Life Debt and Episode VIII

correct it is talk and if he is RAx he uses tools and not the force... which is exactly what Rax does... also note TAshu is not with the force but knows how to use masks

 

I didn't say the novels were irrelevant, I said the novels wouldn't contain information critical to our understanding of the films. This is just common sense from a story group perspective, since the audience for the films is a few magnitudes greater than the audience for collateral materials. If Rax does turn out to be Snoke, as you suspect, I think this will be revealed in the films, not the books.

 

I agree. That way those of us diehards who read the books will understand and appreciate any references to Rax and to the casual viewer it will be just a new piece of backstory

 

I doubt you will ever see Snoke's name in a novel prior to the release of Episode 8. But, we will get more on Rax in the final Aftermath book. Since there is a big gap in time from the Battle of Jakku to TFA, it will be interesting how they leave things. Will Rax escape? Will he die? Will we think he's dead but survives and ends up scarred and deformed? How they leave things will be a big clue in my opinion.

 

I can see that next novel ending with all the candidates for Snokedom surviving and heading to the Unknown Regions.
Who will find the source of the Darkside?

 

what if two or more imperials get fused together? I just don't see them creating an evil father and son in the novels and not expoit it in the movies.

 

Yeah, Brendol Hux is backstory for a novel, not a feature film. General Hux is simply the Admiral Phiett of the new movies in my opinion, I really don't want them to waste screen time on his backstory.

Apparently Hux follows his fathers footsteps in raising children as soldiers for the 1st order. Rax (Snoke?) was instrumental in his survival which is a nice clue as to why Hux is such a hardliner for the first order and so loyal to Snoke.

 

Brendol Hux served the Republic before the Empire, so I'm pretty sure he'd be dead by the time of the ST, or at least very old and doddery and not much use.

 

I don't think Rax will become Snoke, but there is another possible candidate mentioned in Life Debt that I think would make much more sense. In the Prelude there is a "holy place, a place that the Consecrated Eremite called is home thousands of years ago, when Jakku was a living place" and Palpatine built some kind of research facility in that spot. Until we get more info my money is on Snoke = Consecrated Eremite and while I'm at it: Rey's creation (not necessarily birth) is also somehow related to that place.

 

Please don't take this the wrong way but isn't that Anakin's story? I feel it would be kind of been there done that if that's the backstory they choose to give Snoke, but on the other side, depending on the execution, it could turn out to be awesome as well.

 

I see a long monologue by Snoke to Rey, telling her everything the general audience needs to know. He seems the type of villian who will give his life story at the drop of a hat.

 

So these dead-enders are a tantalizing link to the research base. When was the base shut down and the guards left to their own? After the Battle of Jakku or earlier? Did something other than the desert sun fry their brains. And of course what are the strings of numbers they recite?

 

Armitage Hux is a certainty.

Ben is another certainty. Notice that Aftermath had nothing about Leia being pregnant or Han and Leia being married but Life Debt does. They withheld info in the first book.