Ghost Memory: Bene Gesserit acolytes receive the total line of their predecessors' memories when undergoing the Water of Life. Later books have Bene Gesserit placing their foreheads together to exchange genetic memory in times of extreme danger. It's stated that the limit of the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mothers was that their training to particularly feminine/maternal instincts meant that they couldn't access their male ancestry in their Other Memory. The Kwisatz Haderach was intended to overcome this weakness (as well as having other capabilities), which would require a male trained in Bene Gesserit ways. Note the fact that the Gesserit wanted to have a Kwisatz Haderach, but he ended up coming a generation too early for their plans — and then refusing to go along with them.

The Harkonnens (before Abulurd's exile to Lankiveil) also qualify as exceptions. Baron Vladimir Harkonnen's half-brother Abulurd II is also unusually docile for a Harkonnen. Subverted, however, when it turns out that using personal force shields on Arrakis attracts sandworms. One of the common Fremen weapons is the "maula pistol", essentially a spring-loaded slugthrower. And also when Baron Harkonnen uses old-fashioned artillery to trap the retreating Atreides soldiers in caves. Gender-Restricted Ability: Only women could be Bene Gesserit. They had a long standing breeding program to try and create a male Bene Gesserit. They succeeded. I have to commend Brian and Kevin though. Hunters exceeded my expectations. They said it themselves that they wish Frank could have been the one to conclude the series, and that all they could do was try their best based off of Frank’s notes. In an interview at the end of the audiobook they said Frank could say more with a sentence than most could with a chapter, and that really diffused some of my hesitations with the differences between writing styles.

Tabletop game adaptations:

Manchurian Agent: In the first book, the Baron breaks Dr. Yueh of his Suk conditioning, thus allowing him to act as a traitor against his royal charges. The later books elaborate on a barely mentioned act in the first book, where Bene Gesserit condition males through psychosexual techniques (a process called hypno-ligation) to act in a specified way on a given code word. In Heretics and Chapterhouse, the Tleilaxu are capable of delivering gholas custom-programmed to act out any desired behavior on the appropriate trigger. Later, when the ghola of Leto II went to commune with the sandworms that were in the hold of the ship, the ghola of Thufir Hawat went to guard him should the giant beasts turn on the young man. The worms reared up when Hawat entered the hold, and immediately killed Hawat, and showed him to be an Enhanced Face Dancer. This led to a ship wide search for other saboteurs that might be involved in subversion. To question everyone aboard at the same time, all of the inhabitants of the Ithaca were called to the main assembly hall.

Leto II actually becomes the God-Emperor of the Universe to continue a gigantic human breeding program personally. Gossip Evolution: At one point Paul is with a force of Fremen warriors which is ambushed by several Imperial Sardaukar, which the Fremen decimate. Paul somberly notes that as his reputation as the Fremen's holy savior grows, the stories will say that he singlehandedly killed scores of Sardaukar, even though he didn't even draw his knife. Bureaucratically Arranged Marriage: The Bene Gesserit arrange marriages for the members of their sisterhood. Supernatural Martial Arts: "The weirding way of fighting" (as the Fremen refer to it) is a Bene Gesserit martial art that allows its users to perform feats of superhuman strength and speed. Alia apparently rather enjoys this trope, as Jessica comments upon seeing her after nine years that "she hasn't aged a day," meaning that, despite being in her mid-twenties, Alia still looks like a fifteen-year-old.King Bob the Nth: It's the year 10,191 of the Galactic Empire, and the current monarch is Shaddam IV, 81st Padishah Emperor. It's never explained within the original novel who exactly the previous three Shaddams were. Character Tics: Hasimir Fenring and his wife annoyingly hum while they speak, read as "Uhhh-hmmmmmmmm" every time. It's actually their private code language, use to share information between themselves secretly while in front of other people. Human Resources: Fremen reclaim water from human waste through their stillsuits, and from the dead by draining them in "death stills". The Tleilaxu really top them, though, by using all their females as artificial wombs for their genetic products. The surest sign that an aristocracy exists is the discovery of barriers against change, curtains of iron or steel or stone or of any substance which excludes the new, the different. Child of Two Worlds: Jessica and her son Paul Atreides are both Harkonnens as well, since Jessica is really Baron Vladimir Harkonnen's daughter. Combining the Atreides and Harkonnen bloodlines is a necessary part of the Reverend Mothers' plan to sire the Kwisatz Haderach.