‘Cowardly:’ Fans are ripping ‘Dune: Prophecy’ apart for refusing to use this one word
Which side of the debate are you on?
HBO’s Dune: Prophecy, the prequel series about the Bene Gesserit sisterhood of Frank Herbert’s Dune universe, is only two episodes down. But already, fans have a strong opinion over something it did, or rather didn’t do. And they’re using ‘the voice’ to call it out.
On X and Reddit, fans of Dune are calling out the series for dropping the name ‘Butlerian Jihad’ and instead, using ‘Machine Wars’ to describe the war against thinking machines that occurred thousands of years before the events of Dune.
On the Dune timeline, Dune: Prophecy is set 10,148 years before the birth of our Lisan al-gaib Paul Atreides, and 116 years after the Butlerian Jihad. It was a century-long war against thinking machines by humanity, which led to computers, AI, even mechanical toys becoming outlawed. Just like Paul Atreides, a woman, Serena Butler (hence the name), became the face of this violent political revolution. However, she died, became a martyr, and further propelled the war in her name.
If the name ‘Butlerian Jihad’ sounds uncomfortable, well, it should because author Frank Herbert intended it so. There’s of course, Herbert’s inclusion of Islamic influences and Arabic culture in several aspects of Dune. However, perhaps his bigger motivation was that he didn’t want the war to be perceived as merely good or bad, rather to show what happens when religion and the idea of a ‘messiah’ become intertwined with a violent revolt on such a cosmic scale, that its implications are like an apocalyptic inferno—one can never predict what direction or form they would take. In the books, Paul Atreides’ war is called a ‘jihad’ as well.
But did you notice that both Denis Villeneuve’s Dune films and now Dune: Prophecy avoided using the word ‘jihad’ when talking about the respective wars of their time? While at the end of Dune: Part Two, Jessica says, “The holy war begins,” and even the word ‘crusade’ is used, in Dune: Prophecy, the Butlerian Jihad is rebranded as ‘Machine Wars’ and depicted in the prologue as a fight between men and sentient machines, which is only the tip of the iceberg of what the Butlerian Jihad was all about.
Now Dune fans are debating whether this could’ve been done to avoid triggering sensibilities because of what the word means to people now, or if it is an erasure of the Muslim influences in Dune. Either way, they are not at all happy with it, because it dilutes the impact of Frank Herbert’s intention behind using the word ‘jihad’. While some called this move ‘cowardly’, others have said it’s turning them off the adaptation.
Another grouse that fans have with the show is how the series hasn’t just changed the name of the war, but also presents a rather superficial interpretation of the Butlerian Jihad as simply a war against thinking machines because they enslaved humanity. When, in fact, it is much more complex than that.
While the sentiment behind side-stepping the word in today’s age is understandable, the fans are not wrong in their criticism. Despite being written in 1965, Dune’s ecological critiques, geopolitics, and its exploration of the dangers of faith and the idea of political heroes or religious messiahs remains relevant even today. Then again, perhaps skipping the word ‘jihad’ seems like the franchise wants to focus on certain aspects while avoiding the baggage that comes with the word now, something that the book didn’t have when it was published.
Which side of this debate are you on?
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