Did Owen and Beru Know?

It may be that Obi-Wan made some allusions to what Anakin may have done but never stated them explicitly.

I think that any anti-Jedi sentiment would be more based around the centre of the Empire's power base. Certainly in some of the more lawless parts of the Outer Rim, there are no doubt parts where the peacekeeping aspect of the Jedi would be most welcome.

 

I think that Owen and Beru knew about Anakin. They also know everything about Obi Wan, who brought them Luke. I always thought that Owen and Beru were aware of everything.
Moreover, I doubt that they would have accepted any child brought by Obi Wan. Would you accept a child that is not your relative? Brought by Obi Wan, who you don't trust? I believe that the jedi told to Owen and Beru who Luke was, their nephew and the son of Anakin and possibly also Padme.

 

There may be loads of reasons for this:

• Infertility
• A sense of obligation to said child
• Company of said child

 

Actually until now I never though of Uncle Owens lame excuses for keeping Luke on the farm one more year (again and again) being his way of protecting him from being found by the empire.

 

Exactly, now I am starting to realize why Owen didn't want Luke to become a pilot. Probably he was afraid that Luke could have become like his father. And that is also why Owen didn't trust Obu Wan. He was afraid that the jedi could have taught Luke how to become a jedi with the risk to become a sith in the future.

 

I think that was the whole point of this dialogue, "Luke is just not a farmer, Owen. He has to much of his father in him." Owen: "That's what I'm afraid of." Also, if some random guy comes to me with a baby. I think I would want to know the whole story. Obi-Wan would know the story of how Luke was born.

--- Double Post Merged, Mar 5, 2020, Original Post Date: Mar 5, 2020 ---

He did learn how to fly though... "I understand you've become quite a good pilot yourself."

 

Another element to consider- when asked about Obi Wan Kenobi and whether he'd come looking for the droids, Owen says this:

Purposefully or not, there's some obvious parallels between the symbolic death of Anakin to Vader, and the symbolic death of the Jedi Master Obi Wan Kenobi to the hermit Old Ben.

Owen knows who Obi Wan is, and knows he's not really dead. So, either this statement is extremely ironic, or he's got a pretty good idea of what's going on.


Also, if you consider them a valuable source of info, the new comics seem to imply that Obi Wan and Ben had a bit more interactions than one might have originally thought.

 

Well, I think by the Obi-Wan series it's clear that Lars understands exactly whom Anakin became. I might be wrong.

 

The series absolutely fleshed out this situation a little bit. My take, especially now, is that Owen and Beru knew that there was a threat to their nephew. They knew that Anakin fell to evil and probably legit thought he was dead. This was Tattooine, we are introduced to this planet as being outside the Empire's concern, which is why Yoda and Obi-Wan figured it was a safe place to hide Luke. I figure no one in these parts even knew about Darth Vader. Obi-Wan didn't know about Vader for ten years. Of course, after the events of the OWK series, this all changes, and yes, at that point, Owen and Beru knew just about everything. I mean, one of the Inquisitors came after Luke. They knew that Luke was safest right where he had been. They loved him, and they relied on him as the next generation to run the farm. Owen didn't seem to be unhappy, so he naturally felt that giving Luke the same kind of life that he had lived was a good thing. Owen did not have any warm fuzzy memories of his step brother. I'm sure he heard tales of the heroic Anakin Skywalker, Jedi General in the Clone Wars, but the first time they met, Anakin went crazy and murdered an entire clan of Tuskens. A few years later, a stranger shows up and says here's your brother's newborn baby, you need to raise him and by the way, I'll be right over there watching over you guys... you know, just in case someone comes looking for him. Owen was a simple man, but not stupid. His strategy was to give Luke a simple and secure future, and hope his own sensibilities would outshine the allure of adventure and danger that stories of Anakin would bring.

 

[QUOTE="Obi-Wan didn't know about Vader for ten years.[/QUOTE]

Obi-Wan knew Anakin was Darth Vader after viewing the security footage in the Jedi Temple in ROTS.

So far, I don't think it's been shown how much Owen and Beru knew. But, I believe that in the real world, the decision to make Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker the same person wasn't made until TESB was already in production. So when ANH came out, Owen believed that Anakin had been murdered by Jedi-turned-Sith Darth Vader and that Anakin was a great guy, but someone involved in adventures he didn't want Luke following in.

