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[presbierue]

he is a changed man these days

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Sometimes I wish Star Wars had gone in a more cultish direction with the First Order because I think having a friendship (an unhealthy, dysfunctional and toxic one) between the First Order triumvirate would have been kinda cute in an off putting way but also a good source of angst and I love angst. Like, cults prey upon those who lack connection and are looking for a sense of purpose, and I think that would have played into the big connection themes in Star Wars.

Like, little Ben Solo looking for belonging, feeling lost and like he cannot possibly measure up to his family legacies and he meets two young people equally driven to live up to Imperial Legacies. Phasma is a common First Order child soldier who fascinated by Boba Fett who did whatever it took to win. She wants to be the best fighter, to be noticed and seen by others, and will do anything for it. She is already well on her way at a young age. Little Armitage Hux has a mild god complex, believing (knowing) that he could make an unbeatable Death Star, that he can fix the weaknesses of his family legacy (less of an unwanted child in this version, more of a single survivor of his bloodline deal) and restore his family name to greatness. He misses his family dearly and resents the hell out of the New Republic quietly though (would probably prefer his actual family back than greatness but lacks EQ to realize this).

Snoke offers Ben everything he wants: like minded peers and a chance to be as great as his family. That would be hard for a teen to turn down, especially as Snoke would be hiddibg the fine print of this deal.

Hux, Phasma and Ben would likely exist for long periods of time with minimal conflict between them as they aren’t direct competitors. Hux does a lot of the planning and scheming, Phasma runs the pragmatic and social game, and Kylo leads the spiritual and visionary role of the group. Yeah they probably quibble over what they specifically want and need for their own power and plans, but it would probably be low grade jabs that teens usually trade in. More “your stormtroopers are well trained in treason” than force choking and blaster fire. Cooperation would be the best way to increase their power and influence.

I feel like having both the good and bad guys have the whole “power of friendship” on their side would have been an interesting dynamic when contrasting them. Rey and Hux both want their families back but can’t have it so they cling to their friends, Finn and Phasma are ultimately just trying to survive in abysmal conditions (one goes high visibility violent to deter others from attacking her where Finn goes avoidant, only fighting long enough to flee), and Kylo and Poe are trying to reconcile their family legacies with their own personalities and abilities. The difference is that the First Order triumvirate is a much older and well defined connection that is adjusting to new changes and pressures; Hux won by the start of TFA he built an even better Death Star (I think having it blow up in the First movie was ultimately the wrong move it would have been more threatening if it hung in for all three movies to emphasize that the First Order isn’t messing around) and that puts pressure on Phasma and Kylo, who are still not at Legendary Boba Fett/Vader levels. Like, your friend rising to the top of the heap before 40 when you’re still trying to reach previous levels would sting. On the other hand, Hux might genuinely resent Kylo for killing Han, because Hux feels his victory is empty without his parents and siblings around to see it. Phasma and Kylo are probably too self conscious and jealous after Starkiller success to actually acknowledge that Hux did the thing until like movie 3 when there might be some emotional resolution for that group, so Hux is probably just sitting with a hollow victory all movie 2 and is now just fully depressed as the one thing he thought would make him happy didn’t. This could be resolved by end of movie 3 or blow up in their faces when their relationship can’t hack the pressures anymore.

Flip that to the tensions you could do with Rey, Finn and Poe. Poe feels like his mother and other rebellion sacrifices were for nothing since the First Order took over in like a week, so he feels like a failure which results in him taking bigger and bigger risks, threatening his own life. This freaks out Rey who is PETRIFIED of losing the people she cares about again, and Finn goes to an avoidant attachment style where he starts trying to not care about either of them and does a Han Solo Hoth exit (he comes back again quickly but it freaks Rey out even more so she’s not ending the middle movie in a good place). I think the end moral ends up being something like “Avoiding one kind of pain leads to another, be open about what you’re going through so people can help because you’re never completely alone” kinda thing. Maybe you can’t be the perfect Jedi who avoids fear entirely, but fear is a gift that tells you what you care about and you can work with that. The First Order Triumvirates cardinal sin is that they’re pursing outdated markers of success and security that they think will protect them and the people they care about, but it worsens their relationships and self worth instead.

