Finished Dune Messiah (2nd time, read 6-7 years ago too?). We all recognize that Tattoine is more than a little Dune-like, and the Sarlac pit is a great nod to Shai-hulud. I’m sure I’m not the first to notice that Annakin had some level of prescience. His prescience warned him of his wife’s death. But he accepted the bargain, became a tool. Thence the jihad and establishment of empire. Slightly twisted — Annakin is right hand, rather than Imperator, and jihad occurs post-death rather than ante-. And then I remembered the twins.

What other links exist? A number of minor things (Alia/Leia, Leto/Luke…), as pointed out at Star Wars Origins. That site of course reminds us what already know: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun”. So I can’t really can’t hold it against Lucas if he borrowed liberally from Herbert and Kurosawa.

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