#paulirulan

[flomotheeisms]

Making a list of all my favorite paulirulan fics bc I’m unemployed and I can’t write them so wooo here we go!

In no particular order (seriously it’s all over the place, but top two are obviously top two for a reason):

1. Fleshed in the wife: she’s number one on the pyramid for a reason, timeless classic we will be teaching this literature in schools. The dynamic is absolutely delicious in this one. Both Paul and Irulan feel so ridiculously in character. it’s truly like ms. Fudge took the weird world Dune and played into those fucked relationships the way they’re supposed to be played into given the extreme circumstances. There are so many sonnets in this one. I will never stop thinking about it. THE PROSE….you guys the way this is written. Someone get me a goddamn cigarette.

I just love how complex, chemistry riddled, and fluid the relationship dynamic is in the story. I love the stories where they challenge each other, and stories that lean into the power dynamics, and don’t shy away from it. This is #thee paulirulan fic, she is #her.

2. The Snake in the sand: another timeless classic that should be on bookshelves and will also be taught in schools everywhere. The plot is perfect. Paul and Irulan are truly there in canon pre-arrakis imperial selves and it’s so fun to read. There really is not enough fics of them before the events of dune, leaning into their imperial background. The story does it so beautifully. I love how we also explore caladan through irulans character in this. Her character arc is so great because she truly evolves not only because of her relationship with Paul, but through her circumstances. It’s the perfect story. I love the way it’s written. It’s poignant, it’s engaging. I love everything about the story and I’m so glad it’s coming back next year. defining power is also such a great companion piece to this (fingers crossed it comes back as well).

3. In this place of wrath and tears: let me just say this, everything written by aprilfeldspar, is platinum:gold certified Pulitzer Prize winning real literature that feeds families and sustains economies. I particularly love this fact because we truly go on a journey with Paul and Irulan as a couple untouched by the typical barriers that we normally see them have other stories. Don’t get me wrong I love a good love triangle, stories with Chani (even while not engaging with her character well enough for me in some stories) as a love interest really do interest me when written well, but it’s a difficult task. I love this fic because her presence haunts the narrative in a way where paulirulans relationship can still clearly progress because irulan it’s so clearly his destiny/future. One that Paul internally is fighting himself to not desire, even though he does. To make matters even more complicated she is the daughter of his enemy who he swore revenge upon, it colors their dynamic in such a way in this story, particularly. This fact also gives irulans character reservations, and I love how it’s handled. I can go on for ages about this fic.

Seriously, read everything by aprilfeldspar, you have to. The fault in ourselves has got to be another all-time favorite.

4. In name only: This was really ahead of its time. The only fic to the tags name at some point tbh. It threw the first brick, if you will. The fic is a bit excruciating in the best way because it’s so much of irulan yearning and Paul slowly catching up to his feelings. I love a physical fast burn with emotional slow burn, it’ll eat every time. I really like that they get to that place in their relationship because they consummated their marriage. I love the way that scene was written, because I think it was important that he was holding back from her and finally let go (even if only briefly). I like the way we kind of learn about where they are in their relationship through their intimate scenes. I’m also a sucker for happy ending, so I’m always happy to read this one. 

5. Empress of dune: so perfect. Legitimately no notes I’m serious. I need it to come back so bad. It’s the kind of fic I’ve always wanted for them bc it’s the best what if. It’s paulirulan with a past and it works beautifully, the angst just doesn’t quit and the yearning from both characters…GET ME A GODDAMN CIGARETTE.

