Quote Originally Posted by Mechalich View Post
One thing about Dune is that spice production must continue no matter what. The consequence of failing to produce spice is civilization wide collapse across the whole Imperium. The Fremen don't have the ability to produce spice on an industrial level sufficient to sustain civilization, something that everyone, including the Fremen themselves, knows. The film actually quite carefully recognizes this and has Stilgar quickly acquiescence to this reality by telling Leto 'you can mine your spice,' because the alternative is to bring the power of the whole Imperium against them.
The consequence of the end of spice production is the fall of the current power structure. The spice must flow because the guild and the great houses need it to retain their current power.

Quote Originally Posted by Fyraltari
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As for the spice production, while "the spice must flow" sounds very nice, God-Emperor tells us the production was completely halted for hundreds of years, up to possibly three millenia and the Imperium managed to carry on (albeit at greatly reduced speed) on reserves alone.
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And on this point, the fall of the current power structure was Leto's objective. He intentionally calcified the structure of the empire in order to create a great shattering upon his death, to fling humanity in uncountable directions so that no one person could ever see the future of all of it at once and end the tyranny of prescience (remembering that in Dune once the future is seen it is inevitable).