Honestly it pretty much all comes down to this sentence. He doesnt "give up". He fails. You're forgetting one of the only genuinely great moments of TLJ. "Greatest teacher, failure is". You're not applying this to Luke. Luke didnt give up using the force when he couldnt lift the ship out of the water, or stop training. He failed the first time he tried.
It's my understanding that had Yoda passed away right then & there... Luke would still be on Degobah right now complaining about how Yoda was an old senile fool who wanted the impossible.
This discussion about why Luke shut himself off from the force & didn't want to rock up in TLJ does go deeper than him just giving up. Lucas always had this thing about how
the force always balances itself out. It's just like how Snoke said "Darkness rises & the light to meet it." This was Snoke explaining to us how the force seeks balance. he understood that as Kylo got stronger, that the light would rock up. It works the other way too though. If Light rises... then the dark will rise to meet it.
So Luke knowing all this from his handy library of ancient text felt like him rocking up with the Jedi academy actually gave power to the darkside, which overflowed into his nephew in order for the force to balance out. So Luke's decision to shut himself off from the force & not become this god like dynamo that we all imagined he could be.... makes perfect sense, & wasn't necessarily coming from a place of him giving up... but has more to do with his understanding of the force.
Ad in a year or 2 in isolation after making that call... to become grumpy about how he felt him rocking up may be the whole reason the dark rose to such a height, & so he blames himself & promises he will never rock up again... & you get the Luke we saw in TLJ.
Thats the problem. Rey doesnt fail. The greatest teacher of the force is completely unknown to her, where Luke has struggled with it routinely and never gave up.
Take any skill in existence and then think of the best practitioners of it. You think Michelangelo never threw down his paint brush in frustration when he didnt complete his task how he wanted it?
I like your point on how failure the greatest teacher is.
Do you really need this on camera though? Rey obviously had a hard life & we've only known her like a week now. You don't need to be shown on screen that she rocked up prior under tremendous circumstancez. It's self evident. That's enough for me, but I find myself surprised with the amount of Sherdoggers who need to see it on screen. Like isn't it self apparent enough?
& I don't get this thing about how people "need" to see failure in their on screen heroes. Like people in the Mando thread mentioning how happy they were to see Mando struggling in some scenes. I absolutely don't "need" that. I think it's a nice touch, but it's not necessary. Prior to coming to Sherdog (my first social media outlet) I was never even aware of that being an issue. Never even heard the complaint from any family members or friends & never thought about it personally regarding any movie ever. It's just not something I need to see on screen.
However all that said, Rey has fallen short lots on screen. hell Kylo showed her his pecker & she passed out in his armz in Ep. 7. Snoke rag dolled her like it was nothing. You watched her get ripped off by her boss & go home to her crappy junk heap & eat some fucked up food that she just worked really hard for. She got emotionally disturbed by her vision at Maz' place. She cut the rock in half by accident on ache-to, got completely worked by old man Luke at her own game in staff fighting & had to call in a light saber... & she got chastised by Luke & her hands swatted for not knowing how to meditate on the force. Like how much do you really need? Can't that be enough? We've only known her for a fooking week! That seems like a lot of shit gone wrong in a week to me.
Think of the greatest guitar player you ever heard. You think he never got angry when his hands didnt do what his mind was telling them to?
You're comparing the greatest, to Rey who learns something quickly & "
pulls it off", but Rey is not the greatest atm. So that comparison isn't fair. IMO... you have not wrapped your head around the fact that she is not the greatest at the things she picks up quickly & "pulls off".
I understand there's a few things people feel that Rey picked up too quickly, but the telepathy was easy for me to get. Kylo opened it up & she understood how it was done. no problem for me on that one & I understood that right away on first viewing. Hey, she got lucky in that her first couple of Storm troopers were dimwitted as that trick only works on the dimwitted.
