I would say that the people making these complaints are themselves the ones with a white savior complex, and they need to stop trying to be the voice from the outer world. They need to read Dune and learn about the dangers of such a complex. Dune could actually instruct them quite a bit on the dangers of such reductive moralistic ideologies.

But they probably won’t bother doing that. They don’t want to really understand and learn from the story because it might not fit into their neat little narratives that give them critical moral power over others.

The truth is, you just can’t pay attention to what people who get notoriety from complaining and judging things say. It just feeds their desire for attention and moral superiority.

I would use the term “anachronistic” to describe their perspective, but that doesn’t even go far enough. As if this petty way of viewing things in this moment (which is arguably a very limited and silly ideological lens even for viewing current and recent history) has any relevance in a world set 20,000 years beyond ours, in a time where such limited racial narratives have virtually no meaning. Dune presents a far, far bigger universe of identity and meaning and struggle.

If you can’t enter into and appreciate the ideas of a culture, including the culture of Dune, you need a lesson in tolerance. Dune isn’t about this silly white savior dichotomy, it doesn’t have the same reductive ideology as these critics, who want to reduce all our stories to these simple oppositions and make everything about white vs brown. It actually lives in a larger world of ideas. The inherent dangers of strength, whether it’s the illusion of security we gain from technology or the wild power that develops within us in response to insecurity and deprivation. The danger of saviors and resentment narratives (the Fremen kill billions, after all) that impose a liberation ideology on the world.

Paul may be the hero, or he may be the villain. It’s not entirely clear even to him. The book explores the dangers of what we become when we fight for our own freedom and for vengeance, even when we do it for seemingly righteous causes.
And the books clearly side with and favor the Fremen, not the Landsraad; it is clearly a tale of nativist vengeance and ascention. And Paul gets absorbed into the Fremen and their mission; he pledges himself to them. And he in return knows what that gains him. It’s a negotiation. And he regrets the way in which his own legend begins twisting his relationships with the other Fremen. It’s very nuanced.

Dune goes so far beyond mere ideological cliches. That’s why it’s is so great. It teaches us the danger of our own ideologies and reductive assumptions. It shows us how dangerous they can be and how even our love of justice and love for the underdog and love for righteousness can be perverted and run out of control and destroy us and become corrupt. And that’s a way better story than a tired retread of white savior myths. We can leave that to the critics, who seem to be living it themselves.