Saga - ST To Finish What He Began *TFA Spoilers* (Snoke, Kylo Ren, and mentions of Rey)

Title: To Finish What He Began
Author: darth_treyvah
Characters: Supreme Leader Snoke, Kylo Ren, Rey.
Summary: Supreme Leader Snoke reflects upon the latest developments of his Grand Experiment.

You will finish what he started.

That is what you keep saying to yourself, my young apprentice. A vow to your dead grandfather. I know, at this time, what you are thinking. It is painfully obvious. You believe that it is your duty, your destiny, to destroy what he helped to exterminate over three decades ago. And, in some ways, you are not incorrect. Under my guidance, with the Knights of Ren at your command, you had your first taste of slaughter: nipping the Jedi in the bud, as it were, before they could emerge once more.

But they were not real Jedi. And for all the threat that your uncle poses to my plans -- to my real plans -- the Jedi were always besides the point.

Perhaps you think it is your duty to the First Order: to the legacy of the long lost Galactic Empire. But I highly doubt that. You should be well-aware, by now, that your grandfather only served the Empire -- spreading it across the entire known galaxy -- all for his own personal sake, the sake of the dark side, the sake of power itself, as that was all he truly had left. If you have not learned this lesson already, I am sure that after the events of Starkiller Base you will know it by now.

The First Order is a useful tool. It is a collection of finely honed resources of the best engineering, planning, child indoctrination, the colonization of the Unknown Regions, political manipulation, hidden caches of credits, discipline and fanaticism to a glorious nostalgia for a brutally efficient past. My Knights keep it together with the one thing every sentient being truly understands: fear.

But as I said, like the Empire before it, like the Inquisitorius that kept it in line, they are all tools: to twist and shape the galaxy into the place it needs to become. Fear itself is only a starting point. Suffering is the gestation of life in an incubator of conflict. The violence between the Resistance and the First Order, and even destruction of Starkiller Base was a necessary loss as it has sewn the seeds of fear and chaos that I need to make your playground possible.

Darth Vader started something else towards the end of his life and, in doing so, he finished his own cycle. The truth is, my apprentice, is that your grandfather didn't just destroy the Jedi. On the Second Death Star, three decades ago, he overthrew his own Master. He killed Darth Sidious and by the tradition of the Sith, he became the Master. I know.

I saw it.

But it was a temporary victory. He was on that edge: between two sides of being. He almost grasped it, but he was too old. He was too weak. The Light undermined his resolve, eating away at the armour he build around himself for years, its deathblow granted by the spark of his son. Sidious himself had been a lost cause: completely consumed by his sadism and his own sense of narcissistic glory: a withered body barely holding back a straining maelstrom.

Yet your grandfather was special. Years ago, a Sith Lord named Darth Plagueis gained enough power in the Force over life and death. He was able to maintain existence, to resurrect the dead ... and to create life itself. The Jedi Order had a Prophecy about the Chosen One: a powerful Force-sensitive being conceived by the Force itself that would bring it ... balance.

There were two Sith Lords and an Order of Jedi Knights. Then there were two Sith and two Jedi. Then there was only one.

Your uncle came so close to potential. On the Second Death Star over Endor, he utilized the power of hate and love -- two sides of the same credit chip -- to nearly take his destiny. But he lost that edge. He couldn't get it back now even if he wanted.

Sidious and his predecessors were just mortals consumed by their passions. Your grandfather was a step in the right direction, but one I couldn't guide directly. Not then. Your uncle was eroded by sentiment, and your mother by fear.

And then, there is you. You, Kylo Ren.

You are strong, as befits your bloodline. As I said before, you are made from the finest materials. I should know. But you were still crude in the marble. Still unfocused. Rage and guilt made you unpredictable, and conversely malleable. I have chipped away at your excess, even as you have made strides to distance yourself from weakness, from orthodoxy.

And then came the crucible. It was the point where you threatened to diverge, where you could have fallen back into binary understandings, where you might have broken, or been destroyed. Instead, you persevered. You killed your own father.

I can feel it now. The hate and love, the righteousness and self-loathing, the absence inside of you, cut from you by your own hand being filled with power. Many of my apprentices undertook the act of sacrifice, but with your heritage and the combustion of light and darkness inside of you -- with despair snuffing out hope in a perpetual cycle of dialectic -- all distinctions will blur and become indistinguishable. You will become power.

You will finish what your grandfather began, my apprentice. You will bring balance. You will unify the Force itself. And the First Order, Starkiller Base, the Resistance, the Republic, the Knights of Ren, the Jedi, family, and the galaxy itself are a small price to pay in order to achieve perfection.

Of course, there is the girl to consider as well. I must admit, even I did not foresee this. But she has much potential. Perhaps she will have a part to play in this cycle as well. At the very least, she will be more prime matter to work with.

I have observed and guided this Grand Experiment for a long time, Kylo Ren. And I greatly look forward to the day when you finish what you began.

