- 6 hours ago
Captain Phasma could've been so much more than the Star Wars sequels' Boba Fett...
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Star Wars is home to some seriously iconic and beloved characters. Darth Vader, Yoda, R2D2,
00:07and C-3PO. And who could forget everyone's favourite Boonta Eve classic podracer,
00:12Mars Guo, who went out, may I add, like a champ, screaming,
00:17Rest in peace, King. For every star-to-date podracer who took home a podium finish,
00:22there are many, many more who were cut down before their time.
00:26You see, Star Wars has the unfortunate habit of leaving a lot of potential on the cutting room
00:32floor. As far as their film careers are concerned, they really deserved a better one.
00:37Yes folks, the dead speak. Somehow, Ewan has returned. This is WhatCultureStarWars,
00:42and here are 10 Star Wars characters with the most wasted potential.
00:46Number 10 – General Grievous
00:50Everyone's favourite asthmatic droid officer General Grievous was first introduced in the
00:54spectacular Genndi-Tadakovsky Clone Wars series in 2003. And boy, what an introduction it was.
01:03The General tore his way through a group of encircled Jedi in his debut episode,
01:07including the memorable Jedi Padawan Shaggy, who literally looks like Shaggy, like Zoinks,
01:14before being fought off by the brilliant Captain Fordow and his ARC troopers. Grievous continued to
01:20torment the Jedi in the second season of the series, abducting Palpatine and mercilessly cutting his
01:26way through Shaak-T to get to him, before then appearing in Revenge of the Sith, where he was
01:32decidedly, well, less intimidating. Look, I love the cowardly Grievous as much as the next guy,
01:38but he could have been a great Darth Maul-level antagonist. This version of the character has been
01:43fleshed out nicely in the 2008 Clone Wars TV series and in comics and Legends material, but I still
01:50think Lucasfilm can do one better and tap into what made his animated debut so successful all the
01:56way back in 2003, which is 20 years ago. Dear God.
02:01Number 9 – Galen Erso
02:03The father of lead character Jyn, Galen Erso is a scientist working with the Empire on the development
02:09of the first Death Star. It is he who leaks the location of the battle station's plans and who
02:14designed the flaw in the superweapon to begin with, setting in motion the events of this film
02:18and the entire original trilogy. Despite being the one responsible for this intelligence,
02:23Galen doesn't get much screen time in Rogue One. A lot more of it is devoted to his daughter,
02:28which is fine, but when compared to the rest of the cast she's kind of, you know, a bit boring,
02:34and I can't help but feel that a lot was left on the table when it came to this act of heroic
02:38genius from Galen. Or maybe I'm just looking for an excuse to have more Mads Mikkelsen on our screens.
02:43I mean, come on, the dude rocks.
02:45Number 8 – Biggs Darklighter
02:47Okay, so Biggs Darklighter is low-key one of the most important characters in the entire Star
02:53Wars mythos. A fellow native of Tatooine, Darklighter grew up alongside Luke Skywalker and shared in
03:00his dreams of becoming a pilot. He left the planet before Luke, graduating from the Imperial Academy,
03:05before defecting to join the Rebel Alliance. We only see our moustached king for a handful
03:11of minutes in A New Hope, where he is reunited with Luke just before the Battle of Yavin, which
03:16is when he dies in the Assault on the Death Star, and well, that's it. That's the last we hear of him.
03:22Biggs is set up to be a pretty big deal in the early portion of the film. He's presented as Luke's
03:27best friend, and then he just dies without any kind of big fanfare, and what's up with that? Sure,
03:33he's been in a few video games and comic books since, but as far as the first Star Wars goes,
03:38Biggs's introductory scene with Luke, that was originally intended to be on Tatooine,
03:42should have maybe been kept.
03:43Number 7 – Bendu
03:45Much is made of the light and dark sides of the Force, but what about the soft, squishy middle?
