#hard truth

But what I’ve learned is that the hardest part comes after — trying to rebuild your life while carrying the weight of everything you lost 💔

Every day, I try to focus on the future. On my education, on my family, on the hope that one day things will feel stable again. But hope becomes difficult to hold onto when every step forward feels uncertain.

This campaign is not just helping us financially. It’s helping us believe that our future is still worth fighting for.

If you’re reading this, thank you for taking a moment to see the person behind the fundraiser. Your support, your kindness, and even sharing our story can make a bigger difference than you might imagine 🤍🙏

https://gofund.me/5cdd060e

And then there’s the Star Wars fandom…

Which for some reason is full of people just completely CONVINCED there is an OBJECTIVE truth to Star Wars and that all other perspectives, from the fictional characters and fan analysts alike, are WRONG. And that as a result, someone stating an objective Star Wars truth can NOT be criticized for doing so. In any way shape or form.

I mean seriously, this fandom is STILL having the ages old argument of “that’s not what this person needed to hear at that moment!” “uh but they were RIGHT, if they just did X then Y and Z would never have happened!!”

and STILL talking about how “this was actually the intention behind all the teachings of the Jedi order” as if that somehow invalidates the claim that the ways in which Jedi teachings were presented to and impressed upon Anakin Skywalker were ultimately unhelpful and alienating.

I’m gonna say something some people don’t want to hear. But here’s an example: when you respond to “Yoda telling Anakin to just ‘let go’ and ‘rejoice’ in death because they join the Force, without mourning or missing anyone, was flat out unhelpful to Anakin in his situation and probably made things worse” with “well but letting go is actually very important and the rule against attachments wasn’t to stop people from caring but stop people from being afraid of loss which is a path to the dark side and Anakin didn’t listen and turned to the dark side so CLEARLY Yoda was actually right to say that,” do you know what you sound like? You sound like someone who would respond to “I’m so frustrated that my boyfriend cheated on me, and angry and heartbroken” with “but as we are Christian we must love and forgive him anyway, acknowledge that sadness and let it go, because God still loves them.” Like. I’m a Christian myself so that religion is literally my life framework and yet I can tell that saying that in that situation is just not the move. Even if we take the Christian God as objectively real, the way the Force is in Star Wars, therefore making that a true statement, it’s still not the thing to say!!! It would do more harm than good, even if hypothetical Christian friend is super sweet and awesome and not a bad person at all.

this is… such a basic concept.

The reasoning behind something is not always the same as its impact. In real life situations people are pretty good at recognizing that nowadays. In the Star Wars fandom there’s a lot of work to be done because I still see so many people responding to “this is the impact that had” with “well this was the intention behind it so how dare you accuse the person of having done something wrong in that moment?”

another example: I’m familiar with the Jedi rationale for avoiding attachments to therefore avoid fear of loss because fear can lead to the dark side. And even so. Telling a nine year old who just left his mother in slavery on the edges of the galaxy “hmm you’re afraid to lose your mother… that is a path to the dark side! Fear -> anger -> hate -> suffering” is not the move. Even if fear does lead to anger which leads to hate with leads to suffering, that’s just not the thing you tell the kid who just lost his mom.

And I actually can understand why Yoda doesn’t understand that because they don’t normally take kids from their families this late so the Jedi order is not really equipped to handle this particular kind of grief. In fact, I think Yoda knew they weren’t equipped for that which was part of why he resisted Anakin being trained as a Jedi. He was “too old” in the sense that he came preloaded with trauma and a different life experience than that of every other Jedi and traditional Jedi teachings and methods for handling stuff was probably not gonna click the exact same way. And Yoda was probably right about that part. I might make a separate post about that actually.

But the point is.

Sometimes being right isn’t all that matters.

Especially when talking to someone with a lot of trauma and mental health issues.

I love the Jedi Order. I will actually defend it from a pretty hefty amount of criticism, but I’m not an apologist for its beliefs nor do I believe it was perfect. And as a result this post is really not targeted at people who like the Jedi Order. It’s targeted at a specific group of people who literally sound like tone-deaf Catholics in their die-hard defense of the Jedi. a metaphor I don’t use lightly since I myself am devout Catholic.