For the Snoke death thing: Hux's undiscovered Force Sensitivity
(Content warning: TLJ spoilers, violence)
“Excellent,” General Hux says. It is not excellent. It is the opposite of excellent. The Fulminatrix is lost and the Resistance has escaped. He needs to say the right thing right away so that Supreme Leader knows all is not lost. “I’ll take it in my chambers.”
“General Hux!” roars Supreme Leader Snoke, manifesting right there on the bloody catwalk of the Finalizer bridge, putting rotting teeth deathly in need of dental work on full display.
“Ah,” Hux begins gamely, “good—” And suddenly Hux feels himself falling. He didn’t stumble—Snoke is using the Force to manhandle him. In front of his crew. He has never done such a thing before; it is humiliating. But more than that, it is an outrage—
And he doesn’t fall. He’s suspended in midair, trembling ever so slightly. He feels as though he is flexing a muscle, but none of his muscles are in any position to hold him up. By all rights he should be flat on his face on the durasteel.
Snoke lets out an impatient, angry huff, and Hux feels himself shake harder, but he still doesn’t fall. Slowly, he rights his body—somehow, using that muscle he can’t identify—and folds his hands behind his back.
“Supreme Leader,” Hux says, even as he is straining to hold position against the invisible pressure of Snoke’s power. “The hyperspace tracking technology is complete. We’ve calibrated it to the Resistance’s transport. We can easily follow and destroy them once and for all.”
“General,” Snoke growls, sounding strained. “You dare—you—how—”
He is not flexing a muscle, Hux realizes. He is flexing something else. Some other thing innate to him, something he’s felt in dreams, something he’s studiously ignored because he has no use for mysticism.
Or rather, he had no use for mysticism. But now, apparently, he can use it.
Slowly, Hux brings his right arm forward, extending his hand toward Snoke’s holoprojection. He closes his fingers as though grasping something, and Snoke lets out a choking cough.
“Interesting,” Hux says. Then he crushes his hand into a fist, and Supreme Leader Snoke’s neck snaps in two.
For a long moment, the bridge is utterly silent. The holoprojection sits there, showing Snoke’s head lolling off his neck in high definition.
Finally Hux straightens his greatcoat and turns to the communications officer. “Cut that channel. When Ren calls, and he will, direct it to my chambers.”
“Yes, General,” Lt. Stynnix acknowledges at once, and soon everyone is turned back to their stations.
“General?” Hux muses softly. “Yes, I suppose so, for now. But not for long.” And with a grand sweeping of coattails, the soon-to-be Grand Marshal—Supreme Leader—Emperor? strides off the bridge.
