Hey! It's an honor to be compared by some of you to a professional studio. We are just two friends who decided to start a RU-vid channel about 5 or 6 months ago. One of us writes the script and does the voice recording, while the other one is the editor. We had originally created another channel with another essay, featuring just a slideshow of pictures and poor audio quality. It did not perform well, so we decided to study! We've delved into a lot of content explaining what makes a successful channel, what makes a good thumbnail, title, etc., which we researched beforehand and tried to apply here. Three months ago, we had never opened an editing program, so it took us a while to get used to Adobe Premiere and After Effects. Thankfully, there are countless RU-vid channels that make learning possible (SonduckFilm, Ben Marriott, Flat Pack FX, etc.). So, we truly feel blessed to receive comments like yours. What we never expected was this level of views on our very first video. It's awesome but also a bit frightening at the same time. We appreciate all your constructive criticism about the script, the editing style, and the audio. We are aware that this video is far from perfect, and we'll keep studying and learning to hopefully deliver better content with each upload! Thanks again for the incredible support in your comments!
What is so interesting to me from a biological perspective is how the larva of the sandworm, the sand trout, thrive in watery conditions and absorb vast amounts before undergoing metamorphosis and becoming intolerant to water. For a carbon-based organism of such enormous size to find water anathema to its existence, let alone with the context of its early life, is so fascinating to think about.
They may not be carbon based at all. They are alien creatures that have an internal furnace operating at extremely high temperature doing strange chemistry for life.
@Alex.Holland there's also the possibility that The Great Sandworms were a product of bioengineering, them being a more or less self contained ecosystem that also terraforms whatever world they are placed on into their optimal habitat, while also producing The Spice as a byproduct... certainly seems a bit too convenient for mere coincidence to create via simple darwinian evolution.
@@RipOffProductionsLLC Someone or something definitely purposefully put the worms on Arrakis, the God Emperor Leto II reveals that the sandworms are not even native to Arrakis, and that the planet used to be a lush green world before the worms were introduced and terraformed the planet. This probably means that some civilization engineered these worms and put them on Arrakis to creat a resource world for Spice but whatever civilization that did so is long gone by the time of the series
In Old Norse and Icelandic, the word "ormr" can mean "serpent," "dragon," or "worm." This term often translates to "worm" in English. The word "worm" in old and middle English didn't just refer to earthworms but was also used for serpentine creatures, including dragons. In the context of Norse mythology, creatures like Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent, are often referred to as "worms" in the sense of a dragon or a monstrous serpent. This reflects the broader and more flexible usage of the term in historical languages, where the distinction between what we consider today as "worms" and "serpents" or "dragons"
what's interesting here that the way frank herberts sandworms exist and have their own circle of life, independent of other life forms, almost looks like the idea of oroboros, the self consuming serpent. much like how jörmungandr circles the earth and is depicted eating its own tail.
Frank Herbert worked as a journalist and once wrote an article on the effect planting grass near roads in the desert had in preventing dunes from blowing over and obscuring the roads. He said this was a big inspiration for Dune. The stabilizing effect inspired the quote at 23:55. Additionally, he was able to see the desert from aerial perspectives when researching for the article, and it reminded him of a body of water. Sand is interesting
Reminds me of the desert from Alabasta in one piece. In one episode you have literal sand pirates, as in pirates with boats sailing throughout the desert as if it was a vast ocean. One of my favorite episodes tbh lol
I love how whenever he's beginning to talk about worms, you see all these realistic movie worms, and then in the background there is eater of worlds from Terraria. Edit: timestamp is like 3:06
The writing, the sheer amount of editing, and delivery of this subject is staggering. Congratulations! Only 1 video and you’re going straight to a million views.
It's very impressive. But I bet this guy has plenty of past channels and privated videos to get him to this level of quality. no way its his first video.
13:58 it’s no coincidence that there are many similarities between whales and Shai-hulud. Frank Herbert is from the Pacific Northwest and studied the indigenous cultures here, including those that hunt and worship whales. The Makkah (for example) relationship with whales has many comparisons to the Fremens’ relationship with the worms and directly influenced Herbert.
Also any illusions you can make to whales in literature carries with it the power of Moby Dick and its symbolism for a quest of meaning. Much like whales, the worms in Dune carry a substance to be worshipped. As brutal as it is, modern society wouldn't exist without being built atop the oil economy which whales provided before fossil fuels.
