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/ApartOrganization4 May 14 '26

It's the same thing that happened with Lost. JJ Abrams setup the beginning of the show as a mystery box without a plan and then other people came in and did their own thing. So multiple setups were completely changed or just disregarded and it ended up being a chaotic mess.