This Anticlimactic Reveal Was the Last Nail in The Rise of Skywalker's Coffin

The Star Wars sequel trilogy is notorious for flipping characters and plots with each release.

When Supreme Leader Snoke was introduced in Episode VII, he was set up as the next big villain in the saga, only to be killed off in Episode VIII and then replaced by Palpatine in Episode IX.

Luke Skywalker, a legendary figure to all fans of the franchise, was turned into a grumpy old man who had given up on life, only to suddenly return as a Force ghost to encourage Rey to fight.

And Finn... Well, he was just reduced to a background character halfway through the trilogy.

But one of the most mishandled characters has to be General Hux, portrayed by Domhnall Gleeson.

Introduced as a zealous fanatic in Episode VII, even including a scene that blatantly compares him and the First Order to Nazi Germans, he is first turned into a petty sidekick for Kylo Ren to bully in the next movie, and then into a complete joke.

In one of Episode IX's dumbest and most anticlimactic reveals, Hux turns out to be... a Resistance spy.

With absolutely no clues in the previous films, and the whole scene desperately trying to be comedic, it is clear that this character, who was supposed to be intimidating, was deliberately turned into a clown.

Everyone conveniently forgets that Hux was the one who ordered the destruction of Hosnian Prime, the capital of the New Republic, along with four nearby planets, killing millions if not billions in a demonstration of Starkiller Base's power.

He literally kills his own supposed allies along with countless civilians. Let that sink in for a moment.

He is then almost immediately discovered to be a traitor and executed, rendering this whole shameful excuse for a comedic moment utterly pointless.

The writers could have chosen literally anyone else instead of destroying the clearly established character.

Hux could have been great, just look at Syril Karn from the Andor TV series. Syril is everything Hux should have been, a true believer in his cause, even questioning his own superiors when he feels they refuse to do their civic duty.

And he is menacing in his own way, because a zealot like that cannot be stopped or reasoned with. He will do whatever it takes for what he believes to be a just cause.