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People keep complaining that we never got any information on Snoke, but that's just because we haven't seen much of him in a story context. We have a lot of information about him from other, admittedly more boring sources. So, here's all I've managed to gather about him. Hopefully this will make people stop saying he's a Palpatine rip-off. Any discussion is welcome, and so is more information, and critisisms of the validity of the information presented.

His origins are unclear.

Snoke is an ancient being, who was once beautiful, but suffered grave injuries which made him vulnerable, causing him to escape to the Unkown Regions, where he would await the day he could return. (Art of the Force Awakens)

He stayed in the Unknown Regions, watching the events unfold in the galaxy through the Force, and watched as the Empire rose and fell, and he concluded that the reason it fell was because of the sentiment which remained in Vader. He also concluded that only if one was to be fully rid of sentiment, would a solid rule be possible. (The Force Awakens Novelization)

When the Emperor, accounting for his death, tried to push into the Unknown Regions, he felt the presence of what he believed to be the very essense of the Dark Side. Darth Vader could not feel this presence. Sidious decided to start sending missions to the Unknown Regions, but none of the missions were successful, only aiding to make venturing further than they had a tiny bit safer for the next suicide mission. When Sidious died, Gallius Rax started to push into the Unknown Regions, but was betrayed by Rae Sloane, who herself went into the Unknown Regions with Brendol and Armitage Hux. (The Aftermath Trilogy)

A group of imperials who had fled into the Unknown Regions (likely Sloane and team) found hyperspace blaze trails left by Snoke's attendants: tall, silent, purple-dressed attendants, who used ancient technology to see things in space which would otherwise be impossible to observe. These hyperspace blaze trails helped the crew survive. (The Visual Dictionary for the Last Jedi)

Snoke then came to into the galaxy, and at some point went to the catacombs below Darth Vader's abode on Mustafar to get an obsidian ring inscribed with the symbols of the four sages of Dwartii. (The Visual Dictionary for the Last Jedi)

Then, wanting to kill Luke Skywalker and end the Jedi, he trained at least one other apprentice before finding Ben Solo, who he decided was the only person capable of killing Luke. He started filling Ben's mind with violent and dark thoughts, and when Ben was sent to train with Luke at the Jed academy, he turned fully to the dark side and destroyed the Jedi Academy. Luke blamed himself and went into hiding, wanting the Jedi to end, and disconnecting himself from the Force. Leia blamed Snoke. Snoke then trained Ben, naming him "Kylo Ren, the master of the Knights of Ren" in both the Dark and Light sides of the Force, claiming that one must be built on both to truly be powerful. Then, he took over the First Order, and became its Supreme Leader. (The Last Jedi, Star Wars Insider: The Last Jedi, The Force Awakens Novelization, StarWars.com: Supreme Leader Snoke)

The First Order faced resistance from the Resistance, a militia trying to protect the New Republic, which was unarmed and defenseless. Each planet was given its own armaments, as decided under the new republic by Mon Mothma. To solve this problem, the First Order created chaos in the galaxy by destroying the Hosnian system, the center of the New Republic, leaving the galaxy in anarchy. Snoke, having suffered as much as he had in the unknown regions, wanted to cause others suffering, and thus was not content with simply the destruction of the resistance, but instead wanted to make the resistance suffer, suffer as he had. (The Force Awakens, The Force Awakens novelization, The Aftermath trilogy, interview with Andy Serkis)

During his reign as Supreme Leader, a random girl named Rey entered the picture, and both Ren and Snoke sensed an "awakening" in the Force. Snoke believed that there would always be two equals in the dark and the light side of the Force, and because of this, both Kylo and Snoke suspected that the Jedi they had wanted to kill was not Luke, but instead Rey. (The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi)

Snoke had wanted to kill Luke, and then finish Kylo soon afterwards, a plan that Han Solo and Leia Organa seemed to be aware of. Kylo had originally fallen for Snoke's lies, believing that the Supreme Leader was wise, but then, after his first battle with Rey on Starkiller base, in which he realized without a doubt that Rey was the one Snoke wanted to kill, not Luke, he decided he wanted instead to train Rey in the ways of the Force and rule the galaxy hand in hand with her. Rey refused by cutting part of his face off, and he had to be saved by General Hux, under the orders of Snoke, who wanted to "complete" his training. (Interview with Andy Serkis, The Force Awakens, The Force Awakens Novelization)

