26

I watched the movie and feel like I misheard or missed completely.

When Hux comes in and sees Snoke dead and Ren on the floor, after he gets up Hux shouts at him and said our supreme leader is dead. The bit I missed was what Kylo says, because afterwards Hux says while being choked "long live the supreme leader", I thought Kylo repeats "the supreme leader is dead".

So why would that cause Hux say that as from what I can see he is now being

subservient to Kylo and accept him as the new supreme leader.

Surely something else should be said?

Improve this question
8
  • 3
    I'm pretty sure Kylo does say "The Supreme Leader is dead". From the scene I take it as Kylo telling Hux yes he's dead but I'm now in charge, also have a little force choke to appreciate that I'm stronger than you so don't bother challenging me.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Commented Jan 4, 2018 at 15:52
  • 73
    I took this to be a riff on "The king is dead. Long live the king!".
    – delinear
    Commented Jan 4, 2018 at 15:55
  • 13
    I always assumed Kylo said "the Supreme Leader is dead ? " at which point Hux realized his error in not acknowledging the status of the next-most-powerful (and currently living) dark-side force user in the room.
    – Steve-O
    Commented Jan 4, 2018 at 16:43
  • 6
    @MC10 - that's absolutely you rationalizing it to yourself. It's a spin on "The King is Dead. Long Live the King" as pointed out be delinear and valorum
    – Thomo
    Commented Jan 4, 2018 at 22:32
  • 2
    @Lasse I've gone ahead and edited in spoiler blocks but if you don't want to see spoilers don't click on a question about that film.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 11:26

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
17

In medieval tales, when a king dies and is replaced by a new king (such as when an old king dies and is succeeded by his son), it is not uncommon to hear this phrase spoken aloud:

The king is dead!  Long live the king!

This sounds like a contradiction, but it's basically stating that, due to a death, it is recognized that there's a new monarch in charge.

If I remember correctly, first Ren said:

The supreme leader is dead.

to which Hux, under duress, replied:

Long live the supreme leader!

basically acknowledging that Ren became the new supreme leader.

Improve this answer
1
  • i thought something similar on refelction but i thought it woulld of been better for him to choke him and say " the supreme leader is not dead" making easier to make the distinction, thanks though :)
    – daniel
    Commented Jan 6, 2018 at 14:35
54

Kylo says

"The Supreme leader is dead"

to which Hux replies

"Long live the Supreme Leader".

Basically they're confirming that the [old] Supreme leader (Snoke) is dead so they now need to transfer their wish of long life to the [new] Supreme Leader (Kylo Ren).

Improve this answer
5
  • 22
    See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_king_is_dead,_long_live_the_king!
    – Immortal Blue
    Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 7:37
  • 1
    The real question here is how Hux, choking long ago in a galaxy far away, was aware of a turn of phrase that originated in France in the 15th century…
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 23:26
  • 2
    @JanusBahsJacquet Probably the same way that he speaks English, or how other characters use parsecs.
    – KSmarts
    Commented Jan 22, 2018 at 16:59
  • @KSmarts I’m no Star Wars expert, but I’ve always assumed that, as is the case with Westron in Tolkien’s works, Standard Galactic in SW is represented as ‘translated’ into the narrative language; so I don’t think it’s so very odd that they speak English. Parsecs are iffier. Then again, whatever they are in SW, they’re clearly not the same as our parsecs, so maybe it’s just an approximate rendering of some notion that doesn’t translate well into English. (The same may be true of “The King is dead, long live the King”, of course.)
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Jan 22, 2018 at 17:07
  • @JanusBahsJacquet That's pretty much what I meant.
    – KSmarts
    Commented Jan 22, 2018 at 17:11

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.