IDK man this feels like an AU that I could develop into a full rework of the sequels but it is half baked at best. I just think it would be fun to Rey and Finn screeching at Luke to give them combat training while the whole time Luke is just bouncing Grogu and other Jedi younglings around and asking them “So do you feel like you can really trust each other, or do you trust that the other is useful in filling a gap in your own life?”. Just relationship counselling the shit out of everyone. Like, recontextualize the whole “can you control the darkness in yourself” Yoda question as “can you build a support network strong enough to support you and your loved ones when you feel the darkness”. Because while Leia, Han and Luke all tried that, they built networks that only worked for them, not the people they loved, which resulted in isolation and deterioration of their relationships over time (Leia rebuilt Alderaan, Han built a semi legal shipping company and Luke built his Jedi school, but none of those things had room for the people they loved).

Edit: also, it adds a degree of Kylo having to think it through at the end where he either has to actively destroy Phasma and Hux, the people he is closest to or back down. He has to actively do all the things that made Vader as miserable as he was (lose a parent, kill the one he loves most, betray his mentor/father figure) to HIMSELF. And that’s an interesting question: is this character actually resilient enough to go through what Vader did? Can you do it completely alone, with the knowledge that no one else could do this to you but you? When does self hatred become that destructive?

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19 year old Kylo Ren: Oh gee, another Death Star? Very original. You going to invent blasters next? How about a wheel?

20 year old Hux: I am pioneering improvements in design. Which I suppose you would be unfamiliar with, given how you are a downgrade of every single member of your bloodline.

Kylo, internally: Oh he is finally flirting back!

Hux, internally: This fucking bitch dies tonight.

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This is a head canon I have held for so long I have to frequently have to remind myself it’s not real but here we go.

I think Armitage Huxes mother was half Alderaanian, half Arkanian.

Hear me out.

So this head canon was born in the year 2016. I had just watched my 3rd Star Wars movie (TFA) and was desperate to know what would happen next. I had watched Phantom Menace and most of the Clone Wars growing up, so I trusted the consistency of lore across tie-in media (I am the only sci fi fan in my family and relied heavily on what was available on television). And very quickly after TFA I read Bloodline by Claudia Grey and it remains one of my fav Star Wars books. I trusted everything in Bloodline would be used to help define the prequels as it was one of the only canonical post-original trilogy media pieces at the time (it was an optimistic time where I thought they 100% knew exactly where they were going with the sequels).

There are a few short sequences in Bloodline that justify this line of thinking, but they all reinforced the idea that Arkanis and Alderaan have been allied for hundreds of years. It’s like a D plot, but Leia Organa was in line to potentially take over as the figurehead monarch of Birren but turned it down and it went to an Arkanian. This was because Birren was settled by both Arkanis and Alderaan, so either planet could put forward a noble when the current monarch died without children and Leia just happened to be the closest living relative (and Alderaan was gone). But that’s kind of weird, right? Like, Canada and Denmark technically share jurisdiction of Hans Island but no one lives there so there isn’t a division of national allegiances. But either way, it implied Alderaan and Arkanis were on good terms; they didn’t war over control of Birren and shared it to the point that which monarchy takes priority is a matter of who married in last (it is somehow not a conflict of interests in terms of an independent world being influenced by other monarchs). Dual citizenship might have been a thing (loyalty to two or more monarchs). Like yeah, Leia not being eligible for her own throne was a thing but it does imply that if the Organas adopted Luke as well and they never fought the Empire, Luke would be king of Birren.

Where was I? Oh yeah, Arkanis. Armitage Hux’s home world.