Snoke still believed that Luke was the Jedi he wanted to kill, but was upset over the fact that Kylo's training was not yielding the results that he had wanted. Kylo was nowhere as powerful as Luke, and that bothered Snoke. So, he sent Kylo to kill his mother, which Kylo couldn't do. (Interview with Andy Serkis, The Last Jedi)

Then, learning that Rey was the Jedi he wanted to kill, he created a force bond between Rey and Ren, connecting them over atronomical distances. In this bond, Kylo and Rey started empathizing with one another, until Luke came in and broke the bond. Then, Rey, who had learned the full story of the seduction of Kylo Ren, was captured, willingly, onto Snoke's ship. Here, Snoke played around with Rey and tried to kill her using Kylo, who had been fully devoid of sentiment as he'd wanted. In his hubris, he succeeded where Palpatine failed, but failed where Palpatine succeeded. Kylo, wanting to rule the galaxy with Rey, killed Snoke, and tried to get Rey to his side, which failed. (Andy Serkis on Conan, Interview with Andy Serkis, The Last Jedi)

There are other conspiracy theories out there, and just to be thorough, here they are:

The Prime Jedi - Snoke "looks" like the mosaic on Ahch-To, which depicts the first jedi in a state of balance between the light and the dark sides of the Force, something Snoke is shown to want to do. He either has hair, or a halo, and is holding a lighstaber which is black in color. The darksaber is canon, and uses a black kybercrystal, similar to the obsidian ring that snoke has.

Snoke wanted to die - Some say that Snoke was not betrayed in his hubris, but was instead planning on this all along. He says that he sees Kylo's every intent, and that he cannot be betrayed. He knew that to "complete" Kylo's training, he would need Kylo to have a desire for power and to be willing to kill for it.

Snoke isn't dead - The silk shoes that he was wearing made a sound, he looked different from film to film, the art of the last jedi showed the possibility of a dark side ghost, his body sucked; so he would want to be free of it, he could have been using force projection, there's probably more, but it's even more reachy and stupid than what's already been said, so I'll spare you that.

What remains a mystery is his origin, although they don't need to go into too much detail about that. Being star wars, I don't doubt that they will, and that's something I look forward to, because I'm really interested to see what he was before he had to escape to the unknown regions and the cause of his scars, which is what basically made him a villain.

And other than his origin, we don't know too much about how he got that ring, and what he did immediately after coming into the galaxy.

Most importantly, though, I think is the lack of action we've seen him in. I would like to see how his original meeting with Rae Sloane played out. And exactly what he was doing in the unknown regions. And how he got that ring.

Also, I just felt like adding the part about his force lightning. Rian Johnson has said that his lightning was more like real lightning than Force lightning. It made the electrons and protons in his hand and in the ground set themselves in such a way that it produced a bolt of lightning. Then, when that lightning met at the middle, it jumped towards Kylo, as lightning does when people are near. Rian seemed like he just did it that way to make it more realistic, but it's also possible to argue that it means that it's a more powerful variant, as Force lightning actually EMERGES from the user's fingers and moves toward the target, which electricity can't actually do.

When he makes a post about Canon in a non-Canon section.

It is...

IRONIC.

I've seen threads about the canon universe on this forum before. There isn't a thread for "The Sequel Trilogy" and this matter does take Star Wars literature into account, and this is the "Star Wars literature and Expanded Universe" section.

Besides, this is like the only forum on KMC that I'm on.

And "Legends" is not the only expanded universe in the star wars universe anymore. Technically, all the material released outside of the mainline movies can be considered part of the "new" expanded universe.

Regardless, does anyone have any actual thoughts on this?

I used to think it is possible that he was a canon interpretation of a Rakatan, considering how coincidental that Rakata prime was made canon alongside with the details that the 1st order was formed there. I don't recall the art book saying he fled to the UR though.

I swear to god I saw a Rakatan on TCW.

Rakatan...interesting.

The Merchant, you are...right. The art book did not say that. huh. Maybe I just let my speculation get to me.

So maybe he was in the unknown regions because he fled, or because he was hiding, or because he was stuck.

With the release of The Last Jedi Novelization, there has been some new information on Snoke. I haven't actually bought the book so this is just what I got from Galan's thread. Some additions to the original post.


