The big twist at the end of Star Wars’ sequel trilogy was that Emperor Palpatine was alive, and he created Snoke clones to do his bidding until he was ready to reveal himself. While that has become common knowledge among Star Wars fans, there was one aspect of Snoke’s cloning process that many fans may not be aware of–one with sickening implications.

Snoke was introduced in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens as he is the shadowy leader of the First Order and the Dark Side master of Kylo Ren. Even with Snoke’s backstory remaining a mystery throughout that first film, Star Wars gave fans zero payoff in the sequel as Snoke was unceremoniously killed and wasn’t brought up again for the rest of the movie. In the final installment, however–Star Wars: Episode IX - Rise of Skywalker–it is revealed that Snoke was seemingly nothing more than a synthetic puppet created by Emperor Palpatine. While this was one of the first times fans saw Palpatine create Force-sensitive clones, it wouldn’t be the last, as one comic goes deeper into that twisted process.

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In Star Wars: Darth Vader #11 by Greg Pak and Raffaele Ienco, Darth Vader decides to kill Palpatine and take over as ruler of the galaxy. Vader unexpectedly arrives at Exegol and attacks Palpatine with a giant tentacled monster Vader forced to do his bidding. However, the Emperor easily killed the space beast and slunk deeper into his fortress–and Vader followed, determined to finish what he started no matter how sure he was it would end in failure. As Vader walked through the corridors, he arrived in a chamber filled with man-sized vats containing what appeared to be clones, either failed or growing. While all of them were grotesque, skinless creatures vaguely resembling ‘humans’, there was one aspect to them that was more disturbing than their appearance: they were alive, and they were in excruciating pain.

Star Wars Reveals Snoke was Sentient, Not the Emperor's Mindless Puppet

Star Wars: Emperor Palpatine's Snoke clones.

When Darth Vader walked through Palpatine’s gallery of manufactured pain, he unintentionally revealed that Snoke was actually alive and had his own form of consciousness. Since Snoke as a character was quickly swept under the proverbial rug upon the return of the Emperor, Star Wars never clarified if he was sentient or just an empty husk through which the Emperor could retain control over the galaxy. However, this comic seems to confirm that Snoke was his own person outside the Emperor–which makes the details of his existence even more unsettling.

As fans see in Star Wars: Episode IX - Rise of Skywalker, Kylo Ren walks by a vat of Snoke clones when he arrives at Exegol, indicating that Palpatine made more than one. In fact, with the added evidence of this comic issue, it isn’t outside the realm of possibility to consider that Emperor Palpatine made, and killed, countless Snoke clones until he was satisfied with the one he chose to lead the First Order and corrupt Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren, and each one of them more than likely suffered unparalleled torture during this excruciating process, and every one of them were individually aware of that terrifying pain–a truly sickening implication that Star Wars has seemingly confirmed.

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