> I also cannot help but see plot holes. For example, why does the emperor not take complete control of the spice production?
To expand on what the sibling poster said, the Emperor cannot take complete control of spice production - the Guild would never allow it. He has what he thinks is necessary and sufficient control. Remember that it was the Emperor who gave stewardship of the planet to the Atreides, in collaboration with his lackeys, the Harkonnens, and that the Emperor and his allies had amassed huge stockpiles of spice while planning to intentionally disrupt spice production and thereby make the Atreides unpopular.
He could not assume further control than he had for a variety of reasons. One reason is the ecology of Dune - remember that most of the Fremen were so adapted to the environment that neither the Harkonnens nor the Emperor apparently even realized most of them existed, because they considered huge swaths of the planet to be uninhabitable, and for good reason. Let alone the desert itself, remember the huge storms and the sandworms were pretty frequently destroying even massive industrial equipment and killing people daily. (The Fremen were also involved, but it seems that this was downplayed and often attributed to the environment.) The second reason is that the Guild has a very specific political agenda that principally involved their access to spice and keeping the extent of their dependency on it a secret.
The Guild was totally aware the power that someone who controlled the spice would have - that's why they went to great lengths to prevent anyone from gaining total control over spice production and export. As you see at the end of Dune, the Guild have a very limited political agenda, but in the end, they hold real power in the Dune universe. The Emperor and the Landsraad are helpless without the Guild, and the Guild knows it.
Additionally, remember that the Fremen were paying huge bribes to the Guild to keep certain secrets.
> The whole story is painted against a great backdrop of this struggle between the different houses, and the emperor.
The Landsraad is not exactly in conflict with the Emperor. The Landsraad is subordinate to the Emperor and part of his power structure in a way that say, the Guild or the Bene Gesserit are not. The Landsraad and the Emperor control CHOAM, the prime economic mover and shaker, together. What the Landsraad would fear, if it came to pass, is if the Emperor tried to consolidate his power by taking out the Houses one by one, which he does not try until Dune (in part because he fears the consolidation of the Landsraad power under the Atreides), and then only cautiously under the Harkonnen banner. The Landsraad are perfectly content to go along with the Emperor as long as they believe he's not going after them.
To expand on what the sibling poster said, the Emperor cannot take complete control of spice production - the Guild would never allow it. He has what he thinks is necessary and sufficient control. Remember that it was the Emperor who gave stewardship of the planet to the Atreides, in collaboration with his lackeys, the Harkonnens, and that the Emperor and his allies had amassed huge stockpiles of spice while planning to intentionally disrupt spice production and thereby make the Atreides unpopular.
He could not assume further control than he had for a variety of reasons. One reason is the ecology of Dune - remember that most of the Fremen were so adapted to the environment that neither the Harkonnens nor the Emperor apparently even realized most of them existed, because they considered huge swaths of the planet to be uninhabitable, and for good reason. Let alone the desert itself, remember the huge storms and the sandworms were pretty frequently destroying even massive industrial equipment and killing people daily. (The Fremen were also involved, but it seems that this was downplayed and often attributed to the environment.) The second reason is that the Guild has a very specific political agenda that principally involved their access to spice and keeping the extent of their dependency on it a secret.
The Guild was totally aware the power that someone who controlled the spice would have - that's why they went to great lengths to prevent anyone from gaining total control over spice production and export. As you see at the end of Dune, the Guild have a very limited political agenda, but in the end, they hold real power in the Dune universe. The Emperor and the Landsraad are helpless without the Guild, and the Guild knows it.
Additionally, remember that the Fremen were paying huge bribes to the Guild to keep certain secrets.
> The whole story is painted against a great backdrop of this struggle between the different houses, and the emperor.
The Landsraad is not exactly in conflict with the Emperor. The Landsraad is subordinate to the Emperor and part of his power structure in a way that say, the Guild or the Bene Gesserit are not. The Landsraad and the Emperor control CHOAM, the prime economic mover and shaker, together. What the Landsraad would fear, if it came to pass, is if the Emperor tried to consolidate his power by taking out the Houses one by one, which he does not try until Dune (in part because he fears the consolidation of the Landsraad power under the Atreides), and then only cautiously under the Harkonnen banner. The Landsraad are perfectly content to go along with the Emperor as long as they believe he's not going after them.