Uncle Owen And Aunt Beru: Should've Died As Heroes?

[CaptainPogo]

The Lars, who raised Luke Skywalker as one of their own, who gave him a decent humble living, the Kents to Luke's Superman, ...Died in the most gruesome manner in Star Wars films.



Really, if I found that Ewok as charred bones, then I shed more tears like I would for the Lars.

But you know what? I felt like Owen and Beru shouldn't have died as victims of just happening to own the very droids the Empire was looking for. No...They should have went out with a rifle in their charred boned fingers.



God damn right I mean it!

All we know for sure is that Owen knew the Empire is bad news, and was mostly a stick in the mud for Luke for very good reasons. Sure he was a little too overprotective to the point he basically said screw off to Old Ben whenever the old wizard stopped by, but when you know the boy you raised and loved like a son that needs to learn his damn place in the farm (like most strict but loving fathers XD) has a murderous cyborg as a father...It's best to take those chances.

And Biggs mentioned to Luke that Owen can handle himself against Tusken Raiders with just his marksmanship. So...who felt that Owen should have brought out the gun and protected his land from those troopers?

...Course, the other best explanation was that Luke took the only gun with him that very day...Yeah Luke, that's on you. XD

[Pali]

We don't know that they didn't go out that way.  Sure, we don't see any guns, but the stormtroopers could've easily retrieved any weapons and injured comrades before leaving the farm (and if they were trying to make it all look like Tuskens did it, as at the sandcrawler, they certainly would have).

[Lord Xizer]

I think them going out as victims is not only extremely likely but also important to the story and to emphasise just how amoral the Empire truly is. The Lars were executed as a byproduct, they knew nothing, they literally just happened to be the unfortunate ones who bought droids that day. The Empire literally didn't even give a second thought to killing them for such a small premise.
This serves as a catalyst not only for Luke but for the audience too, to feel that impact. If you see them fight or know that they went out guns blazing it not only lessens the tragedy of their passing but also provides some justification for the Stormtroopers who burned them to death.

I get what you're saying but it is much more sensible to me that they would have come out seeing the legit authorities, not knowing what the droids were or how the Empire planned to deal with them, they would have been easy targets.

[Pali]

I get what you're saying but it is much more sensible to me that they would have come out seeing the legit authorities, not knowing what the droids were or how the Empire planned to deal with them, they would have been easy targets.

Agreed, but since we don't see exactly what happens, if someone wants to think they went out fighting, it's possible.

[Lord Xizer]

Agreed, but since we don't see exactly what happens, if someone wants to think they went out fighting, it's possible.

Indeed, as far as we know they could just have easily went out like the end of the Wild Bunch or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

[CaptainPogo]

Heh, thanks for your thoughts on the manner, guys.

And wishful thinking (and probably something to get off my chest) aside, I do have to agree with Lord Xizer's opinion. It's not as effective if Owen left some bodies before he died. He and Beru were victims of something well beyond their ability to handle and it really cemented the black and white of the story itself (this is something outside the EU, which was strictly good vs evil) before Tarkin really shoots up the evil meter with Alderaan. Without that scene that go alongside the Jawa massacre, we would see more of an equal standing between the two sides (seeing how the Empire were taking out people who were actually rebelling against them at the start, we don't really know if the Rebellion is that heroic).

Perhaps my thoughts were now rather skewed thanks to the prequels and their use of the Lars family. Instead of just guy who Obi-wan trusted with some vague connection to Luke's father, he became Anakin's actual stepbrother who sorta had reasons to dislike the things he believed made Anakin the way he is. Course, he was still rather limited in his role there along with Beru.

And once more, this does make me feel like another lost opportunity to use the Lars in any EU works prior to OT timeline. I mean...It's just me but I could see a small Clone Wars arc with him involved.

But all in all, thanks for the thoughts.

[Pali]

Perhaps my thoughts were now rather skewed thanks to the prequels and their use of the Lars family. Instead of just guy who Obi-wan trusted with some vague connection to Luke's father, he became Anakin's actual stepbrother who sorta had reasons to dislike the things he believed made Anakin the way he is. Course, he was still rather limited in his role there along with Beru.

And once more, this does make me feel like another lost opportunity to use the Lars in any EU works prior to OT timeline. I mean...It's just me but I could see a small Clone Wars arc with him involved.

