The Force was far from the most prominent part ofStar Warsin the early days of the franchise. It was a background element that hid in the memories of a few aging practitioners. Like many aspects of the story, the original trilogy’s take on the Force did more to inspire than to explain. Subsequently, new creators have had a lot of fun with the Force over the last few decades. One relevant concept that spanned most of the latest trilogy is the Force dyad, which connects two Force-sensitive beings across time and space.
The sequel trilogy was a bizarre creative competition that saw ideas rise and fall between entries. This is new forStar Wars, but it’s par for the course in most film franchises.George Lucas famously only directedthe firstStar Wars, but the original trilogy still feels like a consistent vision. He directed all three prequels, but they still feel like they’re reacting to feedback in real time. The sequels come across like a fight with no winner, and that makes a lot of its ideas feel a bit incomplete.
A Force dyad is a unique and unbreakable bond between two beings. Force-bonds exist in all shapes and sizes, usually allowing two beings to communicate over impossibly vast distances and share sensations through a telepathic link. The dyad represents the theoretical zenith of that concept,bonding two individuals so tightlythat they gain far more than shared perception. The two halves of a dyad come close to operating as a single being. They retain a connection that bridges any length of space, allowing them to not only communicate but consistently perceive each other. When they’re close together, their senses accurately detect each other without fail. This perfect link also allowed one half of a dyad to sacrifice their life to save the other. Force dyad relationships only occur naturally and are extremely rare, resulting in a mythic quality.
The prophecy and Doctrine of the Dyad
Force dyad bonds are so rare that they had gone unheard of for several generations leading up to the New Republic Era. The concept became an obsession forspecific subgroups of the Sith, who developed a prophecy that predicted an eventual dyad. The Sith Rule of Two, which mandated the existence of exactly two Sith Lords at any given time, was a successor to the Doctrine of the Dyad. Sith adepts tried to artificially create a dyad with each relationship between master and apprentice. This never worked out, but acult called the Sith Eternalconsistently predicted the eventual natural creation of a dyad. They carved this prophecy into a Sith temple on the planet Exegol, where Darth Sidious awaited his chance to return to prominence while transferring his spirit into clone bodies. They would, in some sense, later be proven right when a dyad emerged in the Force.
Known Force dyads inStar Wars
The only 100% canonical Force dyad is between Rey Skywalker and Ben Solo. This was the secret that held the Sith Eternal back, as a dyad seemingly needs to cover thelight and dark sides of the Force. It also proved them right, delivering the dyad they waited for. Rey was the daughter of a castoff clone of Darth Sidious, while Solo was the son of resistance heroes Han Solo and Leia Organa. Their connection became clear in their first meeting and only grew more obvious over time. They began to telepathically connect over vast distances, seemingly seeing each other as if they were in the same space. They eventually proved the Sith Eternal partially right, allowing Sidious to steal some of the energy from the dyad to empower himself. This didn’t work out for long, asRey quickly killed Sidious. Using the power of the dyad, Ben sacrificed his life to resurrect Rey, ending the only canon example.
There are a few things that seem a lot like a dyad, but either never get the official designation or appeared before the term.John Jackson Milller’s 2011 novelKnight Errantintroduced a pair of Force-bonded Sith twins who operated a lot like a dyad. Dromika and her brother Quillan were the youngest children of a Sith Lord named Chagras. At birth, they had an impossibly deep connection to the Force, granting them immense power. Quillan had such great foresight that he could only perceive living beings as aspects of the Force, rendering him largely unable to do anything besides lie in bed and deal with his perceptions. Dromika could use the Force to influence anyone into doing anything, allowing her to operate countless sentient beings as a hive mind. Quillan could only communicate through Dromika, the only person who operated on the same mental plane. In turn, Dromika was something of a slave to Quillan, who fed her the orders she’d feed others. Together, they operated a dictatorship on an otherwise quiet planetuntil a Jedi kidnappedQuillan and another Sith Lord toppled the twins. Dromika and Quillan were separated for the rest of their lives. The book described them as,
Separated in body, but conjoined through the Force… one being, that no power in science or Sith alchemy could separate.
The Force dyad is a complicated and fascinating concept that theStar Warsfranchise is probably not done exploring yet. It initially arose as a simple explanation for the mysterious link between Rey and Ben, but it could come to the forefront again in a ton of unique ways. WhileLuke and Darth Vaderwere connected by blood, Rey and Ben became one in a very different way.
