Supreme Leader Snoke

"Oh, still that fiery spit of hope? You have the spirit of a true Jedi! And because of that… you must die."

- Snoke orders Rey's death. "You think you can turn him? Pathetic child… I cannot be betrayed… I cannot be beaten. I see his mind… I see his every intent. Yes… I see him turning the lightsaber to strike true! And now… foolish child… he ignites it… and KILLS HIS TRUE ENEMY!!"

- Snoke's last words seconds before being killed by Kylo Ren.

Supreme Leader Snoke is a major antagonist in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, appearing as the overarching antagonist of the first installment, The Force Awakens, and as the secondary antagonist of the second installment, The Last Jedi. He was also an unseen overarching antagonist in the animated television series Star Wars Resistance. He is a powerful humanoid alien experienced in the dark side of the Force thanks to being a clone created by Palpatine and the first Supreme Leader of the First Order. In The Force Awakens, he appears via hologram, commanding orders to high-ranking First Order military official Armitage Hux, and his apprentice, Kylo Ren.

In The Last Jedi, Snoke has a more pivotal role, commanding his flagship, the Supremacy in an attack against the remnants of the Resistance. It is revealed that he had seduced Kylo to the dark side while he was under Luke Skywalker's training. After capturing Rey and commanding Kylo to kill her as to redeem himself worthy to him, Kylo betrayed and murdered Snoke, using the Lightsaber on his throne to cut him in half. Kylo later usurped his position as the new Supreme Leader.

He was portrayed/voiced by, who also played Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies, the Witch-King of Angmar in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Mr. Grin in Stormbreaker, Ulysses Klaue in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Capricorn in Inkheart, and Spike in Flushed Away.

Appearance
Snoke appears as a very thin and frail being of unknown species with large hands. His hologram used on Starkiller Base projected him several times larger (around 25–30 feet) than his natural appearance. However, he still towers over Kylo Ren and Armitage Hux, making his true height 7–8 feet, as Andy Serkis said. Although his age is unknown he is said to be very old, and having been aware of the events taking place across the galaxy for a considerable period of time, possibly for most of the time span of the Star Wars saga films.

Snoke had an elongated face with pale, scarred skin and light blue eyes, though they can easily be mistaken for dark black eyes in Snoke's hologram. He sported a large scar from the top of his head, all the way down to his brow. Snoke also has a scar or burn on his right cheek and a malformed zygoma on his left cheek, causing his face to become contorted. It is at present unknown how he gained these scars however his strong connection to the dark side of the Force might have played a role in his appearance. It is also possible the scars may have been incurred as a result of an assassination attempt (as speculated by his voice actor, Andy Serkis). Snoke wore a simple cloak similar to those worn by Sith Lords in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, while in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, he wears a golden robe and slippers prioritized for comfort, as his stance is painful. Snoke tended to speak slowly and enunciate his desires with a forceful undertone.

Personality
"No; it was Snoke. He seduced our son to the dark side."

- Leia Organa to Han Solo about their son's turning to the dark side by Snoke.

"And now…you will give me Skywalker…then I will kill you with the cruelest stroke."

- Snoke to Rey before torturing her.

Snoke is a very intelligent, extremely powerful, evil-minded, deceitful and, according to Kylo Ren, "wise" individual. He is also very sly and manipulative, as he exploited Force-sensitive individuals, such as Ben Solo, only for their power, and managed to command over the entire remnants of the fallen Empire.

Snoke displays tendencies unusual for practitioners of the dark side of the Force; he is somewhat more emotional and melodramatic. His anger and frustration were on clear display after learning of failures from General Hux (the loss of BB-8) and Kylo Ren (inability to extract the map from Rey). In Star Wars: The Last Jedi it is shown that he often uses his force powers on his minions, like General Hux and Kylo Ren, to express his displeasure at their failures. However, he is far more forgiving than both Sidious and Vader as he seems to never kill them or any officers out right.

