10 Star Wars Characters More Important Than You Realised

WhatCulture

There's much more to these unassuming Star Wars characters than you think.

Transcript

00:00Star Wars is perhaps the richest and most expansive franchise of all time, an impossibly

00:05dense universe that fans can lose themselves in for, well, basically forever.

00:09It's a world that's become populated with literally thousands of characters over the

00:14last 45 years, and though we're all familiar with the principal players by now, it is easy

00:19to dismiss those smaller roles as being inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

00:25That, of course, would be a mistake.

00:28I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 Star Wars Characters Far More Important

00:33Than You Realized.

00:3410.

00:35Bolvin

00:36You probably won't remember his name, and you certainly don't know his face, but Imperial

00:41gunnery Captain Bolvin played a major, unintentional role in the Empire's downfall.

00:47See, at the very start of A New Hope, he famously told his subordinate officer,

00:52Hold your fire, there's no lifeforms, it must've short-circuited.

00:56Then said officer prepared to open fire on the escape pod, jettisoned from the captured

01:00Tantive IV.

01:01But of course, the escape pod in fact contained C-3PO and R2-D2, who were in turn able to

01:08flee to Tatooine with the Death Star plans, where they would eventually cross paths with

01:13Luke Skywalker.

01:14Had Bolvin ordered the pod to be fired upon then, Luke's heroic rise would've likely

01:19been prevented, as would the fall of the Empire.

01:23Hilariously, in the wider universe, it's actually revealed that Bolvin was encouraged

01:27not to fire upon the pod due to the Empire's obtuse promotion system, which was tied to

01:32an officer's hit-to-kill ratio.

01:35Had Bolvin fired upon and exploded an empty pod, which wouldn't have counted as a kill,

01:40he would've been knocked down the pecking order for promotion, which is kind of amazing.

01:459.

01:46Barriss Offee

01:47Jedi Knight Barriss Offee appeared in Attack of the Clones for all of about 30 seconds,

01:52hanging out in the background during a meeting of the Jedi Council, and later being seen

01:56fighting during the Battle of Geonosis.

01:59But Offee had a much larger role in the Clone Wars animated series, where it's revealed

02:04that she grew disillusioned with the Jedi throughout the Clone Wars, enough so that

02:08she eventually plotted the bombing of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and framed her former

02:13friend Ahsoka Tano for it.

02:15This ended up having wide-reaching implications far beyond what she ever could've anticipated.

02:21For starters, Tano was herself exonerated for the bombing, but then refused an invitation

02:26to rejoin the Jedi Order, having lost faith in it.

02:29Tano then left to take part in the Siege of Mandalore, ensuring that she wasn't around

02:34for her Master Anakin's turn to the Dark Side, which she potentially could've played

02:39a role in preventing.

02:40As a result, Offee's influence on the entire Skywalker saga is really quite immense when

02:45you think about it.

02:468.

02:47Poggle the Lesser

02:48Forgive his silly name and just appreciate that Poggle the Lesser, who first appeared

02:53in Attack of the Clones, has a much larger role in proceedings than you probably remember.

02:58Sure, he's a public leader of the Geonosians during the Clone Wars, but it's often forgotten

03:03that Poggle both designed the Death Star, and during the Battle of Geonosis, gave the

03:09plans to Count Dooku, who then gave them to Palpatine set in construction in motion.

03:14As such, Poggle had a pivotal role in how the Galactic Civil War played out, even if

03:19he doesn't usually get much recognition for it.

03:22But without his involvement, things would've turned out quite differently, and the Empire

03:26would've been looking elsewhere for somebody to design their epic superweapon.

03:307.

03:31Admiral Kendal Ozzel

03:33The most diehard Star Wars fans often credit Admiral Kendal Ozzel with ruining basically

03:38everything for the Empire, enough so that there are even theories that he was actually

03:43a Rebel spy all along.

03:44See, in The Empire Strikes Back, Ozzel initially oversaw the Battle of Hoth, until he was force

03:50choked to death by Darth Vader for his incompetence.

03:53His big miscalculation?

03:55Well that was pulling Empire ship The Executor out of lightspeed too close to the Hoth system,

04:01which allowed the Rebels to quickly detect their presence and realise an attack was imminent,

04:06giving them precious time to shield up.

04:09Had this dude adopted Vader's preferred tactic of exiting lightspeed further out and

04:13entering Hoth more or less undetected, they could've conceivably crushed the Rebels

04:18outright.

04:19But this one foolhardy decision gave the Rebels the breather they desperately needed, and

04:23so his role in galactic history, albeit one he'd probably prefer not to be remembered

04:28for, shouldn't be underestimated.

04:316.

04:32Quinlan Vos

04:33Casual Star Wars fans may not know the name Quinlan Vos, though they might remember the

04:38distinctive looking individual hanging out in the background during Jar Jar Binks and

04:42Sebulba's confrontation on Tatooine in The Phantom Menace.

04:46At this point in time, the character didn't have any, well, character.

04:51But because he caught the eye of many fans watching the movie, he was eventually given

04:55a name and a wider backstory in various Legends stories, such as Star Wars Republic.

05:01And long story short, Quinlan Vos was a Jedi Master with the ability to perceive people's

05:06memories by touching objects they'd made contact with, making him an extremely skilled

05:11tracker.

05:12In the canon novel Dark Disciple, it's also revealed that Vos teamed up with Ventress

05:16on a mission to assassinate Count Dooku.

05:18A mission which, of course, failed.

05:21Vos has also appeared in an episode of The Clone Wars, and has been referenced in both

05:24Revenge of the Sith and the recent Obi-Wan Kenobi series.

05:28The latter seemingly confirming both that he did indeed survive Order 66, and has been

05:33helping smuggle Jedi and Force-sensitive children to safety.

