Musings on Force Dyads in the Star Wars Sequels

I’m spending a portion of my social distancing time reading the Tao Te Ching and watching & thinking about Star Wars (surprising right?) If you don’t care, or are a SW sequel hater, scroll on by.

George Lucas always lit shots very deliberately to convey the internal struggles of his characters, and so I was really interested in the way Disney continued this legacy. Specifically, I am really interested in the scenes where Rey and Kylo Ren are telepathically connected via the Force. We later learn that this connection is because the two are a "Dyad in the Force." In these shots there is an interplay between light and dark. For instance, in the shot where they touch hands in Rey’s hut on Ach To, Kylo’s face is darkened but he is shot against a bright white background, while Rey’s face is illuminated and her surroundings are dark. My first thought was that this reflects Kylo’s turn from his lightside (Skywalker) heritage to the dark, and Rey’s leaving behind her darkside (Palpatine) heritage for the light. But, it's cooler than that.

So I started digging around on Wookiepeedia, and I learned that Force Dyads are naturally occurring Force phenomena where two people are connected in the Force and that bond leads to a strengthened ability to wield the Force. Then, I learned that the natural Force Dyads are what led the Sith to create the “rule of two” where there are always an apprentice and a master, in order to try to create an “unnatural” dyad. This is where it gets cool.

The Sith rule of two could never produce a dyad, because a natural Force Dyad is composed of a blend of both light and dark. Ostensibly, this means that a Dyad is composed of one Jedi and one Sith—like Rey and Kylo. BUT, the blending doesn’t end there. Just as the Taoist yin yang shows light in darkness, and dark in light, the strength of the force dyad is the mixture of the two inseparably in both sides of the dyad. So, the way that Kylo and Rey are lit in the sequel movies shows us this blend of light and dark forces warring inside them. Which, as an aside, speaks to the imprint of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey motif on the Star Wars franchise. Campbell’s mythology considered myth as a psychodrama, depicting various psychological phenomena at play in the mind of an individual. Back to the point…

Even cooler, there is a mosaic at the bottom of the pool in the ancient Jedi sanctuary on Ach To that features a design called the “Prime Jedi.” The pool is featured prominently in several shots, but not explained. The mosaic design shows a figure seated in lotus position, wielding a lightsaber that bifurcates it. One side is made of dark pebbles, and the other side is made of light pebbles, but the dark side has a spot of light and visa versa. The Prime Jedi is the Star Wars galaxy’s version of a yin yang, and shows us that—despite the advances of dogma in the Jedi order through the generations—the earliest Jedi were aware of the interconnectedness of dark and light. The reoccurrence of a natural Force Dyad in Kylo and Rey reestablishes this initial, fundamental principle in the galaxy.

So I offer this up to say I’m having a lot of fun exploring the Star Wars sequels as I have the prequels and originals before them. The attention to detail is there, and it displays continuity in the use of mythological tropes, and philosophical depth (that is, if one is interested in that stuff beneath the surface). There’s also space wizards, space cowboys, and laser dogfights on the surface level too if one is not. Thank you for attending my TED talk. May the Force be with you.

[Originally posted on my Facebook page April 9, 2020]