03:51The white stuff in the Oreo of the Force is occupied by the Bendu, a mysterious being that we meet in
03:57Star Wars Rebels. Claiming to represent the centre of this mysterious aura, this gigantic creature
04:03served as a mentor to Kanan Jarrus after the Jedi lost his vision. His appearances occur solely in
04:09the third season of Rebels, turning up in the season premiere and vanishing in the finale. In this
04:15time, he is shown to be extremely powerful, extremely knowledgeable and extremely old.
04:21Someone you'd probably want to keep around then. Sadly, Bendu hasn't turned up in an official
04:25capacity since 2017. With such a deep interest out there in the early days of the Force, you'd have
04:31thought this ancient character would have been used to explore that just a smidge more. Will we
04:36ever see this enormous fuzzball again? Who's to say? But at least one fascinating bit of trivia came
04:43from his time in Rebels. Because Bendu was voiced by Tom Baker, meaning that the fourth Doctor has been
04:49in Star Wars. Nice. 6. Maz Kanada
04:54Look, we can't ignore the confusing mess that was Maz Kanada. A character who was part Yoda,
05:00part Jabba the Hutt and part Minion. Introduced in The Force Awakens, Maz is the proprietor of an
05:08outlawed tavern frequented by Han Solo. The smuggler asks his diminutive friend for help,
05:13which is where she first encounters Rey. She attempts to give the young woman a gift,
05:17Luke Skywalker's old lightsaber. Do we ever find out how she got to hold the weapon that fell from
05:23Cloud City all those years ago? Do we heck. Maz then turns up via hologram in The Last Jedi and
05:29essentially serves as a substitute for Leia in The Rise of Skywalker. Despite being set up as an ancient,
05:35all-knowing character, she's reduced to little more than a background extra by the trilogy's end.
05:40And come on, let's face it. If you're coming up against Claude in the background extra,
05:44the sequel trilogy kind of role, well, you lose in that battle. You lose that battle every time,
05:49friend. Maz has received more development in High Republic stuff and the occasional comic,
05:54but as far as sequels go, she was frustratingly underused.
05:59Number 5. Jango Fett
06:02If, like me, you grew up with the prequels, then chances are you're a big Jango Fett guy,
06:07and for good reason. Jango looks cool as hell, was one of the key faces of Attack of the Clones,
06:14the source of the Republic's clone army, father to Boba Fett, and had a killer actor in Tamora
06:20Morrison bringing him to life. Sadly, like a lot of Episode 2, Jango doesn't really fulfill his
06:26potential in that film. He shows up to assassinate Zam Wessel, introduces the clones, and then gets his
06:32head unceremoniously disconnected from his neck by Mace Windu in the big gladiatorial arena on Geonosis.
06:39Surely the father of Boba Fett deserved better. Now, to be fair to Jango, and because Scott
06:44Tailford will beat me to death with his toy lightsabers if I don't bring this up, the character
06:49did receive two really cool stories that expanded his origins in the Star Wars Bounty Hunter game,
06:55which showed how Dooku recruited him to be the genetic template of the clone army.
06:59He also got this for all seasons comic prequel, written by Hayden Blackman, which introduced his
07:05origins as a Mandalorian and being trained by Jasta Muriel. There's still clearly loads more left to
07:11explore with that character though. That bounty hunting world is one of Star Wars' most interesting
07:16corners, and Jango should be the face of it, alongside Cad Bane. Look, you put Lee Van Cleef in
07:21Star Wars and I'm a happy man. Number 4 Mace Windu
07:25Sure, he was in all three prequels and has been a highlight in both Clone Wars TV shows,
07:30but how much do we actually know about Jedi Master Mace Windu? We know he's the second
07:35in command of the Jedi Council, junior to Yoda in terms of rank and experience, but senior to him
07:41in terms of height. We know he wields a purple lightsaber, which is objectively the coolest on
07:46screen lightsaber and there shall be no further discussion on that, thank you very much. But all of
07:50this feels very… surface level. Yes, he's meant to represent a stalwart dogmatism that will prove
07:56to be the downfall of the Jedi, but someone of Samuel L. Jackson's stature deserved bigger and better
08:02things. Windu's origin story has been explored greatly in written media, but he's been pretty
08:07hard done by on screen. We only know that he's so powerful because we've been expressly told so.
