Indeed. Of all the very questionable things they have pulled so far with those sequels, and what a list that is, what they did with that character remains for me one of the most incomprehensible of them all.
As main bad guys we only have left now Hux, a character that the last jedi made a point to turn into a joke for some reason, and captain emo.
Fantastic.
Kind of worked with Palpatine a bit. Ian Mcdiarmid was 16 years older than his ROTJ self when he reprised the role, but appeared younger since in ROTJ the makeup made him look pretty ancient anyway. Even when he finally got the Palpatine 'look' in ROTS, he appeared more agile than his ROTJ self (No cane, for example, although it's possible that was intended as an act anyway, as he's not using it when attacking Luke).
It's possible Snoke's appearance/disfigurement is similar in some way. It's been speculated that the scar on his forehead might've actually come from a lightsaber (Luke's?).
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Could be the case they're taking a page from the old EU and making Richard E Grant play a somewhat younger or less disfigured clone of Snoke, which would be interesting. You can assume that even with the power grab that some Snoke loyalists remain within the First Order or astride from it, maybe even the Knights of Ren. If they're planning on Ben ultimately abandoning the Dark side and joining Rey in a Grey Side thing then you'd want an alternative main villain to vex the Resistance.