Let’s be real here, Hux isn’t meant for military leadership. His true calling is engineering. Besides from assassinations the novels frequently mention that Hux rose through the ranks thanks to his technological prowress. We don’t know for sure just how involved he was in the design and construction of Starkiller but considering he treated the project like his own child I’d say he was likely lead on the design team. He was also notably more stable when his only concern was Starkiller as opposed to being leadership in an active combat situation. Let’s not forget he also created the trap they used to track the rebel fleet through lightspeed, which was a feat unheard of before that moment.
Hux views the FO like a machine to be fine tuned and perfected rather than pieces of a strategy game. It’s only when Force users enter his neatly defined system does he lose his cool in the wake of the entropy. The Force is not something he can calculate for, neither are its users. Tbh I only think he’s on his quest for military power to spite his father and all those that doubted him as a kid. That and he cannot truly fix this inefficient machine unless he is the admin with complete control.
What angers me the most is that I just KNOW that JJ had some bigger plan for his character. Why else would he be given such an oddly detailed backstory? We know more about Hux’s past than we do Finn’s or even Rey’s. We can trace his life from when he was five and fled Arkanis all the way to present canon. Why else would Lucasfilm invest and authorize such expansion upon his character if he wasn’t going to play some larger role? But Joss Whedon the Sequel looked at JJ’s outline and tossed it out the window in favor of his own self insert fantasy. Now because of his actions Hux will likely never get the story he was created and intended for. They can’t retcon TLJ. It cannot be undone and I’m going to die mad about it.
TechieHux 