Reverend Mother Mohiam holds a poisoned needle to Paul's neck and forces him to endure a pain-inflicting test of his humanity.

Paul spars with Gurney Halleck in a combat lesson designed to prepare him for the dangerous challenges ahead on Arrakis.

House Atreides relocates from Caladan to Arrakis and begins the process of securing the cities from the departing Harkonnens.

Duke Leto personally lands an ornithopter on a failing spice rig and rescues the workers before a sandworm strikes.

Yueh drugs Duke Leto and lowers the city's shields, betraying House Atreides and enabling the Harkonnen invasion of Arrakis.

Paul and Jessica overpower their Harkonnen captors using the Voice and escape into the desert with Yueh's hidden stillsuits.

Duke Leto bites his false tooth and releases a cloud of poison gas, killing Piter De Vries and nearly killing the Baron.

Stilgar accepts Paul and Jessica into his Fremen tribe after Jessica disarms him to demonstrate her Bene Gesserit fighting skills.

Paul defeats Jamis in a knife fight to the death and earns full membership in the Fremen tribe.

Lady Jessica drinks spice-infused water and undergoes the initiation ritual, becoming the new Reverend Mother of the Fremen.

Paul plants a thumper, waits for a sandworm to arrive, and successfully rides it, passing the Fremen rite of passage.

Fremen spring a trap on a group of spice smugglers in the desert, and Paul recognizes Gurney Halleck among the captives.

Paul survives the Reverend Mother poisoning test and uses his awakened powers to confirm he is the true Kwisatz Haderach.

Paul's forces fire atomic weapons at the Emperor's shield walls during a sandstorm, breaking the defenses and starting the final battle.

Paul defeats Feyd-Rautha in single combat and exhausts the Emperor's remaining military options, forcing him to accept surrender.

Pool 1 follows the central arc of Dune, from Paul Atreides' early tests on Caladan to his conquest of the Imperial throne. Paul begins as a trained but untested teenager before being thrust into mortal danger when House Atreides is betrayed by Yueh and overwhelmed by the Harkonnens. Fleeing into the Arrakis desert, Paul joins the Fremen and proves himself in single combat, earning his place among them. Over two years he becomes the legendary Muad'Dib, shaping the Fremen into a devastating fighting force capable of challenging the Emperor himself. When he confirms his identity as the Kwisatz Haderach, Paul launches a final assault that shatters the Emperor's defenses and forces a surrender. The pool captures the grand sweep of Paul's transformation from a duke's heir to a conquering emperor who fears the war his own victory has set in motion.

The rise of Paul Atreides from nobleman's son to galactic emperor.

Baron Harkonnen meets with Piter De Vries and Feyd-Rautha on Giedi Prime to finalize plans to destroy House Atreides through Arrakis.

Reverend Mother Mohiam tells Lady Jessica that the Bene Gesserit can protect her but that Duke Leto is doomed to die.

Jessica meets Shadout Mapes and accepts a ceremonial Fremen crysknife, privately recognizing that the prophecy behind the gift was planted by the Bene Gesserit.

Paul wakes at night and destroys a hunter-killer robot before it can assassinate him or Shadout Mapes.

Duncan Idaho introduces Fremen leader Stilgar to Duke Leto at a staff meeting, sparking Leto's plans to recruit the Fremen as allies.

Paul and Jessica hide in a stilltent and listen to radio broadcasts confirming the Harkonnen takeover of Arrakis.

Thufir Hawat and his surviving men escape the Harkonnen massacre and are guided to temporary safety by a Fremen band.

Baron Harkonnen installs the brutal Glossu Rabban as ruler of Arrakis, instructing him to oppress the population as harshly as possible.

Gurney Halleck joins Staban Tuek's spice smuggling operation after escaping the Harkonnen assault on House Atreides.

Dr. Kynes is abandoned in the open desert without supplies by the Harkonnens and is swallowed beneath a collapsing sandslide.

