‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’: Snoke Wanted His Elite Guards In Constant Pain And Agony

Snoke may be no more after Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but there are still a lot of discussions surrounding the character.

One involves his Praetorian guards seen in action in the throne room scene, which was unforgettable to Star Wars fans for a lot of reasons, following his death at the hands of his apprentice Kylo Ren (Adam Driver).

In the official Star Wars: The Last Jedi visual dictionary picked up by the popular Star Wars watcher and YouTuber The Stupendous Wave, it is revealed that Snoke required his elite crimson sentinel in constant torment.

While it protects them from harm, their red armor is ironically the source of their agony. It uses material that keeps them safe from lighsabers and blasters hits, but also needed them to be in a state of incessant pain to avail of that benefit.

And they endure all that as part of their unquestioned service to Snoke, who certainly would not want his guards easily taken out by enemies anyway if their job is to keep him out of harm’s way — as detailed in the official Star Wars: The Last Jedi visual dictionary.

“The layered armor of the Praetorian Guard is a high tech onion-skin of laminate, impregnated with conductive wirepaths that, once powered, create an intense local magnetic field. Once this energy-intensive field activates, the powered plates can deflect blaster fire. Even a lightsaber will glance off, though a directed thrust will penetrate the shell.

“The mag-coils are costly, the plates heavy and mag-field exposure is ultimately painful to the wearer, but such are the sacrifices of protecting the Supreme Leader.”

This goes to show how dedicated and loyal the Praetorian guards are to Snoke and what it takes to be the one responsible for protecting the supreme leader. The revelation also confirms that the red-clad Star Wars: The Last Jedi characters are not droids, as previously speculated.

The Stupendous Wave points out that the Praetorian guards also mark another first in the Star Wars saga with the idea that they can deflect a lightsaber. Such concept has not been explored in any of the past movies.

Only the notion of repelling blaster shots is not new as this can be achieved with Mandalorian armor, which the Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back favorite Boba Fett sported. It relied on durability instead of magnetic field though so he did not have to go through the same torture that the elite guards did.

Thanks to these armors, the Praetorian guards managed to put up quite the fight against the team of Kylo Ren and Rey (Daisy Ridley) in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, making for one of the most epic fight scenes in the film.

Funnily enough, they lived a little longer than Snoke, who was betrayed by his student and takes a lightsaber to the torso— the supposed powerful master of the Force cut in half.

It is unclear at the moment if the Praetorian guards will return in Star Wars: Episode 9 in some form. The group in the throne room were all killed by Kylo Ren and Rey and it is yet to be revealed if there are others on reserve like the royal guards that Emperor Palpatine had.

It will be interesting to see if they will be featured beyond Star Wars: The Last Jedi now that Snoke is already dead.