I have only one issue concerning Phasma in TFA

Here's the thing if you read between the lines. when the new cast was first announced in April 2014 there were 7 people. Ridley, Boyega, Driver, Von Sydrow, Gleeson, Serkis and Oscar Isaac.

We didn't know it but at the time, Lupita was going through final negotiations for Maz. When the first new 7 cast were announced most were happy. But there was a hailstorm of complaints in the media about only 1 new female with 6 new males (public wasnt aware that Daisy was the lead hero so (I'm not going to say feminists) aggressive people were yelling at Disney and Lucasfilm for this. (notice the difference in announcing Rogue One cast where we know ahead of time that Felicity is the lead)

Lucasfilm announced there was still 1 more female role to be announced (Lupita). But the public wasn't buying it and complained even more.

enter Kennedy who saw a scrapped concept art costume for Kylo Ren. "We need to put this in the movie."
Even though the scripts done and filming is already well underway in Abu Dhabi.

Meanwhile, Gwendoline Christie had continually asked Lucasfilm if there were any parts in any of the new Star Wars movies (including anthologies) she could audition for.

Kathleen Kennedy then came up with the brilliant idea to combine 3 things: the scrapped Kylo Ren costume, Gwendoline Christie wanting any sort of part in the movie, shutting down the public uproar of so little female presence in the movie (since they can't reveal the movie is about Rey yet). Thus Phasma was born and replaced just a random stormtrooper red shoulder squad leader in the script. (originally Finn, Han and Chewie took down the shields another way, see concept art)

Thus with Lupita's contract done, Lucasfilm announced Lupita and Gwendoline's addition to the film at the same time. In order to shut the Star-wars-hates-women-crowd-up.

So you see Phasma was literally a last second addition. However, Kennedy still wanted to shut the whiners up. So she invited Gwendoline on the press tour even though she has less of a part than Unkar Plutt or the guy who plays Bala-Tik.

In conclusion Gwendoline was told to hype her part up and have these interviews because of gender politics. On the positive side, Rian Johnson probably had enough time to give her an actual realized role in the episode viii script.

--- Double Post Merged, May 21, 2016, Original Post Date: May 21, 2016 ---

 

On top of that Captain Phasma is now discredited by that traitorious move of her shutting down the shields. Really? She coulnd´t activate some kind of distress signal or call at the same time? It makes her look weak and incapable of an higher officer...

Getting killed was no option. But it could have made her look at least loyal and strong till the end. I really hope her revenge is making it up that fatal mistake for good.

 

Only positive thing I can think about this is that it shows Phasma isn't a brainwashed fanatic like the stormtroopers or a megalomaniac like Hux.

 

one gets the impression that for all of its roots in the Empire and dedication to the notion of order, the FO is anything but orderly (look at the behavior of its top officers, look at the chicken running off the deck at the end, and their Stormtrooper program is an experiment--none of their methods are tried and true).

maybe Phasma's behavior shouldn't actually surprise us--or won't when we see what the outfit looks like post-Starkiller.

 

Where as the Empire thought they were infallible, the First Order (or at least their officers) know that they're not since the Empire lost before.

 

amen, the armor is actually still mighty attractive, it's just not needlessly sexualized ~ that was the point.

 

Its Chrome...Naturally its sexy...More so on her.

 

i didn't even know Phasma was a woman until i heard her speak the first time i saw the movie.
the chrome was sexy when i thought she was a man and it was still sexy when i realized she was a woman ~ hahaha.

 

she was criminally underused in TFA, but that's because we've been following the news about this film for the last 2+ years. for the casual, average fan, she was probably satisfactory. i'm sure they've heard our complaints and she'll probably have a more prominent role throughout the rest of the trilogy. moving on...........

 

She has to have an amplified role in the next movie or the character and the visual of a chrome Storm Trooper was all a waste. They're going to have to show her actualy demonstrating skill sets (it's close to the same complaint I had about Finn). What exactly is the significance of a Chrome Storm Trooper, being made that conspicuous, if they don't open a can of serious whoop @$$? Like we need to see why Phasma is special. During the marketing I thought her character would develop a Boba Fett type following, but they haven't the given the character anything to warrant it. They're going to have to in Episode 9 or she's going to be a waste.

 

I'm also pretty sure that Disney wrote all of those statements for her.

 

Hum, as a uniform maniac, I found that this chrome outfit was much too "flash gordonesque" and a sad departure from the very realistic Empire uniforms originally conceived by a noted uniformologist John Mollo in OT (which have many references to imperial German Army, IIIrd Reich and Japanese one + medieval armours). Even if it is now the First order, the rest of the styleretained a bit of the old cuts, but Phasma was a fancy and sexy unnecessary departure. As for the role itself, i would have loved to see it more fleshed out...

 

As a fan of Game of Thrones, I was very disappointed I didn't get to see Gwendoline kick ass. EpVIII needs to have her and Finn really go at each other in this big epic fight.