- 8 hours ago
There's much more to these unassuming Star Wars characters than you think.
Category
đź“ş
TVTranscript
00:00Star Wars is perhaps the richest and most expansive franchise of all time, an impossibly dense universe that fans can lose themselves in for, well, basically forever.
00:10It's a world that's become populated with literally thousands of characters over the last 45 years, and though we're all familiar with the principal players by now,
00:19it is easy to 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 than you realized.
00:34Number 10, Bolvin.
00:36You probably won't remember his name, and you certainly don't know his face, but Imperial Gunnery 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,
00:51Hold your fire, there's no life forms, it must have short-circuited.
00:55When said officer prepared to open fire on the escape pod, jettisoned from the captured Tantive IV.
01:01But, of course, the escape pod, in fact, contained C-3PO and R2-D2, who were, in turn, able to flee to Tatooine with the Death Star plans, where they would eventually cross paths with Luke Skywalker.
01:13Had Bolvin ordered the pod to be fired upon then, Luke's heroic rise would have likely been prevented, as would the fall of the Empire.
01:22Hilariously, in the wider universe, it's actually revealed that Bolvin was encouraged not to fire upon the pod, due to the Empire's obtuse promotion system, which was tied to an officer's hit-to-kill ratio.
01:35Had Bolvin fired upon and exploded an empty pod, which wouldn't have counted as a kill, he would have been knocked down the pecking order for promotion, which is kind of amazing.
01:45Number 9, Barriss Offee.
01:47Jedi Knight Barriss Offee appeared in Attack of the Clones for all of about 30 seconds, hanging out in the background during a meeting of the Jedi Council, and later being seen fighting during the Battle of Geonosis.
01:59But Offee had a much larger role in the Clone Wars animated series, where it's revealed that she grew disillusioned with the Jedi throughout the Clone Wars, enough so that she eventually plotted the bombing of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and framed her former friend Ahsoka Tano for it.
02:15This ended up having wide-reaching implications far beyond what she ever could have anticipated.
02:21For starters, Tano was herself exonerated for the bombing, but then refused an invitation to 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 for her Master Anakin's turn to the Dark Side, which she potentially could have played a role in preventing.
02:40As a result, Offee's influence on the entire Skywalker saga is really quite immense when you think about it.
02:46Number 8, Poggle the Lesser.
02:48Forgive his silly name, and just appreciate that Poggle the Lesser, who first appeared in 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 that Poggle both designed the Death Star, and during the Battle of Geonosis, gave the plans 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 he doesn't usually get much recognition for it.
03:21But without his involvement, things would have turned out quite differently, and the Empire would have been looking elsewhere for somebody to design their epic superweapon.
03:30Number 7, Admiral Kendall Ozzel.
03:33The most diehard Star Wars fans often credit Admiral Kendall Ozzel with ruining basically everything for the Empire, enough so that there are even theories that he was actually a rebel spy all along.
03:44See, in The Empire Strikes Back, Ozzel initially oversaw the Battle of Hoth, until he was forced choked 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, which allowed the rebels to quickly detect their presence and realise an attack was imminent, giving them precious time to shield up.
04:08Had this dude adopted Vader's preferred tactic of exiting lightspeed further out and entering Hoth more or less undetected, they could have conceivably crushed the rebels outright.
04:18But this one, foolhardy decision gave the rebels the breather they desperately needed, and so his role in Galactic History, albeit one he'd probably prefer not to be remembered for, shouldn't be underestimated.
04:31Number 6, Quinlan Vos.
04:32Casual Star Wars fans may not know the name Quinlan Vos, though they might remember the distinctive looking individual hanging out in the background during Jar Jar Binks and Sebulba's confrontation on Tatooine in The Phantom Menace.
04:46At this point in time, the character didn't have any, well, character, but because he caught the eye of many fans watching the movie, he was eventually given a name and a wider backstory in various legend stories, such as Star Wars Republic.
05:00And long story short, Quinlan Vos was a Jedi Master with the ability to perceive people's memories by touching objects that they'd made contact with, making him an extremely skilled tracker.
05:12In the canon novel Dark Disciple, it's also revealed that Vos teamed up with Ventress on a mission to assassinate Count Dooku, a mission which, of course, failed.
05:21Vos has also appeared in an episode of The Clone Wars and has been referenced in both Revenge 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 helping 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 out during The Phantom Menace.
05:44Number 5, Masa Meda.
05:46Masa Meda first appeared in The Phantom Menace and is best remembered by many Star Wars fans as that blue-collared guy often seen standing behind either Supreme Chancellor Valorum or later on Palpatine.
