Who trained Snoke in the subtleties of the Force?

Hmmmm... I'm not sure I'd say that he defeated Luke (he seems pretty scared of the dude after all), but if I had to guess, I'd say that I ever so slightly favour the Sith Lord option. I vacillated between that and just some Dark Side user for a while, but I think that a Sith Lord makes a tad more sense.
When he would have been trained, the SIth existed, and even though he isn't Sith, that's not to say he couldn't have been trained by one.

 

Snoke could have taught himself, you know. I taught myself how to play the piano with little to no help. Sometimes professionals are so good at what they do because they are dedicated, fascinated with what they do, motivated to be the best.

 

Snoke senior...
or perhaps an abandoned Jedi (and therefore he is a big Jedi hater himself )

 

Snoke is either a deliberately lousy teacher: his pupil is unfocused and undisciplined
or else he is just, in fact, an actual lousy teacher.

i don't think Kylo Ren is much a measure of Snoke's abilities.
Ren obviously has strong natural abilities and has been previously shaped (at least to some small degree) by Luke.
we have no idea what Snoke's actually managed to do for him.

so while Snoke may have long-reaching history and influence, he still appears physically weak.
and we don't know whether his command of Dark side Force is actually any good or whether he requires a conduit.

none of which requires him to be Sith since the Dark has always been and the Sith came after.

 

In Aftermath, there's an emperor councellor who wants to study the dark side of the Force

 

He could have easily been trained by a Sith holocron which is why he reeks of Sith Sith but isn't really one just like how Lukr Skywalker was trained by a ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi on top of a living Yoda .

 

It just strikes me that Snoke is acting in a way that is identical to the way a Sith Lord would act. The only outstanding question is what his end goal is - ruling the galaxy or simply ensuring the Dark Side reigns supreme.

-He is seeking to destroy the Jedi
-He has now unbalanced the Force
-He looked to take over by using a super weapon
-He has an apprentice that he passes his "knowledge to"
-He keeps this apprentice at arms length (as Palpatine did with Vader)

For me, a lot has been made in the movies, from episodes 1-6, that the Force isn't something you can just happen upon and learn everything you need to know.
For Snoke to be a powerful Dark Sider, which he is and not have learned it from someone else, then he would've surely had to learn about it over the course of hundreds, if not thousands of years. This is entirely possible if he is an ancient being, as theorised. However, this still negates the need for a Jedi and Sith Order and in fact makes one query why they monopolised the light and dark side of the Force.

What I mean by that is we are shown time and time again how the Jedi and Sith are the ONLY pathways to learning about the Force. For Anakin, he needed to join the Sith to find out certain things. We are shown how the Sith and the Jedi have passed down their accumulated knowledge over thousands of years. Whoever Snoke is, he can't just be someone guy that happened across a Sith holocron or just learned about the Force in a short period of time. That would just ruin the very need of having a Jedi or Sith Order. We are being told (as we were in the OT) that Luke is the last hope of the Jedi. He is the last Jedi! But if Snoke turns out to be a guy who just learned all this stuff himself, then why couldn't anyone else do that - and become either a Sith or Jedi? I mean, it's no mystery what the philosophy of the Jedi is. But their teachings are a mystery. To learn how to use the Force to any decent level, you have to train over many years as a Jedi to discover its secrets.

So Snoke is either an incredibly ancient being that over centuries learned about the Dark Side OR he is Darth Plagueis...

The problem with him being a Dark Sider for a long period however is that Dark Siders seek more power. They seek control. So if Snoke has been a Dark Sider for a long time (which explains how he learned about the Dark Side himself) then there isn't a good reason for why he didn't try and take over the galaxy sooner. That's what Dark Siders do.

This is my problem with the fallen angel idea. For this to work, the fallen angel Snoke must've turned to evil reasonably recently - so that it explains why he didn't make a power grab sooner (before the Sith took over). However, this doesn't leave him enough time to become so knowledgable about the Dark Side (without having the Sith connection).

Plagueis on the other hand - learned his knowledge from the Sith Order, was in the process of making a power grab, got beat up and severely injured by Sidious (hence deformity) and thus was too weak and unable to do anything until Sidious' demise. Over that period he was merely surviving and regaining his strength from the growing Dark Side. But he couldn't do anything (hence why balance could be restored whilst he was alive). Then when Sidious' dies balance is restored - this is ironic, as it is the perfect time for Plagueis/Snoke to take over again but the diminished Dark Side weakens Plagueis again. So he has to work from behind the scenes - he turns Ben and gets him to destroy the Jedi (but Luke gets away). This is why Snoke fears Luke's return. It's why he is willing to reveal the location of Starkiller base early and jeopardise it - all because he is too vulnerable (until the Dark Side takes over) to face Luke. He has to destroy the last Jedi as with his demise, the knowledge of the Jedi will be lost forever. That story works completely and has no flaws. And it again shows the importance of the Jedi & Sith Orders and the knowledge that they have passed down.

#JustSayin' #PlagueisConfirmed

 

Who Trained Supreme Leader Snoke?

Darth Tenebrous, that's who.​

 

Would almost be a shame if Snoke is not Darth Plagueis.

 

After seeing the rebels S2 ending it hit me to think if Maul COULD be Snoke ... Like how he had Ezra call him "Old Master" so now he has people call him Snoke .

 

Darth Teneribous I do believe.

 

There are many Imperial/ Palpatine worshippers in the New Republic, and Sheev loved to hoard Ancient Sith artifacts. Too much exposure to these artifacts corrupts and warps minds. I think this was demonstrated in the Lando comic mini-series.

Pablo Hidalgo says we will find out more about Snoke in Star Wars: Bloodlines by Claudia Grey. From what I read, he seems to be some kind of politician or something.

 

No matter what happens to Maul from here on out, Palpatine looks really short sighted for not checking to ensure that him's first apprentice was in fact, dead. And if Snoke turns out to be Plagueis, then the arrogance card will be getting played, once again. Retcons are.... like what Maul said in Twilight Death of the Apprentice to all Inquisitors, "What fun!"

 

It's hard to speculate as to who trained Snoke when we know so little about him and where he came from.

However, I think there's potential for Snoke to have a really cool, weird, unique backstory. If I were to guess, I'd say he's from the unknown regions in the distant reaches of the galaxy, or even another galaxy entirely.

Here's a quote from a character in Chuck Wendig's novel Aftermath that may provide some hints:

"Palpatine felt that the universe beyond the edges of our maps was where his power came from. Over the many years he, with our aid, sent men and women beyond known space. They built labs and communication stations on distant moons, asteroids, out there in the wilds. We must follow them. Retreat from the galaxy. Go out beyond the veil of stars. We must seek the source of the dark side like a man looking for a wellspring of water.”

I really like the idea that Snoke comes from an unexplored part of the the universe where the source of the dark side can be found. Perhaps he is part of an ancient dark side order that predates the Sith. It's also possible that he's associated with the Acolytes of the Beyond, a group of dark side fanatics (also mentioned in Aftermath).

I'm looking forward to learning more about Snoke in future films, novels, comics, etc.

 

I hear what you are saying.

But there's something about Darth Maul wreaking havoc, spitting out Sith knowledge, loathing his lot in the galaxy, despising Vader, hating Sidious and doing all that he can to screw up the plans that everybody else has... all on his own.