00:00From clueless background characters to bafflingly misplaced antagonists, Star Wars
00:05certainly has no shortage of pointless and useless characters.
00:09And that's what we're here to do.
00:10Talk about today as I'm Jules, this is whatculture.com and these are the 8 most useless stuff.
00:158. The Emperor's Royal Guards
00:20Look intimidating, the Emperor's Royal Guards are rather pointless, at least in the-
00:25original trilogy. First appearing in Return of the Jedi, these Imperial Guards did virtually
00:30nothing other than stand in the corner of the second Death Star's throne room and then promptly
00:34leave on-
00:35their master's request, ultimately doing nothing to stop the Emperor's demise at the
00:38hands of a redeemed animal.
00:40Now, saying that, these guards get a much better treatment in the other pieces of Star Wars.
00:45media, particularly the Star Wars Legends continuity. Obviously, these guards exist to-
00:50protect Palpatine and his identity as a Sith Lord. Since the Emperor can't go around personally
00:54killing 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-
01:05the Empire, lent by Grand Moff Trakta, who conspired to kill the Emperor. Even so-
01:10the Emperor's Imperial Guards remained the silent protectors of their master, but unfortunately
01:14didn't do-
01:15much in terms of actual protection. In Star Wars Rebels, the young Jedi, Ezra Bridger-
01:20quickly disposes of a group of Imperial Guards after he refuses to help Palpatine gain control
01:24of the world.
01:25between worlds, proving just how ineffective they can be.
01:28Number 7, Zam Wessel-
01:30Zam Wessel-
01:31Zam Wessel was a bounty hunter who was tasked to assassinate Padme Amidala by-
01:35Jango Fett. However, her assassination attempt and subsequent escape were foiled by Anakin
01:39Skywalker.
01:40Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, mostly because of the moronic decisions that Zam made. To
01:44start-
01:45Zam uses some poisonous bugs to secretly enter Amidala's room through a window in-
01:50an attempt to kill the Senator, since Amidala's quarters were heavily monitored by a significant
01:54security-
01:55force, including two Jedi, it's rather confusing why the assassin chose to attempt to infiltrate
01:59her-
02:00a bedroom with the bugs, rather than just shooting the Senator with a projectile rifle
02:03from the safety of an adjacent-
02:05building or something like that. Moreover, rather than moving into a better position to shoot
02:09the Senator-
02:10Zam after the bugs have been killed, Zam instead chooses to destroy the droid which Obi-Wan was
02:14holding-
02:15on to, and then flee in her speeder. Stranger yet, Zam also made no use-
02:20of her advantages during her escape from Anakin and Obi-Wan. Being a Claudite, she has the-
02:25ability to shape-shift into anything or anyone, so when she runs into a bar after crashing her-
02:30leader, it's fair to assume that she would just shape-shift into somebody else and hide in plain sight from the Jedi.
02:35...
02:35However, Zam stays in the same recognisable form, and worse yet, attempts to gun down-
02:40Anakin rather than discreetly just escaping the bar, with these constant, stupid decisions-
02:45...
02:45It's no wonder that Fett would go out of his way to kill Zam for her incompetence.
02:50Number 6-
02:50The Emperor's Advisors
02:52The Emperor's Advisors may be the only characters in Star Wars-
02:55...
02:55that if they were removed entirely from the franchise, absolutely nothing would be different.
03:00...
03:00Appearing alongside the Royal Guards in Return of the Jedi, the Emperor's Advisors offered nothing other than-
03:05following the Emperor around, and occasionally spoke with him off-screen.
03:08Oddly enough, these advisors only have-
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06:49However, what we got was anything but satisfying. The group didn't appear at all immediately.
06:54The Last Jedi and their inclusion in The Rise of Skywalker contributed nothing more than a brief fight.
06:59The Redeemed Ben Solo. Whilst their live-action appearances are sub-standard, the group is significantly
07:04expanded on through the Star Wars comic book lines. The comics reveal that the Knights of Ren had
07:09existed long before the First Order and were prevalent during the Imperial Era, though this
07:14was a different group than the warriors we see in the sequels. The Knights were infamous throughout
07:18the galaxy.