05:37So yeah, that's quite the fleshed-out story for a cool-looking guy seemingly just chilling

05:42out during The Phantom Menace.

05:445.

05:45Mas Amedda

05:46Mas Amedda first appeared in The Phantom Menace, and is best remembered by many Star Wars fans

05:51as that blue-collared guy often seen standing behind either Supreme Chancellor Valorum or

05:56later on Palpatine.

05:57Though you might assume that he was just a random, relatively inconsequential dignitary

06:01in the grand scheme of things, Mas Amedda was actually the Vice Chair of the Galactic

06:06Senate, which eventually made him one of the most powerful people in the galaxy.

06:10Despite his lack of on-screen action though, he had a major role in the trajectory of Star

06:15Wars as we know it, aiding in Valorum's ousting while going on to serve Palpatine's

06:20interests, and being one of the very few aware of his Sith Lord alter-ego, Darth Sidious.

06:26This guy served Palpatine throughout The Clone Wars, and even managed to outlast his superior

06:31Yet perhaps his single most important action saw him eventually surrender the Empire to

06:36the New Republic.

06:37So yeah, not bad for a guy who most people remember for his unique look above all else.

06:434.

06:44Davin Felf

06:45When Stormtroopers are combing the Tatooine Desert for Rebel Droids in A New Hope, one

06:49of them comes across a metal remnant from C-3PO, and tells their superior officer,

06:54Look sir, droids!

06:56Now you'd reasonably assume this Stormtrooper was just a nameless nobody, but this being

07:01Star Wars, that of course is not the case at all.

07:04In Legends continuity, it's established that this Stormtrooper goes by the name of

07:08Davin Felf, and though much of Fife's backstory is technically non-canon now, it's still

07:13fascinatingly comprehensive, and much of it doesn't directly contradict what we actually

07:18see on screen.

07:20It turns out that this guy was originally an ambitious Imperial officer who pointed

07:24out a fatal flaw in the design of the AT-ATs, prompting Colonel Maximilian Viers, who oversaw

07:30the development of the AT-ATs, to assign him to Stormtrooper duty in an attempt to

07:35cover up his own embarrassing mistake.

07:38Ultimately, Felf came to appreciate the Empire as evil, and decided to help the Rebels by

07:43acting as a spy from within the Stormtrooper's ranks.

07:47Though it's basically self-parody at this point that even the most insignificant Star

07:50Wars characters have hilariously elaborate backstories, at least this one's really

07:56interesting, no matter its lack of canonicity.

07:593.

08:00Rick Oley

08:01Rick Oley appears in The Phantom Menace as the pilot of Padme's ship while escaping

08:05Naboo.

08:06And though certainly not a background character who disappears into the periphery, few would

08:10assign him too much importance.

08:13Yet it's crucial to remember that Oley did one absolutely pivotal thing in The Phantom

08:17Menace, and that's he taught Anakin Skywalker how to pilot a ship.

08:22Without this impromptu lesson, Anakin wouldn't have been able to fly into the Federation

08:26droid control ship and destroy it from the inside.

08:29Oley's role is also significantly fleshed out in the Expanded Universe, where he joins

08:33a resistance group called the Amidallans who committed themselves to avenging Padme's

08:38death.

08:39And in the 2020 comic Star Wars Darth Vader Vol. 1 No. 4, Oley ends up crossing paths

08:44with Darth Vader himself, who promptly runs him through with a lightsaber, killing him

08:49dead and further proving Anakin's monstrous transformation from the sweet boy he used

08:54to be.

08:552.

08:56Ki-Adi-Mundi

08:57Though Ki-Adi-Mundi's infamous one-liner in Revenge of the Sith, that of course being

09:01what about the droid attack on the Wookiees, made him seem like more of a meme than an

09:06actual character, this Jedi High Council member is actually a vital piece of the narrative

09:12puzzle.

09:13See, even if Mundi's question seems a little off topic at first, it has major consequences

09:18for the rest of the prequel trilogy and beyond.

09:21After all, if Mundi hadn't mentioned the Wookiee attack, Yoda wouldn't have travelled

09:25to Kashyyyk to help defend it, and instead likely remained on Coruscant.

09:29Given that Anakin's turn to the dark side unfolds while Yoda is away, things would have

09:34almost certainly been very different if he remained on planet, and potentially prevented

09:38him from being corrupted by Palpatine.

09:41So let's give Ki-Adi-Mundi a hand here for sending Yoda off on a mission when, in terms

09:46of the bigger picture, he desperately needed to stay put.

09:501.

09:51Finis Valorum

09:52Finis Valorum was the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic, and as the only character

09:57on this list played by a major actor, the one you'll surely recognise above all others.

10:03Yet despite Terence Stamp's casting in the role, Valorum appears for all of around two

10:07minutes in the Phantom Menace, even if he was an instrumental figure in Palpatine's

10:12rise as Supreme Chancellor and later Galactic Emperor.

10:16After all, it was Valorum's inability to stand the both corruption in the Galactic

10:20Senate and the bureaucratic trade crisis in Naboo which allowed Palpatine to persuade

10:24Padme to call a vote of no confidence, resulting in Valorum being replaced with Palpatine himself.

10:30Basically, Valorum let Palpatine play him like a damn fiddle.

10:35He was a pawn who, through his political inaction, ultimately aided Palpatine's ascent to Galactic

10:40Emperor.

10:41So that's our list, what do you guys think down in the comments below?

10:45Did you know about the wider lives of these characters, and are there any other secretly

10:49important ones I missed off here?

10:51Let me know, and while you're down there could you please give us a like, share, subscribe,

10:54and head over to whatculture.com for more lists and news like this every single day.

10:58Even if you don't though, I've been Josh, thanks so much for watching, and I'll see

11:01you soon.

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