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lyledebeast:
It strikes me as interesting that Hux’s defining characteristic in TRoS is his obsequiousness. He spends most of his three minutes of screentime trying to ingratiate himself to Ren and Pryde, and, like his abuse in TLJ, it reads a little differently when we know his backstory. Looking at TRoS alone, it’s clear that Hux is playing a part to avoid suspicion because he’s betraying the FO to the Resistance. If we look at the ancillary materials, though, it is clear that Hux has always been in a position where he needed to please people who had power over him and despised him. And he’s apparently responsible for the deaths of many of them.
Hux’s obsequiousness is first and foremost a survival tactic. It’s troubling that the movie presents this as a distasteful quality when Hux is working under someone who nearly killed him for giving advice he didn’t like in TLJ. Presenting a character as reprehensible for behaving in ways that mitigate his abuse has problematic implications for real world abuse survivors. In spite of how the movie presents this, though, the tactic itself is very effective. Many people have commented on how much healthier Hux looks in TRoS than in TLJ, and the best Watsonian explanation for that is probably that he isn’t being tortured anymore. He has managed to control his behavior in the time intervening between the two storylines so that Ren believes he has that runt Hux completely whipped.
He does not, in fact, have that runt Hux completely whipped. Hux is giving FO secrets to their enemies under Ren’s nose, his force-sensitivity notwithstanding. Kylo Ren doesn’t defeat Hux, and the tactic of encouraging his abusers to underestimate him does not fail. Hux dies because the Resistance heroes get themselves caught on a FO ship. Again. He finds himself in a situation he didn’t account for, and his means of dealing with it fail. Pryde correctly recognizes that if Finn, Poe, and Chewie were able to fight their way out, Hux wouldn’t be the person they left alive; it’s a really bad lie.
Hux’s mistake is saving the Resistance heroes, and it costs him everything he has. But it does play some small role in the FO being defeated. And even if Kylo Ren doesn’t “lose”–except in being shrugged off like an old overcoat by Ben Solo, who somehow has agency now–he doesn’t triumph over Hux either. We’re not shown Kylo’s reaction to Pryde’s message about the spy, which leaves us free to imagine him realizing what a fool he’s been. I guess that’s some consolation.
lyledebeast:
It strikes me as interesting that Hux’s defining characteristic in TRoS is his obsequiousness. He spends most of his three minutes of screentime trying to ingratiate himself to Ren and Pryde, and, like his abuse in TLJ, it reads a little differently when we know his backstory. Looking at TRoS alone, it’s clear that Hux is playing a part to avoid suspicion because he’s betraying the FO to the Resistance. If we look at the ancillary materials, though, it is clear that Hux has always been in a position where he needed to please people who had power over him and despised him. And he’s apparently responsible for the deaths of many of them.
Hux’s obsequiousness is first and foremost a survival tactic. It’s troubling that the movie presents this as a distasteful quality when Hux is working under someone who nearly killed him for giving advice he didn’t like in TLJ. Presenting a character as reprehensible for behaving in ways that mitigate his abuse has problematic implications for real world abuse survivors. In spite of how the movie presents this, though, the tactic itself is very effective. Many people have commented on how much healthier Hux looks in TRoS than in TLJ, and the best Watsonian explanation for that is probably that he isn’t being tortured anymore. He has managed to control his behavior in the time intervening between the two storylines so that Ren believes he has that runt Hux completely whipped.
He does not, in fact, have that runt Hux completely whipped. Hux is giving FO secrets to their enemies under Ren’s nose, his force-sensitivity notwithstanding. Kylo Ren doesn’t defeat Hux, and the tactic of encouraging his abusers to underestimate him does not fail. Hux dies because the Resistance heroes get themselves caught on a FO ship. Again. He finds himself in a situation he didn’t account for, and his means of dealing with it fail. Pryde correctly recognizes that if Finn, Poe, and Chewie were able to fight their way out, Hux wouldn’t be the person they left alive; it’s a really bad lie.
Hux’s mistake is saving the Resistance heroes, and it costs him everything he has. But it does play some small role in the FO being defeated. And even if Kylo Ren doesn’t “lose”–except in being shrugged off like an old overcoat by Ben Solo, who somehow has agency now–he doesn’t triumph over Hux either. We’re not shown Kylo’s reaction to Pryde’s message about the spy, which leaves us free to imagine him realizing what a fool he’s been. I guess that’s some consolation.