Snoke and Mirrors

   This is a quick follow-up to my review of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.  If you have not seen the movie, do not read this post, as, yes, SPOILERS ensue.

   So that said....


    In the Force Awakens, we learn that since the downfall of Palpatine and Vader, the Empire has been reformed as The First Order, and is run by a character called Supreme Leader Snoke.  We only see Snoke as a gigantic hologram; he appears to be more or less humanoid, although grey-skinned and badly disfigured.  He's portrayed by Andy Serkis, in motion-capture form.  We know that he commands both the military arm of the First Order, and the mystical, as he is responsible for Kylo Ren's training.  He's sinister, clearly dangerous, and has a mad-on for Luke Skywalker.

Andy Serkis mo-capping Snoke.  I haven't found any good official images of the actual character yet.

   We also know that Kylo Ren is really Ben Solo, Han and Leia's son.  And we are told that following the events of Return of the Jedi, Luke attempted to train a new generation of Jedi - just as he did in the books.  Ben Solo was one of these students, but somehow something went wrong, and Ben turned to the dark side, and he, along with other "Knights of Ren" under the influence of Snoke, murdered Luke's other apprentices.  We don't know, but may surmise, that the other Knights may actually be fallen padawans, as well.  And we further know that Kylo Ren is obsessed with his grandfather - he has conversations with Darth Vader's burned mask, somehow taken from the funeral pyre on Endor, and wants to be worthy of Vader's legacy.  He also thrives on darkness and pain.  He's a bit of a nutter, actually.

   Lastly, we know that Rey comes into possession of a familiar blue-bladed lightsaber - that saber which was formerly Anakin Skywalker's, which was used to slaughter younglings and Jedi before being taken by Obi-Wan, and later given to Luke, and which was subsequently lost when Vader amputated Luke's hand at the end of The Empire Strikes Back.  The lightsaber was in the custody of Maz Kanata, but all she says about how she came to have it is that 'it's another story for another time".

   So....here's my current operating theory as to what happened:

   In short, I think Snoke may be a dark clone of Luke Skywalker.  The lightsaber was in Luke's hand when the hand was removed, so it's not impossible to think that they fell together, and if the saber was retrieved, so might the hand have been.  We know cloning's a pretty big thing in the SW universe, and in the books, at least, the concept of cloning Jedi has been well established (Joruus C'Baoth, and the Emperor himself).  Perhaps Maz Kanata stole the lightsaber, or someone else stole it, and Maz got it herself later on.

   So what if Palpatine, or even Vader, somehow got Luke's hand, and attempted to recreate their own Sith warrior, if Luke himself could or would not be turned?  We know both Palpatine and Vader desired Luke as a prize - the son of Skywalker would be a powerful weapon indeed.  Perhaps the cloning process was successful, or partially so, and whatever programming was used - similar to Order 66 brainwashing, perhaps - the clone was devoted to Vader and/or Palpatine, but was unable to wreak revenge for their deaths.

   Fast forward a few years, and Luke is now a Master, training new Jedi, including his nephew.  The EU has already provided ample ground for a Solo child going bad - Darth Caedus, anyone?  So what if this false Luke approached Ben and was able to lure him to the dark side, and perhaps pick up a few other followers as well?  They would then turn on the other padawans and destroy them, leaving Luke failed and broken.  Perhaps the death of Luke would have been the last piece, but he vanished.  Hence why in TFA, Snoke and Ren are so eager to find and punish Luke.

   It would be fitting, from a pseudo-Sith perspective, to get at Luke in this way, especially if Snoke sees himself as Vader's true heir - and as such, ideally placed to use Luke's nephew as his catspaw and apprentice.

   I could be completely and utterly off base about this, of course.  But this is the theory I'm currently working off of.  Time will tell what the truth reveals...