Why we think that it was dumb luck that Phasma’s armour doesn’t feature breasts.

Originally posted: http://www.inafarawaygalaxy.com/2015/12/why-we-think-that-it-was-dumb-luck-that.html

News that Captain Phasma was originally intended to be played by a male makes us wonder about the true story of the development of the design of the character’s chrome armour.
Much ado was made of Gwendoline Christie’s character being a female and a strong female villain at that. Let’s be clear, this is a great thing for Star Wars. A leap into the 21st century where girl power is not a singing phenomenon from Britain but an expectation of many discerning film fans that the films they love have strong, well developed and meaningful female characters. 
You might recall how the official Star Wars site did somesocial media when a fan attempted to not be sexist but totally succeeded:

But he got smashed in reply: “It’s armour. On a woman. It doesn’t have to look feminine.”

We’re not disputing that the armour doesn’t need to reflect the female form but we’re wondering what dumb luck lead to that to be the case. 
We understand that it was a last minute decision in the few weeks prior to the filming of the Force Awakens that lead to Christie being cast as Captain Phasma. At this point the film was well down the production path and the designs for Phasma were probably done and it is quite PROBABLE that the costume for Captain Phasma had  already been made.

TFA writer Lawrence Kasdan has said the choice for Christie to be the Captain came after there were loud rumblings on the net that Rey was seemingly the only new female for the franchise.

Indeed, JJ Abrams has said that the chrome suit was original under consideration as a concept for how Kylo Ren would look.

If this theory is correct, it was dumb luck that meant that Phasma’s chrome form was more ‘masculine’  and not designed in the more traditional feminine style. Which means the whole “It doesn’t have to look feminine” retort is possibly too cute – only in the sense that it was lucky that the design was as such prior to Christie being cast.

Who knew what the designers would have come up with for Phasma if they knew the character would be played by a female. Breast armour? We can only but speculate.

We could of course be absolutely completely wrong as one wonders that the physical suit could have needed to be adjusted / fashioned depending on whomever was cast so it was possibly ripe for any shape or size of person.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter that it was dumb luck (or not). That’s just an amusing thought that’s only based on the speculation of this writer.
We actually think people love Phasma on first sight because the armour actually looks amazing and when we first saw her walking towards the camera in the second film trailer, we got that instant menacing vibe, the kind we got when we first saw Darth Maul ignite his red double light saber. 
Let’s hope the character actually delivers some kick ass in the film. 
The real last thought should be left to Gwendoline Christie who will forever own this character:

“And the reason I love my character so much and I feel so enthusiastic about Captain Phasma is, yes, she’s cool, she looks cool, she’s a villain — but more than that, we see a female character and respond to her not because of the way she looks.

We respond to her because of her actions. I think we’re a society that has promoted a homogenized idea of beauty in women — and in men — and I think it’s really interesting, modern and necessary to have a female character that isn’t about the way her body looks.

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