prompt 232
Jun. 12th, 2008 02:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sylph_ficsAppropriate to be unkind?
Some of my ancestresses laugh at the very question, for the Bene Gesserit are rarely kind. They have been driven by necessity for millennia, by the need to control the breeding lines to reach the Kwisatz Haderach, my father. The things that need has pushed the Bene Gesserit to make kindness a luxury, something they can sometimes give each other, but something rarely considered for its own sake.
Even mother looks at this question with puzzlement, for though our people are good people, kindness is a trait the Fremen give only to our own. To off-worlders, we have been as we must be to survive, though father changed that, and Leto will change it more.
But the women who were wives and mothers to the Atreides lords... they have the answer that Grandfather Leto might have given, that kindness is something you must grant whenever you are capable of it. When you are capable of it, though. Not at all times. A ruler must often be unkind to one, to be kind to the many.
And if you asked my twin, Leto, Padishah Emperor.... He will be kind when he may, but the future of man rests on his shoulders, and as many people will hate and fear him for his unkindness as will ever be grateful for his rule.
My brother is the stronger of us. I do not know if I could stand to do what he must.
Some of my ancestresses laugh at the very question, for the Bene Gesserit are rarely kind. They have been driven by necessity for millennia, by the need to control the breeding lines to reach the Kwisatz Haderach, my father. The things that need has pushed the Bene Gesserit to make kindness a luxury, something they can sometimes give each other, but something rarely considered for its own sake.
Even mother looks at this question with puzzlement, for though our people are good people, kindness is a trait the Fremen give only to our own. To off-worlders, we have been as we must be to survive, though father changed that, and Leto will change it more.
But the women who were wives and mothers to the Atreides lords... they have the answer that Grandfather Leto might have given, that kindness is something you must grant whenever you are capable of it. When you are capable of it, though. Not at all times. A ruler must often be unkind to one, to be kind to the many.
And if you asked my twin, Leto, Padishah Emperor.... He will be kind when he may, but the future of man rests on his shoulders, and as many people will hate and fear him for his unkindness as will ever be grateful for his rule.
My brother is the stronger of us. I do not know if I could stand to do what he must.
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-13 03:44 am (UTC)It is difficult to be a ruler, as I have seen in my good friend Bruenor, and in Wulfgar.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-27 01:54 am (UTC)Truly, there are few things harder.