I keep seeing comparisons between US military salaries and what Hux would make in the FO, but tbh, I don’t think it holds up.
The FO wants it’s ppl to be dependent on the regime for what they need. They’re not going to give them enough to easily defect to a planet of their choosing when the going gets tough.
Stick it out and you’ll be rewarded when we win – that’s the party line and Hux drinks at least some of that kool-aid himself. I mean, the most comfortable piece of clothing he owns is a canvas robe that, if you actually read the description in Phasma, is more pissed-off-Sith than porn-star-at-leisure:
The only thing he owns that’s not cut from the FO regulation mold is that ice blue couch. It’s so fucking kitchy when you picture it, but when you think about why he’d have something like that, it’s probably because he saw it in a catalogue from Coruscant and saved whatever he could to buy the thing when he made general, or maybe it was confiscated from some vice lord’s den. Either way, from Hux’s skewed, military-essentialist perspective, that’s what opulence looks like. It’s the one personal touch in his quarters – the thing that he puts on display to prove that he’s someone, that he made it.
I may be wrong, but to me, this doesn’t seem like the personal inventory of a guy who has money to burn.
This!
Looking at the comment about the FO wanting its followers to depend on the regime: this makes sense because they would want to counteract the opulence and meaningless extravagance that punctuated the last days of the Empire (Chuck Wendig has it nailed down in Aftermath). A surefire way to achieve that would be to have a communist-like system where individuals work for measly pay, but they have their basic needs (healthcare, housing etc) provided and maintained by the FO.
Everything is made according to the plan endorsed by the highest command. The Order is perfecting a ‘brand’ their followers will be recognised by throughout the Galaxy: their clothing, their haircuts, their choice of hobbies. There is a ‘right’ and a ‘wrong’ for everything. Personal possessions are frowned upon as signs of philistinism.
That way, Hux’s display of the couch is also a statement of his superiority to the established order: he can have a personalised item and not be policed for it.
Thank you for this addition 👌 as @abidos pointed out, that couch isn’t even his. It’s part of the furnishings in a room on a ship he commandeered.
Idk how often the couch is mentioned, but the excerpts I’ve seen from the novel are all along these lines:
He’s always leaning back into it and settling comfortably. He’s reveling in that thing. The pov characters refer to it as ‘his,’ because he’s very obviously claimed it, but if it’s on a commandeered vessel, his ownership is likely to be temporary.
It’s the one thing Hux has access to that has a touch of individuality and it doesn’t even belong to him.
TechieHux 