Star Wars: Snoke's Death Is The Best Plot Twist In Years

Snoke dies in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Straight up dies. Ben Solo clouds his true intentions from his master and ignites the Skywalker lightsaber through his abdomen, slicing him in two. Snoke is dead.That twist, right at the heart of Rian Johnson's first (but definitely not last) Star Wars film, isn't just one of the most shocking parts of Episode VIII, but quite possibly the entire franchise (bar "I am your father", of course). For sure, it's the best movie twist in a major film in the past few years.Related: The Last Jedi's Final Scene Changes Star Wars Forever (And For The Better)Now, 2017 has been a good year for twists. Blade Runner 2049 subverted the version Star Wars-y notion of new generations. Split had a shocking outer-movie connection. And Spider-Man: Homecoming brought the house down by just having Michael Keaton open the door. Even blockbusters where the big shocker was pretty obvious - Alien: Covenant's robot switcheroo, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2's parental villain and even Wonder Woman's World War I-accurate Ares - had a greater sense of purpose to the reveal; none were just empty spectacle.Snoke stands above these. His death is not just wholly and completely unpredictable in a single film, it reframes a previous movie, changes the progression of the sequel trilogy, and reshapes the real meaning of the greater franchise.Snoke's Death Is The Red Wedding of Star Wars

Snoke Was Never Said To Be In Episode 9

A hologram of an angry-looking Snoke addresses General Hux in Star Wars The Last Jedi.

We don't know what J.J. Abrams originally had in mind for Snoke. It's entirely possible he did expect him to survive up-to-and-beyond Star Wars Episode IX as the ultimate power in the franchise. But if that was the case, and whether Rian Johnson had to petition Lucasfilm or Kathleen Kennedy was already pushing him towards the death, any greater plan was never conveyed to us.

Let's make this clear from the start: it was never said that Snoke was in Star Wars 9. In fact, it wasn't even alluded to that he was the big bad. There is, plainly, no behind-the-scenes dishonesty at play. Everything we thought we knew about Snoke came from misread inference; every fan theory assumed a base understanding of how Star Wars operates under Disney - perpetuated by The Force Awakens over-rhyming - and so all speculation was built on the notion that Snoke was the new Emperor.

The Last Jedi admittedly plays into that, having the Throne Room scene replaying many key moments from Return of the Jedi's Emperor showdown. The ultimate villain taunts our hero, tries to get inside their head and corrupt them, even using the decimation of their friend's fleet as a manipulation tool. Our hero then Force pulls a lightsaber trying to take down the dictator before being put in an inescapable, deadly situation.

Of course, with that done, it should almost be expected for the morally conflicted underling to kill their abusive master. However, right up until Kylo Ren actually ignites the saber, it's impossible to believe, mainly because we're not at the end; this is killing a presumed integral character in the middle of the story.

Snoke's Death Is The Red Wedding of Star Wars

Snoke Throne Room in Star Wars The Last Jedi

The Last Jedi is shocking. While the basic plot beats could be discerned from trailers, the only major plot point that could be predicted (without the aid of leaks) was that Rey was no one; there simply wasn't a satisfying proper solution. Kylo Ren ascending to become Supreme Leader of the First Order or Luke becoming one with the Force were last resort guesswork, with little-to-no pre-film grounding. Still, when they rolled out it slotted into what we were seeing. Snoke's death came entirely out-of-the-blue.

It's not an exaggeration to say no death in Star Wars has ever had this much shuddering shock. Obi-Wan's the mentor, predestined to die in the hero's journey. The Emperor the big bad and goes out at the end of Jedi. The same goes for tragic figure Darth Vader. The closest we've come before is Order 66, with the majority of the Jedi wiped out in a quick montage, yet we always knew they'd not make it out of the prequels alive, just not exactly how (nor did we get given the names of any victims in the films themselves). Just as Star Wars was never really about shocking twists, it wasn't about sudden deaths. Star Wars doesn't kill people like Game of Thrones.

And that's the closest cultural comparison to be made. This is the Red Wedding of Star Wars. And not because it's shocking - that's not what makes the best Game of Thrones' murders work - but because it's so purposeful in the narrative being told yet what exactly that story is hasn't been made fully clear yet. That was true of Ned Stark; it was true of Robb Stark; and it's true of Snoke: none of these were ever essential to the full story. The genius is that we were tricked into thinking they were.

