Brendol's Sons
Dec. 5th, 2018 09:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lavender_sage As an addendum to my last meta (and because I cannot will myself to grade one more essay right now) isn’t it interesting that the one character–besides Finn–who manages to get out of the First Order is also the the character who actually is treated like a son by Armitage Hux’s dad?In spite of the fact that Brendol was a terrible person, in spite of the fact that his motives were probably bad, the attention and affection he showed Cardinal mean something, to Cardinal at the very least. Even at the end of the Phasma novel when he realizes how much he has been duped by the titular character, he is still defending Brendol. Armitage, despite his twisted views of human relationships, knows that his father mistreated him and hates him for it. Even with all the manipulation and brainwashing, Cardinal and Armitage feel the way they do about Brendol for legitimate reasons.
Caring for and emotionally supporting someone with bad intentions is still better for them than treating them with overt cruelty. I have to wonder if bonding with the person responsible for his welfare didn’t help Cardinal become sane and personable enough to be of interest to Vi Morandi and led to her rescuing him.I suppose you could say that maybe Cardinal already had redeeming qualities and Armitage didn’t, and maybe that’s why Brendol decided to nurture him and freeze Armitage out. That seems to be what Cardinal thinks. But it’s abuse apologism, and I’m not here for it. And of course, there are other factors to consider–like the feasibility of Cardinal being a torturer and a nice guy at the same time, for one. But it is pretty clear we are meant to see him as redeemable, but not Armitage. That he’s a nicer person than Armitage in spite of their shared past is also obvious. While it would be reductive to say that Brendol’s treatment of them is the only factor to play a role in that, that it plays a role at all is sad enough.
At the same time, I wonder what Brendol would think if he knew treating Cardinal like a son would contribute to his being Resistance pilot ex machina-ed out of the FO and treating Armitage like garbage would contribute to his being one blaster bolt away from the top position. Would he be dismayed? Impressed? Was this his intent all along? I don’t mean he intended for Cardinal to defect, obviously, but maybe he didn’t care what happened to Cardinal as long as Armitage grew up to be as vicious and power-hungry as possible.
Caring for and emotionally supporting someone with bad intentions is still better for them than treating them with overt cruelty. I have to wonder if bonding with the person responsible for his welfare didn’t help Cardinal become sane and personable enough to be of interest to Vi Morandi and led to her rescuing him.I suppose you could say that maybe Cardinal already had redeeming qualities and Armitage didn’t, and maybe that’s why Brendol decided to nurture him and freeze Armitage out. That seems to be what Cardinal thinks. But it’s abuse apologism, and I’m not here for it. And of course, there are other factors to consider–like the feasibility of Cardinal being a torturer and a nice guy at the same time, for one. But it is pretty clear we are meant to see him as redeemable, but not Armitage. That he’s a nicer person than Armitage in spite of their shared past is also obvious. While it would be reductive to say that Brendol’s treatment of them is the only factor to play a role in that, that it plays a role at all is sad enough.
At the same time, I wonder what Brendol would think if he knew treating Cardinal like a son would contribute to his being Resistance pilot ex machina-ed out of the FO and treating Armitage like garbage would contribute to his being one blaster bolt away from the top position. Would he be dismayed? Impressed? Was this his intent all along? I don’t mean he intended for Cardinal to defect, obviously, but maybe he didn’t care what happened to Cardinal as long as Armitage grew up to be as vicious and power-hungry as possible.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-06 10:59 am (UTC)Yes, to me Brendol is less sympathetic than Armitage because - as far as we’re aware - Brendol did join the Empire voluntarily, and then created a system to turn children into brainwashed murderers, again, presumably because he wanted to and he thought that would be a good idea. There’s no indication that Brendol was coerced or forced along that path. He chose to create monsters. Armitage, otoh is raised in that and by that. He’s the child of a child-brainwasher. That really suggests to me that he had very little choice in who he became.
As you say, Armitage’s tragedy is that he was kept close to his father, a man who had made a profession out of the psychological manipulation of children. There are definite times when you should deny the truth that is your family.
So yes. I’m totally with you that A.Hux has never really been given a chance not to be evil.
Cardinal is an interesting case. I know we’re supposed to find him likable and to be glad that Vi rescues him. But he never actually repudiates the First Order at all. His grudge is specifically with Phasma. He never actually chooses to leave - Vi gets him out while he’s unconscious, after which he presumably can’t go back without being killed as a deserter.
He clearly believes that the FO is a force for good, and that the Stormtrooper cadets are lucky to be there. For some reason that comes across as a pleasant, humanizing thing in him, whereas A. Hux’s belief in the FO’s goodness is treated as fanaticism. Yet because Cardinal manages to come across as personable, we’re supposed to ignore the fact that he is also a FO true believer, who sneaks around behind his superior’s backs to kidnap high priority prisoners and secrete them away for private torture sessions so he can get the dirt on his colleagues.
Cardinal is a good example of how being favoured by the narrative leads to the reader wanting one character to be ‘redeemed’ over another, I think.
I do think Cardinal genuinely loved Brendol, but then I think Armitage loved Brendol too. If he hadn’t, I think Brendol would have died a lot earlier (as Rax was clearly expecting when he’s dropping his nice father you have there. It would be a shame if anything were to happen to him. Here have a squad of killer orphans hints.)
(Edited to add that just because I think that Armitage loved his father, doesn't mean that I'm flying in the face of canon that he hated him. It's fairly standard for an abused child to do both.)