Star Wars: How Episode 9 Fixes The Last Jedi’s Biggest Mistakes

5. A Posthumous Explanation For Snoke & The First Order

Snoke currently exists as a whopping great red herring, but you might remember various fans pointing out that the music in the background of his first scene with Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens, is the same as when Palpatine discusses "Darth Plagueis, The Wise" in Episode III.

As the latter conversation was specifically about "cheating death", this led to many speculations that Palpatine was resurrected as Snoke, or that they were in some way always working together - rather like the now non-canon book, Shadows of the Empire, where Palpatine has the mastermind Xizor listening in on all his communications with Darth Vader.

Look to the evidence of various canonical books and comics showing that Palpatine essentially had a "back-up Empire" ready and waiting in the Unknown Regions, ready to activate if anything happened to him, and you immediately have an explanation for the First Order and Snoke.

Of course, what the Emperor has been doing for 30+ years in between Episode VI and IX, is anybody's guess.