Leto's Paths

[Andrew]

So I got this from another thread, but I thought we could talk about it here.

In CoD Leto says:

"I saw three paths," Leto said. His voice came out with the sleepy sound of remembrance. "One of those futures requires me to kill our grandmother."

<next quote>

"Oh." Stilgar understood the use of a knife. He drew a deep breath. "What is the second path?"

"Ghani and I marry to seal the Atreides bloodline."

<next quote>

"I am called to reduce my father to human stature."

"He was my friend, Muad'Dib," Stilgar muttered.

"He was your god! I must undeify him."

So did he pick the second path?

"The Golden Path," she said. "It is not a good vision."

"It's the only possible vision."

Ghani and leto say, so the golden path is the only possible vision? but could the vision change, as stated in the first quote?

"This Golden Path could be no better than any other path," she said.

So they had choices but narrowed it down to the best one.

"You're sure we won't be . . . possessed?"

"Not if we create the Golden Path."

So creating the golden path ensured they would not be possessed.

The Golden Path demands it. And what is the Golden Path? you ask. It is the survival of humankind, nothing more nor less. We who have prescience, we who know the pitfalls in our human futures, this has always been our responsibility.

GEoD

So that basicly defines the golden path, the survival of humans.

I often think about my final metamorphosis, that likeness of death. I know the way it must come but I do not know the moment or the other players. This is the one thing I cannot know. I only know whether the Golden Path continues or ends.

GEoD

So he knows nothing of his death except where he will die(as stated in COD) would this be because it was a surprise or he could not possibly know?

The Golden Path may continue, but I will end. That was not important, of course. Only the Golden Path which he could sense in unbroken continuity, only that mattered.

GEoD

So by saying the golden path may continue, that is the survival of humans, and the unbroken continuity is the survival of humans that matters.

"Is not precisely peace. It is tranquility, a fertile ground for the growth of rigid classes and many other forms of aggression."

GEoD

So the golden path also prepares the humans to survive, by making them more agressive(maybe as in honored matres?)

[Anathema]

Yes, he picked the second path, but what he didn't mention to Stilgar was that Farad'n would be the biological father of the Atreides bloodline from then. I wonder though, why it was so important that Ghanimas children would be named Atreides?

[Dunenewt]

It was more a thing of honour naming them Atreides as Leto II was part Leto I

[Mahdi]

He didn't pick the second path, he picked the third path, he un-deified Maud'dib, which was the first major part of the Golden Path (ignoring the sandworm-suit, of course).