07:19Every planet they visited, and were known to be Dark Side practitioners, with the group
07:23eventually
07:24being hired by the Chrome Syndicate, Crimson Dawn, to challenge Vader and Sidious.
07:29Even so, the film demonstrates just how useless the Knights of Ren are, other than temporarily
07:33capturing
07:34Chewbacca, the Knights failed to seize the crew of the Falcon during the events of The Rise of Skywalker
07:38and finally
07:39died at the hands of a redeemed Kylo, achieving absolutely nothing throughout the sequence.
07:44Number 2, Captain Phasma. When Game of Thrones actress Gwendolyn Christie
07:49signed on to play a villain in the sequel trilogy, it rightly generated a lot of anticipation.
07:54Amongst Star Wars fans. Ultimately, though, Captain Phasma had no more than a few minutes of screen
07:59time across The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, in which we learn absolutely nothing substantial about the
08:04character before she was quickly killed off. In an interview with The Times in 2018, Christie revealed
08:09that there were no solid plans to include Phasma in the last installment of the sequel trilogy, much to her
08:14dismay. As she detailed, in truth, I don't know. And that scares and upsets me because I really want to
08:19see this character explored. 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
08:29plot, with his character being also rendered virtually meaningless without having Phasma to go up against.
08:34Whether she was included in Episode 9 or not, Gwendolyn Christie deserved far more than just standing
08:39around, snarling at Finn for just a brief amount of time before being bested in a very quick fight.
08:44with the resistance hero. And number one, Supreme Leader Snoke. Easily the most-
08:49useless character in Star Wars, Supreme Leader Snoke had virtually no positive attributes.
08:54When The Force Awakens was released in 2015, fans were gripped by this mysterious ruler of-
08:59the first order, and were quick to start speculating about who the character really was.
09:04Others believed that he was Darth Plagueis, Palpatine's old Sith master, whilst others believed that he was a
09:08bitter, failed-
09:09clone of Luke Skywalker, or possibly even a vengeful Mace Windu. So, come the-
09:14theatrical release of The Last Jedi in 2017, fans were hugely disappointed to learn nothing about-
09:19Snoke, who was abruptly killed off without addressing anything to do with the character. In a 2020-
09:24interview with Cinema Blend, 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-
09:34like, man, this is a boss character. I'm gonna love playing-
09:37oh, what? You're- you're kidding me, what?
09:39I was like, okay, is this a good idea? In The Rise of Skywalker, Snoke is revealed-
09:44to have been a puppet of the undead Emperor Palpatine, who had been ruling the First Order
09:48through Snoke.
09:49Snoke, the entire time. What is most peculiar about Snoke is why he even exists at all.
09:54If Palpatine was strong enough to control this bio-engineered creature, the question of why he
09:58didn't rule-
09:59the First Order 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, so when they killed-
10:09off Snoke, they had written the franchise into a corner without a central antagonist to pit our heroes again.
10:14Had the House of Mouse planned the sequels out from the start, either Snoke would have had a compelling and-
10:19understandable backstory, or he wouldn't have existed at all, with Palpatine firmly taking his-
10:24place from the beginning of the trilogy.
10:26And there we go, my friends. Those were the eight most useless Star Wars-
10:29characters. I hope that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the
10:32comments section below.
10:34As always, I've been Jules, so you can go follow me over on Twitter at RetroJ, but the O is a zero, or you can swing by-
10:39Instagram, where it's the same handle, RetroJ, but the O is a zero. Hope to see you over there.
10:44But before I go, my friend, I just want to say one thing. You, yes, you, listening to this video are not used-
10:49useless. Sometimes we can be too hard on ourselves, and I just want to remind you that you are a big ledge.
10:54You deserve happiness and success. You deserve love and respect. And don't let anything win.
10:59anyone else tell you otherwise, alright? I want you to go out there and absolutely smash it a day.
11:03I believe in you.
11:04As always, I've been Jules, you have been awesome, never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon.
11:09Bye-bye.
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