What was the point of Captain Phasma?

[Mecha82]

I don't see how anyone can hate Finn considering that he is character who has had his character development best shown on screen making me want to see what is done with him in Rise of Skywalker. Plus he is very likeable.

[Deledrius]

I don't see how anyone can hate Finn considering that he is character who has had his character development best shown on screen making me want to see what is done with him in Rise of Skywalker. Plus he is very likeable.

Finn and Rey are my favorite of the new characters.

I could take or leave the rest, but you can't remove Rey and Finn and keep the heart of TFA. They're likable and interesting, unlike Hux, Kylo, Snoke, Poe, and the rest who are either unlikable (Kylo) or just boring (Poe) or both (Hux). Phasma was, as discussed, pointless in the story and seems to only exist to be a cool-looking Storm Trooper to make toys of. Snoke, as it turns out, was equally pointless and existed just to sell gold lamé robes. Rose is unlikable by virtue of being generally rude and unkind towards Finn, who is likable (and an established character), so that's just a writing fail. The rest of the cast is almost entirely the recurring classic characters, who are there to be Those People You Remember. So far nothing that has happened with Luke, Leia, or Han really needed it to be them, so it provided nothing except nostalgia (mostly well-done IMO) and making the SW universe quite small.

[clearspira]

Just to prove again that I don't hate everything from the new series, I like Poe and Finn. I think they are the only two characters you could lift and plonk straight into the OT without changing their backstories one bit.
I can even see how it could be done. Luke could meet Poe for the first time before taking on the Death Star or on Hoth, and Finn could have been seen for the first time on Tatooine as the Stormtroopers killed Luke's aunt and uncle and then perhaps meeting up with them again on Hoth or Cloud City wanting to join the Rebels.

[Admiral X]

I wanted to like these characters - there was potential with all of them - but the writing just pissed all that potential away, and on top of it it did real disservice to the existing characters.

[McAvoy]

I don't see how anyone can hate Finn considering that he is character who has had his character development best shown on screen making me want to see what is done with him in Rise of Skywalker. Plus he is very likeable.

Finn and Rey are my favorite of the new characters.

I could take or leave the rest, but you can't remove Rey and Finn and keep the heart of TFA. They're likable and interesting, unlike Hux, Kylo, Snoke, Poe, and the rest who are either unlikable (Kylo) or just boring (Poe) or both (Hux). Phasma was, as discussed, pointless in the story and seems to only exist to be a cool-looking Storm Trooper to make toys of. Snoke, as it turns out, was equally pointless and existed just to sell gold lamé robes. Rose is unlikable by virtue of being generally rude and unkind towards Finn, who is likable (and an established character), so that's just a writing fail. The rest of the cast is almost entirely the recurring classic characters, who are there to be Those People You Remember. So far nothing that has happened with Luke, Leia, or Han really needed it to be them, so it provided nothing except nostalgia (mostly well-done IMO) and making the SW universe quite small.

I dislike Rey due to the fact her being likable falls under the Mary Sue umbrella of how to write shit characters.

[Makeshift Python]

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.

To sell toys.

[Nealithi]

My memory is not perfect. But I thought I heard some where that the chrome trooper armor was intended for Kylo or Hux initially? And they spun the costume into a new character. What makes this a point is I think they made her as "that is an interesting idea that has not been done before". And then dropped the ball fleshing out the potential.

[McAvoy]

If she was in only TFA then it wouldn't really be an issue. Though I think it would have been better if she was the one with that pike that fought Finn. Just a shiny faceless stormtrooper commander.

Then she came back in TLJ and didn't really do anything that made her standout that any other faceless stormtrooper commander could have done.

[Jonathan101]

Just a reminder- ALL of her backstory and tie-in materials were written AFTER The Force Awakens (and prior to TLJ, I believe), and the actress herself was one of the co-writers I believe.

A lot of it was done to justify and explain why someone supposedly so fanatical devoted to the cause of TFO was such a coward, and they went with her being a sociopath to explain it.

With regards to the films themselves, I maintain my belief that they were intentionally written to be goofy and underwhelming from the very beginning to avert or deconstruct the "Evil Is Cool" trope, and this backfired because by doing so it just made the heroes look bad for failing to defeat them more easily.

With regards to Finn, the problem isn't that he isn't likeable; the problem is that people have trouble understanding WHY he is so likeable when his backstory is so bleak ("kidnapped by extremists and raised from childhood to be a living tool") and the general feeling that he'd probably make just as much sense or more if he wasn't a former Stormtrooper, which feels like a wasted idea that they never explored properly.

[CmdrKing]

That’s one reason I wish they’d tied Phasma and Finn more closely together, it would give his status as an ex-Stormtrooper more narrative weight and a means to get more into what the First Order is and why it both achieved power and is inherently self-sabotaging. Like, Phasma being a self-serving headass who is handed one of the most important positions in the Order, training/brainwashing conscripts, and fucking up so bad with Finn he goes on to be a goddamned hero for the other side? That tells you a lot about the FO! But they never really do anything to show us that!