So these two worlds functionally had split custody of Birren in terms of who could be constitutional monarch. So both Arkanians and Alderaanians would have probably intermarried and shared cultural knowledge with each other on Birren for hundreds of years. They likely still visit their extended relatives on their progenitor worlds and have good tourism opportunities with each other and have exchange programs for children and stay engaged with each other via things similar to the commonwealth games (all the British Colonies meet up every few years and have their own separate Olympics). Like these worlds probably have a high degree of influence on each other and would ally with the other under duress because their citizens needs are kind of interlinked in this relationship. And when Alderaan is destroyed, the largest remaining communities of Alderaanians would be on Birren and potentially Arkanis. The Empire probably intensified their presence on Birren and Arkanis immediately after Alderaan to prevent the Rebellion from getting a foothold there (too many sympathetic relatives), and may have contributed to why it was so late to leave Arkanis afterwards (they had a stockpile of resources to help suppress any public uprisings so they could fight there longer).

Arkanians also look incredibly human (just super pale skin and hair if you squint at Dagan Gera you can’t even really tell he isn’t human and he is in the canon so Arkanians as a species do exist). So it could be hard to distinguish who is descended from who on these worlds after a few generations.

This isn’t really enough to tell me what Armitage Huxs mother looks like, but it does tell me a little about the kind of worlds she might have grown up in and why a very human looking maid was on Arkanis. Because yeah, Armitage Hux is definitely very human looking (Star Wars genetics are unclear and trait expression is really varied in our world but they don’t have the actor in any makeup for the role so I’m leaning on that). But Arkanis has its own species, so why is a human woman on Arkanis as working as a maid (a role in literature that is usually used to indicate a character is low class/impoverished). Either she didn’t have better options (no access to Alderaan or other wealthy human worlds) or took the position in order to spy on imperial inhabitants of the house (likely for the rebellion or Saw Gerrera). Either way, she probably would have looked like she belonged on Arkanis. She fit the environment she was in enough that it didn’t warrant analysis or note. But also she probably didn’t look alien enough to gross out the Imperials living there.

So Hux’s Mum might be an Arkanian who largely appears Alderaanian. Her parents may be a first or second generation Alderaanian and Arkanian or entirely from Birren. It wouldn’t likely be super apparent based on her appearance alone. The Empire probably wouldn’t super care about the differences either after the destruction of Alderaan. She’d be the worst of both worlds: an alien (the Empire doesn’t like them) and a human traitor (any Alderaanian is likely going to be a rebellion sympathizer by the time Armitage is conscious). If this theory is true, she was probably executed as a traitor, regardless of whether she was a spy or not. It would have been easy for Brendol or Maratelle to have her killed at any time and both of them have reasons to hate her (mistress/mother of a child they see as embarrassing).

I just like the angst it add to Armitage Hux’s character. Because a part of why he builds Starkiller becomes an affirmation of his Imperial/First Order identity: that he IS human, he ISN’T Alderaanian or Arkanian, and that he IS as good if not better than the original Imperials. He DESERVES to lead, to hold power. He isn’t a traitor like his mother who he would have been compared against for his entire childhood. Hell, he probably never met an Alderaanian or Arkanian who wasn’t in objectively horrifying conditions and he would probably would be at least a little terrified of ending up like them (my guess is he would have seen them as prisoners of war towards the end of the Empire). So he aligns extra hard with the Empire.

On a deeper, more subconscious level he’d lack the insight to get into, he probably hate Leia Organa for her role in Alderaans destruction. For her being strong enough to stop the Empire but not save her people (his people, to an extent). For her not being able to stop whatever suffering his mother was (or maybe worse, is still being) subjected to. Hux wants Leia and the New Republic to suffer as much as he’s seen others in his boat suffer. Because Leia is a Nobel who escaped the worst of the war but is the visible link between the Death Star and Alderaan. Yet she escaped starvation. Years of abuse. Losing absolutely everyone (the originals do end on a happy note). And it isn’t fair. Any suffering Armitage Hux causes would be justified in his own mind as an equalization of the horrors he and others have been through.

Also, betraying the First Order because you see an opportunity to reconcile your traumas and complex identity, and that others deserve that as well feels a bit more narratively fulfilling than spite.

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There are many angsty interpretations to this. My brain went to other places.

