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Spoilers for The Last Jedi:

Just before Snoke is slain,

he narrates Kylo Ren's thoughts/feelings (saying things like "he turns the lightsaber towards his enemy" and so on) we see the Skywalker lightsaber being manipulated through the Force to point towards and then slay Snoke. My question is, do we know for sure who was using to Force to use the Skywalker lightsaber in this scene?

It could have been

A) Kylo Ren was turning igniting the Skywalker lightsaber with the Force. Snoke assumed the thoughts/feelings he was sensing were directed at Rey but they weren't.

Or... B) Snoke was so preoccupied with Kylo's thoughts that he wasn't paying any attention to Rey's thoughts. Rey takes advantage of this and uses the Force to turn and ignite the Skywalker lightsaber to slay Snoke.
This option is reinforced by the fact that
1) the Skywalker lightsaber then zooms into Rey's hand, not Kylo's.
2) after the ensuing scuffle, Kylo Ren reveals that he hasn't switched sides; he is still a believer in the First Order.
3) Kylo Ren even tells Hux that Rey slew Snoke.

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  • Note: Skywalker lightsaber. Whose saber is it?
    – user64742
    Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 0:44
  • @Typhon it was Anakin’s then Luke’s and then Rey’s. See scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/111503/…
    – RedCaio
    Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 11:01
  • Dude, that's not what I meant. I meant to say that technically Kylo Ren should have inherited it so it makes sense for him to be controlling it. It was a rhetorical question.
    – user64742
    Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 18:07

4 Answers 4

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It was 100% Kylo Ren.

When Snoke was slain, Rey had her back to him and when she turned around to see what happened, she was in complete shock.

Also, Snoke narrated Kylo Ren's thoughts, which included him (Kylo Ren) striking down his enemy.

Lastly, Kylo Ren lied about who killed Supreme Leader Snoke because it would be considered treason, and Kylo Ren would then be an enemy of the First Order.

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  • 25
    Also at the moment where the lightsaber is ignited, the camera clearly shows Kylo make a sharp snap/grip with his left hand. I believe this is the clearest indicator that it was indeed him.
    – PGmath
    Commented Dec 24, 2017 at 1:45
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    In addition, there is also a scene just before the lightsaber starts to rotate where we can clearly see that Kylo is sort of "stirring" with the fingers of his left hand as he moves that hand sort of behind his back (like crossing ones fingers while telling a lie).
    – coblr
    Commented Dec 25, 2017 at 1:18
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It was pretty obvious in the scene that it was Kylo Ren, as he was

mirroring the movements of Luke's lightsaber with movements of his own lightsaber, to mask from Snoke what was about to happen to him.

Rey was focused on Kylo

expecting him to kill her. Snoke thought so, too.

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The fullest in-universe proof of all aside from camera angles and unsaid actions during the event is:

If it were Rey that had killed Snoke, then Kylo Ren could've easily let the red guards know that it was Rey and that she would be executed or something to that effect. For him to kill them makes no sense since he wouldn't be an enemy.

Also note how Kylo says:

"Let the past die." Snoke is part of "the past" to which he refers. Plus, Snoke has a large portion of the movie where he continually berates Kylo for not being good enough and how he is a horrible apprentice. At a certain point one can only get called "a child in a mask" so many times. After that, you are pretty guaranteed to snap and lash out. I.e. he and Snoke aren't on very good grounds so he has decent motive to kill him.

I should also point out:

This is all assuming that Snoke himself didn't somehow plan his death himself for some reason such as having a puppet body or taking the opportunity to possess a new body. He is quite frail so I wouldn't write off such a possibility yet. After all, there is a ninth movie and there's gotta be more to it then Kylo having a galactic temper tantrum.

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  • See also scifi.stackexchange.com/a/176363/4918 about Snoke moving to a new body.
    – b_jonas
    Commented Dec 26, 2017 at 23:19
  • @b_jonas I meant something more along the lines of making us think kylo killed him when it was actually just an illusion planted in their minds.
    – user64742
    Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 0:42
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    I came away thinking that killing Snoke was just too easy
    – Peter M
    Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 21:03
  • @PeterM what would be interesting is if him and kylo are in on it together somehow. After all, to gain full power an apprentice must always kill their master. Staying dead isn't necessarily a requirement.
    – user64742
    Commented Dec 28, 2017 at 6:57
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Kylo Ren killed Snoke.

Kylo had indeed rotated the hilt of his lightsaber so it was pointed directly at Rey’s chest. But even as he did so, Luke’s lightsaber was rotating silently on the armrest of Snoke’s throne—unnoticed by either the Supreme Leader or the Praetorian guards.

When Kylo’s fingers twitched behind his back, the blue energy blade of Luke’s lightsaber sprang into existence, spearing Snoke. Then, with a flick of Kylo’s hand, the blade carved through his master, cutting him in two, and flew through the air into Rey’s hand as Kylo’s ignited his own lightsaber.

The Last Jedi: Official Novelisation

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  • I forgot about that last bit... is there any additional mention later about the saber going directly to Rey? Confusion from her or anything? She didn't know what was about to happen and I assume Kylo just gave it to her assuming they were about to face off against Snoke's personal guard...
    – Odin1806
    Commented Mar 6, 2018 at 21:44
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    @Odin1806 - From the junior novel; "Ren sent Luke’s saber spiraling to Rey. Rising, she caught the hilt and looked at him. That hope in her eyes burned even brighter now."
    – Valorum
    Commented Mar 6, 2018 at 22:20

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