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No Snoke Without Fire: The Failure of The DT and how it should have been crafted

posted 5 years ago by FootOfDavros (8716)
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TROS's retconning of Snoke as a Palpatine puppet clone is hilarious, not only because it's just plain stupid but also it makes one of TFA's most incredulous moments seem all the more ridiculous....

Thanks for joining me friends. In this seminal edition of FootOfDavros explains how it should have been done I shall explain how Snoke should have handled; his backstory explained and the set up of him as the ultimate evil to be defeated in the sequel trilogy. Walk with me and cherish the experience as we go on this spiritual journey of discovery together...

But first let us have a quick laugh looking back retrospective at TFA's Snoke set up and his part in Ben Solo's Kylo Rening.

"It wasn't your fault, it was all because of that Snoke" rasped Princess Leia between heavy drawings of her favourite Benson & Hedges brand.

That, taken directly from TFA script, always made one laugh, provoking as it did images of a young Ben Skywalker being taken off - with Han and Leia's blessing - for playtime (or something?!) - by good old "friendly looking" giant Uncle Snoke with his loving parents waving them off! But now, thanks to the retcon, it turns out he was a puppet clone. Meaning the dude just appeared out of thin air as some old scarred (why?) figure, presumably into some senior position within the Republic, despite having absolutely no background whatever! No one's asking "hey, where'd this guy come from?" "Yeah, sure he looks a bit creepy but what the hell..." Absolutely ridiculous to consider this guy would have been anywhere near Ben Solo or any other kiddies whatsoever!

"Smashing! But what's this got to do with how they should have used Snoke FootOfDavros?" I heard you cry. Well, fear not eager young readers, for now I shall explain:-

How Snoke Should Have Gone Down

For us to consider this properly, we must examine the teachings of the OT and what that meant the story framework to the ST should have been.

The teachings of the OT

The OT has no Jedi popping up randomly anywhere. The story is a simple one that the Jedi have been wiped out and that Luke is their "last hope" (later retconned to include his twin Leia). Vader and (later retconned to include) Palpatine are the only two "evil" Jedi. They are both killed at the end of ROTJ. Thus Luke and Leia are the last significantly powerful force enabled beings left. And given the Skywalkers being the "last hopes" this also tells us that, according to strict OT scripture, force ability / strength is inherited.

Thus the OT informs us that any powerful force users we see in any sequel trilogy must in a natural sense be descendants of the Skywalkers. This could mean twins / cousins or any combination thereof solely from Luke or Leia. This should have been the background of the characters we are now familiar with from these sequels, Rey and Ben Skywalker. On this basis we could have had the exact same yin yang played out between the pair but within the established rules set by the OT.

The problem of Snoke

Now as to Snoke himself - or whatever he / she may have been called in a properly constructed storyline. Palpatine is gone, Vader is gone, there are no other Jedi to fall. Therefore how and where can this individual have risen from in order to take a position of eminence within this trilogy and indeed lead the fallen Skywalker? Here is the answer you have been seeking my friends:-

Snoke should have been a former non force user, perhaps close to Palpatine, certainly an Imperial, who, perhaps following injury, harboured resentment after the fall of the Empire. The Empire failed him. As a former Imperial, the new Republic also failed him. He vowed to build a new Empire for those on the edge / with no place now like him.

So how did he land up with great force powers?

The best way to have achieved this would have been a backstory involving a similarly displaced (following the Empire's demise) shadowy body of disciples of the Sith. Through their scriptures, they believed there was a manner to extract force potential from a creature's body / bodies and transfer it to another host. Snoke, with his almost pious belief in the rising of a new Empire, was the perfect chosen recipient of the result of this unnatural scheming.

We now have an organic tale featuring a fallen Skywalker and his / her new force powered master. A master who knows his own powers may be transient, fed by a horrific vampirical production line (which the discovery of would have featured as a powerful conclusion to the middle act of the trilogy) and grudgingly reliant upon the genuine, unyielding power of his apprentice to tackle both Luke Skywalker and his counterpart apprentice, the non fallen Skywalker child.

To be continued...

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Where's the video link, then?

[–] FootOfDavros (8716) 5 years ago

There is no video link. Simply the truth as is written here.

[–] FootOfDavros (8716) 5 years ago

Part Two

"Wow. Gee FootOfDavros - that actually sounds real swell! You have managed to design a new main threat, actually tied in with the fall of the Empire in the OT - without conveniently ignoring it to have a "First Order" being there just because... And you have established his relationship and reason he sought that relationship straight off that bat. Sounds great! But tell me, how would this Snoke tie in with the Skywalkers and the rest of the story?"

Fear not young reader, for I shall tell you...

How this "Snoke" would have played out in an authentic Sequel Trilogy

[–] Forky (1739) 5 years ago

Dumb Snoke, Go Broke!

[–] kuku (3510) 5 years ago

Not a bad idea.

The force could have even be transferred from the rests of Palpatine. That would have created a new lore: it's not enough to kill a sith, it's necessary to destroy his body and burn it into ashes, as a vampire, so other Sith can't absorb their power. Since the Force is supposedly created by living beings, the key difference between a Sith and a Jedi could be that the Sith can take the life (and powers) not only from the Force, but from living beings too, as a vampire. That would fit with the skill to absorb the power from a dead Sith.

[–] BurningSun (717) 5 years ago

Snoke should have never existed, period. Episode 7 should’ve started off with a peaceful galaxy where the Jedi Council has somewhat been restored. Maybe a new evil source rises and the film ends with the Jedi in peril of being eliminated.

[–] CoachGainz (453) 5 years ago

Agreed. We are suppose to just accept that the first order lead by Snoke is a thing. There's no explanation of where they come from, why they are established, how they're funded, what support they have, why they are at odds the republic. Are they just soldiers that live on star destroyers for the sole purpose of going around to fight the rebels ( I mean resistance) ?

It's just thrust on us. These are the new bad guys. They are a lot like the Empire with the same soldiers, ships, and death stars. They have an old deformed force leader that's a lot like the Emperor. Which is actually okay when it was introduced but you have to follow up on that with backing that's interesting or at-least makes sense.

Disney: Okay we bought SW so make a SW movie. You know like they have the bad empire with a death star and there's a good guy that finds the rebels and they blow up the death, all that stuff.

Writers: Well, okay but the Empire was defeated and all the bad guys died in the last installment. So we are going to have to formulate what has happened to the Galaxy in the last 30 years. What the fall of the empire has meant and how our characters are progressing. What new adventures and challenges they have to face.

Disney: No, I remember the last movie had the Emperor and Dark Vader taking power. Now we have to show the good guys beating them and return good back to Universe.

Writers: Ummm, that was actually a prequel to the Original SW movie.

Disney: Oh, okay. Hmmm well, we are still going to need it to be a SW movie like the old ones (People like the old ones right?). Alright I got it, bring the Empire back just call it something else like the new empire and make a new bad guy who looks like the Emperor and another one who looks like Dark Vader. I'll let you name.

Writers: Okay, so you basically want to remake SW

Disney: Yes! Haven't you been listening? Make a SW movie. You know, with those X looking planes and the Tie flyers. Dark Vader and Luke Skywalker.

[–] FootOfDavros (8716) 5 years ago

Well said. Very good explanation of why what we got was rubbish.

I remember after TFA came out there was a very funny image on twitter doing the rounds showing the basic plot outline of ANH and the names of characters / places simply being scored out and replaced with TFA's stuff.

But still I admit that I still gave TFA a pass at that point. It threw us straight in the midst of a story set in that new order of things. Maybe that film itself didn't have to explain how the galaxy was in it's current state but the next one certainly needed to.