Continuing from the big picture thoughts and discussing this further with others, I’m rather confident that the notion of borrowing is itself an intrinsic part of TFA. Obviously the film borrows heavily in plot and character from other Star Wars films, but more than that our heroes are an amalgam of what has come before. Rey is literally a scavenger, and this is key to her identity.
So what if Rey’s power in the Force was to ‘scavenge’ the abilities of people/things through the Force?
There is a lot of evidence for this interpretation - in fact every time she uses the Force in this movie it is an imitation of an ability she has just witnessed. It’s no stretch to think that she’s also gaining this ability directly from the person who is demonstrating this power.
As for how to communicate this in the edit, how about editing the ‘You need a teacher’ scene to include Rey remembering dialogue from previously in the film? I am imagining fragments of dialogue such as at least three instances of characters calling her a Scavenger, including herself. Maybe take some dialogue from TLJ where Kylo says ‘you’re not doing this’ or ‘this is something different’, indicating that we’ve never seen this particular power before. The point is to place enough emphasis on the idea of scavenging that Rey understands her power and why she needs a teacher to cultivate a power that is truly her own.
Oh, and it might be cool to reprise her drawing from the history of Anakin’s lightsaber to defeat Kylo Ren:
https://mega.nz/#!rNEknIDZ!4Be7Ys5TWgfM5yRfrDBu8Lyt0cFkYXIemOfyzsZxGbA
(I have limited access to Premiere right now)
