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nirikeehan · 4 years

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Power, Politics and Star Wars: Armitage Hux Edition

I read this article that tried to explain what Hux did in TROS and justify it and I was just not feeling it so I wrote a whole thing about it. So I thought, why not post it.

https://dorksideoftheforce.com/2019/12/22/star-wars-tros-general-hux/

I just wanna start by saying yes, I understand the logic of what happened in the film as explained by this article. I'm just here to challenge exactly what happened, why, and the article writer's attempts to justify it, because I don't find them to be an accurate summation of Hux's character.

"It’s not hard to miss that the way The Last Jedi framed his character was very different from what we saw in The Force Awakens. At first, it almost felt as though he was a completely different character, having gone from Nazi-like general to an officer everyone refused to take seriously."

Right, and I think it's worth trying to examine why that shift in portrayal happened – behind the scenes. The writing changed hands from TFA with Lawrence Kasdan & JJ Abrams to Rian Johnson. So, clearly Johnson decided to go in a different direction with Hux. But why? Was it a continuing ploy to "subvert expectations" like he did so much in TLJ? Hence, if Hux was big and scary in the first film (obvious Nazi parallels in imagery and speech, commits literal genocide while hordes of stormtroopers look on), he had to be... silly, ineffectual and easily mocked in the second? Why?

Maybe it fits into a larger theme with Rian Johnson's writing, like... it seems like authority figures can (and should, maybe?) not be taken seriously? Think of all the authority figures in the Last Jedi. With the notable exception of Leia (who has such an iconic history) and Holdo I guess (random insert without much substance in my opinion), every single character who is, could be or once was in a position of power is cut down to size in some way.

Luke Skywalker - crotchety old man.

Poe - too hotheaded, needs to learn his place.

Kylo - emo boy in a mask.

Hux - butt of yo mama jokes.

Snoke - literally cut in half.

While I like this technique in some ways (I think I'm in the minority as someone who actually liked Luke being a disillusioned asshole lol, I thought it made him more interesting; and pointing out the obvious that Kylo is a conflicted try hard made him way more human and relatable to me), doing it to this extent was excessive. Especially in a film series that is supposed to have clearly defined villains. While I like the murder of Snoke because it was unexpected and it let Kylo actually have some agency to try to take over the galaxy on his own, you can't do it with every villain, or the audience isn't going to think anything is at stake anymore. So it always played really weird to me that Hux was taken from General Genocide to the target of slapstick humor. Which brings me to the next point...

"Looking back, it’s possible to interpret this as the result of how other characters viewed and treated him from that point forward, rather than an actual drastic change to the way he was portrayed. It’s possible that after Starkiller Base, the masses lost great respect for him — on both sides. He is no longer a man to fear. He’s General Hugs. He doesn’t scare anyone."

I just don't see how this is possible, to be honest. Like yeah, Starkiller base was lost, but surely not before it destroyed the entire Hosnian system, which, from what I understand, contained the entire seat of New Republic government. So I assume that means the president, vice president, whoever else was in the executive branch, all of the Senate, etc etc. Like imagine some terrorist leader called down a laser from space and obliterated all of Washington, D.C. while the President and all staff were in the White House, Congress was in session and the Supreme Court was hearing cases. We'd be like, oh my god, everyone's gone, we have no federal government, what the fuck. Even if the American army managed to destroy the weapon that did it, there'd still be basically irreparable damage to the very structure of the government and its ability to function. (Sounds like the plot of a future Michael Bay movie, but I digress.)

The point is, whoever was responsible for the attack would probably still be pretty fearsome to the masses. And in Hux's case, considering his goal in TFA seems to be to usurp the New Republic and replace it with the First Order, at the end of the first film, he seems to be in a perfect position to do exactly that... which is why I was super confused as to why he spent TLJ chasing down like 30 rebels, who were already basically defeated?? Like, now would have been the time to take over! Don't just leave that power vacuum sitting there, buddy! Someone else is gonna fill it if you don't! (More proof I don't think Rian Johnson has cracked many history books, but the lack of coherent political framework is a major failing of the sequels in general, so it's not all entirely on his shoulders. He did seem like he was trying to engage with some of these ideas i.e. Canto Bight illustrating the evils of the military industrial complex, but they fell so flat because he just wasn't that informed about the socio-political commentary he was trying to make.)

"This is further evidenced by the way Kylo Ren treats him the moment he becomes Supreme Leader of the First Order. Kylo quite literally begins pushing him around, constantly putting him in his place, belittling him, and making him look incompetent and expendable."

