It’s not a Star Wars story unless there’s a lovable droid stealing the spotlight but, when you really stop and think about it, there’s also something profoundly tragic about the role artificial lifeforms play in the Star Wars universe. PATREON Support this project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/popdetective PAYPAL Make a one-time donation via PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/popdetective WISHLIST Send research materials for video essays: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/VPZW4GU512ON?ref_=wl_share REFERENCES • Race in American Science Fiction by Isiah Lavender III https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10364882-race-in-american-science-fiction • Imagining Slaves and Robots in Literature, Film, and Pop Culture by Gregory Jerome Hampton https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26371201-imagining-slaves-and-robots-in-literature-film-and-popular-culture • The Cambridge Companion to Slavery in American Literature (Chapter 15) Beyond the Borders of the Neo-Slave Narrative by Jeffrey Allen Tucker https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39293853-the-cambridge-companion-to-slavery-in-american-literature • Asimov on Science Fiction in Science Fiction Digest, October-November 1981 https://archive.org/details/sfdigest19811011 • Janelle Monae's "Many Moons" music video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZyyORSHbaE NOVELS REFERENCED • Kindred by Octavia E. Butler https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60931.Kindred • The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57498.The_Salt_Roads • Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/85861.Stars_in_My_Pocket_Like_Grains_of_Sand • vN: The Machine Dynasty by Madeline Ashby https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13033939-vn • A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29475447-a-closed-and-common-orbit • Autonomous by Annalee Newitz https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28209634-autonomous SUBTITLES • You can help make with subtitles and captions for this video on Amara: https://amara.org/en/videos/iZsjSfJwsVoo/info/the-tragedy-of-droids-in-star-wars/?team= TEXT TRANSCRIPT http://popculturedetective.agency/2020/the-tragedy-of-droids#more-10320 COMMENTS All YouTube comments are held for approval. If you'd like to participate in constructive online conversations about this video, please share it on your social media networks. FAIR USE All multimedia clips included in this video constitute a 'fair use' of any copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of U.S. Copyright law, which allows for criticism, comment and scholarship. Learn more about fair use with this awesome app by New Media Rights! http://newmediarights.org/fairuse CREDITS Writer/Editing: Jonathan McIntosh Motion Graphics: Jonathan McIntosh Outro music: Rick Lopez