Summary
- Rey Skywalker must learn to cope with failure in the New Jedi Order movie to avoid repeating Luke's mistakes.
- The sequel trilogy made Rey's abilities seem too effortless, but New Jedi Order can fix this by having her struggle with teaching or losing power.
- Rey failing in the New Jedi Order movie will not only help her grow, but also serve as a positive example for her students to learn how to cope with failure.
There's one final Luke Skywalker lesson that Rey Skywalker hasn't mastered yet, and she needs to learn it in Star Wars: New Jedi Order. Rey learned a lot from Luke during the sequel trilogy. However, there's one lesson that he taught by example rather than words. Luke failed as a Jedi Master, and he dealt with that failure in the worst way possible. To date, Rey hasn't had the opportunity to show that she learned from Luke's failure.
The New Jedi Order movie will be set 15 years after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. It will follow Rey as she attempts to rebuild the Jedi Order in the wake of a galaxy that's been devastated by years of war and political instability. This is a very interesting premise for a movie and thus an exciting prospect. However, there's one mistake that the sequel trilogy made with her character arc that her new movie should avoid: a lack of failure.

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Rey Has Yet To Struggle With Her Abilities In Star Wars
One of the main criticisms of the sequel trilogy was that things came too naturally to Rey. After all, Luke was the son of Force Dyad, it still made her more difficult to relate to. New Jedi Order can fix this.
There are a couple of ways that the movie could have Rey struggle with her abilities without retconning her powers in the sequel trilogy. One is that she could be struggling with teaching specifically. It is one thing to be good at something, and quite another to be able to teach that skill to someone else. It's possible that Rey could have a particularly difficult student that she doesn't know what to do with. She would then have to struggle throughout the movie to connect with her students and find a way to reach them.
While the trilogy did attempt to explain this with the Force Dyad, it still made her more difficult to relate to. New Jedi Order can fix this.
Another option is that, if the Force Dyad died with Palpatine and Ben Solo, Rey may have lost some of the strength she had. This would require her to spend time practicing hard and honing her skills to either get back to where she was or to maximize the power she still has. Both of these would give Rey room to grow in her powers.
Rey Must Fail In Her New Jedi Order Movie - & Embrace Her Failure
One thing that Rey needs to learn in New Jedi Order is how to cope with failure. Luke Skywalker was an excellent example of how not to respond to failure, but, while he did the right thing in the end, he didn't really get the chance to teach Rey how to deal with failure productively. Rey needs to learn from his mistake, and the only way for the movie to show this is for her to fail at some point and find a healthy way to cope with it.
Another reason Rey should fail is that her students need to see a positive example of someone failing so that they don't also repeat Luke's mistake. If she models working through her emotional response to failure productively, that would be the most important lesson she could ever teach. After all, failure is inevitable; it is a necessary part of life that everyone needs to learn how to deal with. If Rey can not only cope positively with her own failure in New Jedi Order but also help her students cope with theirs, it will show that she's truly become a master.
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Star Wars: New Jedi Order
- Director
- Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
- Writers
- George Nolfi
- Franchise(s)
- Star Wars