As the tyrannical leader of the Imperium, and the man who sacrificed his humanity to save humankind, Leto is simultaneously the novel’s antagonist and its protagonist. He is the son of Paul Atreides/Muad’Dib and the Fremen Chani Keynes. Like his father, Leto is a Kwisatz Haderach, meaning that he possesses both universal prescience and ancestral memories. To save humanity from extinction, he takes the form of a giant sandworm-man hybrid and rules as God Emperor for over 3,500 years. Leto embodies multiple archetypes, as he is variously the tyrant, the Creator, the forlorn lover, the martyr/savior, the monster, and the unreliable narrator. He represents corrupt leadership and the paradox that human suffering ensures human survival.

As a villain and a tyrant, Leto demonstrates how governments and religious institutions maintain their power by enforcing apathy. During his reign, he brings about the extinction of the giant sandworms, thus securing a monopoly over the production of spice—a substance necessary for space travel and thus the most valuable commodity in the universe. In his terraforming of the planet Arrakis, and in his breeding program, Leto arrogates to himself the powers of a god, and he capitalizes on his divine image by leading a religious cult that reveres his name and bloodline.