The latest theatrical installment in the Star Wars franchise, The Force Awakens, hit theaters nationwide Friday. There's plenty of good reading on the Star Wars universe for everyone from the die-hard fan to the casual viewer. Here are a few recommendations while you're waiting in line at the theater.

First, our own Jonathan Last is at the Washington Free Beacon to take a close look at the way the Rebel Alliance use droids as slaves, while the benevolent Galactic Empire does not:

In the Star Wars universe, droids are treated as property, with explicit talk about being "owned" and of passing from one owner to another. "We seem to be made to suffer," C-3PO laments. "It's our lot in life." He refers to Luke as "master." And on Tatooine, we aren't just shown that droids are slaves—we see a number of parallels to the experience of slavery in America. Consider how C-3PO and R2-D2 are ambushed by Jawas in the desert. The scene where R2-D2 is shot is not all that dissimilar from the scene in Roots where Kunta Kinte is beset by slavers and then kidnapped from his homeland. The droids are then deposited into the dark, dirty, crowded hold of the Jawas' massive sand-crawler, where they're kept in a pitiable state—painfully similar to a slave ship making the middle passage. When the Jawas reach the marketplace (Uncle Owen's ranch) they push and pull the droids out of the darkness and into the bright suns, which, judging by C-3PO's reaction, hurt his photoreceptors. At this point they are lined up for display. Owen inspects them callously, pointing out flaws and problems with the docile droids. He converses with C-3PO. He haggles over the price and then completes the sale. The only reason the droids aren't in literal chains is that, as we learn later, the Jawas have fitted them with "restraining bolts" that prevent them from escaping. The very need for restraining bolts reinforces the notion that the droids are sentient creatures with free will and their own ideas, hopes, and dreams.

Always worth reading (or re-reading!) is Last's 2002 essay "The Case For the Empire," which started the serious reconsideration of the Empire as a benevolent force in the galaxy.

Also at the Free Beacon is its editor, Matthew Continetti, on the critical role sound and soundtrack play in the success of the Star Wars movies. Here's an excerpt:

So much of the writing about Star Wars is devoted to the look of the film: the storyboards, the models, the matte paintings, the makeup, the costumes, the differences between practical effects and digital ones. And the images are spectacular. But they are only half the equation. In some ways they are the less innovative half: spaceships and monsters and swordfights had a long cinematic history prior toStar Wars. The soundscapes Lucas orchestrated did not. Star Wars is not just a cinematic achievement. It's a symphonic one. Consider the famous opening scene. A blockade-runner zooms over our heads, followed by the gigantic Star Destroyer. Your typical Star Wars fan cites this moment as decisive in winning him over. What makes these few minutes gripping? True, the model spaceships are much faster than their predecessors in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Silent Running (1972). But what moves us is the soundtrack: the brassy swells and thundery drums, the roar of the engines, the vibration that accompanies the Star Destroyer as it enters the frame, the thwack-thwack of turbo-lasers as the vessels exchange fire.

Finally, some of the folks at the Washington Post have reimagined the story of the civil war in the center of the Star Wars universe as a Ken Burns-style documentary. Take a look at their handiwork below: