Star Wars: The Acolyte Is Teasing a Major The Rise of Skywalker Connection

This article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Acolyte through episode 3.

We’re heading somewhere new in the galaxy far, far away as Leslye Headland’s The Acolyte takes fans to the High Republic era. Taking place 100 years before the events of The Phantom Menace, this is arguably the most accessible Disney+ series for those who are new to the world of Star Wars. Still, it looks like The Acolyte could be hiding a major connection to the sequel trilogy, and in particular, Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker. 

The focus of The Acolyte are twins Mae and Osha Aniseya, played in a dual role by Amandla Stenberg. Lost twins are a recurring theme in Star Wars, with the original trilogy’s Luke and Leia being the most notable example. However, unlike Luke and Leia, The Acolyte suggests Mae and Osha share an even stronger bond in the form of a Force dyad.

First introduced in The Force Awakens when Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) probed the mind of Rey (Daisy Ridley), the former felt a strange connection with the junker from Jakku. As the sequel trilogy progressed, we saw Kylo Ren and Rey able to communicate telepathically across the vastness of space. It was only referred to as a Force dyad in The Rise of Skywalker, with Sheev Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) explaining, “The life force of your bond…a dyad in the Force. A power like life itself. Unseen for generations.” There’s never been any confirmation of which Force dyad Palpatine was referring to, but with The Acolyte taking place generations before Episode IX, the timelines neatly align. 

Force dyads are an important part of Sith lore, with the 2021 book Star Wars: Secrets of the Sith confirming the Doctrine of the Dyad was etched onto the walls of Exegol’s Sith Citadel. We know this prophesied dyad was Kylo Ren/Ben Solo and Rey’s one that toppled the Sith, however, it wasn’t the only one. Remembering how Headland told StarWars.com that The Acolyte would adapt elements from the Expanded Universe, John Jackson Miller’s Knight Errant novel could give us another possible origin for Mae and Osha’s powers. The book explored the Sith twins of Quillan and Dromika, who were “separated in body, but conjoined through the Force.” As “no power in science or Sith alchemy could separate” Quillan and Dromika, the sisters could mean big things for Star Wars canon. 

There’s a suggestion that Mae and Osha aren’t as strong as Kylo Ren and Rey yet, as both seemed unaware of the other’s survival. Osha only realised Mae was alive when she was visited by a Force-based manifestation on the planet Carlac, while it was up to Lee Jung-jae’s Jedi Master Sol to reveal to Mae that Osha was alive. Like Kylo and Rey’s bond grew (with them being able to pull physical objects through a void), Osha and Mae’s potential Force dyad is tipped to grow now they both know they’re alive. 

The connection between Osha and Mae is further hammered home in episode 3 via the show’s recurring motto. Giving us a flashback to Brendok 16 years earlier, the twins utter: “You are with me, I am with you. Always one, but born as two. As above sits the stars and below lies the sea, I give you you, and you give me me.” This ties into the contrasting logo of orange and blue, with one seemingly referring to the stars and the other the sea. It also represents the opposing sides of the Force and the balance that Luke tells Rey about in The Last Jedi. 

The episode also features the twins undergoing ‘The Ascension’, with the coven uttering, “The power of one, the power of two, the power of many.” Unfortunately, it’s interrupted by Sol and the other Jedi before Osha is tied to Mae, which could be why their Force dyad isn’t yet complete. 

As for what a Force dyad could mean for The Acolyte, we know it doesn’t do much to the Sith. With The Acolyte taking place at the end of the High Republic era, and the Fall of the Jedi coming next, it’s not looking good for Master Sol and the rest of the Jedi Council. Also, we know witchcraft played a part in the twins being raised by Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith and Mother Koril (Margarita Levieva). 

Over on Reddit u/LordTaco123 suggested that Osha and Mae are a ‘perversion’ of a Force dyad, with the latter perishing in the fire on Brendok and being resurrected by magic. Episode 3 suggests this isn’t the case, with Mae being seen alive and well at the end of the episode under the Bunta tree. Stil, the ‘perversion’ part could be their immaculate conception between Mother Koril and Mother Aniseya. 

Either way, we’ve seen what the power of a Force dyad can do. Darth Plagueis tried to create a failed Force dyad with Palpatine as his Sith apprentice, and with Palpatine then trying to do the same with Vader, we’re left wondering whether Mae and Osha inspired this. After all, there are swirling theories that Plagueis himself could be hiding in The Acolyte. Importantly, the Sith obsession with Force dyads would be an easy explanation for what brings them out of hiding. 

While the harshest critics have written off The Rise of Skywalker, there could be ‘a new hope’ that some of its most interesting but underused concepts can still find a place in this new era of Star Wars storytelling.