This is an egregious difference. I understand artistic license and, okay, sure, you have to make some compromises when changing from one medium to another but this is just obscene.
realtalk tho what the fuck are they doin in the second movie with the changes they made that actually mattered, stilgar is a fanatic, chaney is jealous and petulant, they cut out 2 years and paul's first child, as well as the birth of his sister, very weird stuff
Stilgar is supposed to become a fanatic, it's a very impactful line in the book:
“In that instant, Paul saw how Stilgar had been transformed from the Fremen naib to a creature of the Lisan al-Gaib, a receptacle for awe and obedience. It was a lessening of the man, and Paul felt the ghost-wind of the jihad in it.”
I haven't seen the second movie (don't know that I will,) they just have him like that from the jump?
Yeah, it's one of the worst changes from the book - Stilgar is a believer from the beginning, and is even described by other Fremen as being kind of a religious fanatic who sees prophecy everywhere. It's an unfortunate change, as this was one of the most important themes in the book, the way that fanaticism debases people.
It's a bummer that Stilgar doesn't go on that journey in thia film, especially consider how much it beats us on the head that the prophecy is a cynical manipulation.
Literally he is a punchline. He is a religious zelot that Chani and other zoomer fremen rag on for being fundamentalist, the audience laughed several times at what a religious sap stilgar is.
he still had some good lines and its a good stilgar performance, but DAMN they just skip right to it, stilgar is already transformed and lessened
I honestly like the changes they made with Chani. This also may be my favorite version of Alia, even if the artistic liberties are extreme. Don't get me wrong, the (book accurate) creepy toddler in David Lynch's version was phenomenal. I just like