Rey and Kylo Ren were revealed to be a Force dyad in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and Emperor Palpatine himself helped create their bond through Supreme Leader Snoke. The coming together of two individuals, making them one in the Force, the dyad is an ancient prophecy that was held closely by the Sith Eternal cultists of Exegol. Much like the Chosen One, the Force dyad seems to pre-date both the Jedi and the Sith, but it’s the latter who strongly believe in it.
Although The Rise of Skywalker only briefly explains the Force dyad, the expanded material has since offered far greater insight into what it actually is. A unique pairing that represents the will of the Force, the Sith had tried for generations to create a dyad, with each Master attempting it with their Apprentice. Indeed, it was the Force dyad prophecy that directly led to the Sith’s Rule of Two, which was a weaker form that, in part, served to try and bring forth the prophesized dyad. Palpatine himself tried to create a dyad with Darth Vader, but failed like all the other Sith, because the dyad requires both light and dark – or balance – while Anakin himself was already the Chosen One.
However, while Palpatine may have failed in his overt efforts to create a dyad in the Force, he did play a role in Rey and Kylo Ren becoming one. Although a dyad is an act of the Force itself, it can be cultivated and developed by external influences. This happened first in Star Wars: The Force Awakens: when Kylo attempted to probe Rey’s mind, she turned the effects back on him, linking them together. This bridge between their minds was then exploited by Snoke in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. While he falsely claimed credit for joining their minds, he did nonetheless help to bond them further together, confirming them to be a Force dyad. As noted in Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, Snoke gloated “in his success of bringing Rey and Ren before him, for it proves without a doubt that they share a unique bond in the Force; something that features so prominently in the lore of the Sith Eternal cult.”
Of course, what The Rise of Skywalker also revealed (and again has been fleshed out further elsewhere) is that Snoke was himself created by Palpatine. A Strand-Cast, a bioengineered being, Palpatine used Snoke as his proxy with which to rule the First Order and thus the galaxy, and more pertinently, to train Kylo Ren until he was ready to become the heir to the Sith Empire. Everything Snoke did was at the behest of Palpatine and in service of that goal, and so the bringing together of Rey and Kylo Ren, cultivating the bond, means that Palpatine played a key part in them becoming a dyad in the Force.
This wasn’t intended, however, since Palpatine himself has no idea until both Rey and Kylo are before him in The Rise of Skywalker‘s final battle. Snoke did know they were a dyad, which is again confirmed in the Visual Dictionary, which reads: “Snoke knew that Rey and Kylo were linked through the Force, a prophesized ‘dyad’ connecting two individuals across space and time.” What’s perhaps most interesting is that Snoke found out, but Palpatine didn’t. The likely explanation is that Snoke only discovered it shortly before his death, but that moment itself was the culmination of what Palpatine had been working towards, so it is strange that he wasn’t watching at the time. If he had been, he might’ve learned before Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker that Rey and Kylo were a Force dyad, and one that he helped create to boot.
