ST What are the motivations of our villains?

My guess is Snoke will be some pure blood Sith from a long time ago - before the rule of two stuff that is awakened somehow by the First Order and if not it will be thought his race was extinct a long time ago but somehow managed to survive unnoticed and Snoke is the last perhaps. Snoke is basically "pure evil" and power hungry "Immune to the light".

 

Not necessarily. It very well could be that it takes a Skywalker to take out a Skywalker. If the motivation is to rid the galaxy of Skywalker blood, pitting them against themselves is a pretty good start. Its only the last one that would have to be dealt with somehow.

I could see it going in some way like Kylo is obsessed with Vader, and hates his lineage because he doesn't know the truth that Luke did not kill Vader, and that Vader turned to the light in the end.

I see the Skywalker bloodline as an insurance policy left by Anakin. As long as there are Skywalkers, the dark side cant win. So regardless of who Snoke is, he will be defeated by a Skywalker. If Snoke is not the big bad, whoever is would suffer the same fate.

 

The idea of the First Order and The Resistance having to eventually team up to take on a mutual enemy, possibly an extragalactic threat (like the Vong, but, er...NOT the Vong), makes me giddy to contemplate.

 

This of course...

 

So this thread is sort of a mashup of Who's the Baddie, Supreme Leader Snoke, Kylo Ren, Hux, Phasma, and the First Order/Empire threads?

 

in other words useless.

 

Once more the Sith will rule the galaxy... and we shall have peace.. again.

 

Going by the "every villain is a hero in their own mind" (which incidentally, probably applies to the forces of destruction currently running around our planet today), I will suggest that the New Order or whatever, just think that the rebellion caused more chaos, destruction and conflict in world, in contrast to the simple (literally, black and white) , ordered, easy to understand totalitarian Empire. Supreme leader Snoke was presumably a lower ranked Imperial officer who lost everything when the Empire collapsed and again, just wants things to be as they were before.

Captain Phasma is just a good soldier. He/she just does what he/she is told to do. Ditto for General Hux.

Lets consider Kylo though, in terms of an outsider in his chosen religion, the Force worshipping/manipulating Jedi. He is presumably just as it goes, questions the restrictions and tenants of the order (or whatever Luke managed to resurrect). From his point of view, he is probably a mystic - searching for forbidden knowledge or questioning it. He might genuinely believe that he is physically, morally and spiritually superior to the non-Force users (a la pureblood wizard vs muggles) and wants to just righten the order of things as he sees it.

The very best villains though, are those who make you empathise with them - the ambiguous ones or at least, the ones with something beyond a cardboard/action figure construct. Time will tell whether Kylo can step up to the very very big shoes of Big Darth.

 

Hopefully it's something unique, at least among the named villains. The First Order as a whole probably has a pretty simple goal: Get back what the Empire lost. That's fine. Political groups tend to want that stuff.

Kylo Ren needs to have a long term goal, however, and i'd prefer it be something unique. Snoke is a bit more iffy.

 

I don't think Snoke gives a flying hoot about the First Order, Empire, or anything of the sort. He wants the Force. He wants all of it to himself. Manipulate it, create life, destroy it, change it, and make it last forever if he so desires. That way the Sith cannot be destroyed as they were. He is just using this radical "jihad" type of group, trained from childhood to hate, and create a diversion so he can locate what he needs to gain that control over the Force.

Eventually, after the high ranking officials in the FO are killed, Finn leads the stormtroopers who, like himself, were made to follow the FO in order to protect their families. He leads them to join the Republic and the tides change as they did back after the Clone Wars. Anakin once led the storm/clone troopers, forced under orders, to slay Jedi. Years later, the stormtroopers, now humans with souls and heart, are led by Finn against the one who desires to be Vader and the one who is more powerful than the Emperor.

 

My theory: The bad guys want to restore the galaxy to its former Imperial glory. The good guys are struggling to establish democracy across the galaxy after it slipped from a few good years on top.

I think Snoke is a powerful source of evil that the Empire decided to get in bed with, like making a deal with Satan himself.

 

Given the "Supreme Leader" title of Snoke and Ren's apparently rampant use of the Force and his saber in front of anyone (Vader seemed more restrained and, at least on camera, only a few people in the OT saw him use the Force) and his reverent collection of Vader's mask and perhaps other Sith artifacts (?), maybe the use of the Force, particularly the Dark Side, is championed by the First Order and used as fuel to attract religious devotees to their cause.

Basically a militantly religious version of the Empire..."Extremists"...Which, the OT Empire was very atheist so to speak, with Imperial admirals being dismissive or outright mocking Vader's devotion to the Force. Perhaps Snoke's big scheme is to make the masses believe in the Force, strive to master it (even if they have little chance of doing so) and worshiping those who can use Force powers (i.e. himself and Ren).

Given that he has Vader's mask, I could see Ren claiming to be the "Son of Vader." (though I doubt he'll say the words "I'm Luke Skywalker").

This gives Snoke and Ren extra motivation to find and kill Luke or any of his students because they'd be able to refute Ren's claims and also tell and show the First Order followers the true nature of the Force and the light side and undermine the false belief system which Snoke has devised.

 

That would... be awesome. I love this. Now you've got me hoping that it happens.

But to reply to your first point, I agree that he doesn't necessarily give a flying hoot about the FO, Empire, or any of that. The Force is his biggest motive. But why is that? Is it just because it's the Force? I'd say it's power. He wants ultimate power. Having the Force to himself will give him that power, but controlling the Empire? That would be a bonus (if that makes sense).

 

To rebuild the empire maybe?

 

So Snoke is the last surviving member of the Rakata?

Kylo is a deranged lunatic who Han had brought to Luke for help only he was assumed killed in the attack on the Jedi Academy?

Hux is trying to be Tarkin 2.0, but he's no Peter Cushing (those are big slippers to fill!)

Phasma is the Rex or Cody of the new era, depends ultimately whose she truly loyal to more, Snoke or the Empire?

I'd be more impressed if they reveal that long lost Sith Shrine located beneath the Imperial Palace and former Jedi Temple is actually home to a slumbering Rakata...

 

I like the background of the Rakata but their appearance wouldn't be too good for Snoke and of course they can change that to whatever they want. It wouldn't surprise me if the background of Snoke is something like that.

 

To find Luke Skywalker and END him

 

A quick buck?

 

More like an enormous amount of cash and promote the selling of the toys and other stuff based on that movie... so yes!

 

I too hope that the First Order and the Resistance team up and take on an extragalactic threat like the Yuuzhan Vong but I think they should save that for Episodes X-XII.

 

Snoke is dark Force sorcerer who uses black magic only and not a lightsaber. He hears about the death of the Emperor, seizes control of a faction of surviving Imperial Star Fleet, seeks a Force user to become his apprentice. He determines with Imperial intelligence that Han and Leia Solo have two twin children. The fleet they are traveling with is ambushed over Jakku. One twin is captured successfully, while the other is presumed lost when the Star Destroyer carrying her crashed to the planet's surface below. He uses Kylo Ren to rearm and organize the faction he controls as his enforcer with the intent of conquering all of his competition and rebuilding the Galactic Empire in his image.