"Kill your darlings" only applies if you're holding onto something that actually hurts your story. But jerks sometimes use "kill your darlings" as a weapon to try to break you. Don't wantonly kill what you love the most about your story. That's why you're writing it. Make it work.
And if nothing about your story feels darling to you, you're writing the wrong story!
Good darling-killing is cutting the bits where you're trying to be a cleverpants. Those bits are often overstrained. But the bits that really mean something need to stay in.
