After The Force Awakens mirrored the Death Star plot of the original 1977 Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi mirrored The Empire Strikes Back’s Jedi training subplot. Just as Luke Skywalker traveled to the swamp planet of Dagobah to be trained by the legendary self-exiled Jedi Yoda, Rey traveled to an island on the remote planet of Ahch-To to be trained by a different legendary self-exiled Jedi, Skywalker himself.
Luke proved to be a much different teacher to Rey than Yoda was to him, but in both cases, the training resulted in a Jedi powerful enough to defeat the Empire. These are the most significant lessons that Luke taught Rey.
The Only True Wisdom Is In Knowing You Know Nothing
The old saying attributed to Socrates goes, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” In Rey’s first lesson, Luke teaches her that she knows nothing about the Force, so that she’ll open herself up to the wisdom he can offer.
He asks, “What do you know about the Force?” Rey replies, “It’s a power that Jedi have that lets them control people and... make things float,” to which Luke dryly remarks, “Impressive. Every word in that sentence was wrong.”
Jedi Training Can’t Be Rushed
When Rey becomes bored with an exercise in lifting rocks, she tries to skip ahead a few stages and levitates a couple of Caretakers. Luke tells her that’s enough and she carefully puts them back on the ground and apologizes.
Luke tells her that Jedi training can’t be rushed and she has to be patient. It’s a good lesson, but Rey’s not ready to hear it. She says she thought Luke would be different based on the legends and angrily storms off.
The Force Isn’t Just About Lifting Rocks
Since lifting rocks is one of the most obvious things to do with the Force, that’s Rey’s go-to example of what the Force is used for, but Luke is astounded by her narrow-minded view: “It’s not just about lifting rocks. The Force binds everything together.”
Of course, it later turns out that the Force is a little bit about lifting rocks, as Rey has to lift a bunch of rocks to let the surviving members of the Resistance out of the cave on Crait so they can all escape on the Falcon.
She Could Suffer The Same Fate As Ben Solo (If She’s Not Careful)
Before the events of the sequel trilogy, Jedi prodigy Ben Solo followed in the footsteps of his grandfather by turning to the dark side, slaughtering the rebuilt Jedi Order, and taking off to rule his empire with an iron fist.
While Rey believes she’s incorruptible, Luke warns her that she could easily suffer the same fate as Ben: “I’ve seen this raw strength only once before in Ben Solo. It didn’t scare me enough then. It does now.”
Being A Legend Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up To Be
Throughout the original trilogy, Luke Skywalker became a legend renowned across the galaxy for blowing up the Death Star, bringing down the Empire, and teaming up with a redeemed Darth Vader to defeat the Emperor.
However, Luke revealed to Rey in The Last Jedi that becoming a legend just gave him too much hubris to effectively train Ben Solo and keep him away from the dark side: “I became a legend. For many years, there was balance, and then I saw Ben... In my hubris, I thought I could train him, I could pass on my strengths... By the time I realized I was no match for the darkness rising in him, it was too late.”
A Jedi’s Weapon Deserves Respect
When Rey returned to Ahch-To in The Rise of Skywalker and went to toss her lightsaber into the burning wreckage of her ship, it landed in Luke’s ghostly hand and he gave it back to her. He tells her, “A Jedi’s weapon deserves more respect.”
Speaking to Luke’s ghost and working through the Palpatine lineage reveal is what motivates Rey to take Luke’s battered old X-wing to Exegol to take on Grandpa Sheev and put an end to the Final Order’s reign.
The Force Is More Than Just A Balance Of Light And Dark
When Luke first asks Rey to reach out and feel the Force at the beginning of her training, he asks her, “What do you see?” She replies, “Light. Darkness. A balance.” That’s more or less the same description of the Force that had been peddled across all previous Star Wars media.
With the Jedi committing to the light side and the Sith committing to the dark side, it’s easy to view the Force as a balance of those two sides. But according to Luke, that’s a very narrow view: “It’s so much bigger.”
Beware The Allure Of The Dark Side
Much like Luke himself when he was training under Yoda, Rey is drawn into a cave to experience a dark Force vision in the midst of her Jedi training. In Luke’s vision, he saw his own face under Vader’s mask. In Rey’s, she saw the dark side inviting her to switch teams.
While Luke’s vision offered enough of a warning, Rey’s vision kind of backfired as she was drawn in by the dark side. So, Luke has to warn her himself: “You went straight to the dark. It offered something you needed, and you didn’t even try to stop yourself.”