Stilgar (Dune Character)

About

Stilgar is a character in the Dune universe who's one of the leaders of the Fremon. In Dune: Part Two (Dune 2), which was released in early 2024, actor Javier Bardem portrayed Stilgar. Following the film's premiere, multiple memes were made about Stilgar, predominantly using a GIF and image of Stilgar staring, akin to scenes in which he had faith in Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) fulfilling the Lisan al Gaib prophecy. Memes that used his catchphrase "As it was written" surfaced en masse, humorously portraying him as amazed by simple feats.

Origin

Stilgar was introduced as a character in the original Dune novel by Frank Herber. In the original 1984 Dune film directed by David Lynch, actor Everett McGill portrayed Stilgar. In the 2021 Dune film, directed by Denis Villeneuve, actor Javier Bardem portrayed Stilgar. Bardem's role continued in the 2024 film Dune: Part Two in which he was a more prominent character.

In June 2023, a trailer was released online for Dune: Part Two.^[1] One of the stills in the trailer showed Javier Bardem as Stilgar staring past the camera (shown below).

Memes about Stilgar surfaced en masse after the February 2024 premiere of Dune: Part Two, centering on the idea of Stilgar having devoted faith in Paul Atreides being the Lisan al Gaib. The first-known viral post about Stilgar was a tweet shared by X^[2] user @zach_goins on February 25th, 2024. It captioned a video of an excited woman shouting, "Yeah!" with, "Stilgar watching Paul Muad’Dib Atreides do literally anything in Dune 2," gaining over 4,400 likes in one week (shown below).

Stilgar watching Paul Muad’Dib Atreides do literally anything in Dune 2
pic.twitter.com/jbwgF3M6oE

— Zach Goins (@zach_goins) February 26, 2024

Spread

Going into March 2024, creators began using the still of Stilgar staring as well as a GIF of Stilgar staring. For instance, on March 1st, 2024, X^[3] user @pugmane tweeted the GIF, joking about Atreides saying, "And is THIS your card Stilgar?" receiving over 8,800 likes in two days (shown below, left).

Later on March 1st, 2024, X^[4] user @SammyJReacts tweeted the same GIF, making a joke about Stilgar being amazed by resetting a WiFi router, gaining over 7,300 likes in two days (shown below, right).

Memes about Stilgar with similar premises surfaced elsewhere on social media, such as a post shared by Facebook^[5] user Stephen Cooke to the Dune Sietchposting Facebook group on March 3d, 2024, which showed Atreides revealing Stilgar's card in a card trick, gaining over 340 reactions in less than a day (shown below, left).

Similar posts and memes surfaced on Reddit, like a meme shared by Redditor^[6] erdal94 to /r/dunememes on March 2nd, 2024, gaining over 160 upvotes in a day (shown below, right).

Many memes that referenced Stilgar in Dune: Part Two used the slang terms Glazing and Dickriding. For instance, on March 3rd, 2024, X^[7] user @big_business_ tweeted the still of Stilgar, captioned, "Quite possibly the biggest glazer the game has ever seen," gaining over 2,600 likes in less than a day (shown below).

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References