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Apart from the new expanded universe canon in Star Wars, followers of additional tie-in content are learning new things about the final days of Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine, including that he was looking for a "super weapon" (Aftermath Trilogy), interested in "the unknown regions of space" (Thrawn Novel) and that he left contingency plan, Operation: Cinder (Star Wars: Battlefront II, Shatered Empire), for the Empire to DIE without him, but also so it could begin again!

Cinder

Operation: Cinder first appeared in the second issue of the Marvel comic book series Star Wars: Shattered Empire, written by Greg Rucka.1 The second issue, released on October 7, 2015,[13] depicted the beginnings of the attack on Naboo,1 while the third issue, released on October 14, 2015,[14] showed its resolution. Operation: Cinder is further depicted in the story campaign mode of Star Wars Battlefront II, where the Imperial utopia of Vardos is targeted and the battle of Naboo is resolved. The events of the 2017 novel Aftermath: Empire's End, written by Chuck Wendig, revealed that Operation: Cinder was part of a greater Contingency devised by Emperor Palpatine to destroy the Empire and its adversaries so that it could begin again.[8]

From other more recant tie-in material we also learn a little more about how Snoke becomes the [Supreme] leader of The First Order.

Eventually, Snoke witnessed the rise and eventual fall of the Galactic Empire.1 What was left of the Galactic Empire fled to the Unknown Regions and took the shape of what eventually became the First Order. Although most of the Imperial officers would have likely perished while crossing this uncharted realm, the ancient hyperspace trails blazed by Snoke's retinue helped them to stay there and organize themselves. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Snoke

So my question is, Is 'Supreme Leader' Snoke an INTENTIONAL PART of Darth Sidious' Plan?

The Chiss from the Unknown Regions

Sidious' interest in the Unknown Regions continued. This came to a head when the crew of the Venator-class Star Destroyer Strikefast, under the command of Captain Voss Parck, encountered the Chiss known as Thrawn in Wild Space. Many years earlier, Anakin Skywalker told Palpatine of this alien and how they worked together. This alien claimed to have a great deal of knowledge on the Unknown Regions. Thrawn was then brought before Sidious on Coruscant in order to be questioned. Thrawn told the Emperor of threats lurking within the Unknown Regions and how they might one day find the Empire and offered his military skills. Sidious then deduced that Thrawn's intentions were to help protect his people from these threats. Thrawn assured the Emperor that his allegiance would be to the Empire. **Thrawn then revealed that he had known Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars, thus proving who he was to the Emperor.**Many years into the Empire's reign...http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Sidious

As secondary questions: Does he relate to a super weapon Sidious was looking for and/or Thrawn? Is this all interconnected? Whom is leading whom? I know there may not be enough information to determine ANY of these things, at this time, but just in case there is something I missed.

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    There seems to be a lot of similarities but the truth is we know next to nothing about Snoke at the moment so we probably don't know. I'd like to believe it to be true but I have a feeling it was Snoke making the best of the situation rather than anything intentional on Sidous' part.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Jan 4, 2018 at 16:48
  • Hi! My gut feeling is that Snoke actually took advantage of Sidious and might have been playing him all along in part through Anakin and Thrawn, (and that Sidious just thought it was the other way) but just specualting--thought I would ask anyways in case I missed something more definative in other source materials! :)
    – Darth Locke
    Jan 4, 2018 at 16:52
  • Also makes me wonder if Snoke wanted Ren to kill/think he killed him, so Ren could become the supreme leader (ie: 'finish what Darth Vader Started')??
    – Darth Locke
    Jan 4, 2018 at 17:17
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    I'm pretty sure Snoke is dead though I have seen reasoning like your own for why he might not be. The best counter example I've found though is that Snoke is not central to the story. The story is about Ren and Rey so we don't really need that extra character. Also note how little the Sidious really does in the original trilogy because the story is about Luke and Vader.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Jan 4, 2018 at 17:20
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    Yes, but we can not understand Ren without understanding Snoke, because Ren is cultivated by Snoke. It's not necessary that he lives, but it is necessary to understand whom is really working towards what ends. IMO TLJ is playing to a theme of uncertainty--something going back to Prequels with Anakins turn/fall of Jedi that is also invoked in the original presentation of "on-screen" Vader. So episode IX has to philosophically untangle these belief systems, sine Sidious had a plan, was inter in where Snoke comes from, and Snoke believed in the Skywalker line.
    – Darth Locke
    Jan 4, 2018 at 17:23

3 Answers 3

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The release of The Rise of Skywalker answers the question on the relationship between Palpatine and Snoke.

Palpatine

Has been alive all this time, planning both the First Order and its successor, the Final Order.

He also

created Snoke in a laboratory on Exegol using some combination of cloning technology and Dark Side sorcery.

So, it seems that

Snoke was part of Palpatine's plan all along. While one can argue whether he truly participated in Operation: Cinder per se or only a successive operation, it is clear that Palpatine arranged for Snoke to arrive when he did to assist and take the reigns of the First Order. That is, Snoke was part of Palpatine's plan for restoring his own power. Snoke was not some wandering Dark Side adept who stumbled upon Imperial remnants and decided to become their savior, as many have previously proposed.

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It is known that Snoke did play a part in the evacuation of certain Imperial forces into the Unknown region of the galaxy. However, there are no canon sources that mention Snoke being involved in Operation: Cinder, which was ordered by dead Palpatine.

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  • What do you include in your "canon"? Canon (especially Satr Wars canon) varies from one person to another, so if there's a source you don't consider canon but still does hint at snoke being a part of that operation, it could be an answer too.
    – Jenayah
    Dec 21, 2018 at 1:07
  • He is surely referring to the new canon as it stands with Disney. Since I still could also not find a source this answer seems reasonable, even though I suspect between the Snoke one-shot comic coming out next year, episode IX, and post episode IX there will be more materials on this.
    – Darth Locke
    Dec 21, 2018 at 1:39
  • @Jenayah "What do you include in your "canon"? Canon (especially Satr Wars canon) varies from one person to another"...That''s the opposite of canon, there is no point of canon under that definition. Whether someone likes it or not, canon is established by whoever owns the the material.
    – suchiuomizu
    Nov 25, 2020 at 1:29
  • @suchiuomizu agreed, and I'm not saying it's a good thing. Simply that not everyone takes "official" canon at face value, and it's important to check people don't skip "official canon" sources just because they don't like it - especially when reviewing first posts, as was the case here :)
    – Jenayah
    Nov 25, 2020 at 7:16
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Because Force Awakens happens 30 years after Return of the Jedi, and because it was only made to make sure the empire didn't outlive Palpatine, we can assume Snoke had no part in it.

Also since we don't know for certain who Snoke is, we can't assume he was involved the Empire at all (especially since he didn't say any of that, 'finish what the Empire started' crap, and we probably would have at least noticed him if he was part of the Empire in the original trilogy).

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  • I used parts of Wookipedia's "Operation Cinder" page in the Q (to help support/explain what I am getting at), where it was cited that it went beyond BF2's premise, as AFTERMATH trilogy mnetions it's was suppose to kill the empire, but only so it could START OVER. As to the secnd paragraph, it's by that same logic that Snoke could be apart of it, since everything that happened between ROTJ and the new trilogy is being "writen" now and they aren't necessarily going to give that info away easily, if Snoke still figures into the franchises furture plans----epsiode IX or other works...
    – Darth Locke
    Mar 12, 2018 at 20:49
  • If the First Order is Sidious' vision of a New Empire, then it stands to reason that he also envisioned certain leaders for it...
    – Darth Locke
    Mar 12, 2018 at 20:54

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