@@hermetischism4671 That may overstating the importance of whale oil a little. Its uses were more analogous to modern petrochemical derivatives, lubricants, soaps, and the like: useful, certainly, and valuable, but nowhere near indispensable. The industrial revolution on which modern society is based was driven by _coal mining,_ not whaling.
If you told me today I'd get a video coming across my recommended that had Dune, scientific breakdowns, xenobiology, a couple Magic the Gathering and D&D references, and incredible writing and editing, and I SOMEHOW wasn't already subscribed to the channel that made the video??? I'd call you crazy. Tldr, this was an incredible video, guys! Can't wait to see what you do next!!
As someone who got into the dune world, the thumbnail and title caught my eyes as I was scrolling through the feeds. I honestly thought that you were some of those creators like Lemmino, Aperture. Then I checked your subs and number of videos you have, and I must admit I was blown away by the quality and effort you put into this video. Keep the contents coming.
An interesting parallel I have found between Dinosaurs and Sandworms is their complex ecology. Many paleontologist believe that dinosaur ecology (during the Mesozic) was complex, with therapod adolescents serving a different ecological niche then their fully grown adults, similar to how the Sandworms have different ecological niches based on their age.
saying this just as fun fact! and not in the “um actually” sort of way, but a better word for what you’re describing would be that they have a more complex “ontogeny”
T. rex itself had a really interesting life cycle, with adolescents being slender, long-legged runners before they bulked out and became heavyset, bone-crushing animals which probably couldn’t faster than “speed walk”
@@Beghast-tvyeah, and usually they are disorganised, low audio quality like to be expected if someone starts a craft, this on the other hand appears so be very well practised!
@@Beghast-tvthis is a great video. I think you should review the Graboids of Tremors next since after Dune, they’re a very close second when it comes to the Sand Worm theme
I love how you can tell how amazing the original cinematography of the most recent Dune movie is just from random clips, even when it's distorted or lower resolution
Beautiful ending, "His Dune" contrasting to Baron Harkonnen claiming "My Dessert. My Arrakis. My Dune." - he might benefit from Dune, he can harvest spice but at the end only the Worm owns it. Notablythe desertification actually also happens in the later books of the Dune series (Chapterhouse/Heretics) - Sandworms are introduced to another planet and turn it into a desert. It is done on purpose - after all Melange is still incredibly valueable, but it also comes with an impending feeling of doom as the world is slowly remade, orchards offer a last harvest before maintaining them becomes unfeasible, lakes dry up and people have to relocate to get out of the way of the desert. It has something of a force of nature.
Great little essay! Very evocative and thought-provoking. Loved the quote at the end. Fun fact: humans, whales - all mammals, in fact - fish, reptiles, birds, and amphibians belong to the phylum chordata. The phylum arthropoda includes insects, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, millipedes, crabs, lobsters, prawns and a great deal else. The phylum mollusca includes the likes of slugs, snails, octopodes, and squid. As you can see, a single phylum can include a wild variety of different creatures. Just these three phyla - chordata, arthropoda, and mollusca - include the vast majority of animals most people are familiar with. Yet these are just 3 of 35 extant phyla. And of the other 32, fourteen - almost half - are worms. That's a LOT of worms.
16:01 The biggest challenge faced by an earthworm the size of Dune's sandworm wouldn't so much be the weight of its skeleton (as annelids are devoid of one, be it an endo- or exoskeleton). Instead, such a worm would be unable to absorb enough oxygen through its skin to sustain its sheer bulk. The larger the worm, the lower its surface area to volume ratio and the less efficient its respiratory system.
