In the past I've praised Luke's role in Return of the Jedi, how he essentially took both Vader and Emperor off the chess board so his friends in the Rebellion could do the real work.
What I hadn't noticed before is that this is in stark contrast to his behavior in Empire Strikes Back, when he is so worried about the fate of his friends that he is willing to abandon his Jedi training to save them.
The result is that he not only walks into a trap, but his friends--who managed to escape on their own--actually have to come back and rescue him!
Luke's more passive role in ROTJ is the result of lesson he learned from his disastrous decision. He finally begins to understand what Obi-Wan had once said--that there are alternatives to fighting.
In ROTJ, he doesn't even have to fight in order to win. He just has to occupy Vader's and Emperor's attention long enough for his friends to complete the mission.
This is probably why I think that the one thing in The Last Jedi that felt true to his character was Luke projecting himself to Kylo Ren rather than engaging him directly. Luke would not actually fight if he didn't have to. He just needed to distract Kylo Ren long enough for the Resistance to escape.
With Rise of Skywalker coming out soon, we will see if Rey herself learned any of these lessons. She has proven herself to be very naive in The Last Jedi. She was plagued by doubts about her identity and purpose. And the one thing she was certain about--that she could bring Kylo Ren back to the good side--wound up revealing how much she still had to learn. She had more faith in Kylo Ren's strength of character than she did in her own.
And it's these flaws that have me convinced that she is not a Mary Sue, no matter how "powerful" she is. A Mary Sue is not just about power levels and how easily that power is acquired. It's about lack of depth. It's about characters who don't make mistakes. Well--Rey has made a number of mistakes in TLJ. Now let's see if she learned anything from them.
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