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Tula Harkonnen was an early member of House Harkonnen and the Bene Gesserit.
Official Dune: Prophecy Character Bio
Reverend Mother Tula Harkonnen is used to living her life in the shadow of her older sister Valya, but when an outside force threatens the Sisterhood, she is called upon to lead. To do so, she must choose between the Order’s needs and her own.[1]
Biography
Childhood
Tula grew up alongside her siblings on Lankiveil, where the family was outcast after one of their ancestors allegedly deserted during the battle against the thinking machines. During their childhood, their parents showed open disdain for her sister, Valya, preferring Tula and their brother, Griffin. When Griffin planned to go to Zimia in an attempt to improve their family's circumstances, Valya persuaded him to confront Vorian Atreides and force him to take back what he'd said about their family. When this resulted in Griffin's death, the divide between Valya and her parents deepened. They decided to send her to train with the Sisterhood on Wallach IX. Before she left, Valya made Tula promise not to stay on Lankiveil.
At some point, Tula met and began seeing Orry Atreides. He invite her to come along on his family's hunting trip, where she impressed him by prepping animals as bait and using poison from one to euthanize an injured horse. That night, Orry asked Tula to marry him and they had sex. When they woke up the next morning, Tula told him she was sorry and confessed to being a Harkonnen. He told her it was okay and insisted his family would be okay with it, but she said some things couldn't be changed. He realized it was too quiet and exited the tent to find his entire family dead. Tula then injected him with the same poison she'd used for them and held him while he died. Albert, a teenage family member, was the only survivor when Tula saw him and told him to run. Tula then sent Valya a message to tell her she'd done it.
Valya returned home and confirmed that Orry was dead. She believed Griffin would be proud, but the rest of their family was angry and worried about the Atreides family retaliating. Ultimately, Tula decided to go back to Wallach IX with Valya, leaving the rest of their family behind.[2]
When Raquella died, Valya used The Voice to persuade Dorotea, Raquella's granddaughter, to kill herself. Tula, Francesca, and Kasha all witnessed this, but decided to use the incomplete truths from the situation to cover it up. When Tula seemed reluctant, Valya talked to her privately and she told Valya she was pregnant. When Tula said she wanted to keep the baby, Valya promised they would raise the baby together, despite the Order's policy of separating babies from their mothers. Valya then showed them the breeding index, which selected Javicco Corrino and Natalya Arat as the ideal parents to produce a child that was best for the Sisterhood, with help from Francesca to keep Javicco occupied until Natalya was ready to marry and Kasha to be Javicco's Truthsayer and most trusted confidante. Then Valya privately showed Tula her child's genetics, which showed he had the potential to shape the trajectory of world. Valya immediately started forming a plan to harness that for the Sisterhood's benefit.
Some of the Sisters remained loyal to Dorotea, so Tula, Valya, Francesca, and Kasha went to them and Valya ordered them to choose between following her or following Dorotea's example. Several of the Sisters immediately slit their own throats. In the end, only Avila remained. They covered up the deaths by hiding their bodies in a mass grave.
When Tula finally gave birth, she decided she couldn't let him be part of Valya's plan. So Francesca arranged for him to be exchanged with a baby who had been stillborn, allowing that baby's mother to raise him while she told Valya her baby had died.[3]
Ynez's Wedding
As Tula trained the future Truthsayers, Valya came to her and told her she'd completed the deal for Princess Ynez Corrino to come train with them along with having arranged her marriage to Pruwet Richese. They discussed who they should pair Ynez with during her training until they heard some screams and found Kasha Jinjo appearing as if her skin was burned. This continued until she died.[4]
Tula had Nazir come to examine Kasha's body and determine the cause of death. Nazir said she needed to run more tests, but the heat source that burned her body came from inside. She relayed this information to Valya, who said she was going to Salusa Secundus. Tula said that she could handle things while she was gone, but realized Valya didn't trust her. Valya said that was because they needed Lila to try to connect with her other memory to speak to Raquella and get her to clarify her prophecy. She worried Tula couldn't do it because she had a special connection with Lila. Tula assured Valya she could do it.
Tula went to Lila and told her that Raquella was her great-great-grandmother and explained that they could use her to talk to Raquella to get her to clarify her prophecy, which would help the Sisterhood. Lila worried because she wasn't done with her training and knew it would be extremely painful and difficult. Tula assured her it was her choice and if she couldn't, they would figure something else out.
While waiting for Lila to decide, Tula became preparing the poison she would need for the process. Lila then told Tula she used to pretend Tula was her mother. Tula pretended the same thing, which is why she gave Lila her most precious keepsake. She wished Lila had known her mother. Lila asked if she might see her mother in the Agony and Tula said she couldn't promise who she would see. Lila decided to go through with it.