If the sandworms started their evolution toward this current physiology deep underground, perhaps they have adapted to create their own method of breathing, or have replaced the need entirely (not the need of their cells, just the need for recognizable respiration). For instance, they could gain all necessary sustenance from chemical reactions, creating whatever they need to survive within their own body after ingesting &/or coming into contact with certain minerals or biological materials. Since they are supposedly somewhat plant-like, they could even have unique cell structures that aid in their unique method of/replacement of respiration
@@seanmadson8524 I like to assume a few basic concepts when speculating about fictional lifeforms: 1) they're carbon based (the only other element versatile enough to permit significant biodiversification being silicon), 2) they require oxygen in some form for energy production (plants also need oxygen and are capable of cellular respiration btw), 3) they require water or hydrocarbons to operate their cellular machinery. Such assumptions limit the scope of my imagination somewhat, but help me elaborate more realistic explanations for a fictional organism's existence and evolutionary history. In my opinion, if Dune is more fantasy than science fiction, then the Sandworm doesn't need a scientifically (using the term loosely here) credible explanation. Go nuts! However, if Dune is more science fiction then fantasy, then the assumptions I laid down ought to be respected. The point of this reply? To make you think I guess
@@clvrcookie I would say that Dune is more on the fantasy side. It gets a lot of hype for being more serious sci-fi than a lot of other mainstream examples, but that doesn't make it realistic in physical terms. I still appreciate complex logic in fantastic settings, but from the killing words, to the spice, to the worms themselves, Dune is not a great example of explaining high-brow science or biology when compared to books like Omnivore
@@clvrcookie Try understand what Crassulaceae plants are doing here on earth: They collect solar energy during the day, but exchange gases only at night. This minimizes evaporation losses in arid locations. I hope this doesn't conflict with your speculative limits.
@@eljanrimsa5843 not at all. CAM photosynthesis is just the kind of adaptation that sparks my creativity when speculating about the alien life that (definitely) lies beyond Earth. Same for fictional lifeforms
I just love how you guys gather sources for the script and the footage from all kinds of media; book, comics and manga, movies, documentaries, video game, tabletop games, even tcg (which is very rare in video essays genre). uugh, i love this so much, it just feeds my geeky brain even more. keep up the amazing jobs, pls dont feel pressured to do so. Hope the algo notices you guys so this channel get to grow even more.
Holy shit, this is phenomenal for a first video. The script, the editing, the voiceover, all professional quality. Love to see new and exciting channels like yours appear on the platform. Can't wait to see what you guys do next!
that ending monologue paired with the slow zoom out from a tv and haunting classical piano is almost certainly the greatest tribute to the insidious might of Dune's sandworms that I've ever seen. gave me goosebumps, dude. bravo. I cannot wait to see more videos from you!!
I was a bit shocked to find this was your only video (so far!). You don't typically see quality like this until years of channel growth. I'm looking forward to seeing what else you have in store!
Where's the paradox? I watched the whole video to make sure I didn't miss anything but it's just descriptions and surface level discussions about fictional worm like creatures. What is paradoxical about sandworms? The argument that sandworms (or giant worms in general) can't be part of the ecosystem isn't convincingly presented, and the scenario the ending quotes where sandworms didn't participate in an earth like ecosystem (let's ignore how implausible this setting is) but later became a fundamental part of a new ecosystem does not present a paradox.
Think it’s about how sand worms themselves can only survive off of other younger sandworms. Paradoxically making them the top and bottom of the food chain.
I love how at the end "His dune" is delivered similarly like Stellan Skarsgård did in Dune 2021 saying "My dune!", intentional or not the delivery it's great. Great video overall, can't believe a 1st video on a channel can be as good as this is, I wish you well on your journey!
On the topic of the legendary status of worms, I think it is worth remembering that until relatively recently worms were actually considered a type of snake. So technically I think we would consider dragons, sea serpents and so on as types of legendary worm-monsters.
worm and Wyrm have the same Germanic name origin in German Wyrms are called Lindwurm, Wuem being the word for Wurm, it stems from the Crawling locomotions many all small earth dwelling crawling Animals are still often called "Gewürm" Snakes less in that matter but as you said the word for Snake/serpent: Schlange also stems from the slithering movement. Nowadays people often focus on Monophylistic groups dependend on DNA etc. but back in the Day Morphology was the most important factor and on first sight snakes are just Big Worms, the whole idea of Evolution or their completely different body plans didnt exist, later whith more advanced studies, microscopes and of course evolution snakes and worms were seperated for the firsst time, though we still have many polyphylistic names such as Worm as there are many worms and not all of them are related, not all what we call mushrooms are mushrooms vegetables and fruits are completely useless definitions in a Biological sense etc. but for all that actually matters, Snakes are Worms and Worms are Snakes
You got yourself a sub, man. It's like you've been making videos for years, I don't think I've ever seen a first video by someone be of such high quality as this, it's pretty damn amazing.