Feyd-Rautha participates in a secretly manipulated gladiatorial fight against a slave as part of his seventeenth birthday celebration.

Thufir Hawat warns Baron Harkonnen that the Fremen are a far more powerful and numerous fighting force than the Baron has imagined.

Paul and the Fremen capture a Sardaukar officer, and Paul reveals his identity so news of his survival can reach the Emperor.

Alia stabs Baron Harkonnen with a poisoned gom jabbar, killing him as his attempt to use her as a hostage backfires.

Thufir Hawat refuses the Emperor's order to assassinate Paul and dies from the Harkonnen poison still in his system.

Pool 2 focuses on the supporting characters and secondary events that give Dune its political depth and texture. The Baron's scheming on Giedi Prime and the Reverend Mother's grim warning to Jessica establish the forces arrayed against House Atreides before they even arrive on Arrakis. Key figures such as Hawat, Gurney, and Kynes each face their own separate fates following the Harkonnen invasion, with some surviving in exile and others perishing. The Baron's cynical installation of Rabban and Feyd-Rautha's gladiatorial scheming illustrate the corrupt machinery of Harkonnen power. As Paul grows stronger in the desert, Hawat is forced to serve the Baron and warn him of dangers he refuses to heed. The pool concludes with Alia's killing of the Baron and Hawat's dignified death, showing how the tide turns against the Harkonnens through the courage of unexpected figures.

The conspiracies and casualties that shape the world of Arrakis.

Duke Leto tells Paul that their move to Arrakis is a deliberate trap but insists he plans to use the Fremen as allies.

Jessica discovers a hidden garden in the Atreides' new home and finds a coded note from Lady Fenring warning of the Baron's plans.

Paul reveals to Lady Jessica that the Bene Gesserit breeding program made her the biological daughter of Baron Harkonnen.

Paul lapses into a prophetic vision of a massive religious war spreading across the galaxy in the name of House Atreides.

A Fremen addresses Dr. Kynes by his secret name Liet, revealing him as the hidden leader of the Fremen people.

Duncan Idaho holds off a band of Sardaukar soldiers single-handedly, sacrificing his life to give Paul and Jessica time to escape.

Paul flies an ornithopter directly into the heart of a sandstorm and surrenders control of the craft in order to survive.

Paul learns that Chani, the young Fremen woman from his prophetic dreams, is the daughter of Dr. Kynes.

Paul sheds tears at Jamis's funeral, performing a sacred act of mourning that earns profound respect from the water-conscious Fremen.

Paul unknowingly proposes to Chani by offering her his water rings, unaware the gesture is a Fremen marriage proposal.

Paul and Chani declare their love for each other following the spice water ceremony in which Jessica becomes Reverend Mother.

Feyd-Rautha confesses to Baron Harkonnen that he was responsible for the assassination attempt on the Baron's own life.

Gurney Halleck attempts to kill Lady Jessica for her supposed betrayal of House Atreides, and Paul intervenes to reveal Yueh as the true traitor.

Paul's infant son Leto II is killed during an Imperial raid on a Fremen base while Paul is away leading the assault.

Reverend Mother Mohiam glimpses the devastating religious war that Paul's ascension has made inevitable and begs him to stop.

Pool 3 highlights the pivotal revelations and emotional turning points that reframe the story at every stage. Duke Leto's frank warning to Paul, Lady Fenring's hidden coded message, and Paul's harrowing visions of a galaxy-wide religious war all establish the crushing weight of what is at stake. Deeply personal revelations — including Paul learning his mother is the Baron's own daughter and that Chani is the child of the ecologist who helped him escape — add emotional layers to the unfolding conflict. Small but defining moments, such as Paul's tears at Jamis's funeral and his accidental marriage proposal to Chani, trace his gradual integration into Fremen culture and his deepening bond with the woman he loves. The pool ends with Gurney's near-fatal mistake, the death of Paul's son, and Reverend Mother Mohiam's terrifying glimpse of the religious war that Paul's triumph has now made inevitable.