The story of Frank Herbert's original Dune is ultra-dense. While it had a relatively simple coming-of-age and rise-to-power plot involving Paul Atreides becoming a leader and revolutionary, it's in the sociopolitical context of the massive world-building that surrounds that story that Dune's brilliance is found.

What makes the story and world of Dune special are the little details, like how the Emperor of the Known Universe has very little real power and is only in charge because of his almost invincible army (or how he's a simple ecologist who slowly introduced desert animals and greenery of Arakis became such a sacred figure that he facilitated Paul's rise as leader of the Fremen). All of this makes Dune a truly influential and beloved sci-fi classic.

This being said, there was no way an adaptation of the books could fully cover everything Herbert covered - except maybe the fairly faithful 2000 Dune TV mini-series. So when it came time for Denis Villeneuve to bring The Dune to life, he made some radical changes. Some of them were fantastic (like changing the scene by killing the baron), and the others were quite suspicious. For example, Villeneuve cut one of the books' most vital characters in Dune: Part II after barely getting him to do anything in Part One. Of course, I mean Tufir Hawat.

You remember Tufir, surely? Played by Stephen McKinley Henderson, Tufir Hawat is the boy with the scar on his lower lip, rolling eyes and completely white, and that cute parasol. In the first film, he seemed to be just another trusted advisor to Duke Leto Atreides and one of Paul's friends, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Except, that's only a small part of Tufir's role in the book "Dine". First of all, you should know that Tufir is a Mentat, an order that arose after Butler's jihad that destroyed all thinking machines. The Menta—like the Bene Gesserit—serve as assessors for the great houses, but instead of providing advice or performing sorcery, they serve as accountants, strategists, and essentially living computers.

Tufir Hawat is already respected as one of the best minds in the universe; he is a Mentat praised for his abilities as a counselor, warrior, and strategist. But his role in the Dinah story needs some context that is missing from the movies, and is still kind of unclear in the original book.

You see, in the Dune movies, it seems that the reason the Atreides are sent to Arrakis is because Emperor Shaddam Corino IV is afraid that Duke Leto Atreides will rival him politically. In truth, that's only part of it. Specifically, the Emperor fears that Leto's sheer charisma inspires such loyalty in his already highly skilled soldiers that he is the only person who can challenge his true source of power in the "Dune" universe: Sardaukar.

Tufir's real skill is that he is the only person who has discovered Sardaukar's secret. He determines that their superior fighting skills, which cause the Emperor to be feared throughout the universe, come from the extremely harsh conditions of the Imperial prison planet Salusa Secundus. Not only that, but Tufir also concluded that there was only one other world with even harsher conditions and therefore could have even more formidable warriors: Arakis.

Knowing full well that the Emperor who sent the Atreidi Clan to Arrakis was a trap meant to kill them all, Tufir's plan was to use Duke Leto's charisma to make the Fremen loyal to him as well as his armies. Unfortunately, they are too late, and before they can discover who the true leader of the Fremen is, Duke Leto is killed.

After the fall of House Atreidi, Tufir is captured by Harkonnen. Eager for revenge against the house that killed Leto, and knowing full well that the Emperor orchestrated all of this after seeing the Atreides as a threat to Sardaukar, Tufir moved to propose the same plot to Baron Harkonnen. He lured the Baron to focus on Arrakis and suggested that he form alliances with the Fremen in order to challenge the Sardaukar, selling it as the only way to protect the Harkonnens from an Atreides-like fate - but knowing full well that this would turn the Emperor against the Baron and his powers.

Along the way, he also secretly antagonizes the Baron and his nephew Fade-Rauta, feeding Fade-Rauta's ambitions and cruelty to undermine his uncle. Unfortunately, suggesting to Baron Harkonnen that they needed the Fremen, Tufir began working against the new Fremen leader, Muad'Dib. When he realized he was working against the son of his beloved Duke, Hawat killed himself with a poisoned needle meant for Paul.

According to Villeneuve, cutting Tufir from Dune: Part II was one of the most painful choices he had to makebut he decided to do it because of the specific image he had of "Dine". Villeneuve, you see, wanted to focus his adaptation on the Bene Gesserit, which meant (in his words) "that the Mentats aren't as present as they should be, but that's the nature of an adaptation."

By reducing Tufir, Villeneuve's Dune films effectively erase the Mentats from their understanding of Herbert's world. Dropping or changing certain characters is understandable, but to do away with the Mentats entirely in favor of a Bene Gesserit-centric story is to erase much of what makes the fall of House Atraides such a tragedy. Tufir's plan was going to work. Leto was already on his way to securing alliances with the Fremen and could challenge the Emperor. They could live, if only they had more time.

Not only that, but in erasing the Mentats, Villeneuve's Dune world is a little less alive and mystical. The Mentats aren't just a rival order to the Bene Gesserit, they're also part of the brilliance of Herbert's sci-fi universe—a world where "thinking machines" have been replaced by humans. Now, the Dune: Prophecy prequel series continues to ignore the existence of the Mentats as well, even in the background, which is a huge shame. However, with 10,000 years of history to cover, we can only hope that "Prophecy" will correct its mistake in the future.