The latest installment in the decreasingly Skywalker-focused Star Wars saga, The Last Jedi, has proven divisive to the fan base, especially due to its sense of humor, which even puts overly-serious military leader, General Armitage Hux (Domhnall Gleeson), through his paces. Some fans feel that making the First Order commander a laughingstock undercuts his authority and, to a degree, they're right. But that's kind of the point.

In some stories, deriding a key villain is detrimental to her or his power, as well as the entire storyline. However, this is Star Wars, a franchise loaded with smug, imperious leaders. For the Empire and their heir apparent, the First Order, cocky, oversight-laden, and, at times, inept leadership is a key weakness, one which allows the Rebels and their offshoot, the Resistance, to survive even the toughest scrapes. Hux, as part of the 'newer and better' First Order, is no less a product of this environment.

Imperial Officers Were Always Incompetent (This Page)

Imperial Officers Were Always Incompetent Punching Bags

Star Wars: Darth Vader Force chokes Admiral Ozzel and promotes Piett to Admiral

Detractors who felt Hux's ridicule in The Last Jedi clearly forgot the strain of ineptitude that runs throughout the films. One of the saga's darkest movies, The Empire Strikes Back, contains a running gag in which Darth Vader Force-chokes a succession of his officers due to their failures. His lines, such as œapology accepted, Captain Needa, delivered after the good captain's lifeless body lands at Vader's feet, indicate the Sith Lord's warped sense of humor. The gag also underscores Vader's impatience with his minions and the Empire's penchant for mucking things up when it truly counts.

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For instance, the Empire's officers continuously fail to measure up to Vader's standards: Admiral Ozzel dismisses his underling's findings as totally not a rebel base, and then comes out of lightspeed too close to Hoth, allowing the rebels to escape. Their elite task force in Empire, nicknamed Death Squadron, fails to catch a battered YT-1300 stock freighter held together by Mynock slobber and Wookiee fur. Sure, it's piloted by rebel scum extraordinaire, Han Solo, but dozens of TIE-fighters and the know-how of scores of highly trained officers couldn't bring in one measly ship. On top of that, his successor, Admiral Piett, shoddily deactivates the Falcon's hyperdrive and later, in Return of the Jedi, doesn't recognize the Rebels trying to sneak onto Endor with an old code.

Even during what would be their triumphant victory over the Rebels, the Empire falls way behind while building the second Death Star, requiring Vader and the Emperor to pay its mincing project head, Moff Jerjerrod, a threatening visit. All of Darth Sidious' nefarious dark side magic barely whips his half-arsed crew into shape, just in time to unleash the ultimate weapon on their foes... and get routed by a flighty Jedi, a ragtag fleet, and a bunch of angry teddy bears (er, Ewoks).

Clearly, the Imperial toolbox lacks basic competence, something Rian Johnson exploited in The Last Jedi.

Hux's Last Jedi Arc Requires Him To Be A Joke

Most of the original trilogy's Imperial foes and those of the prequels, to a degree (see the Trade Federation), served less as worthy adversaries than as Lucas' satirization of the failings of fascism. Admiral Motti, Vader's first choking victim in A New Hope, lauded the Death Star as an ultimate weapon but was stripped of his vim and vigor by the dark lord. In the end, his mighty moon of doom was felled by a farm boy in a one-man ship (later retconned, to a degree, by Rogue One) with some help from a disincarnate hermit.

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An offshoot of the Empire (as explained in the Chuck Wendig's Aftermath novels), the First Order sought to strip the fat off the old regime and rebuild it into a lean, mean machine. Hux himself ascended the ranks in part because of his abilities but also because his father also happened to be a co-founder of the Order. Similar to his predecessors, Motti and Tarkin, Hux touted Starkiller Base as the ultimate power in the galaxy before yet another plucky band of Resistance fighters took it out.

Does Hux deserve the ridicule he receives? Yes and no. He's a petty, power-mongering, backstabber, who tries to steal the thunder from his competitor, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), at every turn. Daddy issues push him to seek favor from Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) and act out like a spoiled brat when he doesn't receive it. When he disappoints Snoke and is (literally) crushed down for it, he deserves it, at least judging by their prior relationship. And when Poe Dameron messes with him during the controversial on-hold scene before the first, epic battle, Johnson pokes fun at Hux's archetypal villain bluster by making him unable to grasp the gag¦ at least until one of his aides points it out.

Does this detract from his character? Not at all. In fact, it makes him more real.

Comedy Makes Hux More Interesting For Star Wars 9

A hologram of an angry-looking Snoke addresses General Hux in Star Wars The Last Jedi.

Hux's story arc in TLJ is also drastic: at the onset, he commands a massive fleet, one that was recently defeated by a vastly underequipped adversary. He's also the bickering sibling, playing against Kylo Ren for control of the entire regime. By the end of the film, Kylo lands the coveted leader gig (or does he?), and the general begrudgingly kneels before his rival.

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Nevertheless, he remains the voice of reason when the new Supreme Leader goes off the deep end against his Uncle Luke. And despite a Force-body check from Ren, Hux is already working to undermine his position. After all, this "rabid cur" seeks total rule over the land and has a massive war machine at his beck and call. He may be cartoonish at times but has already called down the thunder on the New Republic and nearly wiped out the Resistance.

The key takeaway here isn't that all Imperials are nincompoops or even that Hux himself was rendered insignificant by a little parody. More so, Hux and his colleagues are caricatures of evil that could easily run roughshod across the galaxy were it not for their hubris. Their arrogance is their greatest weakness and blinds them to our heroes dispositions and advantages (i.e., the Force), causing snap decisions their enemies can exploit.

Next: The Last Jedi's Comedy Was Classic Star Wars

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