SPECULATION Black Cloaked Figure?

Vader knew it could be done as he and a squad froze themselves during the Clone Wars for a secret mission. The only question for him at Bespin was whether or not the "crude facility" was adequate.

 

but Vader/Anikan always had a robe..

 

Oh yes when Anakin was man before machine he did then got one from his shoulders down, maybe the previous post came out wrong.

 

Let's face the facts on the scene first



1. We see a hooded figure in front of what appears to be a Bacta-Tank
2. The presence of Imperial Guards sugest that the Emperor himself is the scene, do to their placement is safe to sugest they are guarding the person inside the Bacta-Tank (just like they were guarding the throne room in ROTJ)
3. The Dark figure seems to be hooded
4. The Hooded figure is paying his respects to the one in the Bacta Tank by kneeling or bowing in front of the Bacta Tank

My suggestions:

The one inside the Bacta Tank should be the Emperor Palpatine, the only way to justify the Red Guards and the reverence of the hooded figure. The dark figure in front of it must be Snoke, if he's bowing or kneeling he is freakishly tall, and Vader has a helmet not a hood and neither seem to be a helmet under that hood. By the way this could be the perfect opportunity to present Snoke to us and give a glimpse of his past and backstory.

Of course if we consider only the plot twists of Rogue one than that hooded figure might be the traitor of the rebel crew giving the emperor his fellowship, Felicity Jones or Forest Whitaker characters.

 

IF the hooded figure IS Snoke, who, from the cast we have heard so far that's in the film, could be playing him? Because as it is I don't think I see a "fit"...

--- Double Post Merged, Apr 20, 2016, Original Post Date: Apr 20, 2016 ---

Do dark-siders even bathe??? I think hygiene (well, with Yoda as exception...) is more of a concern for light-siders...

 

Either the guy in the cloak or the guy in the bacta tank has gotta be Palpatine, because of the Guards, unless the guy in the tank is reall really important.

 

Snoke is a motion captured character, so it could be anyone. And if it is Snoke nobody will tell it until the movie premiere and actors in that cameo role might be hidden from us.

 

A cloned Starkiller!

 

WAITTTTTTTTTTTTTTT, STOP EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I THINK I FIGURED THIS OUT........

Who cares about the black hooded figure, the real news is that the royal guards guarding the Emperor Bacta Tank are TAG & BINK



I believe LucasFilms following the huge global success of the great comic relief Jar Jar Binks will go down that road once again.

 

I'm reversing the theories here, Vader is in the tank and Palpatine is the one in the cloke.

Based on rumors that Vader appears to be a badass in the movie, I'm thinking near the end he almost gets killed by the rebel crew and that is why he is in the tank.

It would be a good way to show the vader from the comics (Vader Down) and at the same time provide an excuse for him being "less active" during the OT due to his new injuries

 

I personally don't think it is Vader or Sheev for two reasons.

1. Since Vader has been in a "life support suit" he has never worn a hood.
2.Sheev Palpatine kneels to NO ONE!

That being said, what/who this character is/can be concerns me. Rule number (at least to me) in Star Wars films/other media is "You NEVER mess with the OT".
You never even think about doing anything to cheapen it or make something questionable in it etc. This is one of the reasons I personally don't care for Rebels much. I realize that the galaxy is a large place and there are a lot of people in it BUT the way the OT was presented, Luke and Leia were the ONLY hope. So the only force users present by the time ANH takes place should be Vader, Palpatine, Yoda, Obi-Wan and then Luke (Leia may have ability but it is never realized). This is what made the story so important. Anakin's children were the last thing the force was clinging on to and only they could save the galaxy.

So back to the cloaked character in the Rogue One trailer. If it is another darkside force user who seemed not to exist based on the films then they had better be killed in the movie in order to not cheapen the OT. This being the case, to me it isn't even worth it to have another darkside force user involved. Why not just have Vader being Vader? Everyone wants to see that anyway. I'm leaning towards this character is not a force user and is just some evil henchmen type character who directly reports to Vader and Sheev and is killed by the end of the film.

Snoke has been stated by actors/others involved with TFA as "Outside of the Empire/Rebellion conflict" so to me he is out for any involvement until post ROTJ.

