The answer is within Rey herself and the Jedi Texts, she never needed Luke. It’s pretty explicit. She wanted Luke to fill the void of her dead parents. He was too far gone to teach her anything, she taught him. She restored his faith and redeemed him. He used the last of his energy to fake a force projection via astral projection because he was no longer that hero but the symbol was important to inspire hope.
I don’t know why the movie says Luke is better dead as a symbol rather than being present. But i’m not Rian Johnson.
Luke needed to forgive himself for the fall of Ben. He thought he was beyond redemption. He cut himself off from the force as a punishment, but also to hide himself from Leia and from Snoke.
Luke went to the island to die and he did. The whole Jake Skywalker motif is all he did in the sequel trilogy. He accomplished nothing, passed on nothing. did not fulfil his charge of restoring the Jedi order or teaching Leia to be a Jedi Knight. ROS acts like he did train Rey and Leia but those are retcons. So is the entire I was a coward and afraid bit. Rian did not write it that way. He wrote it as if Jedi were the cause of the balance being in chaos and if the Jedi die then who cares.
Luke not talking a stand against fascism is treated like a noble endeavor to sit out the fight. Like being passive when billions die is not a dereliction of honor and duty. To allow Han, Luke and Leia’s causes to just slip away for nothing. Restoring the Republic and Democracy. Finn, Poe and Rey step into the breach to do what the last generation messed up and were too incompetent to keep the peace.
Han dies alone on a bridge while Luke drinks green elephant milk and whines about laser swords. Its like a nightmare. And Leia just lies down and dies like Yoda passing away. At least Lando was still heroic and rode in to save the day.
At least Mark gives a good performance and i will give Rian credit in the line about the vanity of the Jedi and their dogma. It’s also not wrong that Obi-Wan’s pride and hubris created Darth Vader the same way Lukes’ created Kylo Ren.
I do like the mythic scope of the photography and the Zen Buddhist concepts on Ach-To. I think Luke was profoundly wrong and at least Yoda corrected him for being foolish. I also like the force projection scene of Luke walking out of the Hanger on Crait, its awesome I only wish it wasn’t a mere image but that he was actually there with his green lightsaber.
I think the past scene of Luke trying to murder Ben in his sleep was novel but far too cute, ala Rashomon. It’s something only a film student or someone who knows Kurosawa would get. Typical of the auteur and film as art to be over the head of the audience these, are kid’s movies.