Oh I can just see so clearly TROS-era Hux crumpled in front of an old propoganda hologram of Rae Sloane thinking "I FAILED I FAILED I FAILED"

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Shocking! This Beautiful Man Fucked His Way into the Alderaanian Royal Family After His Smuggling Career Failed!

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Lord give me strength not to buy the General Hux Weiss Schwartz card

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I think it also has a lot to do with the nature of how the Empire became the First Order. The Empire was a slow burn of slowly trying to get everyone in the Galaxy to accept fascism, but that meant that there had to be hundreds of Moffs and Generals and high titled people dealing with hundreds of cultures. The power, while all concentrated around Palpatine, was still being diffused through the mechanic he came to power in (politics). Not every person in power was committed for the same reason, so their loyalty could be manipulated when building the New Republic.

The First Order is far, far smaller and is comprised of the most die-hard Imperial radicals. The most senior members were people who refused to give up in the face of imminent defeat, and each paid some kind of price like leaving their homeworlds, loss of station, humiliation (this would be physically painful for sociopaths). Armitage would have been well aware of horrible actions like Operation: Cinder, but it seems likely that the First Order elevated it as a means of purging the weak and unworthy. This way they could build a "better" organization that did not have people who would be swayed by other ideologies. Then importance and value within the First Order can be correlated with the use of violence against anyone not in the in-group. Armitage's self-aggrandizement stems from the fact that he can and will use every option for violence on a genocidal scale when so many others just gave up and let the New Republic take over. In this way, Hux himself becomes a purifier, destroying the mistakes and weakness of past Imperials; this would likely rot anyones brain away and destroy critical thought.

They never explain why General Hux “believes it’s his destiny to rule the galaxy.” He’s just some dweeb who killed his way to the top. His father was a nobody in the Empire- just some Imperial officer in an endless sea of Imperial officers. His mom was the office cleaning lady. He doesn’t come from the Skywalker family or anything like that. He’s a below average Imperial citizen if anything. There is nothing about him that would make him believe he was special.

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Kylo: I don't want to hurt anybody. I don't enjoy hurting anybody. I don't like guns or bombs or electric chairs, but sometimes people just won't listen and so I have to use persuasion, and slides. My parents, Sharon and Dave. Generous, doting, or were they? All I ever wanted was a Ballerina Barbie in her pretty pink tutu. My birthday, I was 10 and do you know what they got me? Malibu Barbie.

Phasma: Malibu Barbie

Hux: The nightmare.

Phasma: The nerve.

Kylo: That's not what I wanted, that's not who I was. I was a ballerina. Graceful. Delicate. They had to go. 

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This is a great take. Like, nepo baby Kylo/Ben would be the more snobbish of the triumvirate (wealthy parents, calligraphy, etc). Meanwhile, Hux is running around the unknown regions and dodging space cops his entire childhood, trying to figure out where to get food and other resources.

Someone probably mixed up their cellphones (datapads?) at some point because Kylo would always have the latest model in a designer case and it looks pristine (because he just gets a new one every 2 weeks after throwing it at someone), while Hux would have some a 10 year old jailbroken one with anti-Republic stickers on the back.

Kylo: I can’t find Hux anywhere!

Phasma: Don’t worry, I got this.

Phasma: THE CLASS DISPARITY BETWEEN THE GALACTIC CORE AND THE OUTER RIM ISN’T THAT BIG A DEAL!

Hux, kicking the door in: OKAY, FIRST OF ALL–

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Hux: I am about to lose my mind!

Peavey: Frankly, I’m surprised you have any left to lose at this point.

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There’s a quote from Brian David Gilbert from a video about Bowser that goes a “... military that is somewhat bloated, often antagonistic, and seems to be the only thing that the leadership cares about funding?” which describes the FO pretty well and identifies why people like Hux would struggle within it. If your skillset is essential to Military activity, it will be rewarded somewhat, but not in a way that actually recognizes any skills or values that could challenge the dominance of the Military. 

