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This article or section refers to elements from Original Dune There are separate pages for this subject as it appears in the other canons, the reasons for this are explained here |
- "I make a point. Never obliterate a man unthinkingly, the way an entire fief might do it through some due process of law. Always do it for an overriding purpose - and know your purpose!'"
- ―Vladimir Harkonnen to Glossu Rabban[src]
Siridar-Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (/ˈhɑːrkənən/) (10110 AG - 10193 AG) was the penultimate ruler of House Harkonnen and chief architect behind the demise of Duke Leto Atreides during the final reigning years of Shaddam Corrino IV. With his nephew and heir, Feyd-Rautha, they conspired for their House to dominate Arrakis and eventually the Golden Lion Throne before their ultimate defeat by House Atreides and their Fremen allies during the Desert War which ousted the Padishah Emperor from his seat of power.
Biography[]
Background[]
Commonly referred to as Baron Harkonnen, his title is officially Siridar (planetary governor) Baron. Vladimir Harkonnen is the direct-line male descendant of the Bashar Abulurd Harkonnen who was banished for cowardice after the Battle of Corrin. The return of House Harkonnen to power generally is ascribed to adroit manipulation of the whale fur market and later consolidation with melange wealth from Arrakis. The Siridar-Baron died on Arrakis during the Revolt. Title passed briefly to the na-Baron, Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen.
- Appendix IV: The Almanak en-Ashraf (Selected Excerpts of the Noble Houses)
Leadership[]
Deeming Glossu Rabban too brutish and stupid to be an effective successor, the Baron showered Feyd-Rautha with praise and the promise of eventual leadership, but his hold over the cunning and impulsive youth remained tenuous, with Feyd even attempting to assassinate him by planting a poison needle in the thigh of a young slave boy.
The Baron showed remarkable insight in his recognition of efficiency and talent, as shown in his use of the Twisted Mentat, Piter de Vries, and the way he shaped and positioned his nephews in a grandiose plan to reinstate Harkonnen control over Arrakis. He also had the self-awareness to recognize personal flaws that barred him from pursuing otherwise advantageous strategies such as enlisting the talents of Truthsayers in advisory roles, citing his sexual tastes and extreme distrust of Bene Gesserit witches.
Vladimir's rule of House Harkonnen proved to be notoriously cruel among the other Great Houses. His reputation as a hedonistic pleasure seeker with destructive appetites included a sadistic penchant for young boys, who were sometimes drugged when he wasn't in the mood for "wrestling." Torture, murder and slavery were all considered justified necessities of power, as shown in his treatment of Wellington Yueh and Thufir Hawat, and this systemic cruelty characterized the way his soldiers and administrators handled subordinates and prisoners.
The Baron was known to exploit this ruthless reputation by ordering executions over apparently trivial matters to rid himself of threats. This was particularly evident in how he dealt with Feyd's co-conspirators for their part in the aforementioned thigh-needle, having the slavemaster summarily executed under the pretense of losing a chess game, as well as a couple guards for their clumsy handling of the slave boy's corpse. Such cunning was further emphasized by his coercion of Doctor Yueh's betrayal of House Atreides, wording his promised reward of "freeing Wanna from her agony" in a vague enough fashion that, much to Yueh's lack of surprise, "joining his wife" meant ending their lives. Of course, Vladimir justified this treachery as a practical safeguard, claiming that no traitor could ever be trusted. Just as callous towards his own forces, he did not hesitate to leave his men to die to Duke Leto's boobytrapped tooth before gloating over his own survival.
Despite his sharp and cunning intellect, Baron Vladimir's arrogance and intense hatred for House Atreides proved to be his undoing.
Death on Arrakis[]
Vladimir Harkonnen died at age 83 in the year 10193, during the defeat of House Harkonnen and Sardaukar forces at the hands of Fremen hordes and wormriders on the Plains of Arrakeen. Distracted by the chaos looming around him within the audience chamber of the Emperor's hutment, he was fatally pricked with a Gom Jabbar wielded by a young Alia Atreides, his own granddaughter.
Following his death, the Barony of House Harkonnen briefly passed on to Feyd-Rautha. Held prisoner at the Arrakeen governor's mansion with the Emperor and his daughter Irulan, Feyd challenged Paul Atreides to a duel and met his end on the latter's blade. Passed on to Vladimir's daughter, Lady Jessica declined her father's inheritance, wanting no part in the House that murdered her Duke and drove her family to exile. Paul, now the last living heir, subsumed House Harkonnen into his own - as the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood originally hoped to accomplish with their planned wedding of an Atreides daughter to Feyd-Rautha.
