Following new revelations from Sith Order is its Rule of Two, a doctrine established a millennia before the events of the films. The Rise of Skywalker introduced the Force Dyad, a unique phenomenon that united the Knight of Ren, Kylo Ren, and the Jedi granddaughter of Palpatine, Rey. As revealed in the sourcebook, Star Wars: The Secrets of the Sith, the additional lore surrounding the Force Dyad has retroactively affected the Rule of Two.
Although they went unnamed throughout the original trilogy (outside of deleted dialogue in A New Hope) the Sith are the ultimate antagonists of the Star Wars Skywalker Saga. Even in The Clone Wars, in which Palpatine, aka Darth Sidious, divided the galaxy and pit two factions against each other in a phony war. This allowed him to transition the Republic into his autocratic Empire, nearly destroy the Jedi, and subjugate the galaxy under Sith rule.
Like all Sith after their apparent destruction a millennia before the Skywalker Saga, Palpatine followed the Rule of Two, limiting the Sith Order to only a pair of Dark Lords. Given Palpatine’s brilliance and strength in the dark side, this served him well, but he abandoned it after returning from the dead following the Battle of Endor. Ruling through proxy rather than strength or deception, Palpatine allowed Snoke to rule the First Order and the Knights of Ren to fill the dark side power vacuum left by Palpatine’s supposed demise. After Snoke’s death and the secret of Palpatine’s resurrection being revealed, the undead Sith Lord discovered that the coveted Force Dyad united two beings with a close connection to him.
The Rule of Two
During their ancient wars with the Jedi, the Sith were great in number, fighting their ancient enemies directly. Over time, however, the Sith Lords’ tendency to betray one another proved to be their undoing. While both orders were undeniably powerful, the Sith lacked one vital element that the Jedi excelled at: solidarity. The Jedi worked together while the Sith fought against each other as often as they did the Jedi. About a millennium before Star Wars began foreshadowing the events of the Skywalker Saga, the Sith were reduced to one Dark Lord, the legendary Darth Bane. As revealed in The Clone Wars (and inspired by Legends-era lore), Darth Bane resolved to reform the Sith, changing their culture and allowing them to defeat their hated rivals through different means. This new strategy was embodied by Bane’s Rule of Two.
In the season 6 episode of The Clone Wars, “Sacrifice”, the spirit of Darth Bane discusses the Rule of Two with Jedi Grandmaster Yoda, of all people. By limiting the number of Dark Lords to only two, Bane mitigated the in-fighting intrinsic to Sith Lords by having the Sith Master constantly search for a new and better apprentice while their current one plots to kill and replace their master. The Rule of Two also forced the Sith to operate from the shadows, literally and metaphorically trading their armor for cloaks. The Rule of Two made each generation of Sith stronger than the last, with Palpatine becoming the galaxy’s deadliest Dark Lord and the Sith who finally enacted the order’s revenge on the Jedi via Order 66 and the rise of the Empire.
Force Dyad
Force bonds are nothing new to either Star Wars continuity, but the canon timeline added an extremely rare and powerful variation of the Force bond, the Force Dyad. Force bonds existed between Jedi Masters and their students, such as Yoda and Dooku, and Force-sensitive relatives, such as Luke’s bond with his father, Anakin, and his sister, Leia. As shown in The Rise of Skywalker and Secrets of the Sith, however, a Force Dyad was a far stronger connection. When a Dyad in the Force was formed, two beings were essentially one, as far as the Force is concerned. The bond between two beings in a Force Dyad was as powerful as life itself.
Force Dyads afforded powers to their two beings that couldn’t be mastered by even the greatest Force s (or dark side s). As demonstrated by Rey and Kylo Ren, two beings who form a Dyad were linked through time and space and could communicate their thoughts and feelings to each other from anywhere. Additionally, Dyads allowed both being to teleport objects from one to the other instantaneously, regardless of where in the galaxy each being might be. A Dyad also granted both being an enhanced form of Force healing, allowing them to transfer their life Force into others, a power that could even resurrect the deceased.
How the Dyad Undermines The Rule of Two
As explained in Secrets of the Sith, the Force Dyad was known to the Sith Order long before the age of Darth Bane. The Doctrine of the Dyad motivated Sith Lords such as Plagueis and his apprentice, Sidious, to try and form Dyads unnaturally. This proved unsuccessful for generations, but the Dyad formed by Rey and Kylo Ren was exactly what Sidious and countless other Sith had searched for. In Secrets of the Sith, Palpatine refers to the Rule of Two as a “pale imitation” of the Doctrine of the Dyad. In-universe, this makes sense, but from a meta-perspective, this retcon is insulting to the canon lore shown in The Clone Wars.
Darth Bane’s Rule of Two allowed the Sith to survive for a millennia after their supposed destruction, and it changed their strategy to one that exploited the Jedi Order’s weaknesses while working around that of the Sith. Darth Bane and the Sith who supplanted him succeeded against the Jedi thanks to the Rule of Two, not the Doctrine of the Dyad, using ingenuity as much as power, rather than relying on an ancient prophecy. The Rule of Two is intrinsic to the Sith throughout the Star Wars franchise, creating the master and apprentice dynamic seen in the films, and dismissing it in favor of the more recent lore from The Rise of Skywalker is insulting to The Clone Wars stories that explained it.