The Unknown Regions was the origin of legendary, lost, ancient civilizations who may have been the first to discover the Force. The knowledge of the Force stemmed from the Unknown Regions to the rest of the galaxy. Yupe Tashu and the Emperor even believed that this was "origin of the dark side. The source of...power". In the Unknown Regions, there was still knowledge of the Force which had been completely lost to time outside of them. These areas are also haunted by "terrors" of the Force. Snoke learned these secrets and with them he could fend off the terrors, and serve his own "ends". (The Last Jedi Novelization, Aftermath)


Palpatine knew that about the secrets in the Unknown Regions, and he wanted them.


For nearly thirty years, storehouses, shipyards, and laboratories which were kept secret from all but the top Imperial Scouts were built in the Unknown Regions, to explore what secrets lay in it. The Contingency, as it was called, was incredibly expensive. The Scouts were armed with military preparations which did not help them against the terrors of the unknown regions. Just before they were finished off, Snoke had saved them. (The Last Jedi Novelization)


He believed he was an unfit ruler of the First Order, and thought that the other leaders were all weak and results of the breaking remnants of the empire grasping at straws. He kept Armitage Hux alive so as to use him to bring propaganda into the First Order.


Snoke was trying to implement revisionist history, make it seem as though what the First Order became was always the plan for the galaxy. In reality, much of what transpired was coincidence added to Palpatine's rough outline of a plan.

Also, some questions:
From the release of the TLJ novelization, we now know that Snoke had access to secrets which made him powerful enough to defend against "terrors" which were capable of destroying the imperial remnants of the contingency. Now this begs several questions.

Andy Serkis said that Snoke was more powerful than Sidious because he had "unlimited resources". With this new information, that statement has yet another interpretation: It could mean that Snoke has "unlimited knowledge of the Force", which is what Palpatine was after.

Whatever secrets lay in the unknown regions, they were pretty big, obviously, but HOW big? Surely not bigger than control over the world between worlds. But bigger still than any power Palpatine HAD known, which, it's safe to assume, is basically everything the sith ever knew.

What power do these secrets even give the beholder of the knowledge? Snoke didn't seem to have any direct power which rivaled that of Sidious. Maybe it's possible that Snoke wasn't as powerful in the Force as Sidious or Talzin or whoever, but because of the knowledge about the nature of the Force that he had, he was capable of fighting threats and creating threats which were beyond anything Sidious of Talzin could fend off.

What type of knowledge about the Force is it anyway? In the TFA novelization, Snoke said that he needed both the dark and light to make a truly powerful force user. Does that have anything to do with what he wanted. And this ties into the "agenda" which Snoke had, which has still not been revealed. He wanted to end the jedi, he wanted to kill Kylo after the jedi had ended, so what was this all leading up to?
It's possible that he was in a vulnerable state during the time we saw him and that his agenda was to become powerful once again, and he knew how because of the time he'd spent in the unknown regions. Joining the First Order was his way of getting to a position from where he could enact what he wanted to, and become powerful again.

Andy Serkis said Snoke is 200 years old. Plus, although it's well known, he isn't a Sith.

Originally posted by Zentrex
In the TFA novelization, Snoke said that he needed both the dark and light to make a truly powerful force user. ...A sentiment he began to question -- at least in Ben's case:

Originally posted by Galan007
...A sentiment he began to question -- at least in Ben's case:
I think it's just in Ben's case. You know, I'm beginning to think that his "powers" are simply a deeper understanding of the full inside out of the Force. He knows all there is to know about the Force, so none of the Force's ways are "mysterious" to him.

It's heartbreaking how KMC EU SW has become a Disney coke.

Originally posted by Zentrex
I think it's just in Ben's case. You know, I'm beginning to think that his "powers" are simply a deeper understanding of the full inside out of the Force. He knows all there is to know about the Force, so none of the Force's ways are "mysterious" to him. Snoke undoubtedly leans far more towards the dark than he does the light, but perhaps him also embracing *some* aspects of the light side might explain why he doesn't have those trademark yellow/orange Sith eyes.

His eyes in the film/novel are a piercing blue.

Originally posted by Galan007
Snoke undoubtedly leans far more towards the dark than he does the light, but perhaps him also embracing *some* aspects of the light side might explain why he doesn't have those trademark yellow/orange Sith eyes.

His eyes in the film/novel are a piercing blue.
Yeah, I think you're right.