way the Tleilaxu (and, well, almost everything else in the game) are portrayed in Emperor has very little to do with Frank Herbert's books. There are no organic tanks or such in the novels.

8 hours ago, Y200J said:

I'm interested to know, if the Tleilaxu are not like the Yuuzhan Vong in the books, what would you say they are more like?

There is no reason to draw any kind of parallels (with the Star Wars universe or otherwise). Why don't you just read the novels and judge for yourself?

[Dante]

It's not completely unreasonable to draw a comparison. The Tleilaxu too are religious zealots, and strive to achieve physical perfection through biological enhancement. That's more or less where the similarity stops though, and it's worth pointing out that the Tleilaxu are, more or less, human, not an alien species.

Their depiction in Emperor isn't entirely without basis in the books either, the Bene Tleilax are highly mercenary after all. But again, the resemblance is limited.

I am however interested in the word monsters. The Tleilaxu turn people into monsters? What monsters are these, and what is it that makes them monstrous?

[vota dc]

Funny thing is that Harkonnen are the best. The baron is a disgusting person and a pedo too, but while Paul is personally a decent guy he brings the terrible Fremen to power. So Fremen rule of Universe is worse than past Corrino and Harkonnen despite the efforts of Paul.

Tleilaxu are fanatical just like Fremen but they are....clumsy. The last two Dune books are about a menace (a new kind of fanatic but more aggressive than Tleilaxu and Fremen) created by a huge "distraction" of Tleilaxu.

[MrFlibble]

On 15.02.2016 at 1:52 PM, Dante said:

I am however interested in the word monsters. The Tleilaxu turn people into monsters? What monsters are these, and what is it that makes them monstrous?

I suppose that this was the reference to Tleilaxu units in Emperor, the Contaminator and whatever-it's-called biological tank thing that turns enemy vehicles into its like.

Personally I find the superficial similarities between how the Dune universe is portrayed in Emperor and the books highly misleading. It's like the developers took some of the concepts (Great Houses, the Guild and other factions, God Emperor), and filled them with their own, shallow content suitable for a tank rush RTS.

@vota dc: Tleilaxu, "clumsy"? How so? Scytale in Messiah is a very menacing character, and so is Bijaz. The Tleilaxu are generally very ambiguous in that book. In the last two FH gives them a mostly negative portrayal, but Scytale is not described without sympathy as well.