Star Wars fans were fascinated by Supreme Leader Snoke in The Force Awakens. Even after he died in The Last Jedi, we expected Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker to dive into his backstory. Of course, the conclusion to the Skywalker saga actually ended up retconning him as a puppet of Palpatine. The exact relationship between them was left vague, but Snoke clone bodies found at the Emperor’s temple and a line where the villain impersonated Snoke heavily suggested he was not a truly sentient being and somehow controlled by Palpatine through the Force.
This new theory, however, challenges this interpretation and comes up with some evidence that supports the idea that Snoke actually was his own person, just someone loyal to Palpatine and willing to do his bidding. Redditor r/skywalkinondeezhatrz starts by arguing that Sidious’s line to Kylo Ren – “I have been every voice inside your head” – tells us he only impersonated Snoke in Kylo’s mind, via a psychic Force connection.
This means the real Snoke was his own man. The theorist points to Snoke’s changing temperament and moments of anger in TLJ which don’t fit Palpatine’s personality. Perhaps the best bit of evidence is that Rise of Skywalker revolves around the idea that Palpatine can only possess a body of the same DNA as him – maybe he could’ve possessed Kylo, too, but only through the Sith ritual. In other words, he couldn’t have possessed Snoke as he doesn’t share his DNA.
What this means, according to this theory, is that Snoke must’ve been a disciple of Palpatine’s. In The Rise of Kylo Ren comics, Snoke tells Kylo that he “witnessed the rise and fall of the Galactic Empire” and that “I was not born Snoke. I became Snoke.” Perhaps this means that Snoke’s original form died and Palpatine used his knowledge of “essence transfer” to place his consciousness into a new clone body. Or perhaps he’d been taught to do it himself by his master.
This is certainly a fascinating idea that goes some way to making Snoke interesting again, but what do you think of this Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker theory? Let us know in the usual place below.