His reason for choosing Ben Solo as his apprentice (as explained in the novelization of Star Wars: The Force Awakens) is that as Anakin Skywalker's grandson, he is a focal point in the Force; a perfect balance of light and dark, thus rather easy to turn to the dark side - which he successfully did.

For mostly unknown reasons, Snoke has a dislike for Luke Skywalker. However, in the film's novelization, Snoke is shown to believe that Darth Vader's loving and compassionate nature for his son, Luke, was the reason for the fall of the Galactic Empire. He also passed on that belief to Kylo during the the latter's apprenticeship.

In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Snoke seems to hold doubts about Kylo Ren ever becoming the new Vader, believing that even with the death of his father, Han Solo, he had some weakness in him that left him in conflict. He even taunted Ren of his unwillingness to kill Rey to succumb himself further, calling him a pathetic and foolish child. Eventually, this horrible treatment led to Snoke's downfall as it provoked an angry Kylo to kill Snoke by cutting him in half from the waist with Luke's lightsaber.

In the little screen time that he had, Snoke proved to be utterly sadistic, cruel and incredibly evil. Snoke also exhibited extreme psychopathic traits: a complete lack of conscience, a lack of empathy & remorse, extreme arrogance, narcissism and a lack of fear. Snoke was also a highly cold-hearted individual and he is completely willing to let his own soldiers, as well as millions of others die. He was also incredibly manipulative, easily seducing Ben Solo to the dark side and turning him into Kylo Ren. Before his death, he was pompous until the end, and even though he could sense Kylo's every move, his arrogance was his downfall.

But Snoke is less evil than Palpatine. In contrast to him, he is calm, collected, and wise. While he heads the First Order, he does not think that the ideal is pure focus on the Dark Side. In fact, he considers his disciple Kylo Ren to be the "ideal embodiment of the Force, a focal point of both light and dark side ability," showing that he sees the balance Of good and evil as the best course to power, rather than abandoning one for the other altogether. Also, when the Starkiller Base is about to explode he makes sure it's evacuated, whereas Palpatine would probably just let them die. Then again, this could just be out of pragmatism as the First Order really can't afford to throw away personnel and resources willy nilly like the Empire.

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
After the escape of Poe Dameron with help of the deserting stormtrooper Finn, Hux and Kylo Ren are called before Snoke. Snoke, appearing as a large hologram, tells them that if the droid BB-8, whom Dameron gave the map leading to Luke Skywalker, brings the map to the Resistance a new Jedi Order will rise.

Hux claims full responsibility for the failure and tells Snoke that Starkiller Base is ready to be used against the Republic. Snoke orders Hux to oversee the preparations and dismisses him. After the general has left, Snoke exclaims that there has been an awakening and asks Ren whether he felt it too.

He then tells Ren that the droid they are searching is in the hands of Ren's father, Han Solo. Ren tells Snoke that Han means nothing to him but Snoke responds that despite his training, Ren has never faced such a task before. His hologram then fades away, leaving Ren alone in the room.

After Ren has captured Rey, but is unable to read her mind, as she herself is strong with the Force, he reports to Snoke who can not believe that the scavenger girl bested his apprentice. When Snoke asks of news of the droid, Hux tells him that because he had the girl in his hands, Kylo deemed the droid irrelevant and stopped the search for him.

To prevent the Resistance from finding Luke Skywalker, Snoke orders Hux to prepare the Starkiller weapon to destroy the home planet of the Resistance. Snoke then orders Ren to bring Rey to him, but she has already escaped her prison cell.

After Han Solo calls out to Kylo Ren (by his name Ben) to come home and depart Snoke, his son asserts that Snoke is wise while Han claims that Snoke doesn't care about him and will crush Ben once he gets what he wants. It is unspecified what Snoke wants.

It could be obedience from all over the galaxy or Luke Skywalker's location, if not both. Kylo Ren may have believed Han's warning that Snoke will crush him and then secretly made plans to kill Snoke later on to prevent that from happening. Nonetheless, Han's lecture to him about Snoke did not change his relation with his son, and his son executed him anyways.