This general idea reminded me a lot of Belated Media's Youtube "What if Episode 1/2 were good?" videos, actually.  In his episode 2 video, he floats the idea of using Owen Lars as a secondary character in the film, introduced as an Anakin Skywalker fanboy Tatooine native who was inspired by Anakin's podracing to become a pilot and ends up playing a Han Solo-ish (without as much rogue) good guy in the prequels as a way to better establish his relationship with Anakin (piloting Anakin and Padme around, shows up in the nick of time with a blaster during a fight, etc.), as opposed to him being the step-brother Anakin meets for a couple scenes in 2 and is then forgotten about until the end of episode 3 when Obi-wan shows up randomly at his farm and dumps a baby on him.  THAT Owen Lars I could easily see going out fighting the stormtroopers in A New Hope.

[Lord Xizer]

Heh, thanks for your thoughts on the manner, guys.

And wishful thinking (and probably something to get off my chest) aside, I do have to agree with Lord Xizer's opinion. It's not as effective if Owen left some bodies before he died. He and Beru were victims of something well beyond their ability to handle and it really cemented the black and white of the story itself (this is something outside the EU, which was strictly good vs evil) before Tarkin really shoots up the evil meter with Alderaan. Without that scene that go alongside the Jawa massacre, we would see more of an equal standing between the two sides (seeing how the Empire were taking out people who were actually rebelling against them at the start, we don't really know if the Rebellion is that heroic).

Perhaps my thoughts were now rather skewed thanks to the prequels and their use of the Lars family. Instead of just guy who Obi-wan trusted with some vague connection to Luke's father, he became Anakin's actual stepbrother who sorta had reasons to dislike the things he believed made Anakin the way he is. Course, he was still rather limited in his role there along with Beru.

And once more, this does make me feel like another lost opportunity to use the Lars in any EU works prior to OT timeline. I mean...It's just me but I could see a small Clone Wars arc with him involved.

But all in all, thanks for the thoughts.

Thanks, though this post has brought back a really old and rather bothersome thing I noticed in the films. Luke has almost no reaction to the deaths of his Aunt and Uncle who raised and protected him his entire life. I mean after seeing the burning ruins-and the bodies. He hops back to Obi Wan and says There's nothing for me here now. There is no, sorrow or deep seated expression of grief. I mean Luke takes the death(and incineration) of his only living family(so far as he knows) rather well considering. I mean the EU goes into his mind and shows he does care and thinks on them a lot, but the films...name ONE time he MENTIONS them after they leave Tatooine. Hell, name one time he mentions them after he tells Ben he'll go!
I noticed this as a kid watching it and was like wow, he's kind of a dick. You could even argue he doesn't want to avenge them based on the film, he already wanted to join the Rebellion, their deaths merely gave him the excuse.(Again only in the film)

[jordanthejq12]

And no doubt the supplementary material around it exists in part to fix that one issue. (Which is one of the problems you can sometimes have--there's the possibility that an EU work in any universe ends up being little more than whack-a-plot-hole, and sometimes creating even more.)

[Lord Xizer]

This is a good point

[CaptainPogo]

I'll admit, the whole making the Lars actually be connected to the Skywalkers by Cliegg and Shmi's happy yet tragic marriage (EU claim that Cliegg died soon after Shmi due to a broken heart...You know, the Padme way of dying) only kind of created a good number of problems since after that...

Such as the book where Leia would find out more about Shmi's backstory and what Beru's sister (...Yeah, I was surprised) told her. Such as the headstone of Shmi and Cliegg were removed once Luke came into the picture, as Owen said he didn't want questions or something like that which is an obvious way of explaining why the OT didn't have headstones. It does feel weird that Anakin never bothered with his new family other than telling Obi-Wan he happened to have one.

Again, a nice little story that has Owen be part of it would be nice. Like maybe clear the air of how Anakin felt bout him and at least know Kenobi a tad bit.

And now I'm curious if Owen did love Anakin like a brother and that maybe he did think Anakin died (not in Kenobi's certain view) and blamed the reckless lifestyle he led. Or that he knew Anakin fell hard and just couldn't bear the feeling of losing more family in the way of Luke being in his life hiding from his father.