Whenever outsiders come around, they arrogantly think that they can save us from our 'horrible' lives.
—Owen Lars
Owen Lars was a sharecropper on the Lars homestead a few kilometers outside of Anchorhead on Tatooine. He was the stepbrother of Annikin Skywalker and was, at one point, engaged to be married to Beru Whitesun. He had a strong distrust of all outsiders which made itself evident when Annikin brought a group of them to stay at the family farm.
History[]
Early life[]
Owen Lars was born to Cliegg Lars and Aika Lars. Working for Jabba the Hutt, he had lived on the moisture farm for many years. He lived with his father for his entire life. His mother died when he was young, and his father married Shmi Skywalker a few years later. The marriage gave Owen a stepbrother, Annikin Skywalker, though there was always hostility towards him.[1]
At one point when Owen was in his twenties, Cliegg began to speak out against Jabba the Hutt and organized a protest to try to free the local farmers from their forced contracts with him. Jabba did not take kindly to that, and one night when Beru was with Owen at the Lars homestead the Hutt's men raided the farm. Cliegg refused to back down, so to prove a point one of the guards shot Beru. After the raid was over, Beru’s wounds were nearly fatal. The family rushed her to the best doctor they knew of in Mos Espa for treatment. She was on a life support system for nearly four days and Owen stayed by her side the entire time. During the last few days of being on life support, it seemed as if she was getting worse and that she would pass, but her vitals improved and they were able to take her off of life support. She later recovered from her wounds.[2]
In the next few months, Beru felt that Owen's trust issues were becoming worse. She tried to talk to him about it on more than one occasion, but he shrugged it off and she felt that he was not trying to confront his issues. Eventually, she decided that she could not deal with those trust issues as his wife, so she broke off the engagement and Owen did not see her at all after that.[1]
The Outsiders[]
Owen watches as Annikin arrives with the outsiders.
When Owen was twenty-five, Annikin arrived at the farm with an outsider named Obi-Wan Kenobi. Whatever his reasons, Owen was distrusting of all outsiders, so when Annikin told them that at least a dozen outsiders would stay with them while he repaired their ship Owen was not fond of the idea. However, Cliegg and Shmi both agreed to extend Obi-Wan and his crew their hospitality, much to Owen’s dismay.[1]
After the agreement was set, Owen took Annikin aside and confronted him over the fact that they should not trust the outsiders as they did not know them, nor did they know what the people wanted. Annikin, however, held what Owen believed was a blind trust and refuse to back away from his plan to help them. Annikin infuriated Owen after Annikin cited Beru leaving him as an example of his lack of trust and slammed him up against the wall. He did not know what he would have done after that, but he would never know as Shmi’s presence stopped him from doing anything. [1]
The next morning, Owen woke up at his usual early time to do his chores. However, he found that Jar Binks was already hard at work at them, and Owen did not take kindly to that. He went back to the garage and found his father and complained that Binks was doing the work he always does and that if he continued to then he would have nothing to do other than lay on the couch with a glass of blue milk. Cliegg tried to calm him down, but Owen told Cliegg that he thought he was foolish for letting strangers who also happened to be outsiders work on the farm and have access to the critical systems of the farm needed for them to make a living. Before Cliegg could continue to try calming him down, Owen stormed off, still believing that his father was making a grievous error in judgment.[3]
Owen speaks with some of his contacts in Anchorhead.
Hours later, Captain Panaka told Owen and the family that Annikin and the outsiders had gone off into the Dune Sea on some sort of a pilgrimage. Owen knew that it would set back the work on the ship, so he made his way to Anchorhead and spoke with some of his contacts. He pulled a few strings using a few favors that people owed him to get the rest of the parts that the ship needed, and he was also able to get a crew to install all the necessary parts. It cost him very little because of the favors, though even if it had he would have been glad to pay it to rid his home of the outsiders. When Annikin returned nearly two days later, Owen told him and Obi-Wan about the deals he made, hoping it would make them leave immediately. Instead, Owen overheard them talk about how they would be trying to set Annikin free of the sharecropping contract with Jabba the Hutt.[4]
A few hours later, Owen and the others learned that Annikin, Obi-Wan and Sarus, the leader of the Ophuchi Clan, made a deal with Bib Fortuna that would allow Annikin to be released from the contract, though the deal was that Annikin would have to win a swoop race against his arch rival Sebulba. The next morning, Owen left the homestead with Shmi and Cliegg and traveled to Beggar's Canyon to watch Annikin watch in the race, even though Annikin did not expect them to. They wished him good luck, but Owen told him that he felt Annikin was going off on some idealistic crusade, whereas Owen felt that Annikin should not have gotten himself involved. Annikin shrugged off the complaints and made his way back to the starting line. A few minutes later, the race began. Owen watched with the others in the spectator building and saw Annikin nearly kill himself in a cave at the end of the canyon, but both Annikin and Sebulba made it out alive. Only moments later, Annikin was able to force Sebulba to crash, thus allowing Annikin to win the race.[2]
Appearances[]
- Star Wars: Episode I - The Chosen One (First appearance)