What was the point of Captain Phasma?

[cilantro]

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.

Okay so to show you that I am not all hate either I would say that TFA DID plant some interesting plot seeds but they were never fully explored. AND (trying to not put spoilers for Skywalker in here) if that was what JJ originally wanted then I would say that it was a dumb idea from the start. But still, TFA had some decent to good concepts but a lot were just wasted. Like BB8 was a decent concept for a droid. Also, having Finn as a former Stromtrooper that came over to the good side was a good concept. My guess was that Captain Phasma was another good concept that got wasted and was probably originally tied to Finn and his background. For the last two movies, we were given that Finn was probably a big screw-up, as a Stromtrooper, and that he was put on janitorial duty as a form of punishment. Phasma was (I guess) his direct superior officer and she was probably the one to put him on janitorial duty in the first place. My only guess was that they failed to flesh out both Phasma and Finn and instead they both became a joke. Phasma was only really used as a joke (as in) it looked like she died and instead she just came back again, to die again. Also, I would say that Gwendoline Christie just sold her character really well to the media.