Star Wars: Luke's Three Lessons in 'The Last Jedi' Explained

Star Wars: The Last Jedi echoes the narrative of The Empire Strikes Back by having its young and newly-empowered Jedi warrior seek training from a humbled old master. In Episode VIII, we see Rey seek Jedi training under the tutelage of Luke Skywalker - only the hero of the Rebellion isn't intent on teaching Rey to become the next Jedi warrior. Instead, he offers to teach her three lessons on why The Jedi Order needs to end, once and for all.

Given the many events taking place at once during The Last Jedi, it may be hard for some viewers to keep track of what "Luke's Three Lessons" are all about. If you need a reminder, here are Luke Skywalker's three lessons for Rey in The Last Jedi, explained in full:

1. The Jedi Don't Own The Light

The first lesson that Luke tries to give to Rey is proper perspective on what The Force is. Like Yoda before him, Luke teaches his pupil to reach out and sense The Force all around her, allowing Rey to truly understand what it is for the first time (i.e., the binding connection between all things).

Once Rey has surmised the scope and nature of The Force, Luke makes a second point: that The Force is too big to have ever belonged exclusively to the Jedi religion. As Luke explains to Rey, "To say if the Jedi die the light dies is vanity, don't you see that?"

Lesson: The light side of The Force needs wielders, but those wielders don't have to be Jedi. As The Last Jedi demonstrates in its final scene, the power of the light could be wielded by anyone who is righteous and hopeful.

2. The Legacy of The Jedi is Failure

The second lesson Luke tries to impart is a perspective on what the Jedi Order accomplished in its time of existence. As Luke says, "The legacy of The Jedi is failure, hypocrisy, hubris." Luke recounts how, from the earliest and most prominent days of The Jedi, the order continuously allowed evil like The Sith, The Empire or First Order to rise, while repeatedly allowing institutions like The Republic or Jedi Order itself to fall.

Lesson: For all the good that it was intended to do, The Jedi Order repeatedly failed, and allowed darkness to take hold of The Galaxy. This sense that the Jedi created more harm than good is the burden that has weighed heavily on Luke, and why he resigned himself to a fate as a martyr, the last of a cursed Order that would end with his life. It's a legacy he does not want Rey to inherit.

3. The Missing Lesson

If you were paying careful attention during the film, you probably noticed that Luke's third and final lesson to Rey is never revealed in The Last Jedi. Before Luke can finish his teachings, he's upset by seeing Rey make contact with Kylo Ren, prompting a fight with Rey where Luke must reveal the shameful secret of how he lost Ben Solo to Snoke. After that, Rey has little confidence that Luke can teach her anything useful, and sets off on her own path, seeking council from Ben.

It's a strange loose end in the story, though it was arguably unnecessary. Luke's entire premise is teaching Rey why The Jedi were a failed experiment, and Rey ultimately rejects that negativity in favor of a more hopeful outlook about the future. Since we find out at the end of The Last Jedi that Rey smuggled the original Jedi texts off of Ahch-To before Luke burned them, the seeds are planted for Rey to redefine what it is to be a Jedi, on her own terms.

As we've since learned, Luke's third lesson to Rey is actually a deleted scene from the film, find out what it would've been, HERE.

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Star Wars: The Last Jedi is now in theaters.