A Force dyad, also known as a dyad in the Force, was when two Force-sensitive beings had a unique Force-bond—that was unbreakable—that made them one in the Force. The power of a dyad was as strong as life itself, with the individuals forming the dyad sharing a connection that spanned across time and space.
Members of a dyad were attuned to each other's senses completely, including what they saw, heard and felt. They possessed unique Force powers, such as the ability to physically interact across many light-years in the galaxy. A dyad could also utilize Force healing to such a degree that, should either member of the dyad die, the other would be able to transfer enough of their own Force energy to resurrect them, albeit at the cost of their own life.
A prophecy foretold that there would be a dyad in the Force, which had been unseen for generations by the time of the New Republic Era. The prophesied dyad was realized within Ben Solo and Rey. Although they were enemies during the war between the First Order and the Resistance, Solo and Rey shared a unique bond that featured prominently in the lore of the Sith Eternal cultists. During the battle on Exegol, the life force of their bond was used to restore the Sith Lord Darth Sidious.
Force dyads were bonded, creating a connection that effectively made two Force-sensitive beings one in the Force.
A Force dyad was a phenomenon that occurred when two Force-sensitive beings shared a unique Force-bond with each other, connecting their minds across time and space. They were physically two separate individuals, but they were one in the Force. This form of connection made it possible for the bonded individuals to communicate with each other across great distances.
A Force dyad, binding two separate beings together, was not an easily discernible phenomenon. The Sith Lord Darth Sidious was unaware that Ben Solo and Rey were a dyad until he inadvertently siphoned a fraction of their bond's life force. Supreme Leader Snoke, the dark side master of Solo's alter ego, Kylo Ren, was aware that his apprentice had an equal in the light side of the Force. However, he incorrectly presumed that it was Solo's uncle, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, before realizing that it was, in fact, a scavenger girl from Jakku.
Both halves of the Force dyad possessed the rare ability of Force healing.
According to Darth Sidious, the Force dyad was a power like life itself; and the members of a dyad possessed many unique Force powers that were otherwise inaccessible to even the most powerful Force wielder who lacked the dyadic relationship. He believed that if two Sith were bonded so deeply as to transcend their physical beings, the power they could unlock together would know no limits.
The beings who formed a dyad in the Force possessed the uncommon power of Force healing. It was an ability that could be used to heal a wounded person or animal, although this process temporarily weakened the healer who transferred some of their Force energy. This ability was lethal to the user if they utilized it to resurrect a deceased individual for it required them to sacrifice all of their life force.
The bond between Force dyads was an exceedingly unique connection that made it possible for them to communicate across light-years. The bond gave the dyads the ability to see and feel what the other was experiencing, and also gave them a clear sense of the other's thoughts and emotions. Another unique aspect about their relationship as dyads was their ability to pass objects to one another through the Force, regardless of the distance between them, through time and space in an instant, as demonstrated when Rey passed Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber to Ben Solo during their final conflict against Palpatine and the Knights of Ren.
The individuals in a dyad were able to sense each other's actions.
The dyad had an instinctive drive to fight back to back, defending each other when threatened by multiple enemies. Through their bond, both members of a Force dyad could sense each other's next actions. The strength of their bond became increasingly powerful when the dyads fought together—their Force powers mirroring and amplifying each other.
It was possible to drain the dyad of their combined power, allowing a Force wielder to utilize the dyad's healing ability while also receiving a significant increase in Force power. This process would leave the dyad in a physically weakened state, to the extent of near or total paralysis.
Darth Sidious tried unsuccessfully to create a dyad with Darth Vader.
The Doctrine of the Dyad was a concept centered on the Force dyad. The Doctrine of the Dyad featured prominently in the lore of the Sith Eternal, a Sith cult that prophesized the birth of a dyad. The power of the dyad went unseen for generations by the time of the New Republic Era, when the fall of the New Republic gave way to a war between the First Order and the Resistance.
Eons before the time of Darth Sidious, the Doctrine of the Dyad was etched into the walls of the Sith Citadel on Exegol, serving as a reminder of the dyad's significance to the Sith Order. During the Republic Era, Darth Plagueis sought to create a dyad with Sidious, his Sith apprentice, but his attempt was unsuccessful. Sidious also tried and failed to create a dyad with his own apprentice, Darth Vader. It would be decades before he discovered that a dyad had formed naturally between his granddaughter and Vader's grandson, Rey and Kylo Ren.
Kylo Ren and Rey formed a prophesied dyad in the Force, the first in generations.
The First Order warlord Kylo Ren encountered Rey, a scavenger from Jakku, while leading a military raid on Takodana in 34 ABY. As he telepathically probed Rey's mind, Ren became puzzled by a strange connection that he felt with her. Their innate connection that Ren felt with the scavenger intractably bridged their minds, but at the time he was unaware that they formed the prophesied dyad.