The thing is, while lifting a kilogramm of water and lifting a kilogramm of sand is physically comparable, you cant compare swimming in water vs "swimming" in sand. The amount of force/energy needeed for a sandworm of dune to move as fast as it does would be insane.
i believe the way that the movie had the worms work is that they emit an extremely low-frequency sound at a very high volume, which vibrates the sand around their body. this, in combination with the oxygen they emit from their bodies, essentially turns the sand into a fluid around them.
I can't believe this is your first video!! The production quality is better than a lot of long time channels and you did such a deep dive in an interesting way! Looking forward to more videos!!
Every once in a while, the RU-vid algorithm shows me something that I would've never found on my own and I love it. This is one of those times. Please continue making videos. I loved this.
I got chills at the end. The idea and concept spoken about here could lead to a great parallel to Leto II. I am become worm destroyer and sustainer of life.
Great job dude, you’re making content I would’ve expect from a channel with hundreds of thousands of subscribers. You clearly know what you’re doing, you deserve far more than what you have.
This entire video is literally so amazing. Every single aspect, the writing, the editing, the quality, the execution. The end hit me like a f***ing truck, honestly. Thank you so much for diving into every topic to be able to explain what the sandworm is, was supposed to be, and can be.
Depending on the density of sand and how similarly it functions to fluid as well as if the worms are less dense, the sand could actually act with the same buoyancy properties as water. This could in theory decreases the relative weight (the same way water does for whales) of the worms, allowing it to grow to much larger sizes.
Thought you'd compare them to the Bobbit Worm, which live in sand, grow large (10 feet long) and are sometimes just as terrifying as the sand worms of Dune
Great video! To Herbert's credit, it is mentioned by leto II in god emperor of dune that the sandworms were somehow introduced to Arrakis in the past, so they quite possibly aren't an entirely natural denizen of the planet. It's also possible that they were from a similar one, or created specifically to adapt in that environment
I forgot that. You're right. I was thinking how they could have possibly been transplanted as pre - spice creating creatures when without the spice there is no faster than light space travel.
@@JorntWagenaar well that is not true at at all in dune, FTL existed before the spice was found by the spacing guild since thinking machine did the work of guild navigator before .It is only after the Butlerian jihad and ousting of all thinking machine that spice became a necessity for FTL.
@@JorntWagenaar no it was after the Butlerian jihad that spice was discovered,spice itself is not a requirement for FTL travel and between the time period of the jihad and spice ,space travel was incredibly dangerous but possible
@@JorntWagenaar It's possible, the implication of Leto's quote was that something, or someone introduced the worms to Arrakis, perhaps something from before the imperium
"Far, far below the deepest delving of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he. Now I have walked there, but I will bring no report to darken the light of day." -Gandalf
There was an episode of Goosebumps, the TV show. Probably based on one of the books but I never read that one. About this kid who loved worms and wound up disappearing at the end after finding a giant worm underground. It was the only episode or book of that series that actually freaked me out.
I believe there was a myth in Mongolia about some kind of death worm. Also, fantastic video. The Dune saga very quickly became my favorite series and I hold a lot of love for all of what Herbert created.
I was starting to annoyed by being recommended vids with low view counts, but every now and then, there is a diamond in the rough. This video is a diamond, its given me alot to think about when writing creatures and our own fictional history involving worms as a whole. Thank you sir, you have made something wonderful here.
@@bigdaddydons6241 Alot of the more recent ones ive been getting are random 20s clips of games but its worth those if vids like this show up every now and then.
One thing you may have missed which may explain how they don't collapse under gravity and is also explained by their producer life cycle. In the new film, there are some shots of sand acting as a liquid before the sandworm arrives. Sand acts like a liquid when AIR is circulated through it. Ergo, the sandworms "swim" because they liquify sand by producing air. Neat.
It's not science fiction, per se, but H. P. Lovecraft had worm-based horrors in his works, such as the Dhole. Lovecraft first wrote about this creature in in the mid-920's. It was described as being able to rear up several hundred feet above the ground, meaning it was absolutely massive. They were slimy and dripped a corrosive acid. They were not native to Earth, but apparently had some capacity to use extradimensional travel to move from world to world.
