peacock blue coat

Rey’s Jedi training arc in The Last Jedi has many parallels to Luke’s training on Dagobah in The Empire Strikes Back, though there also a few references to other scenes in the original trilogy.

The Reluctant Teacher

In ESB, Luke is looking for the Jedi Master Yoda, who went into exile after Anakin’s turn to the dark side and now lives on Dagobah. In TLJ, Rey is looking for the Jedi Master Luke, who went into exile after Ben’s turn to the dark side and now lives on Ahch-To. Both Jedi Masters are reluctant to teach them at first. Yoda does not want to train Luke, as he deems him too old, reckless and too much like his father. Luke in TLJ does not believe in the Jedi ways anymore and refuses to train Rey. He also fears her powers that remind him of Kylo.

Luke’s first act in TLJ is to throw away the lightsaber that Rey hands him. This is a reference to Return of the Jedi, where he throws away the saber when he doesn’t want to kill his father. In RotJ, he gives up his weapon after giving in to his anger, cutting off his father’s hand and almost killing him. The gesture in TLJ is similar, since the last time he held a lightsaber was (probably) when he almost killed his nephew. In both cases, the Jedi weapon reminds him of his failure, since his impulsiveness almost led him down a dark path, and maybe he also doesn’t trust himself and wants to get rid of the temptation of the dark side.