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Not everyone is as competent as the Skywalkers in the galaxy far, far away...
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00:00From clueless background characters to bafflingly misplaced antagonists,
00:04Star Wars certainly has no shortage of pointless and useless characters.
00:09And that's what we're here to talk about today.
00:11I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are the 8 Most Useless Star Wars Characters.
00:168. The Emperor's Royal Guards
00:19Although they certainly look intimidating, the Emperor's Royal Guards are rather pointless,
00:24at least in the original trilogy.
00:26First appearing in Return of the Jedi, these Imperial Guards did virtually nothing
00:30other than stand in the corner of the second Death Star's throne room
00:33and then promptly leave on their master's request,
00:36ultimately doing nothing to stop the Emperor's demise at the hands of a redeemed Anakin Skywalker.
00:41Now saying that, these Guards get a much better treatment in the other pieces of Star Wars media,
00:45particularly the Star Wars Legends continuity.
00:48Obviously, these Guards exist to protect Palpatine and his identity as a Sith Lord.
00:52Since the Emperor can't go around personally killing his enemies,
00:55as Palpatine wanted to hide his Sith mastery from the galaxy.
00:58During the Galactic Civil War, a group of Guards killed a large number of spies,
01:02and were also instrumental in snuffing out traitors in the Empire,
01:05lent by Grand Moff Trakta, who conspired to kill the Emperor.
01:09Even so, the Emperor's Imperial Guards remained the silent protectors of their master,
01:14but unfortunately didn't do much in terms of actual protection.
01:17In Star Wars Rebels, the young Jedi, Ezra Bridger,
01:19quickly disposes of a group of Imperial Guards after he refuses to help Palpatine gain control
01:24of the world between worlds, proving just how ineffective they can be.
01:287. Zam Wessel
01:30Zam Wessel was a bounty hunter who was tasked to assassinate Padme Amidala by Jango Fett.
01:36However, her assassination attempt and subsequent escape were foiled by Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi,
01:41mostly because of the moronic decisions that Zam made.
01:44To start, Zam uses some poisonous bugs to secretly enter Amidala's room through a window in an attempt
01:50to kill the Senator. Since Amidala's quarters were heavily monitored by a significant security
01:55force, including two Jedi, it's rather confusing why the assassin chose to attempt to infiltrate
02:00her bedroom with the bugs rather than just shooting the Senator with a projectile rifle
02:03from the safety of an adjacent building or something like that.
02:06Moreover, rather than moving into a better position to shoot the Senator after the bugs have been killed,
02:11Zam instead chooses to destroy the droid which Obi-Wan was holding onto and then flee in her
02:16speeder. Stranger yet, Zam also made no use of her advantages during her escape from Anakin and
02:22Obi-Wan. Being a Claudite, she has the ability to shapeshift into anything or anyone, so when she
02:28runs into a bar after crashing her speeder, it's fair to assume that she would just shapeshift into
02:32somebody else and hide in plain sight from the Jedi. However, Zam stays in the same recognisable form
02:37and, worse yet, attempts to gun down Anakin rather than discreetly just escaping the bar.
02:43With these constant, stupid decisions, it's no wonder that Fett would go out of his way to kill
02:47Zam for her incompetence.
02:496. The Emperor's Advisors
02:52The Emperor's Advisors may be the only characters in Star Wars that, if they were removed entirely from
02:57the franchise, absolutely nothing would be different. Appearing alongside the Royal Guards in Return of
03:02the Jedi, the Emperor's Advisors offered nothing other than following the Emperor around and
03:06occasionally spoke with him off-screen. Oddly enough, these Advisors only appear in a few
03:10throwaway scenes in Return of the Jedi before they vanish from the story and are presumed dead
03:15when the Rebels destroy the Death Star. Like every other minor Star Wars character,
03:19these Advisors are given a proper story and explanation in the expanded universe.
03:23During the invasion of Naboo, a group of Senators formed an inner circle around Senator Palpatine
03:27and were drawn closer to him during the last few years of the Republic. By the creation of the
03:32Empire, these Senators, now called Palpatine's Advisors, were given bureaucratic responsibilities,
03:37such as overseeing the Empire's administration, with some even scouring the galaxy for Sith
03:42artifacts. Still, none of these characters exist in the films, with the Advisors instead being
03:47rendered as nothing more than creepy followers of the Emperor wearing strange purple robes.
