Star Wars: Captain Phasma’s wasted potential in the sequel trilogy

Captain Phasma could have been one of the coolest characters in all of Star Wars. Unfortunately, her character was criminally underused.

Star Wars has a long collection of truly great characters.

Anakin, Obi-Wan, Emperor Palpatine and Yoda are some of the most iconic characters in all of cinema. However, LucasFilm and Disney have failed to do justice for some of their more intriguing characters, namely Darth Maul, General Grievous and Captain Phasma.

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I previously wrote an article on Maul discussing how I think he should have been used in the prequels. Similarly, I think Phasma had the potential to be an awesome character but was criminally underused in the sequels.

When the new characters were first introduced prior to the release of The Force Awakens, one in particular caught my eye. It wasn’t Rey or Finn, Kylo or Hux; it was Captain Phasma.

She was a type of character we hadn’t really seen in Star Wars yet. She was the commander of the First Order’s legion of stormtroopers and donned a chrome-plated suit of armor which made her all the more more menacing than regular stormtroopers.

Her armor, made from a yacht once owned by Emperor Palpatine, tied the character in nicely with the previous trilogies, and her quiet, yet menacing persona made the character comparable to Boba Fett, a comparison Phasma actress Gwendoline Christie made herself in 2015. The anticipation Star Wars fans had accumulated for Captain Phasma was great, but the character, much like Boba Fett, was ultimately wasted.

Phasma’s presence in the beginning of The Force Awakens was exciting; her cold, calculating personality was a great juxtaposition to Finn’s emotional and scared reaction to the First Order’s massacre on Jakku.

It would have been here that an ongoing feud began. Instead, the characters rarely shared the screen together in the rest of Episode VII and Episode VIII.

The movie did Phasma (and Finn, for that matter) a huge disservice by not having them fight on Takodana. This setting could have been a great opportunity to begin a trilogy-long conflict between Finn and Phasma.

Instead, TR-8R, the stormtrooper who yelled “traitor” at Finn before engaging him in a duel, was used. If that had been Phasma, a situation could have played out where Phasma, incensed over Finn’s desertion, could have beaten Finn handily and been ready to kill him before Finn is rescued by another character.

The connection between the two characters would have deepened that much more and created a more satisfying reunion towards the climax of TFA when Han Solo, Chewbacca and Finn force Phasma to turn off Starkiller Base’s shields before throwing her in a garbage compactor

Then, in The Last Jedi, Captain Phasma is basically a non-factor until Finn and Rose are captured on Snoke’s ship.

The chaos that ensued when the two rebels were about to be executed, only to be saved when Admiral Holdo smashed a resistance ship into Snoke’s vessel again could have been a great situation for Phasma and Finn to duel it out. They could have had a tense fight only to be separated before either strikes down the other, which would have set up a great finale for the enemies in The Rise of Skywalker, but it ultimately wasn’t meant to be.

Despite Captain Phasma’s great potential, the sequel trilogy wasted one of the coolest looking characters in all of Star Wars. A feud between Phasma and Finn would have been great for the story and the characters.

Now, as we await the final installment of the Skywalker Saga, Finn’s character doesn’t seem to have any direction and there is one less awesome villain waiting to be defeated by “rebel scum.”

What do you think of the way Captain Phasma was used in Star Wars?