Before the last movie in the Skywalker Saga came out, Star Wars fans believed that it was Snoke who turned Ben Solo’s heart and gave birth to the Kylo Ren persona, but J.J. Abrams retconned this in favor of bringing back Palpatine.
During The Rise of Skywalker‘s enigmatic opening sequence, Kylo Ren travels to Exegol and finds Darth Sidious’ secret stronghold. It’s here that we learn Snoke was just a puppet in the former Emperor’s plan to seize control over the galaxy once again. Palpatine even reveals that he’s been “every voice” inside the current Supreme Leader’s head. This pretty much confirmed that the Sith Lord is directly responsible for Ben Solo’s conversion to the Dark Side. If there was any doubts, Lucasfilm further assured fans through The Rise of Kylo Ren comic series that it was Sheev who destroyed Luke’s Jedi Temple and guided the son of Han Solo to the Knights of Ren.
But that’s not all. It seems that another canon book, titled Secrets of the Jedi, recently published and presumably written by Luke Skywalker himself, details an ability called a Force Bond, something usually utilized by dark-side practitioners to corrupt their targets.
“On occasion, the Force allows us to connect with another living being and communicate with them across great distances, seeing what they see, and feeling what they feel. Though this may seem like a harmless – and perhaps even valuable – ability, it is easily manipulated by those on the dark side,” the book reads.
The old Jedi Master’s wisdom then seemingly absolves Kylo Ren of guilt, revealing that the target is usually unable to recognize or resist the Force Bond.
“Some powerful Force users have been able to create secret bonds with others who are unaware of their connection,” it continues, “They then use these bonds to corrupt their target and steer their actions. Even if the unwanted bond is detected, it can still be extremely difficult to break.”
Of course, we’re willing to bet that this is different from the Force Dyad that Rey and Kylo shared since if it’d been easy to create such power, Palpatine wouldn’t become so jubilant all of a sudden and proceed to suck the living Force out of the duo. Then again, Snoke once confirmed that he was the one who tied the Jakku orphan with the grandson of Darth Vader, but we’re not sure if that’s the same so far as Star Wars lore is concerned.
