Did Kylo Ren And Rey Already Have/Make A Force Connection In 'The Force Awakens'?
In The Last Jedi, Supreme Leader Snoke claims that he established a Force connection between Kylo Ren (aka Ben Solo) and Rey that ultimately draws Rey to seek out Kylo, believing that, since Luke refused to return with her to help the Resistance, Kylo might turn away from the dark side and help them. Kylo, sick of Snoke's abusiveness, as well as genuinely wanting to save Rey's life, turns the tables on his master and slays him. Kylo and Rey then join forces in a truly cinematic battle against Snoke's Praetorian guards, who rush to confront them in the wake of their master's death. However, Kylo ultimately refuses to aid the Resistance and Rey leaves him, trying to shut him out.
Despite Snoke's death, the Force connection between Rey and Kylo continues into The Rise of Skywalker. Far from their connection waning, their connection continues to grow, to the point that they can not only communicate with each other from across the galaxy, but are also able to enter each other's physical spaces through their connection and pass objects to each other. It is later established by both Kylo and Palpatine that they are a "Dyad" in the Force, which binds them together even tighter and enables this powerful connection. It is this shared connection that Palpatine later preys on to restore his physical body.
RELATED: Kylo Ren Manages To Defeat A 'Star Wars' Beast His Grandfather Couldn't
During a recent re-watch of The Force Awakens, I began wondering if the connection that Snoke alleged to have created in The Last Jedi was, in fact, there all along between Kylo and Rey, starting with the events in The Force Awakens that first bring them together. At first, Rey is just a lowly scavenger on the desert planet of Jakku. Kylo and Rey do not know anything about each other. The arrival of the Resistance astromech droid, BB-8, and the defecting stormtrooper, Finn, catapults her off the planet and into galactic affairs. Even though Kylo does not recognize her or understand the implications of her presence, when a subordinate reports that BB-8 escaped from Jakku with a girl, his curiosity is piqued, although we are not sure why.
The more curious part for me, however, was later in the film, when Rey is drawn to the dungeon of Maz Kanata's castle on Takodana, where she discovers the lightsaber that Luke Skywalker lost on Bespin in The Empire Strikes Back. Upon touching the lightsaber, she experiences a flurry of visions, including a vision of a corridor on Bespin where Luke dueled Darth Vader and a vision of herself as a young child being dragged away by Unkar Plutt while crying after a departing ship. She also encounters a vision of Kylo Ren and his Knights of Ren standing over a pile of dead bodies while Kylo slaughters yet another being. The odd thing about this scene is that it is almost as though Kylo sees her and seems to be advancing towards her, right before she is pulled into another vision. In her final vision, Kylo once again approaches her with his lightsaber drawn in a snowy forest, a foreshadowing of their later encounter on Starkiller Base. Shortly after returning to reality, she leaves the castle and runs off into a forest, only to be confronted by none other than Kylo Ren, who subdues her and takes her to Starkiller Base.
At Starkiller Base, Rey is interrogated by Kylo about the map to Luke Skywalker that BB-8 had escaped with. Kylo uses the Force to enter her mind, a tactic which Rey surprisingly turns around on him and, entering his mind, confronts Kylo with his own insecurities. Kylo goes to Snoke about this experience with Rey and Snoke expresses amazement that she was powerful enough to have performed such a feat. After Rey and Finn escape from Starkiller Base, they are immediately confronted by Kylo Ren, who seems to have shown up at the right place and right time.
Now, it is entirely possible that, at least in terms of what happens outside Rey's visions, Kylo is just so well-attuned to the Force that he is able to effectively track her down on Takodana and, later, on Starkiller Base. However, the Kylo seen in Rey's vision seems to notice Rey, unlike the other characters she encounters in her vision. Also, it should be noted that, at this point in The Force Awakens, Rey has not even seen Kylo at all. If true, it means that Snoke may not have been entirely responsible for "bridging" them through the Force and that their connection was more so the result of them being a Dyad in the Force, right from the very beginning. Is it possible that Kylo was able to connect with Rey right from the moment that she began experiencing visions from touching Luke's lightsaber?
What do you think? Is it possible that Rey created the connection with Kylo by touching his uncle's lightsaber? Or were they born as a Dyad and just uncovered their connection during the events of The Force Awakens? Now that all three movies have been released and can be viewed in context, the sequel trilogy is prime territory for fan speculation and elaboration.
READ NEXT: An Unknown 'Star Wars' Project Has Reportedly Started Filming At Pinewood Studios