"Dune" nitpicks

[pecksniff]

Things I didn't get from reading the books:

1. If Spice is all that important, and Arrakis is the only place that produces it, why does the Emperor let anybody else control it? The planet should have a viceroy reporting directly to the Emperor. Letting any Great House have it as a fief is a recipe for trouble.

2. Why did the Emperor support the Harkonnens against the Atreides?

3. I read the whole appendix on "Bene Gesserit Motives and Purposes" without gaining the least insight into Bene Gesserit motives and purposes. What did they intend to do with the Kwisatz Haderach?

4. In God Emperor of Dune, Leto explains that if he had not done what he did, the human race would be extinct. But, how? What could exterminate a species established on so many worlds?

 

[pointless]

the second question is answered very directly in the text. he felt that house atreides was too popular in the landsraad and was therefore a possible rival that needed to be taken down a peg but he couldn't do it himself without turning the other great houses against him and starting a civil war he'd likely lose. luckily for him the atreides and the harkonens hated each other already, so he used one to take out the other.