^You make a fair point about forgiveness. It’s a difficult concept to fully understand and much less live by. There’s definitely the type of forgiveness that’s like “I’ll let it go but we’re not exactly buddy buddy again” and then there’s “I’m choosing to forgive what you did and I want us to reconcile and be close again”. In Cade’s case he more or less fell into latter category. After he healed his mother and stated that he forgave her, he actually started calling to her as his mother, whereas before that he could barely call her by her name. He typically referred to her as nothing more than an “Imp spy”. I typically try to be of the mindset that forgiveness is a greater strength than anger. It takes very little effort to hate or resent someone who’s hurt you but healing from the pain and choosing to heal with the person who’s hurt you, that’s true strength imho. Being able to look at the person in question with warmth, and content instead of hostility and anger, is a step in the right direction of true forgiveness in my eyes.

This is such a great question! Ahh, where to begin…

Star Wars has taught me a lot of stuff. The first thing that comes to mind is that it’s never too late to change. No matter what you’ve done or who you’ve become, it’s never too late to change your ways. Even if it is on your deathbed. The biggest example of this is of course Anakin. He was Darth Vader for 20+ years and did some horrible things, but in the end, he came back to the light. 

Another big lesson I learned is don’t let you fear control you! You must not become a slave to fear and let it influence your decisions. As we all know, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering. We have to take control of our fear. Being afraid is completely normal, and it can be a good thing; it can help you avoid danger and know when to be cautious, but it is when we let fear control us that is becomes a problem. 

The Clone Wars, specifically the clones, taught me that everyone is different, and that’s totally fine. No one is exactly identical to another person, even people who share the same face. The clones may look the same, but they all have their own personalities. As one of TCW quotes said, “Embrace others for their differences, for that makes you whole.” This inspired me, and hopefully others who grew up with TCW, to embrace your differences and not try to be like everyone else.

I learned a lot from Ahsoka. One of the biggest things was just to be kind. To me, Ahsoka is the perfect example of a kindhearted, selfless person. This is one of my favorite quotes from The Clone Wars: “In my life, when you find people who need your help, you help them, no matter what.” After all, isn’t being kind and helping people what we are all meant to do?

Another important lesson, and this one is super important to me, is that our thoughts affect our actions. What we focus on greatly influences how we react to things and it even affects our future. The amazing Qui Gon Jinn once said, “Always remember, your focus determines your reality.” I really love this quote from Qui Gon, and it means a lot to me. To me, this means that we should invest our time, energy, and thoughts into the things we are passionate about, rather that dwelling on the bad things. What we think about will ultimately come out through our actions.

I feel like Star Wars taught me to accept death. Death is a scary concept but Star Wars has taught me that accepting death and trying to live life to the fullest is more worthwhile than living in fear and trying to avoid death.

Many aspects of SW have fascinated me but the one that had the most impact on my life was probably Anakin's story, similar to Swat.

There was a period in my life where I was fairly unhappy. I felt lonely, I felt like an outsider, I was bitter and somewhat cynical to some degree, enough that, at times, I felt anger and resentment towards others around me, especially towards my classmates, for (seemingly) being so happy while I was caught up in my anger, my pain, my disappointment, while nobody seemed to notice. I somewhat blamed others for my unhappiness.

While I had seen the SW-movies more than once before that period, it's not really until around said time when I've started to read up on peoples' opinions on those movies, characters, the philosophies surrounding the Force, the Jedi, and the Sith, leading to me gaining a new perception of the movies. Anakin's story and the degree of tragedy surrounding his fall as well as the Jedi's teachings started to make more sense to me. The Jedi experience pain just as much as others - or, at least, they are just as capable of experiencing pain as others. It's the way of coping with it that distinguishes them. You can't change the past. No matter how much you think about events in the past, how much you regret something or wonder about something, there is no going back. You can only move forward. People have hurt you but that's irreversible. And if you wait for someone to feel sorry for what they've done, you might spend your whole life waiting for something that might never happen. In other words: You have to learn to let go. You have to learn to move on. There might have been pain in the past, but there is still the chance of finding more happiness in the future. Embrace new opportunities, give life another chance.

That's the tragedy of Anakin's story and that's what probably left an impact on me the most: Anakin never really moved on from the pain he experienced in the past, or from the fear of losing in the future what was dear to him. He wasn't really able to accept a new path, he kept clinging on to things from his past that made him happy. Somewhen, I realized that Anakin trying to cling on to his past, not allowing himself to move on, ended up hurting him: he was torn between the past and the present, making it more difficult for him to live in the moment. And seeing that Anakin inadvertently hurt himself with this attitude toward life, kind of hurt me, too; mainly because it spoke to me in a personal way.

So, Anakin's story served (and still serves) kind of as a message and as a reminder to me that it doesn't do you any good to keep dwelling on the past and fearing that the future might lead you to lose something. Changes are part of life. But even if you lose something that's dear to you doesn't mean that that's the end of everything, that there isn't any chance anymore to experience happiness (something I have to remind myself every now and then)

I think a big thing Star Wars has taught me you can choose your own family and the people you surround yourself with. My family and I have different religious and political viewpoints, and it isn’t always enjoyable to spend time with them. Because of Star Wars, I’m glad I figured out that they don’t always have to be the first people I turn to. I can always turn to my family of friends and mentors. I think that’s a reason why I relate to Rey Skywalker so much, because she was able to choose her friends who trusted her and loved her, rather than her shitty grandfather who just wanted to use her.

^ and she also chose the shitty former wannabe Sith Lord who also wanted to use her and threatened her with death on several occasions. What a lovely relationship.

It has taught me to love things despite them being a bit rubbish (PT, looking at you here) and that franchise Fandoms behave like toddlers when they don't get what they want.

But above all that, it has taught me to rebel.

The English language, among other things, as it is not my native language. I've learned thousands of new words and phrases by watching/reading/playing Star Wars, and this knowledge alone changed my life forever.

One thing I've learned from this franchise is that fear is a constant battle that one has to overcome and their wife will have all sorts of things that you'll probably be unsure about and that it's not too hard to overcome them due

Those who are in power shouldn't be blinded by arrogance and surround themselves with people who have the same perspectives as them. Instead, they should embrace the change that brought them to this great place and keep improving rather than falling into stagnation and self-importance. (I'm looking at you, Jedi.)