Revealing the true identity of new Star Wars characters has become something of an obsession for fans ever since the credits rolled on Episode VII: The Force Awakens.

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That's why we've had no end of theories about who Rey could be, why Kylo Ren's evil, whether or not THAT death actually happened and who new big bad Supreme Leader Snoke really is.

Snoke's identity is a question that's really plaguing fans of late, though, and now there's a new theory that seems to be going down quite well. When you consider it carefully, you can see why.

The most commonly accepted theory is that Snoke must have something to do with the infamous Darth Plagueis - aka The Emperor's implied Master. Palpatine basically hinted to Anakin that he'd murdered Plagueis while the pair were working on a method to create life and stop people from dying in Revenge of The Sith.

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HeronSun (as they're known on Reddit) argues that given the fact Darth Vader literally translated to father (the Dutch vater) and Darth Maul literally loved to Maul people, Darth Plagueis is just what his name suggests he is - an actual plague/infection, that travels from body to body, inhabiting a new host every time.

Or in HeronSun's own words: "Darth Plagueis did solve the problem of Immortality, and has been jumping from body to body for however long, lying to his apprentices to lure them to the Dark Side to be ideal hosts for his Dark spirit, which has become a parasitic life-form draining from the force, a Plague."

That would explain how someone's consumed by the Dark Side, eh? Here's how the theory goes.

Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious were working on solving the problem of immortality when they magically created Anakin Skywalker – who was actually Plagueis' idea of a perfect host body.

The Force would be stronger with the boy than with any other body he'd inhabited before, and he'd be of age before Plagueis' time in Palpatine's body ran out. But then Palpatine figured out his Master was planning to murder him and ended up dueling with him.

Palpatine lost the duel, though, and Plagueis hopped into his body.

"During Palpatine's attempted arrest by the Jedi Council led by Jedi Master Mace Windu, Palpatine is injured by his own Force Lightning ability when its plasma beams are reflected by Windu's lightsaber. Despite this, he seems rather untroubled by the idea that he is now a living nightmare of a man. It's as if, despite being a Sith and fueled by passion and mortal possession, he doesn't care about his own body. During his conversation with Anakin in the following scene, his eyes and voice change many times, rather drastically, something that is not seen again in the entire saga," HeronSun writes.

With us so far? Good.

Plagueis' plan to take over Anakin's body were kind of destroyed when the young Jedi went swimming in some lava, so the evil Sith Master had a nice suit built for him to keep him ticking over. But then he discovered Luke Skywalker, Vader's very powerful son, and decided he'd like a spin in his body instead.

There was just one catch.

"[What] Plagueis could not foresee was Anakin renouncing the Dark Side to save Luke, who Plagueis wanted as his new apprentice in the light of Vader's body being as damaged and incapable as it was. However, Luke would not turn to the Dark Side, and out of frustration Plagueis attempted to murder him. Once Anakin's more powerful (light-side) spirit had fully left his body, Plagueis took possession of it on Endor out of sheer desperation to remain alive."

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Yup, you read that right. We've now entered the realms of possession of corpses. Someone call the exorcist.

"[Plagueis] was no longer concerned with having the perfect body, he would simply have to find another. He had at least some of his new body's limbs reconstructed via cloning (which is why Snoke's limbs, or at least his arms, appear biological rather than cybernetic, albeit small and deformed still) so that his body would not be as inhibited. It can be assumed that the rest of the body will be recreated piece by piece throughout Episodes VIII and IX.

"After hearing about how the Jedi describe the Force and the Dark Side, which can be akin to a cancer, a sickness... or a Plague, one can safely say that Plagueis is the manifestation of the Dark Side of the force. If that's the case, then Plagueis must be destroyed to bring Balance to the Force."

And who'll be the one to destroy Plagueis? All hope here rests with Kylo Ren.

"As other theories state, Kylo may be a sort of 'Double Agent' for the Jedi, convincingly feigning his intentions to get close to Snoke/Plagueis. Then, when Plagueis is cornered and has no other body to possess, he will be wiped from the Universe, and the Force will finally be balanced. 'I will finish what you started'."

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It's dark, it's depressing and it's really rather detailed, but that's a theory that's been very well thought out. And if it turns out to be true, well done HeronSun.

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