Dune: Prophecy [ep.2] - a fundamental misunderstanding of this universe

Dune doesn't do supernatural, and here's why.

For a fictional world to be engaging and enjoyable, it must adhere to its internal logic. Whether it’s ancient magic or 24th century tech, all of your favorite stories are (at least in part) satisfying because they introduce a set of rules that the heroes will use in new and surprising ways to get out of trouble and defeat the big bad.

This is why it can feel annoying and disappointing when Star Wars decides to retcon a never before seen force power or when a Star Trek prequel adds a far superior technology, never to be seen again.

SPOILER WARNING
for both the Frank Herbert novels and the expanded universe

For Dune, there are plenty of explicit rules: the slow blade penetrates the shield, shields will drive sandworms into a rage, the sandworms can be ridden because their fleshy bits get exposed with maker hooks, etc.

But there are also rules that are more implicit and reveal themselves thematically.

Dune is an exploration of humanity and its progress – it addresses sociology, psychology, philosophy, religion, economics, political science and statecraft, art and all the other humanities. Sci-fi technology only comes in when its needed to drive one of the human(ity) centered storylines.

Of course, you’ll find individuals and factions that you’d describe as superhuman, but all of these “more than human” abilities are grounded in some kind of science - even if it’s the fictional kind. There are no spirits or actual gods.

With this in mind, I’d argue that there are already three topics where HBO’s series doesn’t know the difference between the supernatural and the superhuman and chooses the former over the latter. Number 2 is my personal pet peeve.

1. Prophecy

2. Ghosts and vengeful spirits

3. Worm powers

Prophecy

Because both the promotional materials and indeed the first few minutes of episode 1 reference Paul Atreides, it’s easy to connect this to his prophecy on Arrakis. As we all know, that one was planted by the Missionaria Protectiva. So for the longest time I’ve secretly hoped that somehow we’d get six episodes exploring the religion-seeding efforts and manipulations of the Sisterhood. It was a long shot, I know.

As of episode 2, we’ve established that the titular prophecy is actually the last words of Mother Superior Berto-Anirul - which the Sisterhood took as a piece of prescience instead of just random mumblings of an old and dying person.

can you take anything for that?

Don’t get me wrong: prescience is a big thing even in the original Dune books. Famously, Paul Muad’Dib’s ability to peer into the future enabled him to see even after going blind physically. He didn’t need eyes, because he knew from prescience what would be happening around him.

But this wasn’t magic. While his messianic prophecy might’ve been fabricated by the Bene Gesserit, he truly was the Kwisatz Haderach, an extraordinary product of millennia of genetic breeding.

His ability to see the future was grounded in (superhuman) biology, not mysticism.

In contrast, the TV show depicts prophetic dreams for Kasha and cryptic messages from Raquella. But the Bene Gesserit don’t dabble in mysticism - they’re the ones passing out the kool aid.

Which brings me to my second point.