However, death was not the end for Vladimir. After Jessica transmuted the Water of Life to become Reverend Mother of Sietch Tabr, Alia was born with fully awakened ancestral memories, including those of her maternal grandfather. In the early throes of Abomination during her late-twenties, Alia initially shared control of her body with the Baron's ego-memory in exchange for his protection against other ancestral forces, but his greed for new life slowly consumed her and supplanted her own mind. In the end, however, this vengeful persona proved fruitless against Alia's supreme willpower in overcoming her possession by suicide.
Physical Appearance[]
Besides spider-black eyes beneath enfolded eyelids, cheeks like cherubic mounds, bobbing jowls around protruding lips, and large hands that glittered with rings, the Baron's most notable feature was his immensely corpulent frame - implied to be the result of his unchecked gluttony and family genetics, according to his observation on Rabban's growing body fat. Unable or unwilling to walk on his own, all this weight required numerous suspensors harnessed to his flesh, and he could only recline in levitating suspensor thrones.
Being a large man covered in bulbous devices, he always wore dark and loose-fitting robes along with lavish capes for special occasions.
Quotes[]
"I said I would not harm them, and I shall not. But Arrakis is Arrakis, and the desert takes the weak. My desert. My Arrakis. My Dune." - Dune 2021
Gallery[]
.jpg "220px-Baron Harkonnen-John Schoenherr-Illustrated Dune (1978).jpg (7 KB)")
Screen Adaptations[]
Alejandro Jodorowsky wanted famed actor, director and screenwriter Orson Welles to portray Vladimir Harkonnen in his unsuccessful attempt to produce a film adaptation of Dune in the early 1970s. The late Kenneth McMillan was the first to actually portray him on screen, followed by Ian McNeice and Stellan Skarsgård.
Besides a full head of red hair that influenced most future depictions, David Lynch's 1984 rendition of the Baron was given a more gritty and hideous appearance - drenched in sweat and plagued with diseased pustules that required constant draining - as well as a more unstable personality prone to psychotic ranting and cackling. Rather than a series of thin straps, his suspensor harness resembles a full-body straightjacket with cables plugged into his bare chest. His demise was also dramatically embellished: instead of merely poisoning him as the climactic battle rages outside the Emperor's encampment, Alia proceeds to tear out his suspensor cables before telekinetically throwing him through a demolished wall and into the open jaws of her brother's sandworm.
Although the 2000 miniseries still retains his sadistic nature from the book, it's downplayed in favor of his more manipulative scheming, with his pederasty similarly toned down in favor of adult slaves. He is also shown to speak in iambic pentameter on multiple occasions.
In Denis Villeneuve's 2021 and 2024 films, the Baron - like all members of his Great House - is stark-white and completely hairless from minimal UV exposure and toxic levels of industrial and pharmaceutical chemicals. While very obese, he remains structurally handsome with blue eyes, broad shoulders and muscular limbs powerful enough to lift a grown man with one hand. Unlike the book and previous adaptations, the Baron's suspensors are bolted directly into his spine, which makes an audible popping crunch whenever it's relieved of gravity. Interestingly, his lengthy robes cause him to appear abnormally tall and worm-like while hovering - a possible foreshadowing of his great-grandson. Like his book counterpart, he wears multiple rings including a jointed finger sheath which contains his personal shield generator.
While the book's suspensors only lighten his weight enough to walk without strain, all three screen adaptations fully levitate off the ground when he's not resting - an embellishment that apparently originated from Jodorowsky's screenplay and storyboards. Dune: Part Two also features the book's levitating suspensor throne.
How Vladimir managed to survive Duke Leto's final act varies between sources. In the book, he merely flees through a secret escape hatch upon seeing Piter and his guards succumb to their poisoning. In the 1984 film, Leto's vision is blurred by his drugged state, causing him to only take out Piter with a short-range cloud. In the 2000 miniseries, the Baron barely manages to escape the growing gas cloud by flying across the room in a flailing panic (although the original script plays out more like the book). In the 2021 film, despite taking it right in the face, his personal shield slows the airborne toxin long enough for his suspensors to lift him to the dining hall's ceiling - although he later requires significant rehabilitation to detoxify and repair his ravaged lungs, which become permanently dependent on medical baths and floating metal ventilators.
Appearances[]
Novels[]
Adaptations[]
| Preceded by Unknown |
Baron of House Harkonnen ? - 10193 AG |
Succeeded by Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen |
| Preceded by Unknown |
Governor of Arrakis ? - 10191 AG |
Succeeded by Hasimir Fenring |
House Harkonnen
| |
|---|---|
| Barons |
Vladimir Harkonnen • Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen |
| Family | |
| Retainers |
Piter de Vries • Umman Kudu • Iakin Nefud • Thufir Hawat • Czigo • Kinet • Pardee • Guild Bank Agent |