The Initial Problem With Snoke

The reason why people so bought into Snoke being important is really because otherwise, he was a waste. It's easy to forget now we're more than halfway through the sequel trilogy and Disney Star Wars movies will outnumber Lucas-produced films in less than four years, but before Lucasfilm was bought in late 2012 and development on Episode VII started, Star Wars was over; Darth Vader rose, he fell, and balance was brought to the Force. To continue into the future meant finding a way to reframe the very much complete story of Anakin Skywalker as something more cross-generational that could go along.

That's undeniable tricky when you have such a prior resolution, and so many eyes went towards Snoke; this mysterious, old figure had the potential to tie everything together. Conversely, for him to just be a random Force user from the Unknown Regions would mean the sequels were inessential to the original Star Wars story, and the franchise was more soap opera than it was a space one. This is why the Darth Plagueis and First Jedi theories are so appealing; they give a genuine purpose to the character that spans all three trilogies (and beyond).

But, as we now know, Snoke wasn't the big bad. He didn't need justification because that wasn't important. He's important primarily because he dies, we just couldn't appreciate that until we got to the moment itself.

Snoke Was Just A Red Herring For Kylo Ren's Uber-Vader Arc

In no uncertain terms, Snoke was a red herring. He presented an ultimate evil for our heroes to fear and villains to kneel down before, but with the real purpose to shield from view until the very last moment that the true bad guy of the sequel trilogy was Kylo Ren. The Last Jedi already managed to sow doubt about Ben Solo's true destiny thanks to his relationship with Rey and the growing sense he was going to be the only Skywalker in the new generation, but the constant presence of Snoke made it all the easier to swallow; kill the Supreme Leader and there'd be a massive power gulf (indeed, for the brief portion of Episode VIII between Ben killing his master and assuming their role, the film exists with the distinct possibility of all characters living happily ever after).

But he wasn't just a narrative plaything. By investing just enough into the character in The Last Jedi, building on what was there in The Force Awakens, Rian Johnson made Snoke into an essential part of Ben Solo's fall. All his life, the boy had been lumbered with flawed father figures: Han Solo was, by his own admission, a disappointment who tried to hold back his Jedi training (who Kylo, of course, eventually killed); Luke was a renowned legend who struggled to teach him and - from Ben's perspective - almost killed him. Snoke was the third, the way out of his oppressive family and one who endorsed interest in the one other male in his family tree, Darth Vader. And yet from his treatment from the start of Episode VIII that relationship soured too, becoming imbalanced and Ben still treated like a child. He's mocked for losing to "a girl" and his cosplay affectations. He's no better off than he was under Skywalker.

To kill Snoke is the final step of Kylo's removal of the past, the step he needs to nullify his sibling bickering with Hux, to truly inherit his "birthright" as the grandson of Darth Vader. It's too early to speculate properly about Episode IX - The Last Jedi proved so much of fan dot-connection is more plot than it is story - but if the end game really is for Ben Solo to have gone darker and deeper than Anakin Skywalker (as suggested by Luke, Leia and Rey all independently concluding he's beyond redemption), then this is the moment where that is truly solidified.

Any Backlash, Ultimately, Misses The Point

The unexpected nature that makes Snoke's death such exciting and impactful storytelling has, of course, also led to it annoying some sections of the fanbase.

That can be understood, if not really agreed with when we layout the full intention. It obviously nullifies all those fan theories and, without the realization Serkis was never set to return, can come across as subversion for the sake of subversion. As we've explored, however, that's not the case, and so the real lingering concern with the Supreme Leader is that he's still a mystery: where did the dark side adept come from? Even then, without him being important to the story at hand, we don't need to know; Rian Johnson is right in saying to detail his past would be tantamount to dramatizing a Wikipedia page.

The Snoke twist is the most exciting turn in Star Wars pretty much since Darth Vader revealed his true identity to Luke; it challenges what we think we know and propels the series forward on a new path. Everyone was expecting something shocking in The Last Jedi, but it's fair to say no one predicted this.

Next: The Last Jedi's Final Scene Changes Star Wars Forever (And For The Better)