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.
00:08And 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
00:19Although 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
00:32Death Star's throne room and then promptly leave on their master's request, ultimately doing
00:36nothing to stop the Emperor's demise at the hands of a redeemed Anakin Skywalker.
00:41Saying that, these 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,
01:05led by Grand Moff Traktor, who conspired to kill the Emperor. Even so, the Emperor's Imperial
01:11Guards remained the silent protectors of their master, but unfortunately didn't do much in terms
01:15of actual protection. In Star Wars Rebels, the young Jedi, Ezra Bridger, quickly disposes of
01:20a group of Imperial Guards after he refuses to help Palpatine gain control of the world between
01:25worlds, 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
01:46bugs to 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
02:04safety of an adjacent building or something like that. Moreover, rather than moving into
02:08a better position to shoot the Senator after the bugs had been killed, Zam instead chooses
02:12to destroy the droid which Obi-Wan was holding onto and then flee in her speeder. Stranger yet,
02:18Zam also made no use of her advantages during her escape from Anakin and Obi-Wan.
02:23Being a Claudite, she has the ability to shapeshift into anything or anyone,
02:27so when she runs into a bar after crashing her speeder, it's fair to assume that she
02:31would just shapeshift into somebody else and hide in plain sight from the Jedi. However,
02:35Zam stays in the same recognisable form and, worse yet, attempts to gun down Anakin rather
02:40than discreetly just escaping the bar. With these constant, stupid decisions,
02:45it's no wonder that 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 their
03:05Emperor around and occasionally spoke with him off-screen. Oddly enough, these Advisors only
03:09appear in a few throwaway scenes in Return of the Jedi before they vanish from the story and
03:14are presumed dead when the Rebels destroy the Death Star. Like every other minor Star Wars
03:18character, these 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 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 had been stolen by the Rebels,
04:20with Tarkin assuming the Rebels would analyse the plans to find any weaknesses
04:24in the superweapon they could exploit. But instead of analysing the Death Star for any
04:28potential 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 Mulkhive Wormus,
04:36who oversaw the attack on Tantive IV at the beginning of the film. But for some reason,
04:41Wormus chose not to destroy the escape pod that C-3PO and R2-D2 were hiding in,
04:46justifying it that there were no life-form readings coming from the pod. It was a strange
04:50choice for the Commander to disallow the destruction of the escape pod, since destroying
04:54it was an easy task to perform, and had no drawbacks at all in firing on the pod. However,
04:58by 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 Ozell, who ignored Vader's request to
05:11bring the Imperial invasion fleet out of hyperspace away from Hoth, and so alerted the Rebels' defence
05:16measures, who were then able to activate the planetary shield. By coming out of hyperspace
05:21too close to Hoth, this boneheaded decision prevented the Imperial Navy from bombarding
05:26the planet from the comfort of space, and so lost the Empire the chance of destroying the
05:30whole 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 Cinta Glacier Colony
05:43to gain intel from a First Order spy. After the Falcon was attacked by TIE fighters during the
05:48mission, Claude 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
05:56is his design. Being a mechanic, it's essential to have arms to repair and replace ship parts
06:01and other devices. Bafflingly, though, Claude has no arms, and he's only shown to stare at
06:05the sparking mechanisms on the Falcon closely, before the camera quickly pans away from him,
06:10leaving the audience completely perplexed as to how an armless alien will repair the
06:13Millennium Falcon. He might be able to move things with telekinesis, but there's still
06:17a lot that he won't be able to do on the ship, all that will require intense concentration and
06:21show limits to his powers. Meaning that, unfortunately, as much beloved as he is by
06:25the fans 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
06:37in The 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
06:46to explain and expand on these mysterious warriors. However, what we got was anything
06:51but satisfying. The group didn't appear at all in The Last Jedi, and their inclusion in The Rise
06:55of Skywalker contributed nothing more than a brief fight with a redeemed Ben Solo. Whilst
07:00their live-action appearances are substandard, the group is significantly expanded on through
07:05the Star Wars comic book lines. The comics reveal that the Knights of Ren had existed long before
07:10the First Order, and were prevalent during the Imperial Era, though this was a different group
07:14than the warriors we see in the sequels. The Knights were infamous throughout the galaxy,
07:18pillaging every planet they visited, and were known to be dark side practitioners,
07:23with the group eventually being hired by the crime syndicate Crimson Dawn to challenge Vader
07:27and Sidious. Even so, the film demonstrates just how useless the Knights of Ren are.
07:32Other than temporarily capturing Chewbacca, the Knights failed to seize the crew of the Falcon
07:36during the events of The Rise of Skywalker, and finally died at the hands of a redeemed Kylo,
07:41achieving 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 among 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
08:04was quickly killed off. In an interview with The Times in 2018, Christie revealed that there were
08:09no solid plans to include Phasma in the last instalment of the sequel trilogy, much to her
08:13dismay, as she detailed, In truth, I don't know, and that scares and upsets me because I really
08:18want to see this character explored. I'm actually very invested in the character now.
08:22Since Phasma was excluded from The Rise of Skywalker, her arch-enemy Stormtrooper defector
08:27Finn had no stake in the plot, with his character being also rendered virtually meaningless without
08:32having Phasma to go up against. Whether she was included in Episode IX or not, Gwendolyn Christie
08:37deserved far more than just standing around, snarling at Finn for just a brief amount of time
08:41before being bested in a very quick fight 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
08:58ruler of 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
09:17disappointed to learn nothing about Snoke, who was abruptly killed off without addressing anything to
09:21do with the character. In a 2021 interview with CinemaBlend, Andy Serkis, Snoke's actor,
09:27voiced his own disappointment 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 going to love playing. Oh, what? You're kidding me, what? I was
09:39like, okay, is this a good idea? In The Rise of Skywalker, Snoke is revealed to have been a puppet
09:44of the undead Emperor Palpatine, who had been ruling the First Order through Snoke the entire
09:49time. What is most peculiar about Snoke is why he even exists at all. If Palpatine was strong
09:54enough 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. So when they
10:08killed off Snoke, they had written the franchise into a corner without a central antagonist to
10:13pit our heroes against. Had the House of Mouse planned the sequels out from the start, either
10:17Snoke would have had a compelling and understandable backstory, or he wouldn't have existed at all,
10:22with Palpatine firmly 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
10:29hope that you enjoyed that and please let me know what you thought about it down in the
10:32comments section below. As always, I've been Jules. You can go follow me over on Twitter at
10:36RetroJ but the O is a zero. We can swing by Instagram where it's the same handle, RetroJ
10:41but the O is a zero. Hope to see you over there. But before I go, my friend, I just want to say
10:45one thing. You, yes, you listening to this video are not useless. Sometimes we can be too hard on
10:50ourselves and I just want to remind you that you are a big ledge. You deserve happiness and success.
10:55You deserve love and respect. And don't let anything or anyone else tell you otherwise,
11:00I want you to go out there and absolutely smash it today. I believe in you. As always,
11:04I've been Jules. You have been awesome. Never forget that. And I'll speak to you soon. Bye.