The Third Lesson

In my head his final stand against the First Order is the third lesson.

 

It's not really that Luke only teaches her two; she storms out before he can finish her lessons.

In fact, Rey and Luke never really get closure in VIII. They don't end on great terms. I wouldn't mind at all if she gets a third lesson from his force ghost in IX, and they reconcile.

All this assuming they don't take the caretaker sequence as canon, of course.

 

I thought Luke's arrival on Crait was reconciliation. She leaves because he refuses to help. When he arrives there's no doubt in my mind him and Rey are linked in some way.

I don't think the lack of a third lesson really matters. She simply left before he got a chance.

 

He resolved his own character struggle by returning to Crait, and I'm sure in their own minds they've reconciled to each other. But they never have an actual moment together after Rey disobeys him and storms off.

 

While I don’t think there are many similarities of TLJ to ESB, Rey leaving before her last lesson is very similar to Luke rushing off to Cloud City before his training is complete.

 

Though it's true that sequence didn't make it to the final movie, I find it kind of funny, that people now trying to desperately fill that gap by reinterpreting the scenes we got. Btw the caretaker sequence is in the novelization, so it still has to be considered canon.

 

If I remember correctly, the word on movie novelizations is that non-film content is considered canon unless contradicted by something in the films. If JJ brings back the third lesson for IX, the caretaker sequence wouldn't be canon anymore.

 

That is correct. That would be similar to Rey and Poe’s meeting in the TFA novelization. It was initially canon until RJ had them meet for the first time in TLJ. At this moment the third lesson was given to Rey by Luke since it was in the TLJ novelization. However as @Jaxxon stated that would change if JJ decided to do something different in IX

 

I'd argue that Luke's training was complete. It was completed on Tattooine by Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru.

Luke understood family. The Jedi couldn't. Thousands of Jedi took up their lightsabers and died. Luke threw down his lightsaber and won because he saw the good in his enemy and challenged him to see the good in himself.

Yoda couldn't teach that. All Yoda could teach was backflips and saber techniques and levitating rocks. It took Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru to teach Luke about responsibilities to one's family, about working together as a family unit to stay safe in a dangerous environment. Luke won not by being more Force attuned or by being a better swordsman than the other Jedi, he won by being Darth Vader's conscience when the rest of the Jedi believed Vader could no longer be reached.

Yes, both Luke and Rey rushed off before their training in the Jedi arts was complete, but both of them already had what they needed within them. Further lessons weren't necessary because in a battle of good versus evil, good doesn't win by being more badass than evil, it wins by being good.

 

The third lesson is one point that I see as unresolved. The first was Rey reaching out to The Force and feeling that connection to the entire island on Ahch-To, and the universal nature of The Force.

The second lesson was Luke imparting Jedi history to Rey in the Jedi Temple - first, discussing how Darth Sidious had succeeded in destroying the Jedi Order, and then talking about how Ben Solo had turned on him, destroyed the training temple and killed half his students (it wasn't until recently when I looked at some screencaps of the flashback scenes that I saw the bodies of his students on the ground).

So did Rey accomplish the goals of the third lesson? There are three points that might be considered the third lesson:
-The mirror cave. This encounter Rey had was similar to Luke's lesson in the cave on Dagobah
-The confrontation with Snoke & Ben Solo/Kylo Ren. Luke advised her to not undertake this. But a generation earlier Luke's final trial before truly becoming a Jedi was to confront Darth Vader.
-The rescue on Crait. Truthfully, Rey and Luke had ZERO direct interaction on Crait. Luke's Force projection only interacted with Leia, C-3PO and Kylo Ren directly. But Rey did use her Force telekinesis to move the rocks, allowing the Resistance survivors to escape the mine on Crait. Rey also connected with Luke through The Force following his confrontation with Kylo Ren as he was exhausted and achieved a sense of peace and closure. Does that display of sacrifice on Luke's part qualify as a lesson? I'm not so sure.

If one of these was the lesson, I would argue that it might have been the mirror cave. It echoes Luke's lesson on Dagobah. But it seemed as though Luke may have judged that Rey was not yet prepared for that challenge.

Is it possible that Luke did not yet impart the third lesson? Absolutely. And that third lesson may be one that's a significant plot in Episode 9.

 

That was I thought. I think RJ did not include the scene with the caretakers because of this link with TESB. This in my opinion was fantastic.

 

I don't think it as unresolved. She left before the third lesson.
But when I say to Luke that she has all she needs, Not just talking about the books I am.
A nother lesson from a grumpy old man need she does not.

 

About closure between Luke and Rey...although it's not explicit in the film, in the script it says they see each other through the Force when Luke says "I will not be the last Jedi" and she opens her eyes after lifting the rocks. When the shot is zoomed in on Luke's face as he says that and it directly cuts to a close-up of Rey, that's "the moment" where the mantle was passed from the master to the apprentice. So, even though it's not shown directly on screen, that's when it all comes together for those two and they both accept their destiny.

Also, about a specific 3rd lesson from Force ghost Luke...with the caretaker sequence cut and the scene described above left ambiguous on screen, Rian may have left that 3rd lesson for JJ to give us in Episode IX. And I think all of us would be fine with that, because we could always use more Luke Skywalker.

 

The third lesson was interrupted, just as Luke interrupted his training with Yoda in ESB to go and help his friends. The third lesson or trial for both Luke and Rey was Trial of Spirit: being tempted to turn to the Dark Side. Luke faces this on Cloud City, Bespin when Vader offers him, “join me and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son.” Rey faces the same trial in Snoke’s Throne Room when Kylo offers his hand and says,”you have to let it all go, the Sith, the Jedi, all of it, take my hand.” Of course this is a trick and Rey sees through it; Kylo has no interest in ressurecting the Bendu Way of the Jed'aii [Using Light and Darkness equally].

Rey passes her third lesson by resisting Ben despite their Bond. She is a Jedi, although she will have to face Kylo once more in ROS as Luke did in ROTJ to aquire full knighthood.

 

I believe the third lesson was indeed the Caretaker scene. It is my understanding that deleted scenes are considered canon, unless expressly contradicted in the film.