VP of Technology at @theblaze | AI Filmmaker | Ex-Disney
Georgia
Joined January 2008
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Episode 4: Mary Sue Thinks the Villain Is Misunderstood
Produced by @capcutapp using Seedance 2.5
Yes. I see what my friends who are able to sketch references are able to do with AI and I’m jealous. Your skills are still incredibly valuable.
This is correct.
I'm starting to sense a divide in the tech industry:
- People thriving on autonomy who are reinventing how they work and what tools they use with AI: LOTS of work, but they're enjoying it and getting very efficient
- People used to being mentored / trained / or simply told what to do and how. Frustrated with the lack of guidance from management on what to do with AI; also frustrated by seeing some of their peers thriving; increasingly bitter about AI and the state of the industry, as a whole
Neither group seems to be aware that there's another group, or have empathy for the other group
Reid has been spitting fire lately. Give him a follow.
Josh Daws retweeted
If you use AI to make an image, you aren’t a painter, but you can still be an artist.
A film director doesn’t build the sets or hold the camera and nobody questions whether they’re an artist.
We need to separate the craft from the art.
Josh Daws retweeted
"Slop" is work that is low effort and low intent. I'm pro-AI, and anti-slop.
By low intent I mean the ratio of creative decisions being made by you vs by the AI. If the scale tips too far towards the AI, it's not your vision anymore.
But there is so much nuance to using these tools in 2026. You can get very involved, give detailed notes and feedback, make minor changes, and iterate just like you would giving feedback to a human collaborator.
This makes you a director, and an artist.
Josh Daws retweeted
That's funny. I thought the villain of Dune was the family of murderous, incestuous, rapist, pedophiles and that Paul's actions were the only way to keep one of them from being crowned Padishah Emperor, which would have lead to the extinction of humanty.
But hey! What do I know? 🤷♂️
Paul Atreides might be the real villain of Dune, and people aren’t ready for that conversation.
Dune 1 & 2 have you rooting for him, only for you to realise he’s becoming the very thing he claims to be fighting.
The Fremen see a messiah. Paul sees an opportunity.
He didn’t just fulfil the prophecy. He used it to take control.
So be honest: was Paul ever the hero, or were we just manipulated into rooting for a villain? 👀
This looks great but I suspect it’s going to kill Paul in some emasculating way because Hollywood hates strong male authority figures.
It's been a while since I read the book so I revisited the story to refresh my memory, and I think the whole “Paul Atreides is Space Hitler” interpretation really misses the tragedy of his character.
Paul is a fundamentally good man placed in an almost impossible situation. He can see possible futures, but that doesn't mean he has complete knowledge of them or the power to prevent them. He sees the terrible consequences of the jihad, tries to avoid them, and ultimately finds himself caught in events that have taken on a life of their own.
People love to point out that Paul compares himself to Hitler in Dune Messiah, but the context matters enormously. He's not boasting about his body count. He's horrified by it. He's surrounded by religious fanatics who celebrate his conquests, while he recognizes the unimaginable human cost.
That's not the characterization of a bloodthirsty tyrant. It's a tragic leader wrestling with the consequences of decisions no ordinary human could comprehend.
And there's an important distinction between Paul and Leto II. Leto sees the Golden Path and deliberately accepts becoming a monster to ensure humanity's survival. Paul never embraces that path. He recoils from it.
I think Herbert's warning about charismatic leaders is much more interesting than simply saying that the hero was actually the villain all along. What happens when a genuinely good man, with genuine virtues and good intentions, acquires almost godlike knowledge but remains fundamentally human?
Paul isn't beyond criticism. He bears responsibility for the horrors committed in his name. But reducing him to “Space Hitler” flattens one of the great tragic characters in science fiction into a caricature.
There's a difference between a man who commits atrocities because he loves power and a man who is horrified by the consequences of choices he believed might avert something worse. That doesn't automatically justify those choices, but it absolutely matters when judging the man.
That's what I hope Villeneuve doesn't lose in the third movie.
It's been a while since I read the book so I revisited the story to refresh my memory, and I think the whole “Paul Atreides is Space Hitler” interpretation really misses the tragedy of his character.
Paul is a fundamentally good man placed in an almost impossible situation. He can see possible futures, but that doesn't mean he has complete knowledge of them or the power to prevent them. He sees the terrible consequences of the jihad, tries to avoid them, and ultimately finds himself caught in events that have taken on a life of their own.
