"Consider that in the history of many worlds, there have always been disposable creatures. They do the dirty work. They do the work that no one else wants to do, because it's too difficult and too hazardous. With an army of droids, all disposable, you don't have to think about their welfare, or you don't think about how they feel. Whole generations of disposable people." -- Princess Leia, probably

4:50 I think it's really interesting how Wedge isn't one of those pilots. In X-Wing he can barely stand his droid and actually does go through with his threat to wipe his astromech's memory after starts to distract him during missions because of how annoying it is.

I think the reason it's ignored is because it would be a very huge event. It would be like a brand new saga of the Star Wars universe, dealing with the galactic scale of droid rights and a possible droid rebellion. It would be a huge deal, but people just want swish swoosh lightsabers so we're never going to get some sort of cool sci fi transhumanistic stories involving AI and droid personalities.

"You say thank you to a droid?"

@josh-oo

5 күн бұрын

I would.

@MeatbagSlayer

5 күн бұрын

"You still breathing?"

@apolloknight9521

5 күн бұрын

Same. I would.

@michaelandreipalon359

4 күн бұрын

I could, but not always. Case in point, does one say thanks to anti-mutant Sentinels?

@nunyabizniss4087

4 күн бұрын

No. That would be like thanking a Tesla for the ride.

I always did feel that droid rights was a particularly large elephant in the Star Wars room. Surely, trillions of droids across the millennia of the galaxy must have at least formed a union at least once, right? Also trying to not laugh at you saying Bollux's name was incredibly difficult.

@michaelandreipalon359

4 күн бұрын

Still not that well interested with the preachy topic. Eh, it's more like "Pollux" but with a B.

I thought the recent Dark Droids comic had some interesting things to say about their role in the galaxy as well. It really put into perspective how everyone severely underestimates droids to the point where they could probably overrun the whole galaxy if they wanted to and there wouldn't be much that the organics could do about it.

I remember reading somewhere that the Resistance was notable for giving droids and organics equal access to escape pods

@joekyle6594

4 күн бұрын

I do kinda get the sense that the Resistance in general is prone to treating droids with more rights, now that I think about it. At the very least, Poe Dameron treats BB-8 with a lot of respect. Could be an interesting little tidbit to have a lot of people supportive of droids rights enlist in the Resistance, which would make sense when you consider that it's basically a militia emulating the Rebellion and actively fighting a foreign power and would thus probably attract people with more revolutionary politics, like support for droids rights.

@TrumanTheGrayMerchant

4 күн бұрын

@@joekyle6594 I think it's also tied to the resistance using a droid spy network

Anyone else from the UK unable to take the character 'Bollux' serious 😭😭

@michaelandreipalon359

4 күн бұрын

Not from the UK, and I do think him as serious.

@Blacksmith__

4 күн бұрын

Pretty sure the name is supposed to be humorous

@KasumiKenshirou

3 күн бұрын

The US spelling of "bollocks" is "bollix". I didn't know we had our own spelling until a few months ago when I heard Wilma say that Fred always manages to "bollix things up" in a Flintstones rerun. (I had the closed captions on, so that's where I got the spelling from, which I confirmed w/ a dictionary.) Apparently US soldiers heard their British counterparts use this phrase and it made it over here, but the exact meaning got lost along the way. (I don't think this word would've appeared in The Flintstones if they'd known it's literal meaning.)

Id love a droid revolt series. Honestly its a very deep question, probably too deep for this universe. Considering Star Wars is a kids-themed genre vs say Asmov or Dune.

I recall hearing that there were droid rebellions during the old republic and maybe even the pre-republic eras of the original EU. Unfortunately, my memory is hazy and I cannot recall where I picked that detail up, probably another Star Wars commentator on KZread.

Great vid! I've heard not great things about Dark Droids, and had mixed feelings on Last Shot overall (though the main premise of droid rebellion was fun - especially with the Solos' nanny droid), but it's a subject I always am happy to see. I just now realized how much I would like a droid-rebellion/uprising-focused story in live action.

From an universe building perspective, a significant change in the in-universe perception of droids feels like such a major change, that I can understand Lucasfilm being hesitant to tackle it, it is a big story that should be told eventually, but whenever that happens, it will redefine how people treat droids in all Star Wars stories going forward _and backwards_ (through retcons). Perhaps it might be best to save it for the new stories that will be set in the latest period of the timeline, because that gives them a clean slate going forward to do it right, without accidentally establishing a past character as prejudiced towards droids, because they wouldn't have followed new droid rights legislation that would have been introduced in a new story that was made later, and set in the same period. Like for example, they establish that droids deserve compensation for their labor as well and then the character in question is not officially employing their droid, because that law had not been invented out-of-universe yet when their story was written, which would be a big whoopsie retconed into their characterization.

