Warning, the following may contain spoilers for upcoming Star Wars films as well as a discussion of aspects of The Force Awakens. Do not read on if such things frighten you.
While The Force Awakens gave us a few answers, it also provided many new questions. Several of those questions revolve around Supreme Leader Snoke. Exactly who is he, and what’s his deal? The new movie gave us very little to understand his motives or his plans, but one new, interesting fan theory thinks they may have figured out who Snoke really is. It’s possible that The Force Awakens wasn’t actually our introduction to the character. That may have come in the prequels, when Chancellor Palpatine told Anakin Skywalker a story about a sith legend, called The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis.
The theory, as summarized by the RadioTimes, posits that Supreme Leader Snoke and Darth Plagueis are the same person. The basis of the theory comes in the soundtrack of the two films. A comparison of the themes for the two characters finds that they are very similar. Is this an indication that the two characters also have a connection? Check out the video below and see what you think.
It cannot be denied that there are some similarities in the music. Having said that, John Williams has been one of the most prolific composers of music for movies for the last several decades. If you listen, you’ll hear a number of his themes in completely unrelated films that use similar motifs.
At the same time, if Snoke was a character we had heard of previously, Plagueis is certainly one that would make sense. The entire story about the character was about how he potentially had the ability to overcome death. Therefore, there is a previously established, canonical reason for how the character has been able to survive to this point.
It also fits into a previous rumor, which had stated that Emperor Palpatine himself would turn out to be the puppet master for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The implication, though never specifically stated, back in Revenge of the Sith was that Palpatine was the apprentice who learned how to cheat death from Plagueis before betraying him. While the theory would have potentially worked for Palpatine, who’s to say it can’t work equally well for Plagueis himself?
What’s most interesting about the theory is that, if true, it’s a direct connection between the new trilogy and the prequels. Aside from a difficult-to-hear dialogue line, the new movie made no direct references to the prequels at all. There seemed to be an unspoken decision to pretty much ignore them, but maybe that’s not the case after all.
What do you think? Is Snoke actually Plagueis? Is the music an intentional, if subtle, clue? Or are we reaching?
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