Armitage Hux is, canonically, hyper intelligent and a good engineer. He built Starkiller, miniaturized Death Star tech, and invented hyperspace tracking within a very short window of time while also acting as a General. 1 of those would be a significant achievement in the Star Wars universe, and would have earned him a lot more recognition from the ship/weaponry community than what he got from Kylo or Snoke. I’m willing to bet he was also really good at project management and supply lines (building and moving materials around in enemy territory in the months leading up to Starkiller should have been nightmarish) and other development tasks that are paramount to these achievements. But he is just not as good in direct combat situations. He only uses physical force via his weapons and primarily uses subterfuge to achieve his goals, but this is not how the other 99% of the army could or should fight. This creates a paradox where he has to have authority (General position) in the FO because he is deeply necessary, but he also needs to be ridiculed because by the very nature of his work he challenges the dominant narrative. He makes people think about what they could be doing if they weren’t fighting the New Republic every 5 minutes.

Hux, by all accounts, should never have been a General from an operations perspective. He should have been Galen Erso, in a lab on a moon away from conflict. But the First Order can’t have any civilian-like members, because they only value military. So he gets trapped in the middle of this tension. 

If he’d been taken away from his terrible Father before his teens, he probably would have just grown up to be a weird University professor who illegally mods ships and frames someone else when the police show up.

Something that strikes me while reading the sequel novelizations (let's face it, 100% because I'll take any Hux content I can get my pathetic fingers on) is that Armitage seems like he probably has a very rich inner fantasy. Of course, we don't get too in depth into any of this, but he obviously has some elaborate fantasies about getting revenge on those who wronged him or envisioning himself in possessions of greater power. There is even a remark that he has to make a mental effort not to fantasize at a particular moment that he wants to because he knows his thoughts will likely be read.

He is also annoyed/fearful of masks and generally dislikes not being able to see people. On the bridge, he looks around to try and get some gauge of how the officers around him feel, and it makes him uneasy because they all have expressionless faces. Hux is withholding of information from his reports to Pryde because he needs to see Pryd's reaction to certain news.

A lot of what he does is deliberately crafted to give the appearance of power and to hide his anxiety and insecurity. I think the fantasy helps him survive, because really, there is no escape for Armitage, and he never had a choice in this.

The old Imperial officers around him, like Peevy and Canady, know that he is not cut out for this, that he is in over his head, and won't last.

I wonder how differently he would have turned out if he hadn't been isolated and forced into something he clearly wasn't cut out for. He is smart enough to make it this far, but it cost him everything.

He did do a lot of awful stuff, but I'd REALLY like to see him given a chance to get away from the First Order and make his own way. Even if it is a life of hiding. I know it's too much to ask for, but a girl can dream.

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old shitpost animatic I did with the space twins HAN IS SO DONE BTW

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I would imagine that Hux's also probably not the best at verbalizing what he wants to people, so there probably a lot of him just pushing food around on his plate if he doesn't like it at first. Like, individuality is new to anyone who leaves the First Order, so he'd have a harder time explicitly stating likes and dislikes on a technical and emotional level.

So there is probably a window of time where Finn, the resident psychic and highly aware of how the FO messes with your self confidence, is the only person who is aware how unhappy this is actually making Hux. Like, Finn would probably get progressively worn out from listening to the internal monolog of 'I don't like this texture, this hurts my mouth, why does this smell like this, how do I even eat this?' Until he'd eventually start stepping in with the "Excuse me, he asked for no pickles".

I just had the dumbest thought.

What if Hux, after a lifetime of eating nothing but ration bars and whatever synth-"food" they serve on Star Destroyers, actually develops the palate of a toddler after getting rescued by the Resistance.

As in, he eats nothing but pasta without sauce, chicken nuggets, etc. while spurning anything that can be considered healthy. Oh, and tons of sugary, sweet things too ofc.

It wouldn't fit at all with the image he wants to portray of being cultured and sophisticated, and it just amuses me so much.

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commission 

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Hux: Well, you know what they say; go big, or go home!

Peavey: Please go home, general. For once in your life, please just go home.

Hux: I’M GONNA GO BIG.