People love to point out that Paul compares himself to Hitler in Dune Messiah, but the context matters enormously. He's not boasting about his body count. He's horrified by it. He's surrounded by religious fanatics who celebrate his conquests, while he recognizes the unimaginable human cost.
That's not the characterization of a bloodthirsty tyrant. It's a tragic leader wrestling with the consequences of decisions no ordinary human could comprehend.
And there's an important distinction between Paul and Leto II. Leto sees the Golden Path and deliberately accepts becoming a monster to ensure humanity's survival. Paul never embraces that path. He recoils from it.
I think Herbert's warning about charismatic leaders is much more interesting than simply saying that the hero was actually the villain all along. What happens when a genuinely good man, with genuine virtues and good intentions, acquires almost godlike knowledge but remains fundamentally human?
Paul isn't beyond criticism. He bears responsibility for the horrors committed in his name. But reducing him to “Space Hitler” flattens one of the great tragic characters in science fiction into a caricature.
There's a difference between a man who commits atrocities because he loves power and a man who is horrified by the consequences of choices he believed might avert something worse. That doesn't automatically justify those choices, but it absolutely matters when judging the man.
That's what I hope Villeneuve doesn't lose in the third movie.
Nice job! I love the style.
This is a short film I created solo from script and concept through editing and post production in about 3 weeks, made possible using Genspark's new Media Studio and its agentic workflows and skills. Check out the new Genspark Media Studio here: mainfuncpteltd.sjv.io/DWgvXj
I was granted an advanced preview of Genspark's new suite of film and video production tools. Genspark Media "Studio" is aptly named, because it functioned as an extension of my studio pipeline, substantially streamlining it. I was able to increase my production speed by around 54%.
Media Studio’s agentic workflows and skill templates helped me research and brainstorm the script and then do a complete script breakdown into the visual elements, characters, and props I needed for every scene. Each of those elements are then approvable by the studio head/coordinator (me).
Throughout the production process, Media Studio was also able to continually refer back to story and character bibles it previously built, which further ensured consistency across scenes and shots.
As many filmmakers using AI tools have experienced, location consistency is incredibly hard. But Genspark Media Studio had a solution for that with a game-changing tool called “Director View.” Genspark Director View, within Media Studio, can build a stand-in 3D environment from a single concept art image of a location, allowing you to reposition objects and re-frame the camera into the kind of shot you want. Then, export the frame into a Media Studio canvas and use it as a reference to generate a new camera angle in your set style. This enabled me to build consistent environments and new angles for background plates—all while maintaining the same style!
In addition to media production, Genspark has nearly everything I need to effectively run a professional animation studio from AI assisted email to AI generated pitch decks to agentic studio management and production workflows.
I’m so excited that this powerful tool is now released for everyone to use! Check it out here: mainfuncpteltd.sjv.io/DWgvXj
I’m so glad people are finally discovering this gem. It’s magical.
It is the best modern fairy tale, perhaps the only modern fairy tale. Intoxicating. I got to work for McHale on the pre-season of Adventure Time. That was after I lectured his class at Cal Arts with Pen Ward and Rebecca Sugar, who are all profound talents.
Patrick gave me notes and I couldn't believe he let me get away with writing the most insane stuff in my professional animation career. Of course it wasn't going to be approved by the network. I got whacked but a little big of my work made it into season 4 of Adventure Time in the Sons of Mars episode.
I still wish more of my work made it, but it really was insane. McHale was just boiling with talent ready to explode when they finally gave him his shot with Over the Garden Wall. I'd never seen anything like it. It's magic.
Love it. Chivalry is not dead.
The great thing about this new technology is that these stories don’t have to go through endless rounds of studio notes that suck the life out of it. “Does she really need a man to hold an umbrella for her?” “I feel like this might be perpetuating toxic masculinity.”
Josh Daws retweeted
There are 12 basic principles of animation articulated by the 9 old men at Disney. Like design principles, they are true and they are in the best of all art forms.
My beef with much animation is that they ditched the principles and broke "The Illusion of Life" with bad animation like The Simpsons, Anime and some computer animation.
The animation principles on Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve…
When I look at this short by HaHaa, the principles are there in a way that it is often not in a lot of animation today. When we judge art, we're supposed to rely on principle, not just personal preference or fashion. This animation exhibits all 12 animation principles.
It is a logical genetic fallacy to exclude its exhibited principles based on the source. Squash and stretch is squash and stretch no matter who or what does it. What's important is that the principles are used. Ai will bring back many old things that were true but forgotten.