Fantastic video! It made me think about how a creature like the sandworm could exist. First of all, if they were on a smaller planet with the resulting lower gravity then they could grow larger. And wouldn't the sand have a similar effect as the water has on whales? You said in the video that the sand reacts similarly to the movement of the sandworms as water does to the movement of whales. Their internal organs and skeletons could also be more distributed. Instead of one big heart that needs to pump blood to the whole body, there could be several smaller organs all over the body, and the same with other organs. They could also have an exoskeleton with an additional internal skeleton. I know this isn't the case for any animal on earth, but I don't know why it couldn't be possible in principle.
The fourth book, featuring a character who has become a half-human/half-worm symbiotic entity, does mention that he no longer has a brain because the worms' nervous system is decentralized. They basically think with their entire bodies.
@@macdeus2601 That does indicate that I was on the right track and it's more realistic than the video suggests. Which makes the books even more imressive.
@@CountDoucheula They obviously do have armoured segments, but having an exoskeleton would limit their potential size unless they have an additional internal skeleton, which animals with exoskeletons on earth don't have as far as I know.
You are missing the fact that the worms of Dune do not live in a place of moist, sticky soil full of large rocks and fibrous roots holding the soil together. They live in a near totally dry environment and due to their humongous size, the sand grains are so relatively small that the sand movies closer to being a liquid. The smallest and drying dust particles I have seen were in a translucent photo copy cartridge in the 80's. The ink powder particles were so fine and free of moisture that when I tilted the rectangle cartridge left and right, the ink powder, which made up about a third of the space of the sealed cartridge flowed back and forth like a liquid in slightly slow motion. Kind of like a viscous fluid such as motor oil. It definitely felt more like liquid than a solid. When you have two hundred metre long, immensely powerful sand worms with nuclear fires burning internally then it's not unreasonable to imagine they could move through mega dry, fine particle sand at a fairly fast speed.
Well the best gifts really do come in small packagings! Great video man, I really appreciate this level of content that too for such a small channel. You have my support ❤
Do you know about the sandfish skink? It's a chuby little lizard that, as its name suggests, can literally swim in sand by undulating its body. If we were to find an ancestor to a sandworm, it would be that imo. 👀
These guys know how to make an incredibly cinematic video. Ive watched this twice now and im sure ill be back again. im fascinated with stories that have monsters and mega-fauna as a core part of the world/story, like Dune, The Stormlight Archive, Jaws, and Jurassic Park, and like to really figure out what makes them tick. This video does a wonderful job of really getting into what does it for Dunes makers, and they are one of the best.
You know I don’t know how I forgot about it until the short clip of it towards the end of video, but the Riftworms from Gears of War are also pretty integral to the story. They created the hollow that the Locust live in and their waste is the Imulsion that humanity fought so bitterly over for decades and that created the locust as well. Their entire religion and society revolves around the worms(And Queen of course).
That does get to his point a little earlier in the video that worms often are parasitic. It would match well that for the Halo universe, the flood are represented by a worm shaped form in the gravemind.
That final line, “His Dune” is such an amazing conclusion. A god of destruction that grinds the world into a dry wasteland so it can make it anew into its own image is such a reverent view on the worm
The worms are an invasive species of silica based life. Being mostly silica its nervous system would be piezoelectric. This explains their sensitivity to vibration, and the vibration needed for liquifaction of the sand they filter feed in. In the books, the internals of a worm are described as being like a nuclear furnace, it would have to be silica based, a carbon based life form couldn't contain the heat. The crystalline properties of silica can support the mass of something so huge.
Great video. One solution to the giant worm problem in Dune might already be implied in the text. The Sandworms are said to be incredibly hot on the inside. A creature that massive would naturally produce an insane amount of body heat. At the scale of a Sandworm a creature of that size might have an atomic or semi-atomic metabolism. We small creatures have a metabolism that creates energy through chemical reactions. A sufficiently massive creature though could have a metabolism where energy is created by the heat and pressure of its body splitting elements or squeezing them together. If this were the case with the Sandworms of Dune it would solve two problems with their biology. First, the pressure of the atomic reaction within the worm would exert a force outward on its body. If the pressure of the worm’s mass pushing down on it was equal to the pressure of the reaction pushing out of it the worm could exist in an equilibrium. Our sun actually functions this way where the force of the fusion is balanced by the force of the sun’s gravity, thus the sun neither explodes nor collapses. Second, an atomic metabolism would introduce new elements into the environment as a byproduct. The worm’s lifecycle is a self contained ecosystem. All of the worm’s needs are met by the worms. An atomic metabolism would either break down larger elements or fuse smaller elements during its reaction. The worm would then release these byproduct elements back into the environment which could be used by other organisms in the worm’s lifecycle. Another chain in the self suffice lifecycle of the worms.
