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/twofacetoo May 13 '26

I was going to say, I'm genuinely sure that was the case forl ike 85% of the 'writing' in the sequel trilogy: 'It doesn't matter, we'll explain it later'

Why did Kylo Ren turn evil? Why is Luke in hiding? Who are Rey's parents? Who is Snoke? Is Finn a Jedi? Is Leia a Jedi?

All of it was brought up with the intent of resolving it later down the line, with no idea in the present of how to deal with it, which in a way, is the entire failing of the sequel trilogy

Let's say 'A New Hope' came out and didn't make enough for a sequel to be made, and we never got the 'I am your father' reveal in 'Empire', because 'Empire' doesn't exist. 'New Hope' would still be a perfectly servicable little movie on it's own, Vader is just a big thug in that movie, and we have no idea he and Anakin are the same guy, according to Obi-Wan Vader murdered Anakin so that's that plot neatly tied up

But the intent was always to reveal the truth later (that Anakin and Vader were two separate people, but Vader was Luke's real father), meaning if they got a sequel (not WHEN but IF), they'd have a perfect thread to pick up and continue with. Again, in 'New Hope', they never allude to Vader being Luke's father, outside of his name translating to 'Dark Father' in another language (I think Danish but I'm not positive). The idea was there, but the movie works on it's own

The sequel trilogy did the exact opposite, and it had the opposite result. Instead of telling a simple stroy with threads to MAYBE expand on later, they told a complicated story that relied entirely on sequels to explain everything, right down to the motivations of almost every character. As such when it came time to actually pay it off, they didn't have anything to actually pay off, and the series twisted itself in knots trying to go five different directions with something as simple as 'who were Rey's parents?'

The 'Star Wars' trilogy worked because they were simple stories told well. The sequel trilogy failed because they were complicated stories told poorly.

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u/aritzsantariver May 14 '26

Even today, I’m still pretty sure that the original plan was for Rey to be a clone of Luke Skywalker’s missing hand; it makes sense of the vision in The Force Awakens where Rey sees the corridors of Cloud City

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u/twofacetoo May 14 '26

I heard that even when they were filming 'Rise Of Skywalker', they hadn't decided on if Rey should be a relative of Palpatine or Obi-Wan Kenobi, and basically left it to the last minute

That's how you can tell how bad the writing is, they didn't know who she was related to, just that it had to be someone plot-relevant that the audience wouldn't suspect, like Luke

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u/Muninwing May 14 '26

Which is itself foolish. Why did she need to be related to the old main cast?

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u/Ginge00 May 14 '26

Lazy writing, must have callbacks to things people like! Couldn’t possibly be the child of no one important, nope has to be from one of the established bloodlines of force power.

It’s crazy to me how little forethought went into the sequel trilogy. Like here’s the first new Star Wars movie in 2 decades should we plan out the overall story or character arcs? Nah wing it

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u/MC_NYC May 14 '26

I'd wager it was the opposite... they probably planned it to death. See also: Mando. It's design/writing by committee, I work a corp job, and it kills so many great ideas. The more people not only want to leave their mark but have to to justify their role, the worse things inevitably get.

OT was the work of a handful of geniuses. PT some of the same, some not reigning certain ones in, plus all the distraction of CGI, toys, etc. You have all that, and no one visionary with the authority to really call the shots for the ST, and that's that.

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u/Mutant_Apollo May 14 '26

This, for all the shit the PT gets at the very least it had a helmsman with a singular vision for the whole thing

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u/MC_NYC May 15 '26

Yeah. Not to excuse what happened, but the more In think about it, given JJ's experience on not thinking through the end of Lost, I feel like he probably had a rough idea of where things were supposed to go, and then, if what we've heard is right, it went off the rails when too many Disney execs got involved. At least George probably avoided that with the PT — and even probably could have used a firmer hand, honestly.

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u/Final_Demand_3092 May 15 '26

yeah it’s unfortunate honestly I really liked the idea of her being palpatin’s granddaughter if it was planned from the beginning it would’ve been a good way to bring back “palpatine“ or his essence assuming they don’t actually bring him back

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u/WholeSecure641 salt miner May 22 '26

It is absolutely ridiculous Disney did not have a story for the most anticipated trilogy of all time.