In The Force Awakens, she begins as a lonely, sad, lonely girl obsessed with her past and parents to a self-deluding detriment. She needs that delusion for comfort and control in her life. Whereas in ANH Luke wants nothing more than to run away from his family, Rey refuses to "leave" hers. Whereas Luke hates Tatooine, Rey feels safe on Jakku. She has a power, she has a calling, she has a promise of adventure, a call, but she's terrified of it because it means abandoning that sense of home and sense of family that exists only inside her mind. But by The Force Awakens' finale, she's accepted her need to evolve, her need for progress, her need for reality, and that reality means self-empowerment and to be an agent. Culminating around handing Luke that lightsaber, the greatest gesture of stepping into the unknown.
In the end, Rey isn't greatest threat isn't Kylo Ren or Stormtroopers, it's fear of her own power and freedom and agency. Those are powerful themes, themes I connect with very deeply and they universally tap into, I think, the cusp of adolescence to adulthood, the point and design of The Hero's Journey.
What The Last Jedi does so brilliantly, is it says "okay, now that I've accepted my entry into adulthood, who the fuck am I? She hopes Han will tell her, she hopes Luke will tell her, she seeks to be defined by her past and her parents, and ultimately she hopes to save Kylo Ren and in process of to save herself through his redemption. In one of the most revealing lines of dialogue in The Last Jedi, Rey says Kylo will be The Resistance's last hope, NOT herself, since Rey thinks she's nobody from nowhere. She sees herself in the cave since her greatest fear is that nobody can define her but herself, a crack in her vanity and self-mythologizing. And it's only in her failure to save Kylo Ren that she is able to confront and subsequently accept the identity she needs, the only identity she could ever have.
Rey's conflict is really the universal conflict of the self, adolescence to adulthood into early adulthood into finally becoming an adult. She understands her values--she's decent--she understands the world around her--she's attentive and brave and smart--she understands her enemies--but the one thing Rey doesn't understand is herself. I don't know about you guys, but Rey's internal battle and struggle in both movies is something I connect with more than I ever did with Luke times 1000. It's something very powerful.