 

Very dark, but very true to Snoke (as far as I can interpret...I'm not fully up to speed on TFA details just yet) and his ultimate mission. I find it interesting that you are basically implying that he has been manipulating Kylo from afar, rather than having some direct influence over his path through the Dark Side. That definitely fits with the way Plaguey most likely created Anakin (again, you also make note of this, which I definitely agree with rather than through some direct intervention).

 

This here is masterful in so many ways. I know that it was outright denied that Snoke is Plagueis, but the fact that the Plagueis book is no longer canon has got me wondering if the truth is somewhere between a yes and a no.

Darth Vader started something else towards the end of his life and, in doing so, he finished his own cycle. The truth is, my apprentice, is that your grandfather didn't just destroy the Jedi. On the Second Death Star, three decades ago, he overthrew his own Master. He killed Darth Sidious and by the tradition of the Sith, he became the Master. I know.

I saw it.

But it was a temporary victory. He was on that edge: between two sides of being. He almost grasped it, but he was too old. He was too weak. The Light undermined his resolve, eating away at the armour he build around himself for years, its deathblow granted by the spark of his son. Sidious himself had been a lost cause: completely consumed by his sadism and his own sense of narcissistic glory: a withered body barely holding back a straining maelstrom.

I...see what you did there. The thought you're elaborating on here, through Snoke's persona, is something that I admit never ever crossed my mind, though it was there all along - that there was still some Darth Vader in Anakin

So, is your theory that both Snoke and Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader are some sort of Plagueis horcruxes? And that Snoke saw it because he's a part of Plagueis as much as Anakin is?This would make sense in a way that could result for a personal conflict even for him. With the First Order being a tool and his unpleasant notion of Kylo Ren himself being replaceable, I wonder if the philosophy behind it is implying an actual balance, where there is no major Force organisation? Hmmm...

That is one wild ride, but if you're going to take us on it, I say HELL, YEAH!

 

A great sinister Snoke revealing slowly his plans to Kylo in all matters both in the past and in the future.

 

Well he has been training Kylo Ren, but at the same time I also think he has been maneuvering events to allow Ren to make the choices that we have seen. There is a little bit of direction, but also manipulation which might achievement a pretty interesting specimen of fruit. And thank you for your feedback leiamoody. It is appreciated.

 

I have seen that the theory of Snoke being Plagueis has been negated by Andy Serkis, but you also have to remember that J.J. Abrams likes to lie about details of his upcoming movie storylines, and I would imagine Serkis could be toeing the company line there. Of course, there might be some changes as well now that the Legends continuity has been established. And who knows? Perhaps Palpatine himself wasn't the only Sith in the new continuity who violated the Rule of Two and Snoke might be from ... another violation before him. We will just have to see how that all plays out.

It is interesting to note that when Anakin turned back to the light he fulfilled two requirements to both Orders: destroying the Sith and succeeding the Sith Master. Then the dialectic of those two opposing forces negating themselves becomes a synthesis and something new is left behind. If that doesn't illustrate balance I don't know what does. I think that the distinctions between a light and dark side persona are pretty binary. Darth Vader and Anakin are the same person, but I think by the time Anakin made his last sacrifice he wasn't thinking about the Jedi or the Sith, or the Light or the Dark Sides of the Force. All he was thinking about was saving his son.

As for my theory, I don't think that there are "horcruxes" involved here. I think that a powerful darksider or Force user like Snoke would have a conceivable amount of farseeing or foresight. He could have had visions from the Force itself showing him key moments in its balance, or journey towards balance. He could have also observed some of these events happening from behind the scenes over the years as well.

As for Snoke's idea of balance, perhaps that synthesis I mentioned earlier (which may have once been the Potentium Heresy in Legends) might be something of a clue. And of course the creation of an all-powerful sole Force-sensitive being beyond organizations of any kind might have something to do with that, but that in itself is not an original idea. But there is definitely a lot to think about, isn't there. Also, thank you for recommending my fic Ewok Poet. I greatly appreciate that. It's been a while since I've written anything on this Board since the Great Move.

 

Thank you, RX_Sith. I definitely tried to pace myself in this vignette.

 

Thank you Findswoman. This was a one-shot story, but I did write another story today that you might find interesting.

My Awakening: http://boards.theforce.net/threads/my-awakening-tfa-spoilers-and-speculation-kylo-ren.50037264/

This is another piece about the speculative future of Kylo Ren himself. Like I said to Ewok Poet perhaps Snoke did witness Anakin's fall to the dark side and his overthrow of Sidious through Force visions and his own power in the Force. Perhaps he was watching this entire time. As for the Grand Experiment ...it was actually a term taken from the now Legends continuity of James Luceno's Darth Plagueis novel: where Plagueis sought to create the ultimate Force-sensitive being with his powers in the Force. So some ambiguous Legends content did make it into this fanfic in a small way, but I just really liked the name of it and couldn't think of anything else.

Thank you for commenting and for your support. I look forward to hearing back from you.

 

I definitely enjoyed this inner monologue. Brutally honest and sinister! Well done and thanks for the link!