Praetorian Guard

For other uses, see Praetorian Guard.

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The Praetorian Guard, also known as the Imperial Praetorian Guard and later as the Elite Praetorian Guard, were elite crimson-armored soldiers of the Galactic Empire's successor states, the Shadow Council and the First Order. An evolution of the Emperor's Royal Guard, the Praetorian Guard wore crimson plastoid armor augmented with mag-coils that deflected blaster fire.

Under the First Order, the Praetorian Guard consisted of eight highly trained elite personal bodyguards under the command of the First Order to protect its Supreme Leader, Snoke. Clad in red armor and robes like the Imperial Royal Guards who protected Sheev Palpatine during his reign as Emperor and the Imperial Praetorian Guard who protected members of the Shadow Council after the fall of the Galactic Empire, they were trained to protect by meeting any threat with a ferocious response.

As combatants they specialized in several forms of martial arts, such as Teräs Käsi, Bakuuni Hand, Echani unarmed forms, Nar Kanji "Blind Alley" techniques, and carried various high-tech melee weapons, and were derived to some extent from the Atrisian Emperor's royal guards.

The Praetorian Guard was stationed aboard the Supreme Leader's flagship, the Supremacy, during the conflict between the First Order and the Resistance. It was in Snoke's throne room where the guards witnessed their master's death at the hand of his apprentice, the First Order warlord Kylo Ren. In response, the Praetorians attacked Ren in an attempt to avenge the fallen Supreme Leader. Despite their efforts, the entire Praetorian Guard—including the First Guard, Third Guard, Seventh Guard, and Eighth Guard —was destroyed by both Ren and Rey, a former scavenger-turned-aspiring Jedi. In the aftermath of Ren's battle with the Praetorians, the dark side warrior claimed the mantle of Supreme Leader for himself.

History[]

Origins[]

Praeotorian-Guard-Mando — Three Imperial Praetorian Guards were deployed to serve Moff Gideon.

Modeled after the Emperor's Royal Guard, personal bodyguards of Darth Sidious during his time as Emperor of the Galactic Empire, the Praetorian Guard^[7]—known at that time as the Imperial Praetorian Guard^[8]—were elite personal security soldiers that guarded key personnel of the Imperial Remnants after the fall of the Empire. The name "Praetorian Guard" dated back to the Praetorian Guards of the 14th Atrisian Emperor.^[7]

Three Praetorian Guards were deployed by Commandant Brendol Hux at the request of Moff Gideon to aid in the battle for Mandalore, as Gideon expected the Mandalorians would try to retake their homeworld. As Gideon planned, the Mandalorians were attacked by Imperial armored commandos by the Great Forge, cornering the unwitting Mandalorians into a trap. As the Heavy Infantry Mandalorian Paz Vizsla engaged the last of the commandos to allow the surviving Mandalorians to escape, the three Praetorian Guards appeared and killed the exhausted warrior.^[5]

Shortly afterwards, the three Praetorian Guards assisted Moff Gideon in his fight against Din Djarin, quickly overpowering him. Before they could finish him off, they were interrupted by Grogu, piloting IG-12. As the Praetorian Guards pursued the foundling into Gideon's conference room they quickly dispatched the mech suit, after which Grogu avoided them by using his Force abilities to jump across the room's levitating light supports. The guards cut down the supports, grounding Grogu, but Djarin, freed from the engagement with Gideon by Bo-Katan Kryze, engaged the Praetorian Guards once more. Using his beskar armor to block their weapons, Djarin killed the three guards with his newly acquired blaster pistols and vibro-knife, aided by Grogu's use of the Force.^[3]

The First Order[]

Snoke throne room — The Elite Praetorian Guard served as protectors of Supreme Leader Snoke during his reign over the First Order.

Under the First Order, the Empire's successor state, the Praetorian Guard^[9]—known at that time as the Elite Praetorian Guard^[4]—was an elite force of eight human warriors who protected the First Order's leader, Supreme Leader Snoke.^[9] Like the Atrisian Emperor's original guards, Snoke's guards operated in pairs. The Elite Praetorian Guard flanked the Supreme Leader in his throne room,^[4] and held in Snoke's Mega-class Star Dreadnought, the Supremacy.^[2] Three of the guards were known as the First, Third, and Seventh Guards, respectively. Snoke had to rely on them for dealing with physical threats from a lethal distance, as while he still retained his potent Force abilities, he was well past his prime regarding his physical prowess and thus could not deal with any direct threats to him.^[4]

The guards were holding court as usual in Snoke's throne room when the Supreme Leader summoned his apprentice Kylo Ren, whom he proceeded to berate for his losses on Starkiller Base. When Kylo responded aggressively to the taunting, the guards quickly assumed combat-ready stances but stood down at Snoke's gesture. While Snoke was telling Rey how she and the Resistance were doomed, Rey grabbed Kylo Ren's lightsaber to attack him, the Guards immediately attempted to attack her but Snoke called them down. As she tried to attack Snoke, he used the force to push her away while the Guards returned to neutral stances.^[2]

ReyKyloVsGuards — The Praetorians attempted to kill Rey and Kylo Ren after the latter assassinated Supreme Leader Snoke.