6. Upper hand: I love an original premise. I particularly love when they are AU’s. I feel like this pairing in particular does not have many stories that are outside of canon. Which is kind of unfortunate because I feel like this dynamic can be played with in so many fun creative ways. Which is why I really like the story. I love the way their characters rich backgrounds parallels their imperial character backgrounds. this story also feels in character particularly with how I imagine Paul and Irulan as characters pre- dune events. I love the way this is written, very clear and engaging. I also love the different parental dynamics. Paul and Alia having different moms is cool and I can’t wait to see how that place out in the story. Paul being an outcast and on the outskirts of the rich crowd, pushing Irulan away in the process was delicious backstory. The history between them is so interesting in this one, it’s so palpable and it really feeds into their chemistry. I love me some angst, so I can’t wait till we get there. I can’t wait to read more.

7. Princess of my dreams: LOVE LOVE LOVE this one! It’s really hit after hit, sonnet after sonnet with this story. This was one of those fics that had me kicking my feet and giggling to myself. It’s kind of rare to get fics where Paul and Irulan are actually in a relationship and it feels like with this one we had to see it naturally come about and Paul make that choice to be with her. The love triangle actually plays out in a way that I really like because it doesn’t feel like it just casts Chani aside, we actually engaged with her character. I love seeing the love blossom between paulirulan here, it felt very natural and pure in a way that many of the stories on the tag don’t feel like but still inc character; so honestly, it’s pretty impressive.

8. Silent bonds: #realliterature. I was truly pacing around my room with this one. There is a scene here specifically where Paul is mid-vision/hallucination and Irulan brings him back…it’s so damn good. Like this food so fucking good. I really will think about that scene more than I should. I go back to read it just to feel something. Love the writing! I need more soon!

9. Fractured symmetry: LOVE THE PROSE. The relationship between paulirulan feels so organic in this one. Again I love how we engage with the tension here, this fic feels closest to canon while engaging with paulirulans dynamic thoughtfully. There are certain sentences in this one that just gag me. I really do think about this one a lot.

10. abiding the will of the universe: it really is about the yearning! I truly love fics that take place in alternate universes. This one is so great. Paulirulan just fit perfectly into this premise. I’m a fan of Mr. And Mrs.smith so when I saw that there was a paulirulan fic for it, you know I was there. I love their relationship in this one. It’s super layered. I love the way the author plays the setting and time. I love their failmarriage and that you can physically feel how much they want each other more and more through each chapter the build up of yearning is kinda crazy. It gets more amped up towards the later chapters in the best way. I seriously can’t wait for the next update because the last chapter was so good. I really like the fights they have in this one, it’s also revealing of their desires and well written complex dynamic.

11. Take the bull by its horns: this one’s pretty new to the tag, but I feel like it has such a promising start. For the multi shippers out there, I think it’s gonna have more of a heavy IrulanChani vibe, which I’m down with, but the bits of paulirulan in getting here are delicious. I love seeing the love triangle play out here, I’m an enthusiast of all points of the triangle touching. It really drives a compelling story to me when I can truly see it from all sides. What I’m really locked into here in terms of paulrulan in this story is Paul’s restraint, in most of the stories in the tag we sort of see him battling with his desires for her. Here in the story it feels more cut and dry, but in a way that’s revealing through his actions not necessarily what he says to her. I’m excited to see where the story goes.

12. secret cage: the same author also wrote a broken voice, which is perfection. I love how long each chapter is.

13. And so a touch that was my brithright became foreign

14. Which cannot be negotiated/human arguments

15. Opt: its first person perspective and usually it’s unforgivable for me but the premise is interesting and I like reading it. They also don’t feel super out of character in this one. I like the universe paulirulan are in for this one.

16. Chess: man was that first chapter something serious. Everyone remembers, everyone was there.

17. “There is no death for us”: I LOVE A GOTHIC VIBEEEE, I love it; I live for it. I want more paulirulan stories that play into that vibe it’s perfect for them. I need it.

18. Disturb the universe: this one is for the multi shipper truthers! If you don’t mind some focus on other ships as well as paulirulan this is a good story for you. I love the way paulirulans dynamic is fleshed out in the later chapters, irulan is so central and important to the story and to Paul in a way that’s so beautiful to read.

