Like and Leia also act like they know everything they care to know about Snoke.
And my point is that for decades A New Hope was treated like a sequel to unseen events, and it wasn’t confusing. When the explanation came of how the Empire rose, most fans rejected it. Also, again, the difference is that the characters we know and interacted with were directly impacted by the events of the prequels. There’s no shared history with Snoke, so it doesn’t matter.
Take a Legends/EU example: the Yuuzhan Vong aren’t really explained. They just come from far away. Over the course of those stories they kinda delve into pertinent details, but they’re not giving all of this unnecessary information just to fill out more pages on Wookieepedia.
If that backstory reveal doesn’t affect what’s happening in the current story: it doesn’t matter. Snoke’s backstory never impacted the current stories being told. Pre-TROS continuity had him as an ancient dark force calling out to Palpatine from the Unknown Regions in novels and games. But what would such a reveal in the film matter when talking to characters that were born after Palpatine’s death? What would it matter to Luke and Leia who were concerned with toppling the Empire and restoring democracy to the Galaxy in the OT and have to help or not help do that again? When did they state that they’d defeated the Dark Side of the Force? Where does this plot point come up that you’re so attached to?
Again, it’s just for fans who want to fill out Wookieepedia pages. It did not serve the actual story being told. If you’re mad that we got the stories we got, a lot of people are mad at JJ Abrams for his decisions to do an off-brand A New Hope story and reset that status quo. The problem isn’t Snoke and the First Order, the problem is hiring a man who can’t write to be co-writer and director.
I’ll give you the Vong point, but I think the key difference boils down to that storyline starting with the Vong’s emergence in a New Republic Galaxy. I know TFA supposedly starts with the New Republic in control, but that’s never really the case. With the Vong, we see how the New Republic is failing to properly address this threat until it is too late.
When it comes to cohesion, every Star Wars episode ends a certain way, and every successive episode follows up on that. When you watch 1-6, it feels like a singular unit (at least generally, I know the Prequels have some weirder elements). The ST feels detached from that because of the thematic gap between 6 and 7.
TPM: Anakin will be a Jedi and the Republic cannot handle threats like the Trade Federation.
AOTC: A Clone Army has been created and a War will begin.
ROTS: The Empire has risen, The Jedi destroyed, Anakin is Vader, and Luke will be raised on Tatooine.
ANH: The Rebels defeated the Death Star.
ESB: Han is missing and Vader is plotting to re-capture Luke.
ROTJ: The Empire is defeated!
Every movie before follows what the last movie set-up except for TFA, which jumps right to the First Order and Resistance. This is not a natural continuation of the plotlines as much as it is an attempt to reset to something safe (which I understand given the PT’s then-poor reputation). The more I think about this, the more I think it was planned this way. By having effectively a “hidden trilogy” between the OT and ST, JJ had a mystery box to incite hype towards what could come in later installments. Unfortunately, said promised answers ended up very contrived (the Palpatine reveal), which I think we can both agree weren’t for the best, regardless of our views on TFA and TLJ.
But this reply is getting too long. I think we’re getting off-topic and moving beyond the point: faneditng ideas. So to try and shift the conversation back, how feasible would it be to rotoscope a different character into Snoke’s place? I’m imagining the Emperor could have multiple clones, tying the trilogy together rather than having two evil old man dark lords. Not ideal, but I’ll settle with what’s possible.