I can't wait until this is actually released so the "WTF Snoke" shit can really hit the fan. It's already been happening in the places where leaks are discussed.
These people forget that the only folks who knew so much as Palpatine's
name for 20 years were those who had read the original Episode IV novelization, where it's mentioned in the intro (and, because ESB wasn't a thing yet, he was mentioned as an ineffectual puppet ruler with people like Tarkin being the actual power in the Empire). Besides saying smug and/or vaguely cryptic shit and shooting lightning in his last minute, the Emperor was only a badass because someone as scary as Vader (Mister Force Choke Is A Valid Human Resources Tool) kneeled to him and said things like "The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am". Even with three additional movies to flesh him out, we essentially only find out that he's a senator from Naboo who likes opera. And yet much of the fandom considers him one of the few decent things in the prequel trilogy. But the idea that Snoke just happens to be a force-sensitive Sithaboo who showed up at the right place and time to put the Imperial remnant back together and whose background isn't terribly important? Oh no, we can't have that. Of course, Disney being Disney, this also could just be an excuse to make some sequel-prequel between VI and VII to explain it anyway.
Going through the plot points of this film, it seems to be indulging a lot of archetype/prototype subversion, a pile of "what if". What if Vader helped Luke in the throne room on Death Star II? What if Anakin was less of a possessive jerk and asked Padme to come with him instead of demanding and then choking her out? Playing with archetypes can be fun and can even be subconsciously addicting to indulge in (this is why when you read anything from David Eddings, you feel deja vu; he actively abused the shit out of this and straight up called it "literary crack" in his commentary), but less so when people are in on the game. It's not 1979 nor is it 1999 anymore; now we have full-on internet autism reactors that generate crazy theories about everything and feel blue balls when you don't match up to their expectations.
What purpose does Finn serve in the series?
If, you know, this weren't a Disney production and thus totally woke and socially conscious, I would say he's a fusion between Muh Diversity (
NOW ENJOY FINN 2.0 WITH HIS NEW ASIAN GIRLFRIEND, HERE TO PLEASE THE CHINA MARKET) and a rendition of the old racist minstrel show acts of last century. But of course that can't possibly be it, can it? /sneed