08:13We've been given no reason to care about him beyond his existing name recognition. But he does have that
08:18really cool bit in Clone Wars where he beats up an entire army of battle droids with his fists.
08:22That kind of maybe makes up for everything else.
08:243. Captain Phasma
08:27She was a shiny stormtrooper. A SHINY stormtrooper! How cool is that?
08:32Portrayed by Game of Thrones' Gwendoline Christie, Captain Phasma acts as the leader of the white-suited
08:38soldiers with poor aim. She is set up as the main antagonist for Finn in The Force Awakens,
08:44as she is the one who takes the most offense to him, defecting to the Resistance.
08:48If you can cast your mind back to 2015, before The Force Awakens came out,
08:52you couldn't really escape Captain Phasma. Her image was everywhere, and she played a huge role
08:58in the film's marketing. In the end though, what did she actually do? She was established in The
09:03Force Awakens, taunted Finn a little bit in The Last Jedi, and then died. She had no real impact on
09:10either film's plot, and ended up serving as maybe the fourth or fifth most important villain. She doesn't
09:15even get the honor of being the sequel's Boba Fett, because if you look at Boba and Empire,
09:19at least he did stuff of note.
09:212. Wedge Antilles
09:24For the longest time, Rebel pilot Wedge Antilles was one of the textbook examples of a Star Wars
09:29character, not really ever given his flowers. He was shown quite prominently during the fighter
09:34sequences in A New Hope, and was even brought back for the attack on the second Death Star in Return
09:39of the Jedi. He had plenty of lines, and it was implied that he was a pretty vital part of the
09:44Rebel machine, but he was given no backstory whatsoever, at least in the movies. Most fans
09:49didn't even know his name. The character has turned up a few more times though, most notably in the
09:54X-Wing novels by Michael Stackpole, and in a handful of Star Wars Rebels episodes, but it still feels
10:00like this beloved flyboy hasn't gotten the recognition he deserves. When you think that actor Dennis
10:05Lawson was actually asked to reprise his role in The Force Awakens and the position that Poe Dameron
10:09ended up filling, imagine how much more Wedge we could have gotten. Seriously, I'm living a very
10:13Wedge-deficient lifestyle right now. Give me more Wedge.
10:161. Finn Finn, played by the brilliant John Boyega, was set to be the breakout character
10:23of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. He was given way more prominence than Rey in The Force Awakens'
10:29marketing, as everyone was led to believe that he was the Force wielder and not her. And then
10:34things went differently. And then badly. In that order. The Rise of Skywalker took this
10:40main character, and reduced him to little more than a background part. The fact that
10:44Colin Trevorrow's Duel the Fates script leaked at the same time, and had a way bigger role for Finn
10:49leading a rebellion against the First Order on Coruscant, made this reduced role even worse.
10:55But conceptually speaking, it sounded way more interesting than what we ended up getting from
11:00JJ Abrams and Chris Therrio. In any case, Finn was given NOTHING in Episode 9. Even the big secret
11:08he had for Rey was never revealed. He was pretty much forgotten about halfway through the film.
11:13The expanded canon has a lot of making up to do. The only things really focusing on Finn at the
11:19minute are the LEGO movies. That's where we are right now. Do better Star Wars.
11:24And those were 10 Star Wars characters with the most wasted potential. Do you have any other
11:29beloved Mars Guo-level faves you feel were underserved in the films? Let me know in the
11:33comments down below. And while you're there, if you could force throw us a like and a subscribe,
11:37you'll have us all doing happy bantha noises here at War Culture Towers. Once again,
11:42I've been Ewan, and until next time boyos, may the Force be with you. See ya!
Recommended
4:13
|
Up next
2:39
1:52
11:49
15:48
13:40
10:31
13:50
10:43
12:57
Be the first to comment