Owen Lars/Legends

"Owen is strong like his father: pragmatic and certain of his ways, grateful for simple joys and for his life on the moisture farm."

- Shmi Skywalker Lars

Owen Lars was the son of moisture farmer Cliegg Lars and the stepbrother of Anakin Skywalker. He married Beru Whitesun, and after his father's death, he inherited his job as a moisture farmer. In 19 BBY, Beru convinced Owen to adopt Anakin's son, Luke Skywalker, as Anakin had turned to the dark side and became the infamous Darth Vader.

Biography


Owen was born on the Core World Ator, the homeworld of his birth mother, Aika Lars. Aika died when Owen was very young, so he and his father returned to his father's homeworld of Tatooine. Owen lived with his father Cliegg on their moisture farm. He helped his father buy Shmi Skywalker from Watto. Shortly after freeing her and her son Anakin's protocol droid, C-3PO, Shmi and Cliegg married, making her Owen's stepmother. Shmi often told her new family how much she missed her son Anakin who had been freed by a Jedi to join the Jedi Order years before.

Over the next few years, Owen met a beautiful girl named Beru Whitesun, and the two fell in love. Beru moved in with Owen and his family and they lived contentedly together. However, tragedy would soon strike when Shmi was kidnapped by Tusken Raiders about a month before the start of the Clone Wars. Organizing a group of thirty other local settlers, Owen and Cliegg set out to find Shmi; however, their attempt was inherently doomed as the Tuskens set a trap. Only four of the settlers made it through, and Cliegg lost one of his legs. Owen built a hover chair for his father to maneuver following this injury.



One month after Shmi's kidnapping, her Jedi son (now Owen's stepbrother), Anakin Skywalker, came to the Lars' moisture farm looking for his mother. Accompanying him was Padmé Amidala. Owen introduced himself and Beru to the guests and Cliegg explained of the Tusken Raider's taking of Shmi. He said to Anakin he would do anything to help out the young Jedi, but his injury was too far from healed, and could not have been much of a help. That night Anakin set out to look for Shmi on his own. The next morning, he brought back Shmi's lifeless body. A small funeral was organized and soon, Anakin and Padmé left, and were allowed to take C-3PO with them.

During the Clone Wars, Owen and Beru married and took over the moisture farm when the heartbroken Cliegg finally succumbed to his injuries and passed away. Shortly after the end of the Clone Wars, and after Anakin's transformation into Darth Vader, Owen and Beru were contacted by Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin's former mentor, who informed them that Anakin had a son, Luke, who needed a family. Beru convinced Owen to adopt him, and Kenobi delivered the baby to them shortly afterward. Owen stubbornly kept his distance and his back turned to Kenobi as he handed baby Luke to Beru.



Fearful of having Luke follow Anakin's path, "Uncle" Owen and "Aunt" Beru protected him from his past by telling him that his father, rather than being a Jedi Knight, was a navigator of a spice freighter. Owen also tried to keep him away from the "crazy old hermit," "Ben" Kenobi.

A few years later, Kenobi had found Luke and his friend Windy alone in the Jundland Wastes. The two youths had tried to ease their boredom by riding Windy's pet dewback around in the Wastes. They had been thrown in one of the canyons and had gotten bruised up. By dusk, Luke and Windy still hadn't found their way out of the canyon until they were discovered by Ben Kenobi. Kenobi guided them back to the Lars farm, Owen told Luke and his friend to go inside so they would be out of earshot, then he confronted and berated Kenobi.



The reason for Owen's anger was that Kenobi had attempted to give Anakin's lightsaber to Luke, since he felt that Luke was old enough and should be allowed to have it. Owen, refused to allow it because he believed the Jedi path was a destructive one, told Kenobi how he didn't want Luke to make the same mistakes his father did, stating how he felt Anakin should have never left his mother in slavery and gotten involved with the "damned foolish idealistic Jedi crusaders" in the first place. He vehemently told Kenobi to leave and to stay away.