19. Wearied sins of flesh

20. So let me go towards the morning star, with hope it won’t disappear

21. Heavy is the imperial crown

Shout out to some of the fics in other languages, you hit that translate button honey, and everything changes, okay? This is real literature. I love these fics: the devil doesn’t bargain right? , sacrilegos de eden

Most of the ones I’ve listed are incomplete multi chapters but if you want some one-shots there are some in the tag that I like. Some one shots or stories that have got an interesting start and are pretty good on their own: waiting for summer rain, a great one shot - and he is kind, too, brighter diamond in the shadows, the archivists lens, the unyielding silence of stars, Alternates (corriedes one shots)

[katsvbae]

I desire violently — and i wait.

– Anaïs Nin, from The Voice.

[zeherili-ankhein]

I'm very ill I like REALLY NEED to inhale a bunch of PaulxIrulan historical fantasy au to feel better

[crunchyaps]

irulan,,,who’s jealous of Chani,,, not because of the affection Paul has for her but because of the affection she has for him,,,,

how do i explain this hmmmm okay. So Chani (movie! specifically) doesn’t love him the way so many others do. She doesn’t love him as her savior, as the messiah, as a prophet. Chani loves Paul for who he really is, underneath all of that. That sweet lost boy from caladan who’s a little awkward and curious and is afraid of being worshipped. That’s her Paul!!! That’s who she fell in love with!!

so irulan. Irulan who above all just wants to *know* him. Irulan who so desperately wants to chip away those layers of cold indifferent Emperor and understand who he was. Irulan who wants so badly to hate him but she just can’t bring herself to when she’s gotten this glimpse of who he used to be!! Because unfortunately for her that side of him is quite loveable!!

But Paul doesn’t want to give her that!! Paul who has only ever let himself be vulnerable with Chani!!!! Paul who has to stay guarded and detached All The Time because god forbid someone realize he’s still that scared little kid!!

So irulan is Aware of all this and she’s like. She doesn’t care about physical affection or paul’s complete devotion or whatever. That will always belong to Chani but that’s not the point!! She’s jealous because Chani got to see and know the part of him that he won’t let her see!!! The one thing she wants from him!! She wants to know him the way Chani knew him but he!!! Won’t!! Let!!! Her!!!

@demon-of-the-ancient-world tosses this at you.

[mjsparkour]

Secret third thing tension

Okay, welcome to my third installment of things having a hyper fixation off in my head so it has created word vomit so precise and brain rotted that it could threaten to create a black hole in the space time continuum. Today’s hot pot (crackpot) of words you’ll read is the tether I’ve connected between paulirulan (Dune, the Denis Villanueve movie version) and sydcarmy (The bear), which is secret third thing tension.

This begs the question what do we mean by secret thing tension? The answer lies in how elusive it actually is. I can only really compare it to its cousin, the trope that almost always has some sort of secret thing thing type of tension: the fail marriage. I’ve talked about fail marriages enough, y’all kind of know what it is at this point. Secret third thing tension is always at the scene of the crime for fail marriages because those relationships are incredibly dynamic and hard to define. The common characteristic among all secret third thing ships. The key of the dynamic is that it’s not 100% romantic, but it is certainly not platonic either. It’s that secret third thing.

These two dynamics are not just ships; they’re experiences—electric, restrained, and teetering on the edge of something that feels too big to name. It’s a slow-burn tension so potent it’s practically its own genre.

Okay time to get into it. I will get as unhinged as I want idc.

Let’s start with the core of why both sydcarmy and paulirulan have camped out in my mind rent free and are having a hyper fixation off. Both pairs are trapped in dynamics shaped by external forces that make any kind of release romantic, emotional, or otherwise—feel forbidden. For Syd and Carmy, it’s the high-stakes pressure cooker of running The Bear, a restaurant that’s less a business and more a shared fever dream. Their partnership is built on mutual respect, shared ambition, and a bone-deep understanding of each other’s creative chaos. But the restaurant, their trauma, and carmy’s emotional constipation (I will drag his ass to therapy myself idgaf) keep them locked in a professional purgatory. They can’t cross that line, not because they don’t want to, but because the stakes (their dream, their livelihood, their fragile trust) are too high. It’s almost as if they can’t see anything else; so when all they can see is each other naturally, they clash, because with time to take in their dynamic for what it actually is —or could be, there is confusion.