03:525. Virtually Every Imperial Officer
03:55Unfortunately for Vader, basically every one of his underlings are completely useless. The Empire's
04:01officers and admirals can't seem to make any decision that will lead to an Imperial victory,
04:05just going from blunder to blunder. Peter Cushing played the villainous Grand Moff Tarkin in A New
04:10Hope, and although Cushing brought in authoritative intimidation to the role, Tarkin is as short-sighted
04:15as he is evil. After the events of Rogue One, the Death Star plans have been stolen by the Rebels,
04:20with Tarkin assuming the Rebels would analyze the plans to find any weaknesses in the superweapon that
04:25they could exploit. But instead of analyzing the Death Star for any potential weakness,
04:29Tarkin instead did nothing to ensure the safety of the battle station, which would eventually become
04:33his downfall. A New Hope also saw the likes of Molkive Wormis, who oversaw the attack on Tantive
04:394 at the beginning of the film. But for some reason, Wormis chose not to destroy the escape pod
04:43that C-3PO and R2-Dito were hiding in, justifying it that there were no life-form readings coming from
04:48the pod. It was a strange choice for the commander to disallow the destruction of the escape pod,
04:53since destroying it was an easy task to perform and had no drawbacks at all in firing on the pod.
04:57However, by choosing not to fire, he allowed the Death Star plans to slip through the Empire's fingers
05:03and ultimately was somewhat responsible for the Death Star's destruction.
05:06In The Empire Strikes Back, we also got to see Admiral Ozel, who ignored Vader's request to bring
05:11the Imperial invasion fleet out of hyperspace away from Hoth, and so alerted the Rebels' defense
05:16measures, who were then able to activate the planetary shield. By coming out of hyperspace too close to Hoth,
05:22this boneheaded decision prevented the Imperial Navy from bombarding the planet from the comfort
05:27of space, and so lost the Empire the chance of destroying the whole rebellion with ease.
05:324. Claude
05:33One of the strangest characters introduced in The Rise of Skywalker was Claude. Claude is a mechanic
05:39who was on board the Millennium Falcon during a resistance mission to the Sinter Glacier Colony to
05:43gain intel from a First Order spy. After the Falcon was attacked by TIE fighters during the mission,
05:48Claude took it upon himself to fix the ship as best and as quickly as possible.
05:52Apart from having only a few seconds of screen time, what makes Claude so useless is his design.
05:58Being a mechanic, it's essential to have arms to repair and replace ship parts and other devices.
06:02Bafflingly though, Claude has no arms, and he's only shown to stare at the sparking mechanisms on
06:07the Falcon closely, before the camera quickly pans away from him, leaving the audience completely
06:11perplexed as to how an armless alien will repair the Millennium Falcon. He might be able to move
06:15things with telekinesis, but there's still a lot that he won't be able to do on the ship,
06:19or that will require intense concentration and show limits to his powers, meaning that
06:23unfortunately, as much beloved as he is by the fans for his ridiculous design,
06:27he's probably quite useless in his actual job role.
06:303. The Knights of Ren
06:32Apart from Supreme Leader Snoke, the Knights of Ren became a hot topic when they were introduced in
06:38The Force Awakens. The film only contained a short scene with the group, as well as briefly
06:42mentioning them occasionally during its runtime, and so it was up to the following two pictures to
06:46explain and expand on these mysterious warriors. However, what we got was anything but satisfying.
06:52The group didn't appear at all in The Last Jedi, and their inclusion in The Rise of Skywalker
06:56contributed nothing more than a brief fight with a redeemed Ben Solo. Whilst their live-action
07:01appearances are substandard, the group is significantly expanded on through the Star Wars comic book
07:06lines. The comics reveal that the Knights of Ren had existed long before the First Order,
07:10and were prevalent during the Imperial Era, though this was a different group than the
07:15warriors we see in the sequels. The Knights were infamous throughout the galaxy, pillaging every
07:19planet they visited, and were known to be dark side practitioners, with the group eventually being
07:24hired by the crime syndicate Crimson Dawn to challenge Vader and Sidious. Even so, the film
07:29demonstrates just how useless the Knights of Ren are. Other than temporarily capturing Chewbacca,
07:34the Knights failed to seize the crew of the Falcon during the events of The Rise of Skywalker,
07:38and finally died at the hands of a redeemed Kylo, achieving absolutely nothing throughout the
07:43sequel trilogy.
