What was the point of Captain Phasma?

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Idunno, I see her as just kind of an asshole exerting toxic masculinity. She's just a captain fcs. They certainly could have had her kick a lot of ass and earn her stripes, and her stage-in with Finn at the start would be a fine enough plot device. She would be the reverse Han Solo prime in A New Hope. Shoehorned unto the plot train through more adjunct circumstances.

And btw. A misfire I see with Solo the movie would be establishing his ranks with the Empire. I don't really blame them for walking into the matter, but it's kind of like The Joker where his foggy past adds to the effect of the character.

[Mecha82]

Let me remind people that what makes her fail as trainer/brainwasher even bigger is that those weren't even conscripts but people that were taken as kids from they parents to become FO's Stormtroopers. So based on that Finn should have had same unquestioning loyalty towards FO as every other FO's Stormtrooper. So even with all added lore to her character she is failure as Stormtrooper captain and trainer. Which makes her having that special armor made from armor plating of Emperor's personal ship even more confusing.

[clearspira]

Let me remind people that what makes her fail as trainer/brainwasher even bigger is that those weren't even conscripts but people that were taken as kids from they parents to become FO's Stormtroopers. So based on that Finn should have had same unquestioning loyalty towards FO as every other FO's Stormtrooper. So even with all added lore to her character she is failure as Stormtrooper captain and trainer. Which makes her having that special armor made from armor plating of Emperor's personal ship even more confusing.

That is one of the biggest plot holes with Finn's backstory as presented and why the promised attention towards the Stormtroopers as people never being realised is so irksome. Why is Finn special? Why did his brainwashing not work? The only answer we currently have is ''Main Character Shields.'' And what does not help is that Finn forgets about his comrades REAL quick. These are people who he bunked with, ate with, fought with; and yet he is happily gunning them down by the dozen a matter of hours later (and is quite happy to blow up the Mega Death Star with all of his mates on board for a woman he has only just met). This leaves us with the impression that he was disloyal to them all long before his defection.

Compare with Aeryn in Farscape. She was cast out of the Peacekeepers against her will and carried a strong bond and sense of loyalty for them for a long time afterward.

It is a genuine pity. You could probably a whole movie out of this concept alone.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I just chalk it down to Finn being special as a natural fantasy trope, but if so then yeah it comes off a bit generic.

Like, generally though, the idea is that the force influences pretty much anyone's circumstances. The best example of this in the movies I think would be the blind guy in Rogue 1 who puts the best spin on Storm Troopers not hitting anything. It's not very explicit, but it's a pretty sole factor for explanation purposes.

[Nealithi]

Let me remind people that what makes her fail as trainer/brainwasher even bigger is that those weren't even conscripts but people that were taken as kids from they parents to become FO's Stormtroopers. So based on that Finn should have had same unquestioning loyalty towards FO as every other FO's Stormtrooper. So even with all added lore to her character she is failure as Stormtrooper captain and trainer. Which makes her having that special armor made from armor plating of Emperor's personal ship even more confusing.

That is one of the biggest plot holes with Finn's backstory as presented and why the promised attention towards the Stormtroopers as people never being realised is so irksome. Why is Finn special? Why did his brainwashing not work? The only answer we currently have is ''Main Character Shields.'' And what does not help is that Finn forgets about his comrades REAL quick. These are people who he bunked with, ate with, fought with; and yet he is happily gunning them down by the dozen a matter of hours later (and is quite happy to blow up the Mega Death Star with all of his mates on board for a woman he has only just met). This leaves us with the impression that he was disloyal to them all long before his defection.

Compare with Aeryn in Farscape. She was cast out of the Peacekeepers against her will and carried a strong bond and sense of loyalty for them for a long time afterward.

It is a genuine pity. You could probably a whole movie out of this concept alone.

Okay I am no psychologist, child or otherwise so bear with me. But took infants and raised them in extended bootcamp with numbers for names. This does not sound healthy.
They were trying to grow organic droids. Note the punishment for removing a helmet. Not question what is wrong, punishment.
Finn is also note as being the janitor. Now I was in the service and cleaning and caring for things was inherent for everyone. Both for team building and attention to detail. You don't leave one guy doing that while everyone else does something else and expect him to have the same loyalty since he was not integrated in the 'team'. So him leaving is not that far fetched to me.

What is difficult is the moral code they seemed to gloss over. Finn couldn't fire on the captive village at the end of the first raid. The only trauma we saw was a trooper near him got hit and he tried to get him down into cover. But the man bled and died trying to give Finn some kind of sign. Now I have to read between lines here. But solely from the movie it seems like this was Finn's buddy. This is the guy you watch his back and he watches yours. This was his emotional center in combat, his unit boiled down. When he was gone he felt lost and unsure. The threat of punishment while coping is what drove him toward desertion. It also shows a why to latching onto Rey. First he sees someone being jumped. Something that may have happened during off hours or during training. And he was used to helping his buddy or his buddy helping him. When she didn't need help he stopped. When they were able to flee he did. But when his new buddy is in trouble. He hurries back to what is normal to him.
The problem with my entire second paragraph is I am trying to fit his actions into the kind of parameters that someone that has never known civilian life might take. And as far as I know, Soldier did a better job since it was the premise.

[clearspira]

Let me remind people that what makes her fail as trainer/brainwasher even bigger is that those weren't even conscripts but people that were taken as kids from they parents to become FO's Stormtroopers. So based on that Finn should have had same unquestioning loyalty towards FO as every other FO's Stormtrooper. So even with all added lore to her character she is failure as Stormtrooper captain and trainer. Which makes her having that special armor made from armor plating of Emperor's personal ship even more confusing.

