For "Star Wars" fans and laser-lovers alike, The Force Awakens was one of the biggest movies of the decade. Superfans waited 40 years to find out what happened to Luke Skywalker, while the younger generation sat and waited for the next installment of their favorite series. As a huge "Star Wars" fanatic myself, I was extremely pleased with the movie. Even more pleasurable was the return of Harrison Ford, Carrie Fischer, and Mark Hammil. Equally exciting was the apparent break-up of monotony with a Black lead and a Female lead. With Padme and Leia being the only females of note and Lando and Mace Windu being the only black characters of note, a concept of both types of people garnering the lead in one of the biggest movie franchises in history was both perplexing and long-overdue. Along with Rey, our favorite junk-toting orphan, there was a promise of another character. A badass chrome stormtrooper known only as Captain Phasma, or, as I call her, Brienne of Darth.
Those of you who have had the pleasure of watching "Game of Thrones" know just how astoundingly awesome Gwendolyn Christie is. For those of you who don't know, Christie plays the incredibly strong female character, Brienne of Tarth. Brienne is nothing less than a hero in the series, and even though everyone has a different character within the series that garners their personal hatred for one reason or another *cough, cough* Joffrey, Brienne of Tarth is almost never on that list.
To avoid spoilers, I'll keep her character information largely broad. For the most part, she serves the right people, with a loyalty few humans possess. However, even though her heart is in the place of justice and truth, her sword is always in some one's belly. Brienne is nothing short of a killing machine. Her enormous stature and incredible strength give her the advantage over the standard male opponents and she dispatches them with ease. If she was this good at mowing down enemies as a hero, she'd make for the perfect ruthless villain, right?
Enter Phasma, a character with so much potential and hype, it practically oozes out the cracks in her shiny chrome armor. Given Brienne's penchant for killing as a hero, one would think Disney would not waste this opportunity to create the first female villain of Star Wars. Given the hype and the fact that really no other clone or stromtrooper in the galaxy ever had armor this drastically different from the others, it would certainly be logical for Disney to make a lasting character with a huge part in the movie. Well, you'd be wrong.
Not only was Phasma not a main character, her name was only mentioned in the movie once. Once! In addition to this, she is only in two, maybe three scenes in the entire movie with less than 10 lines of dialogue and no notable on-screen kills. She is there only to look important and authoritative and even downright stuffy. She has zero character development. Absolutely zilch. This was the main aspect of the movie I was disappointed with. A chrome stormtrooper? Hell, yeah! A chrome stormtrooper with no character development and laughable screen time with clunky dialogue? Why do you tease me so? Forgive me for being excited for the first female villain since the dopey Zam Wessel who couldn't even kill a sleeping woman with insta-death poison worms.
Phasma could easily have been the cool, calculating, ruthless individual that perfectly countered and simultaneously augmented Kylo Ren's sporadic and emotional demeanor. Instead she takes her one order from Kylo, barks at Finn, and loses her battles—every time. The potential for a character played by TV and film's strongest actress is limitless, wasted on the overhyped Phasma. Perhaps Disney is playing a game with us, leading to her actually having some importance. Regardless of there plans, I'd rather not be played with. You keep your game of clones, Disney—I'll stick with "Game of Thrones" for my Gwendoline Christie fix.
