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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 as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com,
00:12and these are the 8 most useless Star Wars characters.
00:168. The Emperor's Royal Guards
00:18Although they certainly look intimidating, the Emperor's Royal Guards are rather pointless,
00:24at least in the original trilogy. First appearing in Return of the Jedi,
00:28these Imperial Guards did virtually nothing other than stand in the corner of the second Death Star's
00:33throne room and then promptly leave on their master's request, ultimately doing nothing to
00:37stop the Emperor's demise at the hands of a redeemed Anakin Skywalker. Now saying that,
00:42these Guards get a much better treatment in the other pieces of Star Wars media,
00:45particularly the Star Wars Legends continuity. Obviously, these Guards exist to protect Palpatine
00:50and his identity as a Sith Lord. Since the Emperor can't go around personally killing his enemies,
00:55as Palpatine wanted to hide his Sith mastery from the galaxy. During the Galactic Civil War,
01:00a group of Guards killed a large number of spies, and were also instrumental in snuffing out traitors
01:04in the Empire, lent by Grand Moff Traktor, who conspired to kill the Emperor. Even so,
01:10the Emperor's Imperial Guards remained the silent protectors of their master,
01:13but unfortunately didn't do much in terms of actual protection. In Star Wars Rebels, the young Jedi,
01:19Ezra Bridger quickly disposes of a group of Imperial Guards after he refuses to help Palpatine gain
01:24control of 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.
01:35However, her assassination attempt and subsequent escape were foiled by Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan
01:40Kenobi, mostly because of the moronic decisions that Zam made. To start, Zam uses some poisonous bugs
01:47to secretly enter Amidala's room through a window in an attempt to kill the Senator,
01:51Since Amidala's quarters were heavily monitored by a significant security force,
01:55including two Jedi, it's rather confusing why the Assassin chose to attempt to infiltrate her
02:00bedroom with the bugs rather than just shooting the Senator with a projectile rifle from the safety
02:04of an adjacent building or something like that. Moreover, rather than moving into a better position
02:09to shoot the Senator after the bugs have been killed, Zam instead chooses to destroy the droid which
02:13Obi-Wan was holding onto and then flee in her speeder. Stranger yet, Zam also made no use of her
02:20advantages during her escape from Anakin and Obi-Wan. Being a Claudite, she has the ability
02:25to shapeshift into anything or anyone, so when she runs into a bar after crashing her speeder,
02:30it's fair to assume that she would just shapeshift into somebody else and hide in plain sight from
02:34the Jedi. However, Zam stays in the same recognisable form and, worse yet, attempts to gun down Anakin
02:40rather than discreetly just escaping the bar. With these constant, stupid decisions, it's no wonder
02:45that Fett would go out of his way to kill Zam for her incompetence.
02:496. The Emperor's Advisors
02:51The Emperor's Advisors may be the only characters in Star Wars that, if they were removed entirely
02:56from the franchise, absolutely nothing would be different. Appearing alongside the Royal Guards
03:01in Return of the Jedi, the Emperor's Advisors offered nothing other than following the Emperor
03:05around and occasionally 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
04:10New Hope, and although Cushing brought an authoritative intimidation to the role,
04:13Tarkin is as short-sighted as he is evil. After the events of Rogue One, the Death Star plans had
04:19been stolen by the Rebels, with Tarkin assuming the Rebels would analyze the plans to find any
04:23weaknesses in the superweapon that they could exploit. But instead of analyzing the Death Star for
04:27any potential weakness, Tarkin instead did nothing to ensure the safety of the battle station,
04:32which would eventually become his downfall. A New Hope also saw the likes of Molkive Wormis,
04:37who oversaw the attack on Tantive IV at the beginning of the film. But for some reason,
04:41Wormis chose not to destroy the escape pod that C-3PO and R2-Dito were hiding in,
04:46justifying it that there were no lifeform readings coming from the pod. It was a strange choice for
04:50the commander to disallow the destruction of the escape pod, since destroying it was an easy task to
04:55perform and had no drawbacks at all in firing on the pod. However, by choosing not to fire,
04:59he allowed the Death Star plans to slip through the Empire's fingers and ultimately was somewhat
05:04responsible for the Death Star's destruction. In The Empire Strikes Back, we also got to see
05:08Admiral Ozel, who ignored Vader's request to bring the Imperial invasion fleet out of hyperspace away
05:14from Hoth and so alerted the Rebels' defense measures, who were then able to activate the
05:18planetary shield. By coming out of hyperspace too close to Hoth, this boneheaded decision prevented the
05:24Imperial Navy from bombarding the planet from the comfort of space and so lost the Empire the chance of
05:29destroying the whole rebellion with ease. 4. 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. Apart from having only a
05:53few seconds of screen time, what makes Claude so useless is his design. Being a mechanic,
05:58it'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 unfortunately,
06:24as much beloved as he is by the fans for his ridiculous design, he's probably quite useless
06:28in 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
06:37The Force Awakens. The film only contained a short scene with the group, as well as briefly mentioning
06:42them occasionally during its runtime, and so it was up to the following two pictures to explain and
06:47expand on these mysterious warriors. However, what we got was anything but satisfying. The group didn't
06:52appear at all in The Last Jedi, and their inclusion in The Rise of Skywalker contributed nothing more
06:57than a brief fight with a redeemed Ben Solo. Whilst their live-action appearances are substandard,
07:03the group is significantly expanded on through the Star Wars comic book lines.