That is one of the biggest plot holes with Finn's backstory as presented and why the promised attention towards the Stormtroopers as people never being realised is so irksome. Why is Finn special? Why did his brainwashing not work? The only answer we currently have is ''Main Character Shields.'' And what does not help is that Finn forgets about his comrades REAL quick. These are people who he bunked with, ate with, fought with; and yet he is happily gunning them down by the dozen a matter of hours later (and is quite happy to blow up the Mega Death Star with all of his mates on board for a woman he has only just met). This leaves us with the impression that he was disloyal to them all long before his defection.

Compare with Aeryn in Farscape. She was cast out of the Peacekeepers against her will and carried a strong bond and sense of loyalty for them for a long time afterward.

It is a genuine pity. You could probably a whole movie out of this concept alone.

Okay I am no psychologist, child or otherwise so bear with me. But took infants and raised them in extended bootcamp with numbers for names. This does not sound healthy.
They were trying to grow organic droids. Note the punishment for removing a helmet. Not question what is wrong, punishment.
Finn is also note as being the janitor. Now I was in the service and cleaning and caring for things was inherent for everyone. Both for team building and attention to detail. You don't leave one guy doing that while everyone else does something else and expect him to have the same loyalty since he was not integrated in the 'team'. So him leaving is not that far fetched to me.

What is difficult is the moral code they seemed to gloss over. Finn couldn't fire on the captive village at the end of the first raid. The only trauma we saw was a trooper near him got hit and he tried to get him down into cover. But the man bled and died trying to give Finn some kind of sign. Now I have to read between lines here. But solely from the movie it seems like this was Finn's buddy. This is the guy you watch his back and he watches yours. This was his emotional center in combat, his unit boiled down. When he was gone he felt lost and unsure. The threat of punishment while coping is what drove him toward desertion. It also shows a why to latching onto Rey. First he sees someone being jumped. Something that may have happened during off hours or during training. And he was used to helping his buddy or his buddy helping him. When she didn't need help he stopped. When they were able to flee he did. But when his new buddy is in trouble. He hurries back to what is normal to him.
The problem with my entire second paragraph is I am trying to fit his actions into the kind of parameters that someone that has never known civilian life might take. And as far as I know, Soldier did a better job since it was the premise.

I really like this explanation. It would certainly explain why he latches onto Rey if there is now a large (perhaps guilty) hole in his heart.

[Deledrius]

Let me remind people that what makes her fail as trainer/brainwasher even bigger is that those weren't even conscripts but people that were taken as kids from they parents to become FO's Stormtroopers. So based on that Finn should have had same unquestioning loyalty towards FO as every other FO's Stormtrooper. So even with all added lore to her character she is failure as Stormtrooper captain and trainer. Which makes her having that special armor made from armor plating of Emperor's personal ship even more confusing.

That is one of the biggest plot holes with Finn's backstory as presented and why the promised attention towards the Stormtroopers as people never being realised is so irksome. Why is Finn special? Why did his brainwashing not work?

When I watched the film for the first time, the scene read to me as during that moment of mass-murder, Finn's conditioning broke: The Force was Awakened in him, and he became a unique human instead of a Stormtrooper in that moment. There are several other scenes in TFA that seem to play with it, for instance his timing on closing the doors to save them from the Rathtars. It felt as if the first film were leading into some kind of re-awakening for the Force in a new generation of people, not just Rey.

But then TLJ happened, so...

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

When I watched the film for the first time, the scene read to me as during that moment of mass-murder, Finn's conditioning broke: The Force was Awakened in him, and he became a unique human instead of a Stormtrooper in that moment. There are several other scenes in TFA that seem to play with it, for instance his timing on closing the doors to save them from the Rathtars. It felt as if the first film were leading into some kind of re-awakening for the Force in a new generation of people, not just Rey.

But then TLJ happened, so...

I'm rewatching TFA for the first time I think.

Does Poe have an awakening?

[Worffan101]

No, this is not another Star Wars hate thread. I am now quite burned out from that for the time being. My question relates to one of curiosity: what is the point of this character? What does she do that ultimately a random Stormtrooper could not have done instead? Was does she do that Hux could not have done instead?

Let me see if I remember correctly: She suspects Finn has had a breakdown, gives over the codes to help destroy him the Mega Death Star, and then nearly manages to decapitate Rose and Finn. That's largely it. MAYBE this character will still be alive come 9, but having survived both the destruction of Mega Death Star and the end of TLJ, it is stretching it somewhat.

And to just show how I am not all hate, I thought the concept of a Stormtrooper in cool armour and with some actual personality was not a bad idea. She could have been a real rival for Finn. But as it is, she is probably the most underused of all Star Wars characters in terms of build-up to payoff.

The simplest answer, which is probably the right one, is that JJ Abrams created a "mysterious" character without planning to explain her at all, and called it a day.

[Deledrius]

When I watched the film for the first time, the scene read to me as during that moment of mass-murder, Finn's conditioning broke: The Force was Awakened in him, and he became a unique human instead of a Stormtrooper in that moment. There are several other scenes in TFA that seem to play with it, for instance his timing on closing the doors to save them from the Rathtars. It felt as if the first film were leading into some kind of re-awakening for the Force in a new generation of people, not just Rey.

But then TLJ happened, so...

I'm rewatching TFA for the first time I think.

Does Poe have an awakening?

I don't think so, but given that he was a fairly late re-addition to the surviving cast and doesn't have much screen time, he's basically a named good-guy mook in TFA. Finn and Rey are the characters with a journey in that story, and they both appear to have force-sensitive moments throughout, even up to the final snowy battle.

The simplest answer, which is probably the right one, is that JJ Abrams created a "mysterious" character without planning to explain her at all, and called it a day.

This is, sadly, the answer to probably all of the intriguing aspects of TFA.