Valya Harkonnen

Valya Harkonnen
Dune: Prophecy character
Emily Watson in the 2024 television series
First appearance	Sisterhood of Dune 2012
Created by	Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson
Portrayed by	Emily Watson Jessica Barden (young)
In-universe information
Species	Human
Gender	Female
Title	Reverend Mother
Occupation	Leader of the Sisterhood
Affiliation	Bene Gesserit
Relatives	Tula Harkonnen (sister) Harrow Harkonnen Novels: Griffin Harkonnen (brother) Danvis Harkonnen (brother) Vergyl Harkonnen (father) Sonya Harkonnen (mother) Weller Harkonnen (uncle) Dirdos Harkonnen (grandfather) Abulurd Harkonnen (great-grandfather)

Valya Harkonnen is a fictional character in the 2024 Max science fiction television series Dune: Prophecy, portrayed by Emily Watson. She is the leader of the Sisterhood, a secretive and powerful matriarchal order whose members undergo intense physical training and mental conditioning to obtain superhuman abilities. Set in Frank Herbert's Dune universe, ten thousand years before the events of his 1965 novel Dune, the series follows Valya and her sister, Tula Harkonnen (Olivia Williams), as they combat forces that threaten humanity's future, and shape the Sisterhood's evolution into the Bene Gesserit order.

Valya first appears in the Great Schools of Dune (2012–2016) prequel trilogy of novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.

Character

Development and casting

In June 2019, Legendary Television announced a full series order of Dune: The Sisterhood, a series in development which would focus on the Bene Gesserit order and serve as a prequel to Denis Villeneuve's 2021 film adaptation Dune. The casting of Emily Watson as Valya Harkonnen was announced in October 2022. In November 2023, the series was retitled Dune: Prophecy. In May 2024, Jessica Barden was cast as the younger version of Valya.

Description

In the series, Valya Harkonnen is the leader of the Sisterhood, a powerful social, religious, and political force whose members possess superhuman powers and abilities by undergoing years of intense physical and mental conditioning. Among these are the abilities to detect lies, and to use their voices to control the behavior of others. This secretive, matriarchal order also continues to acquire power and influence as a means to direct the Imperium, and thereby humanity, on the path they have set for it.

Watson described Valya as powerful and talented, yet damaged, traumatized and "driven by vengeance ... a properly messed up, complicated character". Valya leaves her family for the Sisterhood, and Watson explains:

It's there that there's a charismatic leader who sees her and goes, "I see you, you are special." And being told you're special when you're a young person is a very, very powerful thing to do to somebody, and it gives her a sense of passion and really a sense of a vision and a mission ... she believes that her mission is more important than what we would naturally assume is the moral compass that we would recognize ... She's kind of a puppetmaster, manipulating the balance of power in the human world across the universe. She's dictating the path that humanity is taking. And they have this program of what, basically it's really kind of eugenics about making sure the right people breed with the right people to get the best leaders the right path ahead.

Showrunner Alison Schapker said, "Valya Harkonnen and Tula Harkonnen share a past and certain trauma, and have a dynamic that's very specific to that family. And there is a bit of an older sibling, younger sibling dynamic. There is a bit of that relatable older sibling driving things overtly, and younger sibling feeling maybe a bit diminished or in the shadow of." Watson explained, “They both have secrets that they are bound together by their past and things that are really deeply, deeply and profoundly shocking that other people don't necessarily know about them. But also, Valya has always been the leader, she's always been the eldest who's brought Tula along with her." She said, "What was really delicious to me as an actor about coming into this world was that these women are from a truly, truly, recognizably messed-up family. They've had an awful childhood and it's sort of propelled them away. And nothing, nothing in this world is good and bad; everything is compromised and strange, and yet what Valya Harkonnen sets her sights on is really determining the right path for humankind. That's her ambition."

Young Valya is described as "ambitious, stubborn and forceful". Watson and Barden discussed their shared character before filming. Watson said of Barden, "She's a real firebrand and just her actual nature, Jessica's nature, was very inspiring to me. She's just incredibly forthright. And we spoke really about the anger, the absolutely uncontrolled sort of powerful anger inside (Valya), which she later in life learns to channel into the ways of the Sisterhood ... It was a really important moment for me talking to her, [learning] her understanding of what this character was like as a young woman."

In the series, Mother Superior Valya schemes on a long term scale that involves fellow Sisters, Imperial power players and Emperor Javicco Corrino (Mark Strong) himself. Watson said, “Certain people will be in favor and in power. If they're no longer useful, then they will be removed. But they're allowed to think that they have power.” She added that Valya is "always one step ahead, moving on, ‘This is the plan', and she doesn't really care who she destroys in the wake of that." But Valya meets her match in Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel), a mysterious and charismatic Imperial soldier who makes a play for Javicco's trust and who Valya finds is not easily controlled. She perceives him as both a threat and a mystery to be solved, and according to Watson, "Valya has the sort of presence of mind, call it what you will, to know that somehow there's a piece, there's a player somewhere that she can't discern and she hasn't found it yet, and she's going after it."

Storyline

Set in Frank Herbert's Dune universe, Dune: Prophecy takes place ten thousand years before the events of his 1965 novel Dune. It centers on the origins of the Bene Gesserit, in particular the efforts of sisters Valya and Tula Harkonnen to "combat forces that threaten the future of humankind", as well as "a prophecy [which] foretells of a mysterious and powerful danger that threatens to destroy the Sisterhood." Schapker explained that the series explores multiple time periods, with the characters' pasts adapted from the Great Schools of Dune trilogy of novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, and the present timeline original to the television series. In particular, the series depicts Valya in the present as the powerful leader of the Sisterhood, as well as her origins 30 years before.