@liamclarke91

5 күн бұрын

It would certainly give the nu canon a huge leg up over Legends in that respect

@michaelandreipalon359

4 күн бұрын

Either way, am not that big into it. Would rather have storylines based on subtle Multiversal interference and the proto-ancient days of the galaxy, as seen in the Cult and Supernatural Encounters novellas.

@joekyle6594

4 күн бұрын

A galaxy-wide droid revolution set a century or so after the ST would make for a super interesting show and one that could result in a very unique time period in the Star Wars galaxy IMO. Alternatively, I've always wanted a show about a stormtrooper revolution overthrowing whatever remains of the First Order shortly after the Sequel Trilogy, and I feel like you could fit in droids as a part of the revolutionary movement, but I also feel like that'd be kinda sidelining the question of droids' rights when it could easily form the basis of its own plot.

@ForsakenKrios

4 күн бұрын

I don’t see the issue with retconning characters being prejudiced against droids? If we go into the future after the ST and have a whole “Droids Rights” restructuring that changes how in universe people treat droids, I don’t see the issue with having pst characters that treated the droids horribly or didn’t consider them sentient beings? Hell one of the things I liked about The Mandalorian early on was how much he didn’t like droids.

@NiiRubra

3 күн бұрын

@@ForsakenKrios Oh yeah, definitely, the hatred towards droids in Mando is a great storytelling device, I'm more referring to unintentional situations where that could happen. Like, to give you an hypothetical scenario: let's say that a new OT-period story comes out, where the rebel alliance decided internally that all droids serving in the alliance should be officially employed and paid by their human partner, and there is all sorts of regulation and terms, and then you have some guy named Luke Skywalker, who is friends with some droid named R2-D2, they are apparently so close that they are an iconic duo, but now there's a bit of a weird situation, in that Luke has never employed R2-D2, despite his love for his lil buddy, the writer did not think of the ramifications of this thing they invented, and now some new stuff has to be inserted into canon explaning Luke's professional relationship with R2 and whatever. Come to think of it, it's kind of like the invention of the chain codes in Mandalorian, that was retroactively applied, I like the chain codes, but now there is all sorts of situations where if you think about it, you gotta ask "well, why weren't chain codes a problem when this event of the Original Trilogy happened?" I think it's best to not touch the relationship between droids and humans in past stories, and instead tackle the topic in new time periods (or past ones and introduce an event that reverted people's positions towards droids afterwards).

Well i am for Droid right since i learned about it. Great video

it never sit well with me what wedge did with his astromech mynock

Wild that every droid rebellion inevitably pivots to video

Droid rights is the top of my post-Episode 9 worldbuilding wishlist

Justice for CIS droid army

I'm surprised you didn't mention Solo. Its messaging in this regard is... messy.

@michaelandreipalon359

4 күн бұрын

Funny, really, how its spiritual predecessor, the Han Solo Adventures novels, treated droid rights quite naturally with Bollux.

James Luceno worked with Brian Daley in writing the Han Solo adventures. So it tracks that he'd want to follow that up during the NJO saga. Based on the majority of sources available a couple of themes about droids emerge: 1) No one completely understands how the droid brain works. They're able to mass-produce them. but the droids' brains can feel emotions and learn new abilities the body wasn't originally designed for. (Despite Kenobi's comment "Droids don't think.") Although those emotions don't register in the Force the same way biological emotions do. 2) Most of the Star Wars galaxy has no problem using droids as semi-disposable tools, at best. This suggests a series of droid uprisings happened in the pre-Republic and/or early Republic to the point where the galaxy decided: "We cannot leave the majority of Droids to their own devices."

A headcannon I've heard about why some droids are so clearly "alive" while others aren't is that, despite not having the force flowing through them like all biological life, the force can start to slowly infuse them just by having people around them that care about them. Like I guess you could frame it as people are constantly leaking the force, so if someone pays close attention and care to something it can become force infused, such as a family airloom, a lucky charm, or in this case bringing life to droids.

One thing I always thought was weird with the "we don't serve your kind" scene is, like, what the fuck would a bar even serve to a droid? It probably would have been more impactful to see him discriminate against a particular alien race, perhaps wookies. At least with the prequels, we can interpret it as a prejudice created by the actions of the separatists.

Droids don’t need rights

Great video.