07:07The comics reveal that the Knights of Ren had existed long before the First Order and were
07:11prevalent during the Imperial Era, though this was a different group than the warriors we see in
07:16the sequels. The Knights were infamous throughout the galaxy, pillaging every planet they visited,
07:20and were known to be dark side practitioners, with the group eventually being hired by the crime
07:25syndicate Crimson Dawn to challenge Vader and Sidious. Even so, the film demonstrates just how
07:30useless the Knights of Ren are. Other than temporarily capturing Chewbacca, the Knights failed to seize the
07:36crew of the Falcon during the events of The Rise of Skywalker, and finally died at the hands of a
07:40redeemed Kylo, achieving absolutely nothing throughout the sequel trilogy.
07:442. Captain Phasma
07:46When Game of Thrones actress Gwendolyn Christie signed on to play a villain in the sequel trilogy,
07:51it 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
08:00Jedi, in which we learn absolutely nothing substantial about the character before she was
08:05quickly killed off. In an interview with The Times in 2018, Christie revealed that there were no solid
08:10plans to include Phasma 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 explored.
08:20I'm actually very invested in the character now.
08:22Since Phasma was excluded from The Rise of Skywalker, her arch-enemy stormtrooper defector Finn
08:27had no stake in the plot, with his character being also rendered virtually meaningless without having
08:32Phasma to go up against. Whether she was included in Episode 9 or not, Gwendolyn Christie deserved far more
08:38than just standing around, snarling at Finn for just a brief amount of time before being bested in a very quick
08:43fight with the 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 believed that he was a
09:08bitter failed clone of Luke Skywalker, or possibly even a vengeful Mace Windu.
09:13So, come the theatrical release of The Last Jedi in 2017, fans were hugely disappointed to learn
09:18nothing about Snoke, who was abruptly killed off without addressing anything to do with the character.
09:23In a 2021 interview with CinemaBlend, Andy Serkis, Snoke's actor, voiced his own disappointment
09:28with 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-
09:37Oh, what? You're kidding me, what? I 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,
09:47who 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 enough to
09:55control this bio-engineered creature, the question of why he didn't rule the First Order himself
10:00since he always intended to reveal himself to the galaxy, rears its ugly head. Obviously,
10:04the answer to this question is, Disney had no plans for the sequel trilogy, so when they killed
10:09off Snoke, they had written the franchise into a corner without a central antagonist to pit our
10:13heroes against. Had the House of Mouse planned the sequels out from the start, either Snoke would
10:18have had a compelling and understandable backstory, or he wouldn't have existed at all, with Palpatine
10:22firmly taking his place from the beginning of the trilogy.
10:26And there we go, my friends. Those were the eight most useless Star Wars characters. I hope
10:29that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comments
10:32section below. As always, I've been Jules, so you can go follow me over on Twitter at
10:36RetroJ, 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.
10:43But before I go, my friend, I just want to say one thing. You, yes you, listening to this video
10:47are not useless. Sometimes we can be too hard on ourselves, and I just want to remind you that you
10:52are a big ledge. You deserve happiness and success. You deserve love and respect. And don't let
10:58anything or anyone else tell you otherwise, alright? I want you to go out there and absolutely smash it
11:02today. I believe in you. As always, I've been Jules, you have been awesome, never forget that,
11:07and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.
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