Also, in the books (which I should admit I’ve not read), what exactly were the BG expecting would happen after creating their Quisatz Hadderach? I can’t conceive of how they would hope to retain control or, perhaps rather, how their usual manipulation strategies wouldn’t have blown up in their faces. Would the person they were looking for be so vulnerable in that way? Would they not still have the capacity to retaliate?
For a while, Paul was set on preventing the jihad; he could see enough of the future to know that it dominated many of his possible futures, but still had hope that he could navigate a path that avoided it.
Eventually, however, the cruelty of those in power - and apparently becoming a target of the Emperor himself - caused Paul to give up on that goal, and resign himself to his fate of being the rallying point of the jihad. Whether or not his foresight was dominated by the visions of the wars to come was because of this decision is an exercise for the reader. Probably, though; Paul failed to take into account how the future would shape his psyche. Originally he seemed to think that the jihad would happen against his will.
As for the BG, they expected the Kwisatz Haderach to be one of their own, raised by them and shaped to cement their power. Again, it was circumstance that turned Paul against them. Although he had been trained by Jessica, and tested by the Reverend Mother, he was only barely on the verge of being able to fulfill the criteria they needed. Their expected KH was supposed to happen later, in a more controlled environment. Instead, he came into his power unexpectedly on Arrakis, and he suffered so much due to the machinations of the great houses and, by extension, the BG themselves that there was no controlling him.
He is, and he knows it. Throughout the book he references a “terrible purpose” that has been thrust upon him, which is the slaughtering of trillions (and may also refer to the Golden Path, which is mentioned more in Children of Dune and later books).
The in-universe translation for Kwisatz Haderach is “Shortening of the Way.” The BG basically wanted a male Reverend Mother who could bridge the gap between the shared memories of the BG (the past), the present, and the future using the KH’s prescience. Paul wasn’t supposed to be the KH, nor was he supposed to be a male. Jessica was instructed by her BG teachers to produce a girl, but she fell in love with Duke Leto (she wasn’t supposed to), and gave him a boy (BG can control these things).
The theory is they were likely looking to control the universe with this One who could see everything with their prescience. Paul could, and carried out his great jihad to control the empire, but not for the BG. The BG also fucked themselves over by planting the prophecy amongst the Fremen thousands of years before the events of Dune, which heralded the arrival of Paul and his mother, which the Fremen believed and allowed Paul to rise to power.
The KH was always supposed to be male. He would have access to paternal memories the way that Reverend Mothers have access to maternal memories.
As an aside Hebert was operating under a theory in vogue in the 1960s that memory was coded in DNA. Women lack a Y chromosome so they had no access to male memories. The KH would have an X and a Y so he could see everything (ignore that Alia seems to have a copy of Baron Harkonnen, just a plot device that fucks everything up).
Jessica’s daughter was to be bred with Feyd Rautha to produce the KH. So he arrived a generation early, and outside of the careful education/indoctrination program they had planned.
Edited: all my KHs became KWs…because KW is a thing that deserves autocorrect?
Paul is responsible, this is his goal. He used the tools that the Bene Guesserit instiled into the culture to make him a savior and justified his revenge jihad.
The BG didn’t want this, IIRC, nobodies really know what the plan is when the Quizatz Hadderach will happen. Probably that he will become emperor and prepare everyone for a time of peace, however there’s, in the books, something lurking at the edge of the Galaxy. The BG know this and other factions too
I can’t conceive of how they would hope to retain control or, perhaps rather, how their usual manipulation strategies wouldn’t have blown up in their faces.
They thought their usual mechanisms of control will work, for he was biologically a male and they perfected their art of manipulating and pulling the right strings and offering incentives through their existence.
They thought to have the ideal template, someone that will cover what they can’t do but still be servant to the order, he would act as their agent on the highest order in the establishment. In this scenario he is of a sort an idolization and want of every noble house, provided his ascension is clean and legitimate.
By choosing to attack directly to revolt against something that started long time ago… he shatters their future, it feels less about bringing a future, as much as the denial of a specific one.