05:57Though you might assume that he was just a random, relatively inconsequential dignitary in the grand scheme of things,
06:03Masa Meda was actually the Vice Chair of the Galactic Senate, 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 Wars as we know it,
06:16aiding in Valorum's ousting while going on to serve Palpatine's interests,
06:20and 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 the New Republic.
06:37So yeah, not bad for a guy who most people remember for his unique look above all else.
06:43Number 4, Davin Felth.
06:44When Stormtroopers are combing the Tatooine Desert for rebel droids in A New Hope,
06:49one of 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,
07:00but this being Star 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 Davin Felth,
07:09and though much of Felth's backstory is technically non-canon now, it's still fascinatingly comprehensive,
07:16and much of it doesn't directly contradict what we actually see on screen.
07:20It turns out that this guy was originally an ambitious Imperial officer
07:23who pointed out a fatal flaw in the design of the AT-80s,
07:28prompting Colonel Maximilian Veers, who oversaw the development of the AT-80s,
07:32to assign him to Stormtrooper duty in an attempt to cover up his own embarrassing mistake.
07:38Ultimately, Felth came to appreciate the Empire as evil,
07:41and decided to help the Rebels by acting 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 Wars characters
07:51have hilariously elaborate backstories, at least this one's really interesting,
07:56no matter its lack of canonicity.
07:59Number 3, Rick Ole
08:00Rick Ole appears in The Phantom Menace as the pilot of Padme's ship while escaping Naboo,
08:05and though certainly not a background character who disappears into the periphery,
08:10few would assign him too much importance.
08:13Yet it's crucial to remember that Ole did one absolutely pivotal thing in The Phantom Menace,
08:18and that's he taught Anakin Skywalker how to pilot a ship.
08:22Without this impromptu lesson,
08:23Anakin wouldn't have been able to fly into the Federation droid control ship
08:27and destroy it from the inside.
08:29Ole's role is also significantly fleshed out in the expanded universe,
08:32where he joins a resistance group called the Amidalans,
08:35who committed themselves to avenging Padme's death.
08:38And in the 2020 comic Star Wars Darth Vader Volume 1 Number 4,
08:43Ole ends up crossing paths with Darth Vader himself,
08:46who promptly runs him through with a lightsaber,
08:49killing him dead,
08:50and further proving Anakin's monstrous transformation from the sweet boy he used to be.
08:55Number 2, Ki-Adi-Mundi
08:57Though Ki-Adi-Mundi's infamous one-liner in Revenge of the Sith,
09:00that of course being, what about the droid attack on the Wookiees,
09:04made him seem like more of a meme than an actual character,
09:07this Jedi High Council member is actually a vital piece of the narrative puzzle.
09:12See, even if Mundi's question seems a little bit off topic at first,
09:16it has major consequences for the rest of the prequel trilogy and beyond.
09:21After all, if Mundi hadn't mentioned the Wookiee attack,
09:24Yoda wouldn't have traveled to Kashyyyk to help defend it,
09:26and instead likely remained on Coruscant.
09:29Given that Anakin's turn to the dark side unfolds while Yoda is away,
09:33things would have almost certainly been very different if he remained on planet,
09:37and potentially prevented him from being corrupted by Palpatine.
09:41So, let's give Ki-Adi-Mundi a hand here for sending Yoda off on a mission when,
09:46in terms of the bigger picture, he desperately needed to stay put.
09:50Number 1, Finis Valorum
09:52Finis Valorum was the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic,
09:56and as the only character on this list played by a major actor,
10:00the one you'll surely recognize above all others.
10:03Yet despite Terran's stamp's casting in the role,
10:05Valorum appears for all of around two minutes in The Phantom Menace,
10:09even if he was an instrumental figure in Palpatine's rise as Supreme Chancellor,
10:13and later, Galactic Emperor.
10:16After all, it was Valorum's inability to stem of both corruption in the Galactic Senate,
10:20and the bureaucratic trade crisis in Naboo,
10:23which allowed Palpatine to persuade Padme to call a vote of no confidence,
10:27resulting in Valorum being replaced with Palpatine himself.
10:31Basically, Valorum let Palpatine play him like a damn fiddle.
10:35He was a pawn who, through his political inaction,
10:38ultimately aided Palpatine's ascent to Galactic Emperor.
10:42So, that's our list.
10:43I want something you guys think down in the comments below.
10:45Did you know about the wider lives of these characters,
10:47and are there any of the secretly important ones I missed off here?
10:51Let me know, and while you're down there,
10:52could 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.
10:59Thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you soon.
11:01I'll see you soon.
Recommended
1:10
|
Up next
12:25
10:24
10:51
12:11
3:48
3:09
1:33
15:53
13:56
12:49
Be the first to comment