Paul’s unexpected vulnerability causes Jessica to doubt all of her plans supporting him in his rise to power and revenge on the Padishah Emperor and Harkonnens. She gives up her long desire of his identity as the Kwisatz Haderach and begs him to change his course to find personal happiness. Her change of heart is also striking because she has previously strongly counseled Paul that he must undertake a political marriage rather than a love match. Jessica doesn’t realize that it is too late for her son to prevent his rise to Imperial power, pointing to the idea that people are ultimately powerless in the face of fate’s determinism.