During Snoke's confrontation with Rey, he ordered Kylo Ren to fulfill his destiny and strike her down. Snoke was naïve however, envisioning Ren turning his own lightsaber to strike Rey down when in fact he was using the force to move the Skywalker lightsaber, which lay next to the Supreme Leader. Ren used the force to activate it, killing Snoke before the Praetorian Guard were aware of what had transpired. The Guards immediately engaged the pair, focusing their attacks on Ren.^[2]

When Snoke was assassinated by Ren, the Praetorian Guards immediately sprung into action to avenge the death of their leader. Ren and Rey, who were present for the assassination, engaged all eight of the guards in a short yet intense fight. The guards were, at first, evenly matched against the two Force-wielders, with their weapons being resistant to their foe's lightsabers and managed to score a wound apiece on them. However, they were ultimately no match for the two and fell one by one, with the last guard being killed when Kylo ignited Rey's lightsaber, which she had thrown to him, through his faceplate, killing him instantly. Ren then assumed the title of Supreme Leader.^[2]

Legacy[]

"Prepare to crush any worlds that defy us. My Knights and I are going hunting for the scavenger."

―Kylo Ren, to the Supreme Council^[2]

By 35 ABY, towards the end of his rule as Supreme Leader of the First Order, Kylo Ren looked at the Knights of Ren,^[10] an enclave of masked^[11] elite warriors,^[12] as his own equivalent to the disbanded Elite Praetorian Guard.^[10]

Equipment and training[]

ImperialPraetorianGuard-SS — The armor worn by the Imperial Praetorian Guard.

Imperial Praetorian Guards were elite warriors who served the Shadow Council during the New Republic Era. Ready to savagely respond to any threat they found,^[8] the guards were incredibly skilled warriors^[5] who wore red armor, which called back to the garb of the Emperor's Royal Guard,^[8] and possessed helmets with a design similar to Mandalorian armor.^[5] Their attire featured segmented armor plates and robes.^[5] Additionally, their chest plates were identical to those of the First Order's later stormtroopers,^[13] albeit colored red.^[5] The weapons of the Imperial Praetorian Guards included a bilari electro-chain whip, an electro-bisento, and a vibro-arbir blade. They were a predecessor to the Elite Praetorian Guards of the First Order,^[14] which carried on the segmented armor and robe design^[2] seen on their Imperial predecessors.^[14]

The First Order's Elite Praetorian Guards were clad in ornate crimson armor, robes,^[6] and a plastoid helmet.^[4] The layered crimson armor of the Praetorian Guard was a high-tech onion-skin of laminate, impregnated with conductive wirepaths that, once powered, created an intense local magnetic field. Once this energy-intensive field activated, the powered plates could deflect blaster fire. Even a lightsaber would glance off, though a directed thrust could penetrate the shell. The mag-coils were costly, the plates heavy, and mag-field exposure was ultimately painful to the wearer. They were merciless, persistent, and specialized in melee combat, as Snoke sensed they would eventually fight lightsaber wielders. The armor underwent many changes over the decades, with the original Guard's armor incorporating elements of stormtrooper armor.

Praetorian Guard with heavy blade Sideshow — A Praetorian Guard with a Bilari electro-chain whip.

The Praetorian Guards boasted an arsenal of melee weapons^[9] that were high-tech versions of unpowered analogs found in primitive societies across the galaxy, such as long vibro-voulges, electro-bisentos with an electro-plasma energy filament running along the blade's edge^[4]—flailing Bilari electro-chain whips, and heavy double-bladed vibro-arbir blades that could also be separated into^[9] dagger-like single-bladed weapons to adjust to any battle scenario. Different Praetorian Guards would specialize in what variation they normally kept their weapon in.^[2] The precise, sweeping movements of their martial arts fighting style struck fear into the hearts of foes.^[9] The eight Praetorian Guards consisted of four sets of pairs that wielded the same weapon. The First Guard both wielded electro-bisentos. The Third Guard utilized Bilari electro-chain whips and the Seventh Guard made use of dual vibro-arbir blades.^[4]

Although the Praetorians' weapons and plate armor; which could resist lightsaber attacks—as well as their training enabled them to hold their own against both Ren and Rey for a time, the guards were ultimately defeated and killed by the Force-sensitive pair.^[2]

Behind the scenes[]

"The Emperor's guards were very formal, and you always got the sense that they could fight, but they didn't. They looked like they were more ceremonial, and you never really saw them in action. The Praetorians, my brief to Michael Kaplan was that those guys have to be more like samurai. They have to be built to move, and you have to believe that they could step forward and engage if they have to. They have to seem dangerous."

―Rian Johnson^[1]

Praetorian Guard EW — The Praetorian Guard was created for *Star Wars: The Last Jedi*.

The Elite Praetorian Guard was created and developed for Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi,^[1] the eighth film in the Star Wars saga, which was released on December 15, 2017.^[15] The Praetorian Guard was officially revealed in an article by Entertainment Weekly, released on August 9, 2017.^[1] The Guards made their first appearance in Star Wars: Tales of the Force,^[16] a Golden Book title published on September 5, 2017 as part of the Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi series.^[17]

Rian Johnson, the writer and director of The Last Jedi, wanted the Praetorian Guards to be built to move, to seem dangerous more like samurai; in contrast to the Emperor's Royal Guards, which looked very formal and ceremonial. The Praetorian Guards' costume was designed by Michael Kaplan in parallel to Johnson's vision. The guards were named after the real-life Praetorian Guard whose members served as personal bodyguards to the Roman emperors.^[1]

An earlier form of the Praetorian Guard was introduced in "Chapter 23: The Spies" of the television series The Mandalorian, but it was not until the 2024 reference book Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy that the two groups were confirmed to be the same.