In The Last Jedi, Kylo Ren took Rey to Snoke's throne room, which ended up with them fighting against the Praetorian Guards. In the heat of the battle, a guard's electro-chain weapon was thrown at the large red curtain on the background, setting it on fire. As the curtain burned down it revealed the huge screen windows of the Supremacy.
What was the original purpose of this curtain? Why were the windows covered with it?
In-Universe, the Last Jedi Visual Dictionary notes that the curtains serve as camouflage for Snoke's Praetorian Guard, his literal last-line-of-defence against assassination attempts, but one that is largely hidden from guests.
Eight Prateorians flank Snoke's throne, their red armour blending into the curtain that surrounds the chamber. They stand as implacable unmoving sentinels, but should any hostility surface from Snoke's rare invited guests, they snap instantly into combat stances.
Out-of-universe there's a couple of reasons behind this bold visual choice. The director wanted to preserve the red and white motif inspired by the planet Crait
StarWars.com: All the posters have this red-and-white motif. You can see it carried through in the footage we’ve seen in the teasers and trailers. It’s really unique. I don’t think any of the other films had this specific a look with bold, clean colors. Where did that come from?
Rian Johnson: It was something that developed… It went back to the script, I guess. The idea for Crait, very early on, was a visual idea that was there even before I started writing the script. Snoke’s throne room, which is the other big red environment, was something I had that I was fixated on. The idea of this theatrical space. Snoke uses theatricality, and so it’s this very striking, graphic, bold space, and red felt right to me for that space, as well. It’s probably a combination of me just liking bold, graphic design like that, and the natural development of it. Red just felt right for this middle chapter. It felt kind of dangerous.
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Production Designer Rick Heinrichs says that he and Rian Johnson were inspired by a piece of original (unused) Ralph McQuarrie concept art; Vader in the Emperor's Throne Room
Rick Heinrichs (Production Designer): It was one of the earliest sequences that we discussed…we explored many different looks and feels to it, and it all came back to his desire to put across a ceremonial environment for the Supreme Leader to reign from. That was incredibly important, that the environment support the concept of Snoke at the pinnacle of – at the knife-edge, if you will – of the First Order. One of the earliest inspirations I can remember from this, I went through all the archives that I could get my hands on at Skywalker Ranch, and there was this great image that Ralph McQuarrie had painted. It was actually of Darth Vader in a throne room. And it wasn’t right in terms of the practical aspect of it – it was literally like a medieval throne room with flames all around him – but the idea of creating a metaphorical hell with the use of the red color, but making it as elegant as possible, that coincides with the ethos of the First Order and the black, the reflectivity, and the hard, sharp, almost crystalline inhuman shapes that are a part of that.
It also serves (as the curtain burns) to underline that the First Order is built on image over substance.
Heinrichs: I think that as we discussed what happens in the set over the course of it, the initial strong red color and how red evolves over the course of the scene has everything to do with the action that happens within it. So yes, we had an incredibly striking visual color that seems to override the entire scene that, as things progress and the fighting ensues and that burns down, it reveals the black void beyond. It underlines the ceremonial face that Snoke is putting on for anyone who happens to come before him.