I absolutely adore the way the new movies explain how sandworms move through the sand why vibrating the sand so much that the sand acts as a liquid, making it seem like the worms are moving through water instead. Super cool and real science. Look it up, it’s really awesome!
Whats cool is that the irish lanquage doesnt have a word for snake as ireland has none and has never had any. So in irish myth its said that many rivers such as the shannon (being the longest one) being dug up by large worms the word being olliphéist meaning "great" " worm" but often in english translation theyll use the word serpeant or snake. So i always love the idea of giant worms it makes more sense to me as an irishman.
This was a fascinating and well executed essay, thank you for sharing! As a huge fan of "Dune" I found it fascinating the parallels you drew and here's a theory; what if Arrakis is Earth post-extinction event and over untold millions of years of evolution and adaptation, as well as vast environmental changes contributing to it, that the sandworms are what whales evolved into? It's an idea, don't you think?
An interesting idea; but it's pretty explicitly stated in the books that the worlds of the books are many thousands of light-years from Earth, and no one even remembers where Earth was, all knowledge of its location is lost. Later books also note that the sandworms are not native to Arrakis, but were transplanted there by early human colonists from a different world, also lost. It's also strongly implied, though never confirmed, that the sandworms may be the only truly alien life form in the Dune universe.
I would love to see 2 sandworms fight. Idk how or why but to imagine their colossal bodies hitting one another and loud roaring shaking the sand it crawls in, is epic.
I stumbled upon this video, got SO excited to dive into the channel and watch the rest of the content… and there is none Wow! what an incredible first video, please make more, I’ll watch you all the way to the top haha
The editing is really fantastic. Engaging and creative while not being distracting. I've watched your other two vidoes already and they were great, as well. I subscribed and am looking forward to seeing more!
I never watched or read Dune and I never really looked into this in any way shape or form and yet I sat through the entire 26 minutes without a problem. They just flew by. It's not easy to make a video that can capture you with a topic you previously didn't really have any interest in. Very well done, especially for a first video.
Im slightly surprised that this paradox didnt include one of the most fascinating comparison you could make about Dune's worms and real life whales While in Dune they dont extract the spice directly from the worms, and they have a much more antagonizing role, we have exploited whales in real life to get their oil, wich was a very important fuel and helped quick start the industrial revolution I think that strange similarity between these two gigants that completely dominate their respective oceans being exploited to get the substance neccesary to navigate would be included here Still, amazing video and I really enjoyed it! I have been a fan of Dune for a while and I wasnt expecting to learn so much about their Sandworms and their impact on modern culture
With worm/snake/dragon practically being interchangeable terms in most historic European cultures and Dunes Sandworms explicitely based on dragons, one could say the modern giant worm trope is a spinoff of the dragon myth. Anyway, awesome video, looking forward to what comes next. I had some criticisms while watching but you adressed them all before the end of the video.
Content from the video aside, your editing is beyond amazing. The first few seconds in got me hooked from it alone. The pacing, the transitions, and the graphics. I also am amazed by the style itself, with the filter along with the aspect ratios. The narration was nice and easy to listen to and understand. The music choice was also good. Going to browse your channel after this. All in all, keep doing your thing! EDIT: I forgot to mention the foley! The small sound effects chosen fit well with the style of this essay as well. As a new filmmaker, I'll be taking notes. You'll go a long way!
As an old time F. Herberts fan of the Dune universe I greatly appreciate this video. Truly masterpiece. You managed to gather all information about Shai Hulud in the most understandable way. Cheers!
The whole video is a yapfest with a surprisingly low amount of information for it's length. It's like 1 semi correct fact and a whole bunch of filler sentences before the next one.