Ren and Rey both possessed raw, untamed strength with the Force, by virtue of their respective bloodlines as the grandson of Darth Vader and the granddaughter of Darth Sidious. While searching through Rey's mind, Ren discovered that the girl could sense his thoughts and feelings as well. As a side effect of their bond, Rey assimilated some of Ren's Force knowledge and Jedi training while their minds were connected. Her latent Force powers manifested at an exponential rate, allowing her to utilize a few techniques such as mind trick and telekinesis. By delving into Rey's innermost thoughts, Ren not only sensed her loneliness and longing for family, but also discovered certain details about her past that Rey had subconsciously suppressed as a child.
Ren and Rey discovered their ability to connect with each other across the galaxy.
The bond between Ren and Rey became stronger after their duel on Starkiller Base; their connection was so raw and powerful that it reminded Rey of touching a live wire in the wreckage of a starship. At this point, they discovered their ability to see, hear and touch each other through the Force. The bond allowed Rey to gain new insights into Ren, who no longer attempted to hide his pain and misery from her. Convinced that the light side still existed within the former Ben Solo, Rey chose to confront Ren in person, believing she could help him turn away from the dark side of the Force.
Ren's master, Supreme Leader Snoke, was aware of his apprentice's connection to a certain entity in the light, knowing that Ren's growing strength with the dark side meant that his equal would rise in the light. He assumed it would be Luke Skywalker, Ren's previous mentor, until he discovered Rey after her awakening in the Force. Snoke gloated in his success at having gathered Rey and Ren before him, for it proved beyond doubt that there existed a unique bond between them. Using Snoke's reliance on sensing his every thought, Ren outmaneuvered his mentor and ultimately killed him. With Snoke's unexpected death, the Elite Praetorian Guards did all they could to stop their leader's assassin, causing Ren and Rey to fight alongside each other. Their bond grew even more powerful in combat, amplifying the powers of the two.
Ren was more determined to convert Rey after discovering their nature as a dyad.
Despite the sympathy that Rey developed for Ren as a result of their connection and her long isolation, she chose to withdraw from their budding relationship, due to being unable to support Ren's actions against the Resistance and his machinations to rule the galaxy. Before his death, Snoke knew that Rey and Ren were the prophesied dyad in the Force. As the new Supreme Leader of the First Order, Ren vowed to destroy Rey for rejecting him after he entreated her to rule the galaxy by his side, but later confessed that he had no desire to hurt her. During the final days of the conflict, Ren was able to use their connection as a means of tracking Rey's location, first on Pasaana and later aboard his own flagship, the Resurgent-class Star Destroyer Steadfast. Having discovered that they formed a Force dyad, Ren shared this information with Rey as well as the fact that it remained unknown to Darth Sidious at the time.
With their combined power as a dyad, Ren believed that together they could destroy Sidious and claim the Throne of the Sith, a proposition which Rey denied. Though stung by her rejection, Ren continued to pursue Rey at Sidious' behest, leading to their final confrontation on Kef Bir. As they fought in the wreckage of the DS-2 Death Star II Mobile Battle Station, Ren's mother, General Leia Organa, died reaching out to her son in the Force. His mother's sacrifice, combined with Rey's compassion and the memory of his father, Han Solo, led him to cast off the persona of Kylo Ren and reclaim his former identity as Ben Solo. Meanwhile, Rey resolved to confront and destroy her grandfather, Sidious, on the dark world of Exegol.
Rey kissed Ben Solo after Darth Sidious' destruction, acknowledging their bond as a dyad for the first time.
While the Resistance and its allies engaged the Sith Eternal forces in the Battle of Exegol, Solo and Rey confronted Sidious in the heart of his citadel. Having failed to take Rey as his new vessel, Sidious resolved to destroy them both, but in the process he discovered that their bond was as powerful as life itself. Realizing that they were a Force dyad, Sidious decided to remain in his clone body and have it healed instead by nearly draining their combined life force in order to do so. Yet his triumphant return was short-lived; calling on the spirits of all the past Jedi, Rey was able to vanquish her grandfather at the cost of her life. When Solo found Rey's body, he sacrificed himself to bring her back to life. The two embraced and kissed each other—an acknowledgment of their bond as a dyad, and having truly found each other—before Solo vanished while still in Rey's arms.
Rey mourned Solo, feeling that she had lost her other half in the dyad. Solo called out to her, however, moments after becoming one with the Force. He assured Rey that he would always be with her, which gave Rey a sense of relief, realizing that Solo was not truly gone.
A Force dyad first appeared in the 2015 film Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, the first installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. The concept was first described as a dyad in the Force in the 2019 film Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker and was later identified as a Force dyad in the StarWars.com Databank entry for Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious. In the Star Wars Legends continuity, in the 2011 novel Knight Errant, written by John Jackson Miller, a similar Force bond existed between the Sith twins Quillan and Dromika, who were described as "separated in body, but conjoined through the Force" and "one being, that no power in science or Sith alchemy could separate."
Episode IX co-writer Chris Terrio describes Kylo Ren and Rey's Force dyad as being soulmates in the Force, in which despite being enemies on opposite sides of the war, the Force acts as fate by bringing them together, allowing them to understand each other.
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary
- The Star Wars Book
- Star Wars: The Secrets of the Sith