Star Wars: The Last Jedi - 9 Moments Everybody Misunderstands

8. Snoke's Death

From being Darth Plagueis to the Inquisitor from Star Wars Rebels or even Emperor Palpatine reborn, few elements of The Force Awakens gave us more fan theories than the identity of Supreme Leader Snoke. With his background presence in Episode VII, there was clearly some setup for him to become the Palpatine (figuratively, if not literally) of this new trilogy and be the overarching villain across all three episodes.

And then Rian Johnson cuts him in two, and all those theories go with him. It's the most jaw-dropping twist in The Last Jedi, a moment that comes out of nowhere to subvert all expectations and theories will leaving fans completely stunned.

Past the initial shock, though, and there are lots who aren't too happy with the decision to kill him off, or at least not without revealing some key bits of backstory first. It's been called a waste of a character, rendering the supposed Big Bad (and two years of fan theories) moot, and done simply to cause a shock or prove Johnson is going his own way rather than J.J. Abrams'. Other complaints, meanwhile, are levelled at the fact Snoke - a powerful Force user - didn't sense Kylo Ren's betrayal.

Snoke's death isn't just a twist for the moment, but one that makes both Kylo Ren and Episode IX far more exciting. It's a means of pushing both Ben Solo and the saga as a whole in a new direction, confirming that Snoke isn't just a Palpatine redux. It's a way of using our own expectations against us; no one ever said Snoke was in Ep 9, nor that he was the Big Bad. We just made that assumption and created fan theories to fit. It's the Star Wars version of Ned Stark losing his head - a character we thought was important, unless you're just going to make him another Palpatine, then he's one who actually serves the narrative and characters better dead than alive - in this case, pushing Kylo Ren into leading the First Order, further freeing him of mentor/father figures and allowing him to go beyond redemption in a way even his grandfather didn't, which is a far more tantalising prospect.

As for him not sensing it, that nicely ties in the comments about the Jedi's hubris Luke had been talking about earlier; Snoke suffers from that same hubris, a belief he has complete control over Kylo, which provides a dark mirror to Luke as they're both his mentor figures on opposite ends of the Force.