>>24389103
>he had to write Messiah to make Paul actually the bad guy who led the Fremen astray.

Book one: Dune
>And the race knew only one sure way for this—the ancient way, the tried and certain way that rolled over everything in its path: jihad. Surely, I cannot choose that way, he thought.

Book two: Muad'dib
>Paul, hearing these words, realized that he had plunged once more into the abyss... blind time. There was no past occupying the future in his mind... except... except... he could still sense the green and black Atreides banner waving... somewhere ahead... still see the jihad’s bloody swords and fanatic legions. It will not be, he told himself. I cannot let it be.
>And he knew what lay in that snare—the wild jihad, the religious war he felt he should avoid at any cost.
>It had been a strange day with these two standing guard over him because he asked it, keeping away the curious, allowing him the time to nurse his thoughts and prescient memories, to plan a way to prevent the jihad.

Book three: Prophet
>Terrible purpose remained. Race consciousness remained. And over all loomed the jihad, bloody and wild.
>Live or die, it is a legend. I must not die. Then it will be only legend and nothing to stop the jihad.
>I will not call him out if it can be helped, he thought. If there’s another way to prevent the jihad...
>>>>In that instant, Paul saw how Stilgar had been transformed from the Fremen naib to a creature of the Lisan al-Gaib, a receptacle for awe and obedience. It was a lessening of the man, and Paul felt the ghost-wind of the jihad in it.
Later...
>And Paul saw how futile were any efforts of his to change any smallest bit of this. He had thought to oppose the jihad within himself, but the jihad would be.
>A sense of failure pervaded him, and he saw through it that Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen had slipped out of the torn uniform, stripped down to a fighting girdle with a mail core.
>The old Truthsayer, the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, had her own view of the hidden meaning in Paul’s words now. She glimpsed the jihad and said: “You cannot loose these people upon the universe!”

He's perfectly aware all along that the Fremen are dancing to the tune of the Bene Gesserit's implanted prophecy, that's what makes the situation sinister to him, and this is THE core thread running through the entire novel, which he tried to make clear. But Frank's grudge against charismatic leaders led him to make ironic use of storytelling conventions and by all accounts place Paul under a heroic spotlight, where only a few in-universe are capable of seeing what's wrong, and that's why IRL people gobble down the bait and also believe him to be a hero even when he's deeply troubled by his actions. It's like in Prince of Nothing, where Bakker ironically makes his women into stereotypes and calls them whores a hundred times per book, and then he's surprised that people think he's sexist when in reality he's failing to set up a clear subversion.

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Did Frank Herbert misinterpret the character he wrote?