Since his introduction in The Force Awakens, but especially since his shockingly abrupt demise in The Last Jedi, the character of Snoke has been a point of controversy within the Star Wars fanbase (much like, well, everything else, but I digress). From the time he was introduced in the run up to TFA's release, Snoke was shrouded in mystery, his origin a well-kept secret. He is introduced as a literally larger than life figure, a giant Wizard of Oz like projection that towers over his apprentice Kylo Ren, deliberately invoking a comparison to Palpatine and his own wayward Skywalker, Darth Vader. Surely this mighty being, this man so great and important as to have seduced the heir of the Skywalker legacy to the dark side while leading the revanchist First Order, must have some impressive origin story or secret behind his immense power, and surely it was key to the entire narrative of this new trilogy.
Well, about that...
With a mere flick of his fingers Kylo Ren bisected Snoke and the fanbase. All of the mystery and supposedly untapped potential of this powerful character vanished with a stroke of the lightsaber. In a movie that has proven extremely polarizing, the quick execution of the enigmatic Supreme Leader has drawn a substantial amount of criticism.
Is this warranted, though? Was Snoke a character we needed to know more about? Is the story improved by either keeping him around or at least explaining his rise to power before killing him off?
No. I could simply point out how when Emperor Palpatine first made his appearance in Empire Strikes Back we knew nothing about him other than that he was the Emperor, or that by the time he was killed off (perhaps not forever, apparently) in Return of the Jedi we didn't even know his name and that worked out alright. Those arguments have been made by many people, and they are accurate, and speak to the problem that so many critics of the sequel trilogy have in that they criticize a still-in-progress narrative vs two trilogies that are complete and have had every possible detail filled in by expanded universe materials. Suffice it to say that the audience doesn't need any more of Snoke's story than they got for the plot of these films to work.
I am willing to bypass those arguments, however, and meet the critics where they are: knowing what we know after the fact regarding Emperor Palpatine, his power as a Sith, and the machinations that led him to rule over the galaxy, does the character of Snoke work without getting a similar explanation of how he ended up on the throne of the First Order?
I say yes. Snoke being little more than a bully, a mere imitation of Palpatine that badly overplayed his hand, overestimated his talent for corrupting and manipulating Ben Solo, and getting summarily dispatched for it is the best possible outcome for the character because of what it says about the First Order and what the Sequel Trilogy is saying about that organization and the nature of fascism.
Palpatine arose to power in a galaxy much different than the one Snoke knows. The old Republic, while bloated, corrupt, and often ineffective, was still, to quote the original Star Wars novelization "the Republic of legend, greater than distance or time." It had been around for thousands of years and any other form of government seemed unthinkable to the majority of the galaxy. Moreover the Sith had tried multiple times throughout history to conquer it directly by force and been defeated each time. Palpatine knew this, and had to play the long game, using the mechanisms of a liberal democracy to reach the peak of power, and then using the powers vested in him by that government to dissolve it in favor the Empire.
As we saw in the prequels and the accompanying books and tv series, this required Palpatine to be a master manipulator, a brilliant tactician, and a skilled actor as he rose slowly to the top as Kindly Senator Palpatine before letting the mask slip only after he had seized absolute power. Likewise the first iteration of the Empire was filled with former Republic officers, ostensibly "civilized" men who acted with professionalism and professed noble intentions, claiming that the chaos of the Clone Wars demonstrated the need for the firm hand of the Empire in keeping order. The entire plot of the excellent novel Lost Stars revolves around this point, following two recruits who both join the Empire with the idea of bringing order and civilization to the "lawless" galaxy only to become slowly disillusioned with the truth of the ruthless and evil organization.
Snoke, however, enters the scene long after Palpatine had broken the old Republic and the Jedi Order. He has no need to pretend he is anything other than what he is, and he has no existing order he must convince the public to abandon. We know that the New Republic of this canon was an imperfect state that never expanded to include the entirety of the territory once controlled by the Empire, and it had to contend from the start with both the Imperial Remnant that became the First Order and numerous splinter states and recalcitrant systems that benefited from the Empire and pined for the good old days. As history has shown many times, destroying democracy and stripping people of their freedom is a far easier task to accomplish than reversing that damage and creating a free and fair society out of one conditioned to authoritarianism.
Snoke, thefore, has no need for Palpatine's machiavellian ability to play the long game, his need for schemes within schemes, or his talent for deception and cunning. He did not need to hide the extent of his powers with the dark side, as Palpatine once had to in order to keep the Jedi Order from detecting him before it was too late. Snoke's task was not to convince the galaxy to embrace him as their beloved Emperor, but to convince the First Order he was the right person to help them punish their enemies. To do this he needed only raw strength and brutality to rise to the top of an organization of neo-fascists who had long since lost the manners and decorum that provided a thin veneer of civility to the first Empire.
In the first scene where we are properly introduced to the First Order and how it operates, Hux's speech before firing the Starkiller upon the Hosnian System, we are shown the new face of evil in the Star Wars galaxy. Hux is a barely contained storm of anger and resentment, spewing bile and coming off as completely unhinged to an audience of stormtroopers that absolutely eats it up. Gone is the quiet, professional villainy of a man like Grand Moff Tarkin. The First Order has long since abandoned any of the old ex-Republic officers who became reluctant Imperials. It was created from a cadre of diehard Imperial emigres who worshipped only the power and cruelty of Palpatine's machine. Whereas many first generation Imperial officers knew Palpatine personally or were fiercely loyal to the man himself thanks to what they saw as him "saving" the galaxy from itself, the First Order has created an army free of any loyalty toward an individual leader or governing body, they are fascists stripped down to their core, loyal only to ranks and titles and the men strong enough to claim and hold them.
The Last Jedi novelization tells us Snoke's rise surprised and appalled the original First Order leaders as he used assassination, treachery, and outright force to swiftly work his way to the top. Without any real binding philosophy or core ethos beyond the naked worship of "strength" and "order," even those at the top of the First Order stood no chance at maintaining the loyalty of their troops in the face of someone capable of wielding the Force and overpowering them. Snoke became the leader of the First Order simply because he was capable of taking the position, and he lost it the minute someone was capable of taking it away from him.
Snoke was never meant to be a great character, but his role in the story is important exactly as it is. He is the proof that the First Order offers nothing to the galaxy if they win other than a bleak future of coups and assassinations, where power will never come from anything but the barrel of a gun or the end of a lightsaber. He was never meant to be Palpatine's equal, but to demonstrate how Palpatine left the galaxy in such a state that any number of would-be Palpatine's would have the chance to seize power and wreak havoc.
It seems fitting then, that Rise of Skywalker is promising to bring Palpatine back to center stage in some fashion. The entire sequel trilogy so far has served to show that the victory hard won by Luke and Anakin and the Rebels in Return of the Jedi was an incomplete one at best. Removing the Emperor only leaves a void in the Empire for someone perhaps as evil if less competent to fill. To ensure final victory over the dark side and lasting peace in the galaxy, our heroes will have to truly dismantle the First Order and the conditions of misery and oppression throughout the galaxy that have twice allowed fascists to rise. They must leave no part of Palpatine's legacy behind in order to inspire future Snoke's.
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