She had worked her ass off prior to Ep. 7 to become an elite staff fighter. People think it's weird she picked up a light saber & beat Kylo but that's not the whole story & I feel Chewy beat her more than she beat him. She did the best she could & was no stranger to melee weapons, but this was new to her & her technique was absolute shit reduced to looping heymakers while Kylo was sparring with her while throwing zero kill shots in order to feel her out & try to recruit her. End of that sequence Chewy's blaster shot had him crippled more than he expected & that's clear to see on the video by his body language, & so you can't credit the win to Rey alone. Chewy gets most of, if not all of that credit. Fooking Chewy not getting another medal for his performance.
(End of Ep. 6)
The only thing I can entertain you on her picking up maybe too quickly is the Telekinesis but, maybe not. I'm not bothered because Yoda gave us the outline on what makes the force respond in that way... & her psychology & fierce natural instinct to survive is just naturally in tune with the ability. In both situations it was life or death & Rey grew up with a much more fierce will to survive.... while Luke & Kylo were sipping on chilled blue milk in their homes & bitching to their loving parents about the chores they were asked to do.
The force responds to her will to survive & focus.
Basically, she doesn't know that she can't do it, & circumstances are life & death that she must do it, & so the force responds to her & flows through her like a conduit because she's not interfering with it with self doubt & lack of focus. This is all Telekinesis 101 according to what Yoda told us in Ep. 5.
I mean, do you have skills? Something you're actually really good at? I play drums and do miniature painting and I can tell you from experience anybody whos good at anything gets frustrated with it routinely. You arent accomplishing what you set out to do. The vision in your head doesnt come to fruition and you're left with something that looks nothing like you wanted it to and its aggravating. You get angry and tell yourself "Fuck this, Im never doing it again." But you always come back. You try again and eventually, if you're persistent and dedicated, what once seemed impossible can now be done with ease. It's an amazing feeling.
Rey has never done this. She doesnt fail. At worst she has a temporary stumbling block on her way to victory. Persistence and dedication werent necessary attributes for prodigious force affinity. It was basically given to her despite her lack of effort, persistence or learning from failure. Those 3 core attributes are the essence of becoming great at anything. Rey hasnt done any of them. Trying a mind trick twice doesnt count.
the instruments I play & audio engineering were the biggest learning curvez & so I understand what you're saying about the frustrations & rewards of those challenges. I will however counter that not every skill takes that kind of commitment.
Let me start by saying I started out on guitar & got good to where I was having fun & people were enjoying it & even had a little group I jammed with in time. (Rey's staff fighting skills) Took me many years to get to that point... and when I picked up a Bass guitar for the first time... probably a decade after first starting... I wasn't by any means a "real bass player" but I could still jam with it. (Rey's lightsaber abilities) I got by, just like she did.
Some people can't drive for shit no matter how long they've been doing it. My first time behind the wheel of a truck, I was a natural. I wasn't an expert, but I felt confident almost immediately that I had it & felt safe... & I was achieving the objective which was to stay between the lines & be alert & aware. (Rey's telepathy abilities) It took some time to get completely used to it & comfortable, but her & I were off & running immediately.
When I first bought my house, it was a fixer upper & I had never done most home improvement stuff, but I just read about each thing as needed & did it. I found it all very easy to pick up. carpentry, copper water line soldering, sheetrock, trim, caulk, painting, tile, roofing, siding etc... even a bit of simple electric. No shit. I just read some instructions & did good work if I do say so myself. Better work than contractors actually because they don't typically take time to do it right.
I just figured all this shit out on my own with some simple instructional documentation just like Rey did sitting in that AT she lived in.
I honestly don't see her abilities as a problem. Young ani showed us how a little kid who the force hasn't even awoken in yet not only built his own robot, holds down a job as a mechanic & built his own pod racer, but is also the only human even capable of pod racing. Sure he failed early on & so did rey.... but the point is that these powerhousez pick things up quickly. Especially add onto that the force awakening in her during this week since we've known her..
All that said... the story's only 2/3rds told. It's like you started watching an hour & a half movie but quit watching after the first hour & now are bitching because the story is incomplete. This is more of a side thought though, because I think everything I've said here is self evident up until this point & no more of her backstory is needed.