Tula explained the process to Lila and told her to use the light and Tula's voice to guide her. Then she dripped the poison into Lila's eye, sending her into a room where she was quickly surrounded by her ancestors. She managed to speak to Raquella, who told her the key to the reckoning was one who was born twice: once in blood and once in spice. Then she spoke to who she thought was her mother, but was actually Dorotea, telling Lila that they had lied about her mother to manipulate her because her mother wasn't dead. Then Dorotea showed Lila that Valya had used The Voice to get her to kill herself. She decided to use Lila to get her revenge and Lila slumped back onto the bed, unresponsive to Tula's pleas.[5]
Despite no one having survived the state Lila was in, Tula kept her alive, over Avila's objections. Finally, Tula allowed Avila to bring the other acolytes in to say goodbye. Then she turned off Lila's machine. However, she secretly moved Lila down to the storeroom, where she kept her alive by hooking her up to a thinking machine.[2]
Tula was shocked when Jen and Emeline came to her and told her that all the acolytes except Jen had had nightmares and Emeline's led to her sleepwalking and almost killing herself in a daze. When Tula realized Emeline was using Truthsense on her to decide if she was telling the truth about Dorotea killing herself out of grief, she sent them back to their studies. Avila said that Kasha and Lila's deaths had just troubled their minds and she was sure it would settle back down for them soon.
Tula decided to bring all the acolytes together. She had all of them except Jen take spice and had them draw what they'd seen in their dreams. They started off drawing different things, but quickly converged to draw the same things. When Tula saw their distress, she tried to call them out of it, but found she was unable to. After a few moments, they came out of it on their own, with their last drawing being all black except for two eyes. Emeline looked at her drawing and said that God was watching them and judging them and the reckoning was there.
Tula and Avila looked at the acolytes' drawings and Tula concluded that their own fear is what had woken them and she worried the nightmares could be a sign of what was to come. Avila wanted to tell them so they could be prepared, but Tula said to hide it to avoid them becoming hysterical.
Tula was sitting with Lila, begging her to wake up, when she had a vision of Emeline accusing her of lying and saying she was going to tell everyone. Then when Emeline went to leave, Tula followed her and slit her throat. Then Tula startled out of her vision and saw that Lila's body was gone. She looked around and found Lila walking toward her. They hugged and Lila looked around and asked where they were.[6]
Tula came into a class Avila was teaching on redirecting heat energy. Jen had challenged Avila, asking what protection they had from the nightmares the rest of the sisters were having. Tula called Jen out of the room and took her to the storeroom. As the only person not having the nightmares, she might be the only one who could help Tula. She showed her the room where she was keeping Lila, who was still struggling with the ancestors' voices in her head. Then she left Jen to supervise Lila.
Tula was working when she was surprised by Jen and Lila coming in. However, she quickly realized it wasn't Lila, but Raquella speaking through Lila. Raquella quickly started running tests on Kasha's remains, seeing damage she'd been before, during the war. After running more tests, Raquella told Tula it was a genetically modified airborne RNA retrovirus. When Avila found out that she'd kept Lila alive, Tula assured her she was doing as she was told and warned her not to tell anyone else about it.
Tula again left Jen to supervise Lila as she slept. She told Jen to come get her if Raquella appeared again. When Jen asked if Lila was being used for the Sisterhood's gain, Tula said that they were in a time of crisis and sometimes sacrifices had to be made. Jen asked Tula what she'd sacrificed, not believing she had sacrificed anything. Tula said she'd sacrificed more than Jen could know.
Tula took the package from Valya, which included a sample of Desmond's blood, and gave it to Anirul to analyze to find out who he was. She was surprised when Anirul said he was Atreides and Harkonnen and shocked when it narrowed down exactly who he was, Desmond Hart.[7]
Tula shared what they'd learned with Nazir, who decided she needed to expose herself deliberately to the virus in order to transmute it and generate a cure. Tula offered to do it, but Nazir said she was more qualified with her medical training. Tula watched as Nazir attempted to transmute the virus, only to find that the harder she fought, the worse the virus got. This led to Nazir dying as Tula watched.
Tula told Anirul what she knew and Anirul suggested eliminating Desmond to stop the spread of the virus. Tula said she couldn't do that as her son wasn't born a weapon. He was made that way. Tula then left Wallach IX to go to Valya. She found Valya at a spaceport, affected by the virus. She told Valya she couldn't fight the virus because it was machine, not human. She said the way to survive was to let go of her fear. Valya was able to do this and lived. When she snapped out of it, Valya said she saw what they did with Desmond. They put a thinking machine in his eye. She wanted to kill him to eliminate it, but Tula used The Voice to stop her and explained that Desmond was her son and she lied when she told Valya he was dead because she couldn't let her son be part of Valya's plan. Valya said that someone else clearly saw the potential they knew he had and had exploited it to benefit them. She told Tula they could end it right there by killing Desmond. She left it to Tula to decide and left to join Ynez and Keiran, who were fleeing to Arrakis. Tula decided she couldn't kill Desmond. He allowed her to hug him, but then called the guards to arrest her.[3]
Quotes
Notes and Trivia
- Shirley Henderson was initially cast as Tula Harkonnen in Dune: Prophecy, but later dropped out.[8]
Gallery
Appearances
References
- ↑ Official Dune: Prophecy character bio from HBO
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sisterhood Above All
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The High-Handed Enemy
- ↑ The Hidden Hand
- ↑ Two Wolves
- ↑ Twice Born
- ↑ In Blood, Truth
- ↑ Deadline Hollywood: 'Dune: The Sisterhood': Director Johan Renck & Star Shirley Henderson Exit HBO Max Series Amid Creative Overhaul & Production Hiatus by Rosy Cordero, Nellie Andreeva. Feb 28, 2023.