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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. 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.
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, lent by Grand Moff Trakta,
01:07who conspired to kill the Emperor. Even so, the Emperor's Imperial Guards remained the silent
01:12protectors of their master, but unfortunately didn't do much in terms of actual protection.
01:17In Star Wars Rebels, the young Jedi, Ezra Bridger, quickly disposes of a group of Imperial Guards
01:22after he refuses to help Palpatine gain control of the world between worlds,
01:26proving 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. Since Amidala's
01:52quarters were heavily monitored by a significant security force, including two Jedi, it's rather
01:57confusing why the assassin chose to attempt to infiltrate her bedroom with the bugs rather than
02:01just shooting the Senator with a projectile rifle from the safety of an adjacent building or something
02:05like that. Moreover, rather than moving into a better position to shoot the Senator after the
02:10bugs had been killed, Zam instead chooses to destroy the droid which Obi-Wan was holding onto and then flee in
02:16her speeder. 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.
02:42With 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
02:51The 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 throwaway scenes in
03:11Return of the Jedi before they vanish from the story and are presumed dead when the Rebels destroy the
03:16Death Star. Like every other minor Star Wars character, these Advisors are given a proper story
03:20and explanation in the expanded universe. During the invasion of Naboo, a group of Senators formed an
03:25inner circle around Senator Palpatine and were drawn closer to him during the last few years of the
03:30Republic. By the creation of the Empire, these Senators, now called Palpatine's Advisors, were given
03:35bureaucratic responsibilities, such as overseeing the Empire's administration, with some even scouring the
03:41galaxy for Sith artifacts. Still, none of these characters exist in the films, with the Advisors instead
03:47being rendered as nothing more than creepy followers of the Emperor wearing strange purple robes.
03:525. Virtually Every Imperial Officer
03:55Now, unfortunately for Vader, basically every one of his underlings are, well, completely useless. The Empire's
04:01officers and admirals can't seem to make any decision that will lead to an Imperial victory, just going
04:05from blunder to blunder. Peter Cushing played the villainous Grand Moff Tarkin in A New Hope,
04:10and although Cushing brought an 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,
04:28Tarkin 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 4
04:39at the beginning of the film. But for some reason, Wormis chose not to destroy the escape pod that C-3PO
04:44and R2-Dito were hiding in, justifying it that there were no lifeform readings coming from the pod.
04:49It 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
05:02fingers and 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
05:11bring the Imperial invasion fleet out of hyperspace away from Hoth and so alerted the
05:16Rebels' defense measures, who were then able to activate the planetary shield. By coming out of
05:20hyperspace too close to Hoth, this boneheaded decision prevented the Imperial Navy from bombarding the
05:26planet from the comfort of space and so lost the Empire the chance of destroying the whole rebellion
05:31with ease.
05:324. Claude
05:33One of the strangest characters introduced in The Rise of Skywalker was Claude. Claude is a mechanic who
05:39was on board the Millennium Falcon during a Resistance mission to the Sinter Glacier colony to gain intel
05:44from a First Order spy. After the Falcon was attacked by TIE fighters during the mission, Claude took it upon
05:49himself to fix the ship as best and as quickly as possible. Apart from having only a few seconds of screen time,
05:54what makes Claude so useless is his design. Being a mechanic, it's essential to have arms to repair and replace
06:00ship carts and other devices. Bafflingly though, Claude has no arms and he's only shown to stare at the
06:06sparking mechanisms on the Falcon closely, before the camera quickly pans away from him, leaving the audience
06:11completely perplexed as to how an armless alien will repair the Millennium Falcon. He might be able to move things
06:15with telekinesis, but there's still a lot that he won't be able to do on the ship, or that will require intense
06:20concentration and show limits to his powers. Meaning that unfortunately, as much beloved as he is by the
06:25fans for his ridiculous design, he'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
06:37The 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 expand
06:47on 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 prevalent during
07:12the Imperial Era, though this was a different group than the warriors we see in the sequels.
07:16The Knights were infamous throughout the galaxy, pillaging every planet they visited,
07:21and were known to be dark-side practitioners, with the group eventually being hired by the
07:25crime syndicate Crimson Dawn to challenge Vader and Sidious. Even so, the film demonstrates just
07:30how useless the Knights of Ren are. Other than temporarily capturing Chewbacca, the Knights failed
07:35to seize the crew of the Falcon during the events of The Rise of Skywalker, and finally died at the hands
07:39of a redeemed 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
08:14detailed,
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
08:24The Rise 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 believed that he
09:08was a bitter, failed clone of Luke Skywalker, or possibly even a vengeful Mace Windu. So, come the
09:13theatrical release of The Last Jedi in 2017, fans were hugely disappointed to learn nothing about Snoke,
09:19who was abruptly killed off without addressing anything to do with the character. In a 2021 interview
09:24with CinemaBlend, Andy Serkis, Snoke's actor, voiced his own disappointment with the character.
09:29Serkis 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.
10:25And there we go, my friends. Those were the 8 most useless Star Wars characters. I hope that
10:29you 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 at RetroJ,
10:36but 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
10:54happiness and success. You deserve love and respect. And don't let anything or anyone else
10:59tell you otherwise, alright? I want you to go out there and absolutely smash it today.
11:03I 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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