I think one of the reasons I liked TLJ so much was because it defied expectations from some parts of fandom, where people were convinced the movie would be Luke picking up some Jedi superweapon to smite the First Order with. For all the things Luke's done - like decapitating Jabba's organisation - I think that the choices he eventually made in TLJ echoed those from ROTJ, where he realised that trying to solve something through force of arms was actively working against him. He put down the lightsabre in ROTJ, and he did it again in TLJ - initially for the wrong reasons, but then for the right ones. Of course, he was sarcastic as hell to Kylo, because... well, Luke's always had the streak in him, even before he met Yoda... but it felt so much like he was actually clear in his own mind about how the image he had of himself was wrong, that what he'd tried to do in founding that Jedi temple and in punishing himself afterwards was wrong, and how he could do something right. I think what he said to Leia mattered as much as anything else, and I love that they went that way. I'm sad that we won't get to explore more about who Luke could've been, but at the same time, it fits. In the end, he went beyond accepting what had gone before - he was able to make a positive difference, both on individuals and more widely, without harming anyone else, and just by being himself. The scene with Kylo is great, but the compassion and empathy he shared with Leia is what I loved so much, and seeing the scene with the children where they were re-enacting his last stand. I think Luke got lost for so long because he could only see the things he felt he'd done wrong, and because he was out of touch with his friends and deliberately cut off from Yoda and Obi-Wan, he didn't have anything to shake him out of that point of view. And it's so marvellously bittersweet, because even if someone says Luke could've done much more if he hadn't gone into that hermetic retreat, it wouldn't have worked, because he'd still have found other ways to lose himself. I think Rey shook him up enough - followed up by Yoda - to let him be how he was in that moment - and what we saw was someone who empathised so much with Leia, and wanted to give comfort; someone who wanted Kylo Ren to have the chance to change, even knowing that he might not; and someone who couldn't resist being sarcastic and cutting at the same time, because he's not a saint.

Sorry, I'm kind of throwing feelings and opinions at you, but it turns out I have more to say about Luke than I thought I did :P