Uploaded November 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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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.

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WISHLIST
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REFERENCES
• Race in American Science Fiction by Isiah Lavender III
goodreads.com/book/show/10364882-race-in-american-science-fiction
• Imagining Slaves and Robots in Literature, Film, and Pop Culture by Gregory Jerome Hampton
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
goodreads.com/book/show/39293853-the-cambridge-companion-to-slavery-in-american-literature
• Asimov on Science Fiction in Science Fiction Digest, October-November 1981
archive.org/details/sfdigest19811011
• Janelle Monae's "Many Moons" music video
youtube.com/watch?v=EZyyORSHbaE

NOVELS REFERENCED
• Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
goodreads.com/book/show/60931.Kindred
• The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson
goodreads.com/book/show/57498.The_Salt_Roads
• Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany
goodreads.com/book/show/85861.Stars_in_My_Pocket_Like_Grains_of_Sand
• vN: The Machine Dynasty by Madeline Ashby
goodreads.com/book/show/13033939-vn
• A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
goodreads.com/book/show/29475447-a-closed-and-common-orbit
• Autonomous by Annalee Newitz
goodreads.com/book/show/28209634-autonomous

SUBTITLES
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TEXT TRANSCRIPT
http://popculturedetective.agency/2020/the-tragedy-of-droids#more-10320

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CREDITS
Writer/Editing: Jonathan McIntosh
Motion Graphics: Jonathan McIntosh
Outro music: Rick Lopez