Now, with paulirulan, upcoming fail marriage of the century in Dune messiah (if Denis does my shit right) — Paul, the messianic Muad’Dib, is bound to Irulan through a political marriage that’s more strategy than affection. Their dynamic is defined by duty, power plays, and the weight of an empire. Irulan, poised and calculating, is no mere trophy wife; she’s a player in her own right, navigating the same cosmic chessboard as Paul. The movie does its due diligence in crafting her as something of an intellectual/imperial equal to Paul in a way that is not done in the books. In Dune part two she is propped as a competent bene gesserit and even her father tells her “she will be formidable empress”. Yet, their connection, especially as Villeneuve seems to be setting up for messiah, feels charged with something unspoken. It’s not love, not yet (and maybe never), but it’s not nothing either. The tension comes from what can’t be said or done, because the galaxy is watching, and Chani’s shadow looms large.

In both cases, the forbidden nature of their bond isn’t just about external obstacles (a restaurant, an empire). It’s the internal restraint, the way they hold themselves back that makes it hot and crazy as fuck. The invisible barriers between the characters are prominent and that enables the unspoken which becomes the loudest thing in the room.

Neither of these dynamics fit neatly into boxes labeled “friends” or “lovers.” They’re something else, a liminal space where every glance, every shared silence, feels like it could ignite something catastrophic. For Syd and Carmy, it’s the way they orbit each other in the kitchen, finishing each other’s sentences, reading each other’s minds, eye fucking. Ie: that fucking table scene where they are legit inches apart, fixing the chaos of the restaurant together? That’s not platonic. That’s not romantic. That’s intimate in a way that defies categorization.

Paul and Irulan, meanwhile, are playing 4D chess with their dynamic. In Dune: Part Two their interactions are sparse but loaded. Irulan’s watching Paul, analyzing him, maybe even admiring him, while Paul is too consumed by his own destiny to fully engage. Yet, the framing in Dune: part two in that last shot (those lingering ones, the way Irulan’s poised exterior cracks just slightly HELLOOO) it just screams that something is simmering. That final shot with Chani, Paul and Irulan being the only one standing, it’s foreshadowing DOWNNN. I need a proper love triangle, I need a double hit of fail marriages. I’m an opportunist. I’m greedy and I want the two for one special. I think this could be a really well done and actually compelling love triangle if given the chance because by the end of the movie, I think you really do question if the love even exist on both sides in said, love triangle. But I digress!

This “secret third thing” is what makes both dynamics so compelling. It’s not about whether they’ll kiss or confess (they might not but idgaf that’s not the point). It’s about the ache of what’s unsaid, the way their restraint feels like devotion. It’s the way Syd looks at Carmy when he’s spiraling. It’s the way Irulan might write about Paul in her histories, her words betraying a fascination she’d never admit aloud. It’s fucking insanity because it’s all undefined. Which makes it the perfect most reflective type of relationship dynamic to put on TV/films in the era of situationships. Secret thing thing is so relevant!

The thing about this type of dynamic is the fact that they are defined by tension that never resolves. That is what inherently makes it so akin to romance. It’s what throws off all of these signifiers to audiences and viewers that this is something that you want to pay attention to. In the bear, Sydcarmy have these moments of connection, where it feels like something could build and there’s ease, but they’re always interrupted. Sometimes it feels like we’re cats and they’re putting yo-yos in front of us and expecting us not to whack the fuck out of it, like no, you can’t have that! Stop being insane then! Whatever the point is every time they get close then the universe, someone, something pulls them apart. It’s hot.

