Life Debt and Episode VIII

@The Futurition Good spot, I didn't notice that had been changed. However I still don't buy that Rax is Snoke. He's gotta be way older than his 60's. Going by life debt he'd be in and around the same age as Han. Also the way Rax is presented is classic bait and switch tactics. It's been set up to make it look like he's Snoke. It's too easy. No, I think that the place where Palpatine's droids were digging has more to do with Snoke than Rax himself. He could be The Consecrated Emirate. The only way I can see Rax being Snoke is if the spirit of an ancient darksider possesses his dead body or something.

 

What if....Rax did become Snoke...

Palps told him to guard whatever was on Jakku with his life, and kill whoever came across it. What if it was some way of transferring one's soul in to another body? Think Harry Potter and a Horcrux, but with the Force, so it kind of enabled somoene to come back from the nether world of the Force.

So Rax is possessed or taken by some Sith Lord, possibly Darth Bane or even Palps? Just a thought...

 

@The Futurition has done some really good work on this thread but I was thinking something similar. Some sort of transformation must have taken place if Rax is Snoke. I haven't read the Aftermath books (yet). But I think I've read everything relevant to the Rax is Snoke discussion. It's very interesting. Ultimately I agree with @Darth Malkovich and others that it seems highly unlikely Snoke's origin will be revealed in a book. Revealed as opposed to expanded upon being the key.

As far as Pablo's tweet that Empire's End might help, I think that at the most we will get some conclusive evidence that Rax is _not_ Snoke. Confirmation that Snoke is Rax, were that the case, would be too much to expect.

 

But was Rax actually force sensitive?

 

Everyone is force sensitive.

I think with Snoke people might be better off not thinking in terms of him being some ancient powerful force user but rather the possibility that he was a normal guy that made a deal with the devil.

Perhaps he was another "insignificant" person that befell a tragedy and then turned to the dark side which turned him into what he is now?

Basically I'm saying that Snoke could be anyone of any age (well, old enough to observe the rise of the Empire of course).

 

Oh I totally agree, I was just throwing hypotheticals out there. I think Empire's End will have Rax meeting Snoke at some point in a flash back during which the First Order is discussed and what happened after Palpatine was killed at the end of Jedi.

Especially given that JJ Abrams didn't decide on a final gender or species for Snoke until 8 weeks before the film as due to be released...(although I'm not so sure given that Andy Serkis was playing him in the trailer which was released well before....;-) )

 

Well, yeah, because: midichlorians and stuff. but the level of midichlorians determines how intuitive you can be with the force...so the question, in my opinion, is that how many midichlorians did he have and why didn't he use the ability before?

 

So, Tarkin, there is a weakness that could be exploited, would you like us to prepare your shuttle to evacuate?




I guess you guys forgot about how literally right before the Death Star blows up we see this chap:

 

Their arrogance has blinded them.

 

a theory/question I have based on bloodline novel. We know Ben travels/trains with Luke in this novel, but is there any hint that Luke trains anyone else at that point in time? I mean any hint of Luke having an academy, temple or other training facility? So based on these missing information, what if we got it wrong and the temple massacre already happened a much longer time before bloodline novel? After this attack (whatever happened there exactly), only Luke is left and upon request from Leia, Ben starts training with Luke. What if noone at this moment knows that Ben was part of the guys who attacked the temple? So he stays with Luke and trains for years, while secretly under the influence from Snoke, until a reveal of his deeds happened?

 

They have no choice BUT to introduce characters and back stories in books, since there is no time or financial resources to waste in film. They did it with Rey, Finn and Poe in Before the awakening, with Poe in the Comics, Leia, and will eventually do it with Ben Solo's birth and turn to the dark side as a major character...etc...

Ecpect we had zero back story on The Emperor he just appeared. The Emperor didn't get a back story for 20 years and took even longer for us to find out his first name. They don't have to give us much of a back story at all. I think we will get his back story in a book but not until after IX.

 

There was backstory on Palps in the novelisation of ANH in 1977. It was retconned a wee bit since but the part about him being chancellor before he was emperor was there.

 

I think the Rax=Snoke debate is a good one to have as it's 10x more plausible than Plagueis etc. Personally i think there is a chance but we have to wait for the next book to tilt me either way. I don't think they will unveil him as snoke in the book. If he is, we will know through his actions in empires end, i don't think they will use the name "snoke" in the book. However if he isn't i also imagine they will nip it in the bud pretty quickly.

However i think the most important part of the Aftermath series is Jakuu and wtf is Palpatine doing there?

 

"The Eclipse was Galactic Emperor Sheev Palpatine's own Super Star Destroyer.

By the time immediately preceding the Battle of Jakku, it had been reported as destroyed, but had, in fact, disappeared"

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Eclipse_(Super_Star_Destroyer)

I think in Episode 8 Snoke will be in the Eclipse, we know from the Visual Dictionary of TFA that Snoke is in "a mobile base" and the ship was introduced in the canon in Aftermath Life Debt and has strangely "disappeared".