In the series premiere "The Hidden Hand", a young Valya Harkonnen promises Mother Superior Raquella, the leader of the Sisterhood, that she will fulfill their plan to place one of their own on the Imperial Throne. Thirty years later, Valya is Mother Superior, and finds herself faced with a threat to the marriage she has orchestrated for Emperor Javicco Corrino's daughter, Princess Ynez-Arat.

Literary origins

Valya Harkonnen first appears in the Great Schools of Dune (2012–2016) prequel trilogy of novels. Set in Frank Herbert's Dune universe, the series is a sequel to the Legends of Dune trilogy (2002–2004), and takes place nearly a century after the events of the third novel, The Battle of Corrin (2004), in which humanity finally defeats the thinking machine armies bent on their extinction. In The Battle of Corrin, Abulurd Harkonnen defies an order from his commander, Vorian Atreides, that would sacrifice many lives, and in doing so causes even more deaths. Vorian brands him a traitor, and the Harkonnens are exiled to the ice planet Lankiveil.

In the Great Schools of Dune series, the independent anti-technology forces gaining power in the aftermath of the Butlerian Jihad pose a threat to the nascent Spacing Guild, Bene Gesserit, Mentat and Suk Schools, and even the rule of Emperor Salvador Corrino. The Harkonnens have accepted their punishment, but a new generation manifest in Valya and Griffin Harkonnen hopes to reclaim their rightful place, and avenge themselves on the Atreides. Julio Bardini of Collider described Valya as "one of the most fascinating characters in the Dune continuity." She singlehandedly ignites the Harkonnen-Atreides feud and mobilizes her siblings to the cause, while taking control of the fledgling Bene Gesserit and shaping it to her will as a formidable force in the universe.

Sisterhood of Dune (2012)

In Sisterhood of Dune, the remnants of House Harkonnen live a simple existence as whalers on the ice planet Lankiveil. Siblings Valya and Griffin Harkonnen, however, seek to restore the power and influence lost by their family when Jihad hero Vorian Atreides branded their great-grandfather Abulurd Harkonnen a traitor 80 years before. Griffin works to rise in the Landsraad assembly of noble Houses, and Valya becomes an acolyte of the Sisterhood on Rossak.

Five years later, Valya has become a trusted aide to Mother Superior Raquella Berto-Anirul, who has shared with Valya the secret that she has flouted the Butlerian prohibitions on thinking machines by using computers to maintain the extensive records of the Sisterhood's breeding program. Valya's rival in the Sisterhood, Sister Dorotea, is a Butlerian sympathizer who discovers the existence of Raquella's computers and reports it to Salvador. Valya helps Raquella remove them in advance of the Emperor's invasion, but a petulant Salvador disbands the Sisterhood School on Rossak. Dorotea returns to the capital world of Salusa Secundus with the Emperor as his Truthsayer, and forms an orthodox faction of sisters.

Valya learns that Vorian, made seemingly immortal by the thinking machines, is still alive. Bent on revenge, Griffin tracks Vorian to the desert planet Arrakis. Vorian saves Griffin from a giant sandworm, and Griffin subsequently defeats Vorian in a duel, but spares his life. Though they come to an understanding to end the Atreides-Harkonnen feud, Griffin is executed by Vorian's sister Hyla, an assassin loyal to the vanquished thinking machines who, with her twin Andros, wants Vorian to join them in resurrecting the machine empire. Vorian returns Griffin's body to Lankiveil with a letter of condolence, and Valya refuses to believe he did not kill her brother himself. She swallows and survives the dangerous Rossak drug and gains access to the memories and mental presences of her female ancestors, becoming the third Reverend Mother after Raquella and Dorotea. Raquella and Valya take their followers to regroup on a new planet, Wallach IX.

Mentats of Dune (2014)

In Mentats of Dune, Valya studies with the Swordmasters of the Ginaz so she can someday kill Vorian. She also trains herself in the Voice, a power newly-discovered by Raquella allowing her to control others using precise tonal changes in her voice. Valya retrieves the hidden computers from Rossak and hopes to succeed Raquella as Mother Superior. Nearing the end of her life, Raquella believes that the only hope for the Sisterhood to survive is for the Wallach IX sisters to reconcile with Dorotea's faction. She forces Valya and Dorotea to put their differences aside and agree to work together for the good of the Sisterhood. Naming them co-leaders, Raquella dies. Valya however, still bitter about Dorotea's betrayal, uses the Voice to force Dorotea to commit suicide. Valya declares herself to be the sole Mother Superior, and ingratiates herself to the new Emperor, Salvador's brother, Roderick Corrino. Vorian, feeling guilty for Griffin's death, tries to help the struggling Harkonnens with a secret infusion of funds to their whaling business on Lankiveil. He visits the planet Caladan to meet his descendants there, just in time for young Orry Atreides to be slain on his wedding night by his new bride: Griffin and Valya's younger sister, Tula.

Navigators of Dune (2016)

In Navigators of Dune, Valya has renamed the Sisterhood as the Bene Gesserit, and erected the Mother School. Tula, who had come to love Orry and fled out of guilt for murdering him, is hunted and nearly killed by his brother Willem Atreides and Vorian. Valya captures Tula and tries to free her of any guilt or sympathy toward the Atreides, hoping she will next execute Willem and end the bloodline. Though her Truthsayer Cindel assures Valya that Vorian is not lying when he says he did not kill Griffin, she refuses to believe it. On Corrin, Vorian duels Valya as Willem battles Tula. Valya finds that Vorian is immune to the Voice, and Willem stops short of killing Tula when she reveals she is carrying Orry's child. With the fighting at a stalemate, Vorian leaves the planet but is presumed dead when his ship explodes, though he survives. Valya guides her young brother Danvis Harkonnen as he begins service in the royal court, and resumes her duties as leader of the Bene Gesserit.