Snoke and Palpatine were NOT the same person MasterPost
YES - This material/direct quotes have appeared in other posts. But I found MORE evidence/interpretive material that I wanted to share, but it wouldn’t have been right to just cram it all into the other post (which shared room with other plot-points). So weee! New post dedicated to the topic!
Point #1: They had different motivations...
The phantom emperor wanted to possess Rey. Snoke wanted to kill her. The intentions completely contradict each other. The phantom admitted his orders to have Kylo kill Rey was all a ruse. But that is vastly different from Snoke being fully prepared to kill Rey himself, and his guards moving in to kill her even after the Supreme Leader’s death. This proves that, artificial life or not, Snoke was more than a mere puppet.
Point #2: Beyond just different motivations, they were at odds with one another...
Let’s first consider how the officer’s of the First Order respond to the news of Palpatine and Exegol.
The only people in the room that have any clue as to what is going on with Palpatine is Kylo and Pryde. Even at that, when Pryde gives is support of utilizing the fleet, he doesn’t even bring up the phantom emperor. Despite sharing an ideology of human superiority and identifying with the attributes of the Imperial Empire (i.e “death stars,” storm troopers, tie fighters, etc), the First Order has been so far separated from the Emperor, that when he reappeared, all of these other higher up officers were just surprised and confused. This indicates that Snoke didn’t just warm the seat for Palpatine. He conducted a hostile take over, and buried him.
Granted we’ve had similar comments like this made on the part of officers who weren’t super ‘up to date’ on the mysterious ways of the force...
However ^this^ is an example of a skeptic. Whereas what we see in ROS is an example of a skeptic AND someone who is totally confused.
For some additional evidence to this point, let’s consider the nature of Palpatine’s personality. Case in point: Leia’s “Always from the shadows line” was used to describe Palpatine, per Disney’s attempt to shoehorn in a Leia plot post Carrie Fisher’s death. And yes, Palpatine does like his shadows, and he was the puppeteer of everything during the Clone Wars, so it works in that sense. Buuut...let’s have a quick look of what we see of the Emperor after his great plan succeeded...
Spotlights, appearances before massive crowds, statues, throne rooms in a giant battle station to oversee something personally. Palpatine was an arrogant show off, and his “working from the shadows” entailed a good deal of diabolical laughter, finger wiggling, and sparks of flashy electricity, all before a showboating public appearance. The only time Palpatine was truly secretive, was when he was FORCED to.
We also know that Palpatine only revealed himself AFTER Snoke died (to say nothing of Pryde’s, a Palpatine loyalist, sudden involvement at the same time). Now, this either means that all those battleships were magically ready right after the Supreme Leader bit it. Or...it means that Palpatine had been lucky enough to have an obstacle cleared for him, so he could swoop in, and take the spotlight once again.
Point #3: They had different personalities...
There are key personality differences here. Restraint while demonstrating power, versus no restraint at all. Sneaky, quiet manipulation, verses straight up abuse. Similar to how Palpatine would never, in a million years, let someone else take credit for his work, it’s also highly unlikely he merely “puppeted” someone with such a vastly different set of characteristics.
Point #4: They shared an origin, not a mind...
There are plenty of contradictions in the Sequels. But we’re going to work with what they gave us to make a point:
- “Snoke trained you well” (Not I trained you well. Snoke. Despite what mental overlaps, or lack thereof, existed, Palpatine acknowledged he an Snoke’s distinction from one another).
- “I made Snoke.” (The original Palpatine initiated the project to return himself to life. So it makes sense that the phantom emperor, who believed himself to be the original, would claim credit for Snoke’s creation. Although, considering we have previous attempts at Snoke in a test-tube, and Palpatine hardwired to a life support machine, I’m going to guess that the line between creator and creation is a little blurrier than what the phantom would have others believe).
- “I have been every voice inside your head.” (Palpatine being able to mimic Vader doesn’t make him Vader. So him mimicking Snoke doesn’t make him Snoke. But he had to solidify himself as to end all be all to Kylo’s story, as a means to his ends, so the lie was created. What? Palpatine? Lying? Wild...).
*That’s it for now, I’ll add more if I find more
