Both Dune and The Witcher are two of the most high-profile science fiction and fantasy franchises currently on screens, and they both demonstrate the extent to which speculative fiction remains a very lucrative genre. They also both feature sprawling casts with numerous characters, all of whom exhibit traits that make them unique and that serve to draw the viewer into the world.
However, comparing the various characters that appear in each allows for a more sophisticated understanding of their traits and why they are so important to the action that unfolds in both of these works.
Dr. Liet-Kynes – Tissaia De Vries
Liet-Kynes is one of the movie’s more fascinating characters since she begins as loyal to the Emperor but ultimately realizes that he has sold out the Atreides to the Harkonnens. Throughout, she has a very strict moral code that she follows, no matter what others tell her to do.
The same can be said of Tissaia De Vries, one of the powerful sorceresses at the school at Aretuza, who believes strongly in her mission as Rectoress and is always willing to speak the truth to her students, no matter how much they dislike it.
Gaius Helen Mohiam – Fringilla Vigo
Gaius Helen is, in addition to one of the movie’s most powerful characters, an especially ruthless character, willing to throw the Duke aside so long as his son is preserved. For her, the adherence to the Bene Gesserit is more important than anything else, even the lives of good people.
In her ruthlessness and her coldness, she has a lot in common with Fringilla Vigo, who aids the invading army of Nilfgaard and is, in fact, key to its numerous military successes against the kingdoms of the north.
Chani – Renfri
Even though she only appears very briefly in the new movie, Dune, Chani shows that she is both a very important character and a very independent one. She clearly loves Arrakis and its blasted landscape, just as she also loves her people and will do whatever it takes to defend them.
Though she appears equally briefly in The Witcher, Renfri has many similar traits and, like Chani, she also has an oracular presence, informing Geralt that he is bound to the girl, Ciri.
Baron Harkonnen – Stregobor
Baron Harkonnen is even more vicious and cunning than Gaius Helen Mohiam, and he executes his plan to destroy the Atreides with ruthless efficiency. He seems to have no real moral code; to him, all that matters is power and the wielding of it.
Stregobor is a powerful sorcerer and, like the Baron, he emerges as a profoundly amoral character (and one of the series’ scariest characters), willing to sacrifice lives for his own purposes and to manipulate Geralt into getting him what he wants, then throwing him aside once that’s accomplished.
Stilgar – Eist Tuirseach
Stilgar is a man who lives according to a very strict moral and ethical code, and he is always motivated by his loyalty to the Fremen and to making sure that they survive the harsh world of Arrakis. As a result, he will always go toe-to-toe with anyone that he perceives as a threat. He is, in other words, an incredibly noble man.
This makes him very similar to Eist Tuirseach, the spouse of Queen Calanthe, who rides out to the defense of his wife’s realm, even knowing as he does so that it will result in his own death at the hands of Nilfgaard.
Duncan Idaho – Geralt
Duncan Idaho is one of Jason Momoa’s most likable characters, with a charisma that is impossible to resist. However, he’s not just charismatic; he’s also willing to give up his own life for the Atreides family that he dearly loves and to which he is almost fanatically loyal.
Though Geralt is much more cynical than Duncan, he still has a moral code that he lives by, and nothing will stand in his way when it comes to defending those that he lives and to whom he is loyal, whether that’s Yennefer or Ciri.
Gurney Halleck – Jaskier
Along with Duncan Idaho, Gurney Halleck is one of the most important members of the Atreides household, and he is a faithful lieutenant to Duke Leto. Though the movie doesn’t emphasize this, he is also a very skilled musician.
With his peculiar mix of loyalty and musical abilities, Gurney has some surprising similarities to Jaskier, the rakish singer who becomes one of Geralt’s most loyal and steadfast companions. And, like Gurney, he is also a survivor.
Lady Jessica – Yennefer
Lady Jessica is another powerful figure in the Dune universe since she is not only a Bene Gesserit but also the consort of Duke Leto. She is a subtle and sophisticated thinker, capable of surviving and of helping her son to do the same. She can also be more than a little ruthless when the time calls for it.
Yennefer is, among other things, a sorceress like Jessica and, like her Dune counterpart, she is sometimes willing to sacrifice the mission of the sorceress for her obvious love and deep affection for Geralt, even if she gets herself in trouble in the process.
Leto Atreides – Queen Calanthe
In addition to being one of Oscar Isaac’s best roles, Duke Leto Atreides is also a very noble man, someone who looks after both his family and his subjects with equal devotion. In fact, he makes it clear from the beginning that he will be a much more just ruler of Arrakis than the Harkonnens.
This places him in close association with Queen Calanthe, who rides out to battle to try to protect her kingdom from the conquering Nilfgaard and, just like Leto, unfortunately, perishes for her troubles.
Paul Atreides – Ciri
Paul has an almost unbearable burden as the chosen one, the man who is the culmination of millennia of selective breeding by the Bene Gesserit. His time among the Fremen will, book readers know, test him and forge him into a weapon that will bring down the Emperor and his legions.
Ciri, likewise, also has to shoulder the weight of being a chosen one, with even less training for it than Paul. And, like the young Atreides, she also has to wander in the wilderness before she will be ready to take up the weight of her destiny.
