Did Owen and Beru know?

[neotoma]

They accepted wee!Luke and raised him well, but did they KNOW what Anakin had turned into, really? If they did, when did they find out? Because it's not like Obi-Wan would have told them, because he doesn't tell people anything he doesn't have to.

Obi-Wan appears on their doorstep, hands over the kid with as little an explanation as he can get away with, and rides off into the desert.

I can see Beru eventually figuring it out, because she seems quick and is more interested in the wider world than Owen; she probably does so before Luke is old enough to start asking questions about his parents, since they never told Luke anything but that Anakin was a freighter pilot.

Owen, on the other hand, is more provincial in outlook than Beru (and since the evidence is that he's an immigrant and she's a local, that's rather interesting), and might not have done it without his wife's insight. Owen's reaction to the news is to work harder at making Luke a local, trying to ground him to Tatooine and a farmer's life instead of letting him race off to the Academy -- that would be the *Imperial* Academy, given that Tatooine is garrisoned with stormtroopers -- and possibly straight into Vader's arms.

That knowledge might be why they died -- refusal to cooperate with the stormtroopers for fear for Luke could have made them intolerably obstructionistic to the troopers chasing C-3PO and R2D2.

Comments

[rabidfangurl.livejournal.com]

Even if they didn't know what Anakin had become, they would have known enough not to tell Luke the truth about his parents. They would know that Luke's father had been a Jedi, which is not a fact they would have wanted advertised, considering that the Jedi were probably declared enemies of the Empire as soon as Palpatine seized power. Even if the Empire spread propanganda that Anakin Skywalker had been 'killed' by a Jedi, it would still be dangerous to advertise that you had adopted a kid who was a potential Jedi, since Vader and all of his stormtroopers were out eliminating as many Jedi as they could.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes it would have been dangerous to tell Luke when he was young. But he was old enough to leave hom, 18 or 20 years old, and really should have been told before he blundered into a situation through ignorance.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Ooh, this is the first time I've thought about Owen's motives, holding Luke back from going on to the academy. I had assumed that his explanations were sincere, that he hadn't the funds to let Luke go. Innnnteresting.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Lack of funds? I had assumed that the Academy was free to qualified cadets, like the American Naval Academy. It might require sponsorship from a governor or a senator, but I didn't get the impression that Owen didn't have the money to send Luke.

I did get the impression that Owen couldn't manage the farming without another hand, and Luke was needed for that reason.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh! I guess we could take that both ways--not enough funds to send him, or not enough funds to hire someone on to replace Luke if he went away. Yeah.

[murasaki99.livejournal.com]

I think they knew *something* had gone horribly wrong. If nothing else, Anakin being a Jedi and all of a sudden Jedi were outlawed and summarily executed when found - that sort of knowledge would've had wings on worlds like Tatooine. So they would have certainly concealed that dangerous bit of knowledge.

Did Owen and Beru ever learn that Anakin had slain an entire clan of Sandpeople? If so, that would've spooked them severely. Fighting to save Mom was one thing, killing *everyone*?? Not exactly a sane response.

I do think Anakin/Vader would never have hurt them or trashed the last place his mother had lived and been happy. I read somewhere the stormies were sent off to the homestead by someone with an ax to grind with Vader and who wanted to kill Luke more than anything else. I don't think the stormies under Vader's own command would have done that. They might've arrested Owen and Beru and dragged them up to the ship, but they certainly would not have killed them out of hand for fear of his Lordship's reaction.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine that Anakin hid the bodies, so I'm sure quite soon after he and Padme left, Owen and Beru heard about an entire clan found slaughtered. At the very least, the Jawas would have scavenged everything and sold the lot. That would have been enough news for Beru and Owen to put two and two together.

I'm not sure that Vader would have protected the Lars homestead like that. I do think that there is a stormtrooper garrison on Tatooine because of him -- he was serious about bringing order to the galaxy, and he made sure that included his birth world -- but micromanaging like that isn't quite his style.

[splix.livejournal.com]

Cruising friendsfriends and stopped here. Hello. *waves*

I think they knew, though my theory is borne out by only one snippet of dialogue in ANH:

Beru says Owen can't hold him back much longer - there's too much of his father in him. And Owen's reply: "That's what I'm afraid of."

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

That is an interesting bit of dialogue, but given the way Owen and Anakin meeting in AotC played out, it could have just been that Owen was not impressed with Anakin (because AotC!Anakin is kind of a jerk) and then heard that he died badly only three years later.

Owen would not have wanted that for the boy he'd adopted.

[splix.livejournal.com]

Could have been indeed. Speculation is half of the fun of the saga. :)

[jean-claude4.livejournal.com]

they had a small off shoot in the form of a comic book that the concept artists from the recent episodes did, i think it was like the second one they explain why obi-wan could never go back...it was rather cool...

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

do you know what book it was in specificlly?

[jean-claude4.livejournal.com]

not off the top of my head but i'll ask my roommate when i get a chance