When it becomes imminent that Starkiller Base has reached a critical condition and will be destroyed under the attack of the Resistance, Snoke calls General Hux to him and orders him to evacuate the base as well as to bring Kylo Ren to him, promising he will complete Ren's training.

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
Following the destruction of Starkiller Base, Snoke starts to sense that Kylo is growing weaker ever since he killed Han. After ordering him to take his mask off to view the scars he got from his battle with Rey, He then proceeds to compare Kylo unfavorably to Vader by calling him an immature child hiding behind a mask, a statement that left Kylo very upset. Despite the setbacks, Snoke becomes delighted to hear that Hux found a way to constantly track down the Resistance fleet and deduce their current location through hyperspace, so he orders both Kylo and Hux to lead a series of assaults on the Resistance fleet.

Snoke also learned that Kylo and Rey have developed a certain connection to each other within the Force as they can communicate through their minds. Deciding to exploit this, Snoke manipulated both Kylo and Rey into communicating more with each other in the Force, which allowed Rey to be captured by Ren in a failed attempt to bring him back to the light side.

Being brought over to the throne room occupied by Snoke and his Elite Praetorian Guards, Rey is horrified to learn that Snoke was the one who Force linked Kylo Ren's mind to hers. He then reveals he plans to use his Force skills to torture her into giving out the location of Luke so that he can destroy the Jedi legacy and cement the First Order's reign across the galaxy. After Snoke tortures Rey, he sadistically orders Kylo Ren to finish her off, gloating of his ability to read Kylo's mind and calls Rey a 'pathetic child' for thinking she can still turn him.

However, unbeknownst to Snoke, his apprentice manipulated Anakin's lightsaber (which had been sitting next to Snoke on the armchair of his throne) with telekinesis to face him. Managing to trick his master into thinking he would kill Rey, Ren then ignited the Skywalker lightsaber with the Force into Snoke's side. The Supreme Leader could only make a face of pain and utter shock before being bisected and killed as Kylo Ren called the lightsaber forward with telekinesis. After Rey and Ren finished off Snoke's guards, Kylo takes over Snoke's mantle as the new Supreme Leader, even framing an escaping Rey for the murder and Force-choking an arriving Hux into compliance for the new chain of command.

Powers

 * The Force: Snoke is extremely powerful, and has an extremely strong connection to the Force.
 * Telepathy: Snoke had the power of telepathy, which he used to sense Kylo’s emotions and intentions, though he was only able to sense that Kylo was about to kill “his true enemy”, but assumed that it was Rey and not himself. His abilities also allowed him to manipulate and enhance the bond between his apprentice and Rey to the point where they could interact and perceive each other’s immediate surrounds while being physically separated, though neither of them could control when they experienced these visions.
 * Mind Probe: Snoke possesses skill with the mind prove that was naturally superior to that of his apprentice, as he easily pried into the mind of Rey to discover Luke’s location, which caused her extreme agony.
 * Telekinesis: Snoke possessed an affinity for Telekinesis as well as being able to use Force chokes and throws. He was able to immobilize and restrain his targets effortlessly, which allowed him to manipulate their movements. As demonstrated on both Rey and Hux, Snoke could make his targets glide along the floor or fly through the air while barely concentrating or exerting visible effort. His power in this regard is so strong that he doesn't even have to be in close proximity to his intended target, as he was capable of using his powers on General Hux even though they were not even in the same solar system (as Snoke's ship had not entered the same system yet at that point).
 * Force Lightning: Snoke was able to use Force lightning, notably projecting a blast against the floor, causing it to rebound and hit Kylo, knocking his apprentice off his feet.

Abilities

 * Intellect/Master Tactician/Leader/Manipulator: Snoke is highly intelligent. As the leader of the First Order and the Knights of Ren, Snoke is a highly skilled tactician and a capable leader. Snoke's skill in manipulation is so strong that Snoke even managed to manipulate and deceive Ben Solo into becoming his apprentice and turning him against the New Jedi Order, even before the boy was born.

