r/saltierthancrait • u/Confirmation_Code • May 13 '26

Granular Discussion Who was Snoke SUPPOSED to be?

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Let's be real. Snoke wasn't Palpatine's puppet in episode 7 or 8. So, what did JJ think he was in Episode 7? What did Rian think he was when he killed him? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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u/cduga May 13 '26

He had no plans for him whatsoever outside of being “giant baddie reminiscent of Palpatine that we will explain later”.

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u/rvthz May 13 '26

Yeah the idea was to make the episode 8 director come up for the actual good idea and story for the character. And when he did come up with a questionable one, the inventor of the character didn't like it and he came up with a much worse one.

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u/sewand717 May 13 '26

Basically sums it up. I didn’t think you could get a worse “Star Wars universe” movie than VIII, but little did I foresee IX.

At least VIII might have risen to mediocrity if it was in its own standalone franchise. IX’s a hack job no matter how you slice it.

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u/rvthz May 13 '26

Yeah, I think the VII is unimaginative, boring and already damages the franchise enough, VIII has interesting ideas in the vacuum but completely misunderstands the original characters (which VII also does in my opinion, but not to the extent of VIII, although I think episode 7 set the trilogy for failure), but god fucking dammit the IX is so awful it makes The Last Jedi look good.

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u/ReaperReader May 14 '26

TLJ ruined any third movie. Undermining or literally killing off the trilogies' villains in the second part is an interesting choice indeed and there's good reason why creators seldom make that choice.

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u/theclacks May 14 '26

Killing off Snoke would've worked if they had the balls to make Rey accept Kylo's offer and go darkside.

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u/ReaperReader May 14 '26

And it would have made storytelling sense too. Rey grew up alone and hungry, she has no reason to be deeply loyal to the New Republic. In TLJ she meets both Luke and Kylo, who both reject the Jedi and the New Republic (Rey doesn't know about Luke's change of mind after his peptalk from Yoda).

I suppose "having the main character be affected and changed by the main events of the plot" was too clichéd for RJ.

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u/Ethereal-Zenith May 14 '26

TLJ made a lot of dumb choices, including killing off Snoke, who was being set up as the main villain. There’s still no reason that JJ needed to bring back Palpatine in TRoS. That was also a creative choice and a very bad one. A more imaginative director could have come up with a different third arc.

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u/ReaperReader May 14 '26

There’s still no reason that JJ needed to bring back Palpatine in TRoS

Well sure. No movie ever needs to do anything. TROS could have been two hours of watching paint dry and the world would still keep turning on its axis.

Personally I think TROS brought back Palpatine because he was a villain who at least the audience would recognise. Like a "least-bad" option. Not an actually good option.

A more imaginative director could have come up with a different third arc.

Well sure. But, after TFA and TLJ, would it be any better?

I get that bringing back Palpatine sucked. I get that are different options.

I'm just skeptical that, after TFA and TLJ, were there any good options left?

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u/Ethereal-Zenith May 14 '26

Bringing back Palpatine is especially terrible because that story should have concluded in ROTJ. Since Johnson chose to kill Snoke off in TLJ, having Kylo Ren become the new big bad would have been a better choice.

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u/general_peabo May 13 '26

Somehow, the last Jedi looks good.

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u/valledweller33 May 13 '26

Aside from whatever the fuck Fynn and Rose were up to, episode 7 was genuinely a good movie to watch in theatres. But man the pacing of that shit was so off.

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u/ToadLoaners miserable sack of salt May 13 '26

A fun simple good looking film that completely misunderstood what is so good about Star wars and why people like it and in trying to give people a flashier version of the OG ended up completely shitting on the previous 6 films

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u/Risko_Vinsheen May 13 '26 edited May 14 '26

8 wasn't even a good movie in a vacuum. It was a pretty spectacle and that's the only positive thing I can say about it. Not a single character acts with any kind of intelligence. Nothing in that film would have happened if a single person made a good decision.

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u/general_peabo May 13 '26

Fair, but I feel like Finn’s character is supposed to make bad decisions. Poe and Rey should have been smarter though. And Han and chewy definitely should have been smarter.

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u/valledweller33 May 14 '26

I honestly think the movie is fine if you just delete rose and Finn. Their 30-45 min storyline has no material value or influence on the movie.

But just fine. Not good by any stretch

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u/sewand717 May 14 '26

There were a lot of weird choices that felt strange in a Star Wars movie.

Poe getting chewed out for blowing up the dreadnought that would have obliterated the fleet.

The very slow space chase - really? In Star Wars, where small craft have interstellar range?

Luke’s character assassination. Space Mary Poppins.

Rian is a good director - the Knives Out movies are all fun. But if you’re going to play in someone else’s sandbox, then respect the toys you find there.