 

I agree with this. I think Vader will be brought down by his over confidence, and get massively embarrassed, and I think for this failure he will be "put on a leash" held by Tarkin in ANH. There has to be a reason that a Sith Lord answered to a Grand Moff. I could see him getting defeated. Maybe he's in the tank and the Emperor comes to see him, and tell him to meditate on his failures as he is no longer in command but will be taught submission.

Also, I kind of want to see a scene where Vader and Obiwan fight for a second time, before the fight in ANH, where Vader gets his butt kicked again, but the Emperor won't let him pursue Obiwan because he lost, and that's why in ANH Vader states " I sense something, a presence I haven't felt since.....". I don't recall Vader ever saying "I thought you were dead." I could see the emperor allowing Kenobi to live, to bring Luke to him at a later time.

 

I agree with your initial statements. They makes sense. The kneeling figure could easily just be a new character, we'll have no shortage of them in this film. If it were Vader, for instance, why disguise him by having him wear a hood? What, is it too big of a reveal to just let us know it's Vader? If that were the case instead of having a hooded Vader they could just choose not to put that scene in the trailer. There are plenty of scenes to pique our interest. I can't think of a time in Star Wars where a character has been disguised just so that we, the audience, won't suspect who the character is and I can't see any reason why Vader himself would have a reason to wear a hood. I'll admit the first couple times I saw the trailer I thought "could be Vader" but I think for whatever reason Star Wars fans always want to imagine that pre-existing characters are going to be shoe-horned into other places. "Snoke is Plagueis" is one example, the hilarious "Luke is Kylo" is another, for some reason when we don't see a character we expect/want to see.. oh he must be disguised as this other guy that's sort of vaguely like him. Makes no sense.

However the galaxy is vast and I don't think introducing characters that were never seen in the OT, but are implied to have interacted with existing OT characters during the events of the OT, necessarily messes with it. I do agree it could get messy if they try inserting force users into Rogue One or other pre-OT standalones without telling us their fates. But as just one for instance, we can have a Grand Admiral Thrawn type exist even if we didn't see him in the OT. The Empire's military is massive, so no issue there.

<slightly off topic>I think maybe the best example of the OT being messed with is how the prequel trilogy made Anakin the "chosen one". It really changes how I view Luke in that trilogy, it's not enough that he's the son of Darth Vader, now he's the son of Darth Vader who is the chosen one *eye roll*. It undermines the whole 'hero's journey' aspect of that trilogy.</slightly off topic>

 

Why would the Emperor be kneeling to an embarrassed and injured Vader?

 

I"m thinking the tank holds a clone of the Emperor. And the cloaked figure is an assasin....or not.

 

Not convinced that figure is kneeling. The emperor walks hunched over on a cane.

 

But the figure is not hunched to begin with, nor do I see any steps there and the cloak widens as they go down, so to me they're almost certainly kneeling.

 

DARTH MAUL!!!

 

Oh I'm having "Dark Empire" flashbacks. There's always the possibility, but I just can't see Palpatine going for a clone. The only clones we have met either aged about twice as fast (the clone troopers) or at a normal rate (Boba). Assuming that Palpatine had indeed discovered a Dark Side technique that would allow him to transfer his consciousness to another body (and it may actually be possible, Talzin briefly possessed Dooku), he would face a quandary as to which kind of clone body he would want. An accelerated clone would take half the time to age as a standard clone, but would only last half the time once Palpatine inhabited the body. A standard clone would take more time and resources to raise, but it would provide Palpatine with a longer-lived body once he inhabited it.

But that's assuming that the Story Group decide to reference "Dark Empire" in such a way. And I'm not sure how well audiences would respond to a "They cloned Palpatine" angle.

 

I think Vader is in the Bacta Tank as part of a regular healing regimen since he was immolated in ROTS. The cloaked figure is likely
Ben Mendelsohn's Character who is coming to Vader to ask for assistance/Guidance. I can imagine the scene going something like, "Lord Vader, Forgive my intrusion, but we need your help.... The plans have been stolen etc etc...." Then Vader gets into ithe action and kicks A**!!

It would explain why the Roayl Gaurds are posted there by Palpatine as Vader would be in a more vulnerable state.