Perhaps he doesn’t strike us as the most lethal villain in Star Wars. Yet, Hux earned that status. Vader was certainly “a terrifying instrument of fear and personal punishment,” but Hux was the one responsible for “the most successful mass killing in the galaxy.” Hux was the one who ordered the killing of billions or perhaps trillions of people.
Hux’s Command, the Hosnian System, and Hosnian Prime
As Snoke said, Armitage Hux may have been “consumed with ambition, fueled by spite,” but he was also the man in charge of firing the Starkiller Base’s weapon at the Hosnian system. His ruthlessness stemmed from being raised to believe that “the Empire delivered the galaxy from the chaos of the Clone Wars,” and he would not rest until it was restored.
In this scene, we can relive his fearful speech and order to fire Starkiller’s superlaser at the Hosnian system. The moment is quite fascist-Nazi-like, while we get a sense of how devastating this decision truly was as the destruction reverberated across the galaxy. We see the angry villainy in his eyes.
The Hosnian system, as we may know, was located in the Core of the galaxy and consisted of five planets: Cardota, Courtsilius, Hosnian, Hosnian Prime, and Raysho. Under Hux’s command, the Starkiller Base was put into operation against this system, resulting in the Hosnian Cataclysm (appropriately named).
The destruction of the Hosnian system in 34 ABY included the decimation of the New Republic’s capital at Hosnian Prime. Although we don’t know the exact population of this capital, it was reported to be similar to that of Coruscant, which had almost 3 trillion beings on it.
So, just the capital alone makes Hux responsible for a cataclysmic death toll that surpasses Alderaan. Death Star I wiped out a population of about 2 billion, with 95% being human. Conservatively, we could estimate that Hux killed at least 1 trillion beings on Hosnian Prime, given that it too was an ecumenopolis.
What Was the Total Kill Count Under Hux?
Let’s consider Cardota next. Although we don’t have a canon figure for its population, we do have an estimate of 29 billion provided here. The same goes for the next three planets, Courtsilius, Hosnian, and Raysho. We don’t have an official count, but estimates of 33 billion, 23 billion, and 38 billion, respectively.
However, the above source lists Hosnian Prime’s population at almost 33 billion. So, we need to either temper our original estimate for Hosnian Prime or consider that these estimates are too low. Mediating between the extremes, we could conclude that the four planets had a collective population of at least 1 trillion (based on the existing estimates).
As for Hosnian Prime, we could speculate that it had a population of 200 billion. Putting the entire system together, it’s probable that Hux is responsible for killing 1.2 trillion. That reduces our original Hosnian Prime estimate, but the total may be too high.
This video instead estimates that Hux is responsible for a combined death toll of 155 billion. Yet, we don’t know what sources this count is based on. Instead, we can use it as a base figure to conclude that Hux’s death count was at least 155 billion and perhaps over 1 trillion.
Other Death Counts and Hux
Beyond the Death Star I and Aldaraan comparison above, other events rank high but are not close to Hux’s destruction.
In this video, we have ten people or events that resulted in high death counts, including those by Count Dooku, Luke Skywalker, and Barriss Offee. Director Krennic’s order to blow up Jedha City and further destruction from shockwaves gets us closer to comparable figures with deaths in the millions. Further, the work of Darth Nihilus is estimated to reach 6.5 million deaths.
However, we see no matter how large these figures are, the death counts from the Starkiller base under Hux outweigh them. On that note, this last video also suggests an estimate of over 155 billion.
Ultimately, we may be convinced by this estimate, but with the uncertainty in numbers, Hux could be responsible for lives lost reaching up to or over 1 trillion.