Trivia

 * Snoke can be considered the Bigger Bad of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, as he is mainly responsible for corrupting and teaching Kylo Ren, who is the Big Bad, the ways of the Dark Side of the Force. During the first half of the sequel Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Snoke appeared to be the primary antagonist, but this role is taken over by Ren after he kills Snoke and takes his place as Supreme Leader.
 * His appearance was created using motion capture (CGI).
 * His name was officially unveiled on May 28, 2015. It is derived from the word Snoek, a type of fish.
 * The role of Snoke in the sequel trilogy mirrors the role of Emperor Palpatine in the original trilogy. The case of Snoke is similar to the roles of both Kylo Ren and General Hux in the sequel trilogy, who respectively mirror Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin in the original trilogy. The difference being that, Snoke is betrayed and killed in the second installment of the trilogy.
 * Likewise, his telling Kylo Ren to "fulfill his destiny" mirrors Palpatine telling Luke the same thing in Return of the Jedi. But unlike Palpatine who died at the hands of Anakin Skywalker, Snoke is betrayed and killed by his respective right-hand (Kylo Ren) shortly after uttering this line. Prior to that, his taunting Rey with the seemingly imminent destruction of her friend's fleet followed by Rey using the Force to grab a lightsaber to use against him, is strikingly similar to the moment in Return of the Jedi where Palpatine taunted Luke with the seemingly imminent destruction of the Rebel fleet, followed by Luke using the Force to grab his lightsaber and try and strike Palpatine down.
 * His being taken by surprise and sliced in half by a Force user wielding a lightsaber not their own is strikingly similar to what happened to Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace where a Force user (Obi-Wan), cut him in half using a lightsaber not his own (Qui-Gon's). The difference, of course, is that Maul survived.
 * There had been theories that Snoke was Darth Plagueis, Palpatine's former master, but those theories were wrong. Ironically, Snoke's betrayal at the hands of Kylo Ren is exactly like Plagueis' betrayal at the hands of Darth Sidious.
 * Other popular theories were that Snoke was Boba Fett, Jar Jar Binks, Mace Windu, Ezra Bridger, Gallius Rax, a resurrected Darth Vader or even a future Kylo Ren, but those theories were likewise wrong.
 * He is played by Andy Serkis, who also played Gollum in the Lord of The Rings films. Andy Serkis is the second major Lord of The Rings actor to play a Star Wars villain after the late Christopher Lee who played Count Dooku in the prequel trilogy, and Saruman in the Lord of The Rings films.
 * Ironically, his yellow/golden robes resemble those worn by the Jedi Librarian Jocasta Nu, though this resemblance was likely just a coincidence.
 * Snoke wearing a robe and slippers is considered proof of his arrogance, as he considers himself untouchable thanks to his vast dark side powers and his elite Praetorian Guard, only for Kylo Ren to prove him wrong with his betrayal.
 * Andy Serkis has confirmed that Snoke's horribly deformed face was inspired partially by injuries of World War I veterans who came back badly scarred or deformed.
 * In some ways, Snoke can be considered like a foil towards Leia Organa: they are leaders of a military faction (the First Order and the Resistance), operate more from behind the scenes, are strong in the Force, desperately search for Luke Skywalker and both have faith on Kylo Ren. However, whereas Leia was right that her son would not kill her, Snoke naively thought Ren would never betray him and got killed as a result.
 * Snoke was originally planned to be female during the development of The Force Awakens, before the character was finalized as male once his official design was done.
 * Snoke's death in The Last Jedi received the most poor reviews for a Star Wars villain or character, with many claiming that with the massive marketing which Disney published, and, with Snoke's appearance in The Force Awakens to be mysterious, many expected The Last Jedi to explore Snoke's origins until he was killed by Kylo Ren, a decision which was written and made by director Rian Johnson.

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