Possible Hole In Dune's Plot/World-building

[J-WO]

...and I'm happy to be corrected. The thought just popped in my head after I saw the new movie again the other day.

In the novel I recall the fremen are happy to sacrifice themselves as individuals if it'll wipe out a load of Harkonnen enemies. I also recall that lasers aren't used all that much in case a beam hits a shield, which sets off an atomic explosion.
The city of Arrakeen has a great big shield wall to protect it from worms and sandstorms and the like. So, when the Harkonnens were ruling Arrakis, why didn't the fremen get their hands on a laser and fire it at the shield wall, wiping themselves and also the centre of their enemy's operation out?

 

[farntfar]

Wasn't the shield wall a rock formation rather than a shield in the sense of a force field shield.

That was why Paul had to use the family atomics to breach it when they attacked the city. (Technically against the inter-house agreement not to use atomics but acceptable because it destroyed the rock wall without killing anyone)

Whether they all then charged in through a highly radioactive hole in the wall was never discussed.

 

[J-WO]

Wasn't the shield wall a rock formation rather than a shield in the sense of a force field shield.

That was why Paul had to use the family atomics to breach it when they attacked the city. (Technically against the inter-house agreement not to use atomics but acceptable because it destroyed the rock wall without killing anyone)

Ah yeah, I remember that. But isn't there also a shield generator and that's what Dr Yueh helps take down in order to let the H get through? Or am I badly misremembering?

 

[farntfar]

Hmm. I think you're right, but maybe only a very localised shield, around their sleeping quarters. So not totally effective, and you'd have to fire the laser from inside the house/palace/whatever.

 

[Elckerlyc]

And besides, the bigger the shield, the bigger the explosion.
I would imagine that blowing up the shield of the 'Palace' could potentially erase everything in the basin, everything within the shield wall. And from outside the shield wall it was not possible to reach that target.

 

[Foxbat]

Remember the Fremen were essentially in thrall to the Spacing Guild in order to hide their long term objectives. That’s the reason there were no satellites in orbit around Dune. The Spacing Guild would perhaps threaten to withdraw their support if the Fremen went too far.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Wasn't the shield wall a rock formation rather than a shield in the sense of a force field shield.

That was why Paul had to use the family atomics to breach it when they attacked the city. (Technically against the inter-house agreement not to use atomics but acceptable because it destroyed the rock wall without killing anyone)

Whether they all then charged in through a highly radioactive hole in the wall was never discussed.

As @farntfar says!

Shield Wall

The Shield Wall was a mountainous, rocky geographic feature in the northern reaches of Arrakis. It protected a small area from the full force of the planet's coriolis storms. Its height was said to be great, reaching up to 4500 meters in certain places. Although the Shield Wall was not man-made...

dune.fandom.com

One assumed they did all ride in, on worms through the breech. But perhaps the riders were mostly protected from radioactivity by shields? At least perhaps nasty alpha and beta rays.

I remember reading that the reaction between lasgun and shield was random and could backfire on the lasgun operators alone, so not making it a reliable tactic.

And If they had continually lased Harkonnen shields to jerry rig loads of nuclear explosions, firstly this seems awfully like a 'use of atomics', hence would likely see the entire rest of humanity against them - not to mention the total shut down of spice that would entail - hence then the systematic destruction of all of them from orbit? And secondly their homeworld would be a mess of radioactive sites.