Luke, however, being Anakin's son, had wild dreams for a different and adventurous future. Despite Owen's vague promises that he would sometime be free to live his own life, he always prevented Luke from leaving the isolation and anonymity of life on the planet Tatooine, claiming his importance to the farm. This stance sometimes brought turmoil between their relations since Luke's hopes were never satisfied.

Kenobi continued to watch Luke from a distance, sometimes seeing Luke pilot his T-16 skyhopper very skillfully.



Shortly before the Battle of Yavin, Owen and Luke met with the customary local Jawa traders, looking for a droid that could speak Bocce. Unbeknownst to Owen, one of the droids was in fact C-3PO&mdash;now in gold plating&mdash;and his counterpart, astromech droid R2-D2. When Luke found Leia's hidden message inside of R2-D2, he told Owen and Beru that the astromech claimed to belong to an "Obi-Wan" Kenobi. Trying to keep Luke from learning about his father, Owen ordered him to give the droid a memory wipe.

The next morning, Luke left early to find R2-D2, who had ran off the night before to find his former "master." Owen and Beru never saw him again, for they were killed by Imperial stormtroopers who were looking for R2-D2 on behalf of Darth Vader, after the droid escaped with the stolen plans for the first Death Star. According to the recollection of stormtrooper Davin Felth, the farmers were killed after Owen spat in the face of the squad's commanding officer. Laze Loneozner and his wife Camie looked after the Lars farm for the first few months after Owen's death, until Luke returned to Tatooine and gave his inheritance to the alien named Throgg.

Portrayal

 * In Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, Owen is played by Australian actor Joel Edgerton.
 * In A New Hope, Owen is played by American actor Phil Brown.

Relationship to Luke Skywalker

 * Before it was revealed in Attack of the Clones that Owen and Anakin become stepbrothers, it was believed that they were never brothers, and that Luke falsely believed Owen was his uncle. This was stated in most sources preceding Attack of the Clones, most notably in early editions of the Return of the Jedi novel, where Obi-Wan Kenobi refers to Owen as his brother. The error managed to enter profiles of both characters in The Essential Guide to Characters and the second edition of A Guide to the Star Wars Universe. By the time of the publication of the third edition of A Guide to the Star Wars Universe in 2000, Owen and Obi-Wan were no longer brothers. However, in the book Jedi Apprentice: The Hidden Past, Obi-Wan says he remembers a brother named Owen, though this is not likely intended to be Owen Lars, but perhaps a reference to the inconsistency.
 * There are indications that characters within the Star Wars universe itself thought that Obi-Wan and Owen Lars were brothers, as seen in Voren Na'al's description of Owen in Galaxy Guide 1: A New Hope.

Trivia

 * In an interesting real-world coincidence, however, Ewan McGregor's stunt double in the prequels is Nash Edgerton, the real-life brother of Joel Edgerton.
 * An alternate fate of Owen and Beru Lars is depicted in the fan film TROOPS. Owen was played by Neil Elliott.

Appearances



 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
 * The Last One Standing
 * The Last of the Jedi: The Desperate Mission
 * Old Wounds
 * Sandstorm
 * Falling Star
 * Adventure in Beggar's Canyon
 * Star Wars Empire: Darklighter
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope novelization
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope radio adaptation
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (novel)
 * Star Wars radio drama
 * When the Desert Wind Turns: The Stormtrooper's Tale
 * The Rebel Club
 * Skippy the Jedi Droid
 * Marvel Star Wars 17: Crucible
 * Marvel Star Wars 31: Return to Tatooine
 * Allegiance
 * Star Wars Empire: In the Shadows of Their Fathers
 * Star Wars Rebellion: My Brother, My Enemy
 * X-wing: Rogue Squadron
 * Tatooine Ghost
 * Jedi Search
 * Darksaber
 * Star Wars: Union
 * Junior Jedi Knights: The Golden Globe
 * Junior Jedi Knights: Promises
 * Dark Tide I: Onslaught
 * Edge of Victory II: Rebirth
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game