To be honest, I like characters who are mediocre at what they do. Highly competent characters are a bore to me; I like people who can't plan, get where they are by accident, fuck up, and fuck up trying to fix their mistakes. I also tend to gravitate to characters who are close to where I am in life, and "thirtysomething, suddenly given a lot of responsibility and laser-focused on not fucking up because THIS IS YOUR DREAM" is right where I am now and where I assume Hux is, given that he's pretty young to be a general. Hux clearly fucked up and then scampered out when it became clear that he'd fucked up beyond comprehension and his pet project was going down the drain forever, and I want to see how he salvages himself or doesn't. I want to see what happens after a failure that catastrophic. It's the same way I feel about Phasma, TBH.
Like, competent characters are fine. Finn and Rey and Poe are great at what they do. But I feel like I know what's going to happen to them. Poe will be very good at piloting. Rey will be trained and be very good at Jedi-ing and go Jedi-ing across the galaxy. Finn will wake up and continue to be cute and out of his depth until he needs to be very good at something, at which point he will go Jedi-ing with Rey across the galaxy. They will all be adorable and fierce and save the day. I will watch it very happily in a theater multiple times.
But Hux and Phasma? What happens after you've fucked up that badly? What happens after you've gotten off the exploding planet and looked at each other and gone, "Wow, we just fucked up"? How do you explain that and who do you answer to?
I also like fleshing out characters who don't have much screen time but clearly have pivotal roles in another character's life, and I like how people work with Hux as a foil to or complement to Kylo Ren. It's interesting to see what they get out of him.
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Re: Hux fans
(Anonymous) 2016-03-22 04:27 am (UTC)(link)Like, competent characters are fine. Finn and Rey and Poe are great at what they do. But I feel like I know what's going to happen to them. Poe will be very good at piloting. Rey will be trained and be very good at Jedi-ing and go Jedi-ing across the galaxy. Finn will wake up and continue to be cute and out of his depth until he needs to be very good at something, at which point he will go Jedi-ing with Rey across the galaxy. They will all be adorable and fierce and save the day. I will watch it very happily in a theater multiple times.
But Hux and Phasma? What happens after you've fucked up that badly? What happens after you've gotten off the exploding planet and looked at each other and gone, "Wow, we just fucked up"? How do you explain that and who do you answer to?
I also like fleshing out characters who don't have much screen time but clearly have pivotal roles in another character's life, and I like how people work with Hux as a foil to or complement to Kylo Ren. It's interesting to see what they get out of him.