Paulirulan are similarly doomed to this cycle of almosts. Their marriage (based on Messiah’s trajectory and the setup I don’t know nothing about what’s going on in that set unfortunately) is a union of necessity, not desire, but the undercurrent of what if is like stupidly palpable. Irulan’s ambition and Paul’s godlike burden mean they can never fully meet in the middle, yet their shared orbit—her as his chronicler, him as her subject—creates a dynamic that’s crazy electric with restraint. Anyone who eats period dramas up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner knows restraint is hot as fuck. Every interaction is coded with something. It’s a negotiation, a dance, a question left unanswered.

This lack of release is what makes both dynamics feel so romantic, even if they’re not explicitly so. The longing, the almost-touches, the weight of what’s at stake—it’s all part of a build up that makes it feels like love, even if it’s not labeled that way. It’s romance characterized by what is denied and that creates this forbidden love-esc energy to it that boggles the mind.

The “forbidden” vibe in both dynamics is what has really been doing me in. For sydcarmy, it’s the unspoken rule that they can’t cross the line from partners to something more—not when The Bear is their baby (that carmy babytrapped her with) and any mistake could tear everything down. This is something we know Sydney cannot accept this far in the game. Carmy is still trying to deal with his grief and seems to be in someways coming up for air. The fact of the matter is now the stakes are too high. They are too essential to each other. The restraint to teeter over from one line (platonic) to another (romantic) feels like too much. That’s why every time they eye fuck — and make us have to endure this madness, it feels like both a betrayal and a confession.

For Paul and Irulan, the forbidden aspect is even more explicit. Paul’s heart belongs to Chani (his true love), and Irulan’s role as his wife is a political formality. Yet, there’s a spark of something—like fascination or admiration (that is shrouded in resentment)—that makes their dynamic feel like a betrayal waiting to happen. Irulan’s loyalty to the Bene Gesserit, Paul’s to his Fremen roots, and the galaxy’s eyes on them both mean they can never act on whatever exactly it is. Herbert just wasn’t ready for that conversation idk. I hope Denis can turn the subtext into something that visual make it more explicit. The messiah team has to understand it’s about the vibes more than anything tangential. This is the point.

Secret third thing is not on par with shipper discourse. It’s not about who is endgame or isn’t, or the specifics surrounding the pairings circumstances, it’s about the complexities of the dynamic. They’re about the way two people can be so intertwined, so essential to each other, that the line between platonic and romantic blurs into irrelevance. It’s about the tension that builds when you can’t say what you feel, when every moment is a tightrope walk between duty and desire. Syd and Carmy creating a menu together is as intimate as Paul and Irulan negotiating the fate of an empire. It’s not about whether they’ll end up together; it’s about the fact that they could and the world (any and every other external internal factor) won’t let them.

If you made it this far, congratulations I will be talking about this trope until the wheels fall off.

[irualdesire]

The tragic side of Irual (Irulan/Paul) with book quotes 😿

[nitanael]

Princess Irulan Corrino was the eldest daughter of the 81st Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, and Anirul, a Bene Gesserit of Hidden Rank. She was also the wife, in title only, of Emperor Paul Atreides, and an important historian who chronicled the events of Paul's rise to the Imperial throne through a series of written books.

***

Paul Atreides, predominantly known as Muad'Dib, was the last Duke of the noble House Atreides. The only son of Duke Leto Atreides I and Lady Jessica Atreides, he rose to power among the Fremen on Arrakis […] he took on the role of the Fremen religious leader based on their prophecies of Lisan al-Gaib. Their victory in the Desert War eventually led Paul to overthrow the Emperor Shaddam IV and form the Atreides Empire […]

Walk Alone by PVRIS, Dune Wiki

[charmtion]

ALL THE ROTTED FRUIT // BY CHARMTION