I really hope the new jedi order movie involves a droid rebellion led by ajax sigma and also maybe general kalani. Maybe the new republic wants rey and the jedi to help reestablish the status quo, and be soldiers/tools like they did with the droid uprising during the high republic and the role they played in the clone wars, and rey has to take a stand and organize the jedi as a revolutionary force for good in support of the droids. I think the dual of the fates version of RoS was going to feature mace windu's lightsaber in some way, and i think ajax sigma could wield it to open the door to discussing the jedi order's past failings. Like mace windu kinda embodies the overconfidence and negligence of the jedi during the prequel era to me, summed up when he goes to execute palpatine when he's begging and seemingly defenseless. As anakin says, it's not the jedi way, and we see in the high republic the jedi didnt wanna kill the drengir once they defeated them cuz they didnt wanna unnecessaryily take life, but mace/the jedi have lost their way in the prequels. Also when ajax led a droid rebellion in the high republic era, he was cut down by the poster jedi loden greatstorm, and i think itd be cool for ajax to lore dump a lot of stuff like that onto rey. In the last jedi luke has succumbed to deapair on ahch to because of the jedis failures and i think itd make sense to see rey have to reconcile and face the consequences of the jedis past with ajax and instead of taking the easy out and just killing ajax for the convenience of the republic, has to extend the olive branch and work with him towards peace and droid liberation. You could also explore how the jedi would view droids since theyre not living in the traditional sense, similar to the dilemma the jedi had with the yuuzong vong. Also i think with reys yellow saber and ajax maybe having mace windus saber i think the yellow and purple blades would contrast well on a movie poster lol

@martinjrgensen8234

4 күн бұрын

Christ no. This would be a terrible use of screen time.

@Hello-bi1pm

4 күн бұрын

Too much lore for a movie maker to handle. We can't even handle birth date of Ki-Adi Mundi.

L3 from solo is imo one of the most wasted characters with one of the most unintentionally fucked up fates in all of sw. She fought for droid rights all her life only for her to get turned into part of the Falcon, part of a machine, unthinking and bereft of free thought or will. On a more positive note, now that the Falcon is back with Lando we might see her return if he chooses to rebuild her, but the lack of general interest in that character from fans tells me this will be her final fate.

Love the Cracked Video reference!

👍

That poor SJW Droid from the Solo movie who got merged with the Falcon computer. It's a pretty horrific fate when you think about it

@Kakashi20xd6

4 күн бұрын

She was no SJW since she actually took direct action.

@Crocthunder

3 күн бұрын

@@Kakashi20xd6 Its more wild is who is using sjw in 2024 , its like 2 buzzwords behind now

I dont think it was forgotten, there was a whole episode of Mando about it recently but people started crying over Lizzo instead of watching the episode

@michaelandreipalon359

4 күн бұрын

The flaws of embracing hip camp way too much in entertainment nowadays.

@Croakin

4 күн бұрын

@@michaelandreipalon359 I don't even like that women but the episode isn't bad at all if you can get over basic object permenace and prejudices, Doc Brown being a CIS sympathizer is amazing and he's got one of the best monologues in Mando. Jack Black is also more obnoxious in any given scenario ngl.

@michaelandreipalon359

4 күн бұрын

@@Croakin Turd's still a turd, especially one that feels way too much like Spy Kids cringe... I'll never understand how that mess still has fans. Brutal Legend and Kung Fu Panda 1-3 say differently.

@Croakin

4 күн бұрын

@@michaelandreipalon359 You're the exact kind of pearlclutcher im talking about... What was the plot of the episode in context to this video? That was the canonical part to all of this, not Lizzo. Hence my post.

@michaelandreipalon359

4 күн бұрын

@@Croakin Understandable opinion there, but still, it won't change the fact that the episode will not age well as the times go by... and if it does, oh boy, I really worry about the backwardness of our future.

Can see why this is easily overlooked. For one, it's way too preachy in an unsubtle fashion, which just isn't something Star Wars should do exactly, and two, we in real life live in a world where we demonize virtual intelligences (falsely called "artificial intelligences", mind you; Siri is NOT like EDI from Mass Effect for good reason) and don't have independent thought empathetic constructs akin to droids like Artoo just yet, so really, this kind of sci-fi can easily go over our heads. With that it mind, The Animatrix's "The Second Renaissance " does this topic oh so well with just a two-parter animation. Not too preachy, has nuanced grey vs. grey moralities (even if humanity are the villains), and shows off actual A.I.s with independent thought, sympathy... and finally hate and prejudice. 1:07: Mid-2000s should either be 2005-2007 or the 2050s. Gotta hand it to the Han Solo Adventures, droids like Bollux are loads better than what the Solo movie did. 8:25: Huh. That scene felt fluid. Damn. We got the Denning-verse instead of Luceno's suspectedly nuanced droid revolt idea? What a sinful world we live in. Overall, if I were given some creative control to Star Wars, I'm afraid I won't tackle this either due to my apathy on it, but I am open to letting other passionate writers, animators, and so on doing justice on the topic and maybe even really well done catharsis and finality. Addendum: Oh, and heaven is also fit for droids according to the Cult and Supernatural Encounters novellas. Gotta love those expansionary lore codas.

I wouldn't give my computer right so I'm not giving droids rights. That's all they are right is a big walking computer with an AI neural network? So yeah I don't give my computers rights