I count the 80s version as the real Dune ..
What I like the most about Dune 84 is its anachronistic ‘Prussia in space’ aesthetic, with its 19th century European imperial-style uniforms. It reminds me of the aesthetics of a lot of Japanese space and sci-fi anime, like
Gundam or
Legend of the Galactic Heroes or
Code Geass. Dune 21 had
a bit of that, with the uniforms of House Artreides (and the bag-pipes were a nice touch I thought), but otherwise its aesthetic was a bit too sterile and brutalist for me. It’s also why I could never get into Star Trek, everything is too sleek, to clean, too sterile imo; not just the aesthetics, but the politics too, which are just ‘liberalism in space’. Boring.
Anyway, I hope Dune part 2 introduces some imperial splendor with the introduction of Irulan and the emperor.