Rabban Harkonnen

Rabban gave me some difficulty - he's not clearly described in the book and it's tempting to fall into some assumptions previous adaptations have made. Book Rabban is not clearly stated to be a tall or strong character (indeed, he is described as 'low built', which could suggest he is a rather short, toadlike character) and unlike his brother does not have any fight scenes; he is described by the Baron as a 'muscle-minded tank-brain', which is not, in fact, a physical appearance, but a comment about his personality. We also need to bear in mind that, although adaptations have made him into a glorified henchman, he is the ruler of Arrakis at the start of the novel and returned to power after the Harkonnen attack. While an incompetent ruler, this would seem to suggest some base level of capability not found in, say, the Lynch version, who I can't imagine in any kind of leadership role. He is certainly a brutal colonialist (counter-productively so - worth reflecting that none of the Dune saga happens if Rabban is restrained enough to avoid tanking spice production and the Emperor has no excuse to remove the fief from the Harkonnens), but 'incompetent due to excessive brutality' is not quite the same as 'incompetent and brutal'.

My take on Rabban is that he fancies himself a conquering warlord, and dresses himself in a (somewhat undersized and non-standard) Harkonnen military uniform paired with a traditional cloak used by Arakeen rulers and an ornate heavy executioner's sword. He's not a fighter, but all this pomp is in aid of making people think he's dangerous - feeding into our conception of the Harkonnen trait as fundamentally being about falseness and inauthenticity.

Some notes on adaptations:

The concept art from Jodorowsky's abortive Dune depicts Rabban as a comical figure in colourful robes, with what appears to be a nightcap with bells and the effeminate makeup of the other Harkonnens. He is described as "Dictator, idiot, criminal, hermaphrodite"; the last addition apparently being one of Jodorowsky's rather lurid obsessions, together with Duke Leto having been castrated in a bullfight.

Lynch's 1984 version presents Rabban as a chuckling, slimy henchman figure in the same blue-grey armour as Feyd. The designer appears to have understood the description 'gross of face and body' in the sense of 'ugly' rather than 'big'.

The Sci-Fi mini-series presents Rabban as a plausible enforcer for the Baron but depicts him as especially dim-witted.  He wears a rather strange 'barbarian' outfit with partial leather armour.

The most recent version puts Dave Bautista in the role and radically plays up his physical threat, making him the main immediate antagonist of the first film, with black power armour. While not a bad idea in a multi-film franchise where you have the room to expand on the character, I've already covered my feelings on the Harkonnen redesign, apparently inspired by the Killzone antagonists.

Description from the book:

"The man who stood outside the doorfield of the Baron's bedchamber was low built, gross of face and body, with the Harkonnen paternal line's narrow-set eyes and bulge of shoulders. There was yet some rigidity in his fat, but it was obvious to the eye that he'd come one day to the portable suspensors for carrying his excess weight."
"A muscle-minded tank-brain, the Baron thought."