LOL this is such a fundamental misinterpretation of Kylo and Hux's relationship at the end of TLJ. Kylo didn't start pushing Hux around because everyone had lost respect for his authority. Kylo starts pushing Hux around because Kylo killed Snoke and took the Supreme Leader role himself, giving himself a BIG promotion over Hux. He went from like, army commander to freaking king. He's on a power trip, trying to assert his authority not just over Hux, but literally everyone in the First Order. The dialogue (handily linked by the article above) between them after Snoke's death very clearly states this:

Hux: Who do you think you're talking to? You presume to command my army? Our Supreme Leader is dead! We have no ruler!

Kylo: *starts choking him* The Supreme Leader is dead.

Hux: *choking* Long live the Supreme Leader.

Kylo is subduing Hux by violence and coercion and filling the power vacuum himself (see, that's what happens to power vacuums, usually the most brutal asshole around arrives to fill it!). That's not something Hux brought upon himself in any way; it's something Kylo took by force. Hux isn't the only one following Kylo's orders by the Battle of Crait, the rest of the First Order army is also because they're all too terrified of Kylo to question him. Somehow making this only about Hux and Kylo as individuals is a really narrow-minded, boring interpretation of pretty much my favorite part of TLJ.

"And here lies the deep change within Hux that leads us into The Rise of Skywalker. General Hux knew he would never regain anyone’s respect. He knew that Kylo Ren would continue to publicly humiliate him. He knew his chances of ever being able to regain power in the traditional sense were lost."

I still don't see how this is possible, especially since as far as I know there's no supplementary canon material to back this idea up. The article writer is grasping at straws trying to make sense of TROS's nonsensical character choices for Hux. There's all sorts of ways Hux could still regain power. I don't even know what "in the traditional sense" means? Hoping for a promotion, maybe? Sure, he could suck up to Kylo and make himself invaluable to Kylo's continued status as Supreme Leader (this is the route I took in my fanfic, since it seemed pretty plausible; Hux is set up to be the brain to Kylo's brawn). He could have Kylo assassinated and take over himself. He could recruit a whole faction of people to mutiny against Kylo. He could even sell out Kylo to the Resistance, sure, which I guess is what he was doing in TROS, but all of that is still in service of regaining power for himself.

"Hux is so angry with Kylo Ren, and filled with so much rage toward all he is and all he stands for, that he decides it does not matter which side of the war wins as long as the Supreme Leader isn’t on the winning team."

Again, I don't think this has shown to be true at all before TROS. By all appearances, Hux's goal has always been obtaining power, and the supplementary canon with his backstory seems to support this. There's so much with his father being an old Imperial and Hux growing up with the old imperial ideology and the belief that returning to some semblance of the Empire would be the most ideal outcome of the First Order's war on the New Republic. And by this logic, shouldn't Hux be thrilled by the (totally outlandish) possibility that Emperor Palpatine himself would come back to rule? Imagine all the Nazi holdovers after World War II finding out Hitler had RISEN FROM THE DEAD. They'd probably be pretty excited, no?

But this is why reducing Hux's character to some petty asshole who has no personal values or larger ideology and just "wants to see Kylo Ren lose" is so dumb and boring to me. It means he literally no longer cares about his own personal ambitions or that of his larger ideological ones. Everything he worked for his whole life, countless hours of blood, sweat and tears, deciding to commit genocide of billions of innocent people to get the galaxy to fall in line with his vision........ amounts to literally nothing. As long as Kylo loses their little schoolyard tiff.��

Nah, I don't buy it.

But this just speaks to generally larger problems in the sequel trilogy with the writers not having a strong grasp on the mechanisms of political power in the universe they're working with. In the films, who's fighting who and why has always been painfully vague and often confusing (why wasn't the Resistance just the New Republic army in TFA? etc), but while at least Rian Johnson used TLJ to try to engage with some of these questions of politics and power – albeit at times with cringeworthy naïveté – TROS abandons it completely. It never once clarifies who's actually in charge here. Ostensibly it should be Kylo since he’s still got the title “Supreme Leader” in the opening scrawl, but he's running around chasing zombie Palpy! And the First Order is still very obviously still just a military operation focusing on the Resistance, so are all of the galaxy's sectors just... self-governing right now? If so, why?

