Part 34 of 43 Individual Scenes from ‘Rise of Skywalker’
Palpatine: Snoke trained you well.
Kylo Ren: I killed Snoke. I’ll kill you.
Palpatine: My boy, I made Snoke.
It’s not strictly fair to complain that the opening scene of this movie features no speaking until well into the third distinct location. It could be 100% a creative choice, not at all motivated by last minute changes to the plot which meant this whole sequence couldn’t retain even a handful of words. Maybe Adam Driver is remaining silent as a method acting choice! Perhaps this was JJ Abrams’ vision for a stylised introduction to the final film in the Skywalker Saga™! There are dozens of plausible reasons.
So Kylo Ren is killing a troupe of large forest Jawas in what seems like a total rout until the camera pulls back and all the First Order Stormtroopers are dead as well. He pops open an item chest and retrieves the Sith Wayfinder we’re all so very familiar with now, then in a beautiful match-cut he’s in his TIE Fighter navigating the large blood vessel you need to fly down to get to Exegol. Once arrived, he heads into the large inverted pyramid by hopping down the great octagonal elevator and the booming voice of Emperor Sheev Palpatine finally breaks the silence. “I made ‘Snoke’”, he exclaims. “I have been every voice you have ever heard inside your head.” It’s not his finest dialogue, but take note of the obvious talent the erstwhile Supreme Chancellor has for doing impressions. That’s going to come up again.
“I made Snoke” is a curious line. The intent, clearly, is to tie the start of this film to the climax of the last one. Given that little else in this film is hugely concerned with the events of the previous one though (and often in thematic conflict with it), it sticks out. And the effect it has is to complicate the plot of both this film and the trilogy as a whole, rather than streamline it: uniting the galaxy against a surprise return from Palpatine is self-contained if a little uninspired. Having the whole thing be the continuation of Sheev’s grand plan from the start raises too many questions about what it all meant that this film has no interest in answering. The motivations of everyone involved suddenly go from indistinct to baffling.
My best guess is that they thought audiences would be dissatisfied if they didn’t answer the Snoke question, but Snoke would work infinitely better as a bizarre, alien interjection in the sequel trilogy than as whatever this is trying to imply about him. McDiarmid absolutely nails the intonation though.