07:452. Captain Phasma
07:46When Game of Thrones actress Gwendolyn Christie signed on to play a villain in the sequel trilogy,
07:52it rightly generated a lot of anticipation amongst Star Wars fans. Ultimately, though,
07:56Captain Phasma had no more than a few minutes of screen time across The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi,
08:01in which we learn absolutely nothing substantial about the character before she was quickly killed off.
08:06In an interview with The Times in 2018, Christie revealed that there were no solid plans to include
08:10Phasma in the last installment of the sequel trilogy, much to her dismay. As she detailed,
08:15In truth, I don't know, and that scares and upsets me because I really want to see this character
08:19explored. I'm actually very invested in the character now. Since Phasma was excluded from The
08:24Rise of Skywalker, her arch-enemy, Stormtrooper defector Finn, had no stake in the plot, with his
08:29character being also rendered virtually meaningless without having Phasma to go up against. Whether she was
08:34included in Episode IX or not, Gwendolyn Christie deserved far more than just standing around,
08:39snarling at Finn for just a brief amount of time before being bested in a very quick fight with
08:44the Resistance hero.
08:451. Supreme Leader Snoke
08:48Easily the most useless character in Star Wars, Supreme Leader Snoke had virtually no positive
08:53attributes. When The Force Awakens was released in 2015, fans were gripped by this mysterious ruler
08:58of the First Order, and were quick to start speculating about who the character really was.
09:03Some believed that he was Darth Plagueis, Palpatine's old Sith master, whilst others
09:07believed that he was a bitter, failed clone of Luke Skywalker, or possibly even a vengeful
09:12Mace Windu. So, come the theatrical release of The Last Jedi in 2017, fans were hugely disappointed
09:17to learn nothing about Snoke, who was abruptly killed off without addressing anything to do with
09:22the character. In a 2021 interview with CinemaBlend, Andy Serkis, Snoke's actor, voiced his own
09:28disappointment with the character. Serkis said,
09:30I was devastated when I read that script because it was going so well. I was like,
09:34man, this is a boss character. I'm gonna love playing... Oh, what? You're kidding me? What?
09:39I was like, okay, is this a good idea?
09:41In The Rise of Skywalker, Snoke is revealed to have been a puppet of the undead Emperor Palpatine,
09:46who had been ruling the First Order through Snoke the entire time.
09:50What is most peculiar about Snoke is why he even exists at all. If Palpatine was strong
09:55enough to control this bio-engineered creature, the question of why he didn't rule the First
09:59Order himself, since he always intended to reveal himself to the galaxy, rears its ugly head.
10:04Obviously, the answer to this question is, Disney had no plans for the sequel trilogy,
10:08so when they killed off Snoke, they had written the franchise into a corner without a central
10:12antagonist to pit our heroes against. Had the House of Mouse planned the sequels out from the start,
10:17either Snoke would have had a compelling and understandable backstory,
10:19or he wouldn't have existed at all, with Palpatine firmly taking his place from the
10:24beginning of the trilogy.
10:25And there we go, my friends. Those were the 8 most useless Star Wars characters. I hope that
10:30you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comments section
10:33below. As always, I've been Jules, so you can go follow me over on Twitter,
10:36at RetroJ, but the O is a zero, or you can swing by Instagram, where it's the same handle,
10:40RetroJ, but the O is a zero. Hope to see you over there. But before I go, my friend,
10:45I just want to say one thing. You, yes you, listening to this video, are not useless. Sometimes we can be
10:50too hard on ourselves, and I just want to remind you that you are a big ledge. You deserve happiness
10:54and success. You deserve love and respect. And don't let anything or anyone else tell you
10:59otherwise, alright? I want you to go out there and absolutely smash it a day. I believe in you.
11:04As always, I've been Jules. You have been awesome. Never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.
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