TROS's complete abandonment of the notion that anyone in this universe could even want power was completely baffling to me. It's always about power. The original trilogy was about power. Even the prequels were about power (to a micromanage-y, super boring degree. Embargoes! Trade disputes! Senate meetings with votes of no confidence!) To bring Palpatine back from the dead to make him some weirdo with a death cult who just wants the whole galaxy to die (I guess?)... none of that's compelling to me. And it seems to completely misunderstand (or willingly sidestep) any kind of interesting real world parallels, of which the original trilogy had plenty (and the 90s era EU/Legends novels in particular were really good at engaging with, probably why they're my favorite entries in the whole franchise). Which does play into my cynical suspicion that TROS was deliberately sterilized of any potential political commentary by Disney to appease the increasingly authoritarian governments in their international market. Can't have those pesky human rights cutting into their profits. :/

#armitage hux #tros spoilers #star wars

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lifeaccordingtoadam-blog · 7 years

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*** 2017 Isn’t What Any Of Us Imagined *** I talk a lot about how I think this world is so different than it was when I was a kid and yes, I know, I sound like every other old crotchety man that has ever told stories but I swear there is one slight difference...... I think this time i’m right! Allow me to explain: Example #1: The People Ah yes, the people, society, loved ones, friends, strangers, passer-bys, humans...boy, have we changed! There once was a time where people generally cared about each other, went out of their way to help someone, and most importantly, saw the common man as someone approachable and genuine. When you see a stranger now, what is YOUR first thoughts? Are you happy to see another human or are you instantly afraid? The new norm about how we perceive each other has become by far the single worst trait in humanity to date. When someone needs help, we walk away. When we see diversity, it’s seen as evil. When someone gives a compliment, it’s taken as creepy. Even basic human decency has completely been wiped from our social norms. Human interaction both in real life and online has become nothing more than another reason to hate or fear each other. People have changed and those of us who realize the change are powerless. Example #2: The Reality We’re always questioning what is real or what is fake. Are we looking at computer graphic or real life? Are we seeing the true nature of the event or an edited version to change our opinions? Is that picture of someone really them or angled and filtered to give a new impression? Is anyone or anything real anymore? To be honest, I find it almost impossible to find anything truly real anymore. The food we eat is all chemicals. The movies we watch are all just clicks of a mouse. The news we read is all just bias towards who payed for the ad you watched before it. Even the people who you think you’re talking to are trying to trick you into thinking they look, act, talk and think better than they really do. For real, what’s real anymore?!? Example #3: Our Thoughts Every day I witness new articles, videos, reports, etc that disregard truth, science, beliefs and everything else we have worked so hard all of these years to find answers for. Flat earth, chem trails, global warming....are any of these ringing any bells? We’ve all heard of these and we all have our opinions but the truth, THE TRUTH is that we have actual science and facts to prove that one side of each of these so called conspiracies are right and the other is wrong. The difference is, at one point, people believed in facts and truth. Something happened along the way, something I still can’t figure out that made people completely disregard truth. I know, your first statement will be about how the world is corrupt and the next will be about how we’ve been lied to and so on. I get it, I really do and to be honest, I am right there with you! We HAVE been lied to by people in power and others who we have thought had the answers. What I can’t figure out is why that means no one is ever telling the truth anymore? Why does this mean we can look at actual physical proof and just blatantly disregard it? It’s human nature to wonder, to question, to look further. Unfortunately, this has gotten out of hand as has become our number one weakness in strengthening our race and place on this planet. How we fix this problem has been debated by many great minds and many more and far less great minds. Many answers have been questioned and even more solutions have been disregarded. It almost seems like we don’t want to fix any problems or solve any issues. It’s almost as though we have accepted the corrupt world we have created and are waiting for something to happen to change it all back to the way it was, or the way it should be. What most of you don’t realize is that WE are the problem and if WE don’t change ourselves then, well, I guess the problem just becomes the way it will always be. And i’m sure you’re reading this and saying, “It’s not me, it’s them” but I ask you to take a look at yourself for a moment. Look at your social media. Look at your life choices. Look at how you talk, react, treat, and most importantly, effect those around you. How many of your Facebook pictures are of a specific angle with a filter? How many times you’ve watched something happened and ran away instead of helped? How many times you read about something and decided that your opinion is a better source than someone who has dedicated their entire lives to something? How many times have you looked at someone and have came to a conclusion based on absolutely no knowledge of that person? How many times have you shared something on social media without reading it or researching it to be sure it’s actually true? We’ve all done it and will continue to do it but my question to you is why? Why do you do this? Knowing full well that it’s only adding to the problems with this world, why? Only YOU are to blame and you damn well know it.

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