Allegiant General Pryde in Disney's EU

Kind of curious that with the OT-era titles tying in a lot of sequel trilogy stuff-the current Doctor Aphra on Canto Bight, the monthly dealing somewhat with Luke's lightsaber (and also Poe's parents), and Vader going to Exegol, that there hasn't been a lot of this character showing up yet in Star Wars fiction. I know he was kind of needed as a replacement hench-villain for Phasma, Hux, and then Kylo when he turned, but it's kind of interesting that he was also a vet of the original conflict in the OT, something few other First Order characters were (Film-wise the only other I can think of is Canady from TLJ's opening and Peavy, Hux's second-in-command also from TLJ).

[QUOTE=ChrisIII;5460567]Kind of curious that with the OT-era titles tying in a lot of sequel trilogy stuff-the current Doctor Aphra on Canto Bight, the monthly dealing somewhat with Luke's lightsaber (and also Poe's parents), and Vader going to Exegol, that there hasn't been a lot of this character showing up yet in Star Wars fiction. I know he was kind of needed as a replacement hench-villain for Phasma, Hux, and then Kylo when he turned, but it's kind of interesting that he was also a vet of the original conflict in the OT, something few other First Order characters were (Film-wise the only other I can think of is Canady from TLJ's opening and Peavy, Hux's second-in-command also from TLJ).[/QUOTE]
I think right now, LFL is loath to jump on anything with regards to the ST, but especially TROS, just because they are now intensely aware of how delicate some of those story decisions were, and how much it won’t pay to either aggravate more critics when pursuing what should ostensibly be a strength of the ST and TROS (like Rise of Kylo Ren feeding into the hatedom of the character as much as his fans) or aggravate earlier ST fans via contradictions (like Poe being a mature, Wedge-like hero in earlier comics and that not fitting either TLJ or TROS.)

Grant, Peavy, and Cannady all feel like they could make good appearances with stuff like the Mandalorian, I admit. I do have just a minor grudge towards them for feeling to me like they’re all, to one extent or another, great performers deployed only because Rian Johnson didn’t like Hux in TFA, and screwed him over. Cannady is great!... but Johnson’s using him to define Hux and the rest of the FO as incompetent idiots, as he is with Peavy. Hux wasn’t nearly as uselessly comedic in TFA, and Abrams had to adjust afterwards so that *someone* in the military storyline could be taken seriously.

^Vader's doing the whole arc with Exegol, complete with Occhi (although it doesn't help that character either).

I always thought Pryde was simply brought in because no one could take Hux seriously after TLJ. I mean replace himself it's any imperial officer and you'd get the same effect.

The First Order draws heavy inspiration from the Nazi's but it's less superficial than the Empire. While the Empire are more space opera bad guys with some visual callbacks the First Order goes farther with that in the depictions in that it extends more overtly to the characterizations. The Nazi's had not been some well oiled machine but had been corrupt, inept, and ultimately unable to actually wage war. So Hux being cowardly when confronted by those bigger than him, it's entirely on brand.

The issue of course is that Hux doesn't [I]really[/I] need to be replaced in 9 and really only is because he doesn't have a connection to Palpatine and Abrams wanted a character that did.

[QUOTE=SuperiorIronman;5520958]The First Order draws heavy inspiration from the Nazi's but it's less superficial than the Empire. While the Empire are more space opera bad guys with some visual callbacks the First Order goes farther with that in the depictions in that it extends more overtly to the characterizations. The Nazi's had not been some well oiled machine but had been corrupt, inept, and ultimately unable to actually wage war. So Hux being cowardly when confronted by those bigger than him, it's entirely on brand.

The issue of course is that Hux doesn't [I]really[/I] need to be replaced in 9 and really only is because he doesn't have a connection to Palpatine and Abrams wanted a character that did.[/QUOTE]

Eh, I’d say it has less to do with wanting a Palpatine servant for the role, and more that TLJ definitely changed Hux into a weaker antagonist and killed off Phasma wasteful manner, leaving Finn with no one to fight worth Boyega’s time (before LFL tried to just shut down Finn’ story as much as possible anyway.)

Cowardly isn’t so much the issue as being capable of utilizing his forces in an sufficiently threatening manner - Hux in TFA is capable of rational, no-nonsense command much like Pryde is, and both are officers usually far, far away from the actual violence their forces inflict. And Hux in TFA was also played as just plain more serious, while he was rendered a point-and-laugh bafoon in TLJ - which is exactly what happened to the entire FO [I]and Resistance [/I]there as welll, since the military plot of TLJ is dumber than a box of rock suffering a concussion.

Cowards can still be quite dangerous - in fact, I’d argue that’s one of the key things about the WWII Nazis that Johnson missed. And I’ll be honest, the only time Hux seems to lose his cool in TFA is when SKB starts to literally blow up beneath his feet, and even then he’s asking Snoke for orders instead do just running away. Dude was professionally cold around Kylo, and genuinely seemed to have a better approach to Snoke as a decent rival for Kylo in TFA. TLJ just starts by [I]immediately[/I] trying to retcon him into a worse than useless idiot.

(Insert bitter joke about Hux being yet another victim of Johnson’s hatred of anyone who made Kylo look bad - including Finn, Rey, and the OT3.)

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