Warning: This post contains spoilers for Episode 1 of Dune: Prophecy.
Set 10,000 years before the birth of Paul Atreides and his rise as the prophesied messiah known as Lisan-al-Gaib, HBO’s new Dune: Prophecy series chronicles the early evolution of the Bene Gesserit order from a fledgling school for gifted young women to the superpowered mystical sisterhood that’s pulling the strings of the imperial government at the start of Dune.
Dune: Prophecy is based on 2012’s Sisterhood of Dune, the first book in the Great Schools of Dune prequel trilogy written by Brian Herbert, the son of Dune author Frank Herbert, and Kevin J. Anderson following Frank’s death. Showrunner Alison Schapker’s series centers on Harkonnen sisters Valya and Tula (played as adults by Emily Watson and Olivia Williams and in flashbacks by Jessica Barden and Emma Canning). Born approximately 60 years after the end of the great machine wars known in the Dune universe as the Butlerian Jihad—a crusade by the last free humans in the universe that wiped out all machine-based technology—the sisters are distant ancestors of the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, his nephews, Feyd-Rautha and Beast Rabban, and, as was revealed in the Dune Part II movie, Paul’s mother Jessica and Paul himself.
As the Imperium’s history books tell it, House Atreides forerunner Vorian Atreides led the humans to victory over the machines during the final days of the wars while Valya and Tula’s great-grandfather, Abulard Harkonnen, deserted the fight and was branded a coward. This resulted in House Harkonnen being disgraced and exiled to the desolate planet of Lankiveil. However, Valya contends that the history the Atreides wrote was built on lies and resolves at a young age to upend the status quo by gaining power through the Bene Gesserit.
A rift within the sisterhood
When we’re introduced to Valya and Tula as young siblings in Prophecy‘s premiere, Valya is…
