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"Well, now hold on just a minute." Dr. Riordan said, furrowing his brow. "You're *secretly* married? Why is it *that* a secret? That's got to cause no end of complications in your life!"

Anakin sighed. "Marriage is an attachment. Attachments, whether to people, or to material things, lead to the fear of *losing* them. And fear? Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering -- it's part of the Jedi philosophy."

"Didn't we just fight a war *against* an army of droids, Anakin?"

Anakin blinked. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Riordan raised his eyebrows. "Because, if your philosophy is correct, it seems like we should have let the droids take over. Maybe not the *Separatists,* sure, but it sounds like the battle droids themselves would make ideal Jedi. Your average battle droid has it all figured out, based on what you just told me: no fear, no anger, no passion, certainly no suffering. Just acting based on programming, free from attachments and desires, even ones as fundamental as self preservation."

"A droid can't be a Jedi, doctor. Only living beings have the potential to use the Force, and droids aren't *alive."* Anakin pointed out.

"Exactly!" The doctor chuckled. "Anakin, there's a certain amount of suffering that comes with being *alive.* But if you try to eliminate desire and attachment, you're not making life better, or easier -- you're just becoming *less alive.* Suffering in some amount is unavoidable if you're alive, and it's not having *desires,* or even attachments, that leads you to anger, or hatred."

"What is it, then?" Anakin asked, confused.

"Expectation." Riordan explained. "Anticipating that the people you love, or the things you're attached to, will *always* be there. That life, the universe, the Force, or whatever, *owes* you their continuance. That makes it impossible to be grateful for what you have, especially if and when you lose it. You can only be angry that you've lost it. You can only hate other people, or the Force, or the Universe, for taking it away from you. Yes, attachment *will* lead to suffering, that much you've got right, but what you *do* with that suffering is up to you. I don't see how abandoning the passion that makes life worth living *despite* the suffering, could be the solution."

Anakin frowned. "That is...contrary to the Jedi code. '*There is no Emotion, there is peace.'"*

Riordan smiled. "You know, I've heard there's another version of your code, one that's actually older than the more common translation into Galactic Basic, some say. Personally, I prefer the way it describes things: not with negation, but duality."

*Emotion, yet peace.*

*Ignorance, yet knowledge.*

*Passion, yet serenity.*

*Chaos, yet harmony.*

*Death, yet the Force.*

---

Submitted by SilasCrane on Mon, May 02, 2022 to /r/WritingPrompts/

The prompt

A controversial bill in the Republic Senate led to a trained therapist being assigned to the Jedi Temple. While far from the intention of the legislation having someone to talk to prevented Anakin from going over to the Dark Side and the Sith plan being foiled