Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for Star Wars: Legacy of Vader #8

Star Wars confirms that The Force Awakens secretly introduced a unique version of time travel. The bold beginning of the sequel trilogy, Episode VII introduces Daisy Ridley’s Rey, a scavenger from Jakku taking her first steps on her Jedi path. However, these first steps weren’t fully in the present.

As seen when she first touches the Skywalker saber beneath Maz Kanata’s castle, Rey experiences a unique vision in the Force (colloquially called a “Forceback”), unlike anything we’d ever seen before in the franchise, offering glimpses into both the past and future. However, it’s since been confirmed that Rey’s vision in The Force Awakens was far more than it seemed.

Rey & Kylo Ren Possess The Potential To Time Travel

Supported by Rey’s Force Awakens vision, Marc Sumerak’s Secrets of the Sith breaks down some of the finer details about Rey and Kylo Ren’s unique connection in the Star Wars franchise as a dyad, a rare bond of light and dark beings that are one in the Force, despite being physically separate.

A Force dyad is capable of all kinds of unique powers and abilities. This was shown in both The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker, particularly with Rey and Ben Solo’s shared power to physically interact and move objects to one another, regardless of physical space.

Secrets of the Sith also refers to their ability to move objects across time as well, though this did raise the question whether there was ever anything more to it than that.

Star Wars Has Just Confirmed Rey Was Present In The Past

Now, Marvel’s new and canonical Legacy of Vader #8 by Charles Soule and Stefano Raffaele fleshes out a key moment from Rey’s “Forceback” from The Force Awakens.

Recalling their time with Kylo Ren before the events of Episode VII, the Knights of Ren confirm a moment following a mission where Kylo Ren turned, sensed something the other Knights couldn’t, and took a step forward (right before the group was alerted to the presence of Supreme Leader Snoke and the First Order).

Naturally, this is a reference to the key moment in Rey’s “Forceback” where she witnesses Kylo Ren killing a warrior before seeing the Knights for the very first time in the heavy rain.

This issue confirms that Kylo Ren turning and walking toward Rey was not simply part of the Force vision. The strong implication is that Rey’s consciousness was actually pulled into the past to witness this event, and that she was then sensed by Ben alone, the other half of the Force dyad.

Now We Know How Time Travel Works In The Star Wars Galaxy

Remarkably, this helps confirm a brand-new form of Star Wars time travel through the unique power of a Force dyad. However, this also confirms that this form of time travel cannot really affect the past.

This is something that has been suggested with the World Between Worlds, Star Wars’ more famous form of time travel in the galaxy far, far away.

A difficult-to-access Force vergence, it’s been said that World Between Worlds is more about offering knowledge as opposed to allowing beings to directly rewrite events in the past. That said, it was still used by Ezra Bridger to save Ahsoka Tano, as seen in Star Wars Rebels.

Nevertheless, apart from the aforementioned Force realm, it’s remarkable that the mind belonging to a dyad can explore the past but cannot be sensed by those there… the notable exception being the other half of the dyad.

Keeping that in mind, one has to wonder if the Force power known as psychometry could be considered a similar ability.

Jedi Knights with the rare power of psychometry were able to touch an object to see key past moments and those ᴀssociated with it. However, perhaps the reason why the Jedi Order discouraged the power was that it could potentially lead to the user fully experiencing any past darkness connected to an object.

In any event, it’s safe to say that the Star Wars galaxy now has two key methods of time travel. However, both methods are equally hard to access.

The World Between Worlds only had so many access points (and was only available to wielders of the light). Meanwhile, this new form is seemingly only available to those who were part of a Force dyad, an incredibly rare bond across centuries and perhaps even millennia. After all, it was said that Ben Solo and Rey Skywalker’s dyad was the first in multiple generations.

All in all, it’s certainly an exciting means of taking such a brief moment from the first sequel-era movie and making it far more significant to the Star Wars franchise as a whole.

Star Wars: Legacy of Vader #8 is on sale now from Marvel Comics.