If I recall the Obi-Wan series correctly, there's still no definitive answer as to how much Owen and Beru knew. As far as the galaxy knows, the Jedi plotted to overthrow the republic and were killed for it. Anakin Skywalker was a Jedi and killed. Even if that's all Owen and Beru knew, that was reason enough to want to keep Luke from anything Jedi related. Both the truth and the "official" story both work for them keeping Luke hidden.

 

Obi-Wan did not know Vader was still alive for ten years. Yes he knew Anakin was Vader, but he was all but disintegrated when he left him.

For me, it doesn't compute to use the real world timeline of when GL wrote, changed, revised, changed his story about when he had an idea, etc... A good consistency and Canon can be built and has been done so here, I think, with the OWK series. There is still some ambiguity, and I don't see them clarifying this issue much more, and fair enough. I like the idea that Owen and Beru may not have known all the grisly details, but they knew enough to know there was always a looming threat. We see that there was at least some mutual respect between Obi-Wan and Owen, and the understanding of their shared interest. It may have just been the fear of anything related to Jedi, but it always seemed deeper than that. Like Owen knew that the son of Anakin would be of interest to many entities. Besides, he did need help on the farm.

 

Thanks for the clarification. I thought you were saying that Obi-Wan didn't know that Anakin was Vader for ten years. You're right, Obi-Wan probably didn't know what Vader's status was for ten years. Some may argue that Obi-Wan would have sensed that Vader was still alive, but the fact that Palpatine went undetected while being in the same room as multiple Jedi makes me think that the dark side can be difficult to detect.

 

Right. That's one of my big arguments with the Palpatine secretly plotting the demise of the Republic and the Jedi... They friggin' worked with this man!!! The sharpest, most Force Attuned Jedi in the Galaxy were frequently elbow to elbow with The Sith Lord.... Gah.

Anyway, we also see that Obi-Wan had completely shut himself off from the Force. Like, unplugged-from-the-wall-and-batteries-removed disconnected. Plus, we know Vader likely went out of his way to avoid Tattooine.

 

I like the way that Obi-Wan's disconnection raises more questions about that concept first introduced in TLJ. It didn't appear to be all that voluntary. And it seems as if, despite Yoda's promises, and the "training" we were led to believe made it inevitable, communicating with his old master has proved elusive.

Maybe it was practical to hide his connection with the force when he was initially exiled. We must also consider that Obi-Wan felt ashamed to speak to Qui Gon. If he felt he failed Anakin, how must he feel about their old master?

Maybe feeling "normal" and having a normal life had begun to appeal to Obi-Wan. That would be somewhat in sync with Luke's exile and disconnection (enhanced by the prologue to the TLJ novelisation). And it's not dissimilar to parts of the Christological debates over humanity/divinity.

 

I never liked this idea. I feel it lends too much justification to Owen’s overprotectiveness. Which is kind of where we are anyway now after the Obi Kenobi show. Owen, for a fact, knows there are powerful evildoers out there just waiting to snatch up his nephew and do awful things to him.

So now he isn’t over reactive to Luke’s wellbeing - stifling the kid’s growth as a reflection of his own anxieties, being driven by fear. If anything, he’s under reactive and weirdly accepting now.

The context in ANH is that he has too much of his father’s sense of duty. And, as far as Owen is concerned, that’s what got Anakin killed. “He didn't hold with your father's ideals. Thought he should have stayed here and not gotten involved.” That’s still how I prefer it.

The Owen character is defined by his isolationist mentality. Everything will be fine if everyone just minds their own business and takes care of their own. But that mindset is precisely what allows an entity like the Empire to prevail. That’s one of the points Lucas was trying to communicate. You can’t just ignore tyranny. You can’t just sit it out. Sooner or later, it’s going to find you too and burn your house down.

Do we know they didn’t though? My own head-canon was that he was raised ‘Luke Lars’. He only uses his true name the moment he announces himself as a hero. “I'm Luke Skywalker. I'm here to rescue you.”

Doesn’t bother me much. The Jedi can’t see into the darkness just like the Sith can’t see into the light. Each knows the other is there, but both are blind to what’s exactly happening.

 

I don't think anything has changed since it was revealed that Vader was Luke's father. It's still stifling and somewhat over-protective for an adolescent about to become a man. But from ESB onward, Owen's actions were already recontextualised as fear of Luke's destiny being similar to his father's. That had even already begun when it was revealed that Luke's father (Owen's brother?) was a Jedi murdered by one of his colleagues during the Clone Wars.

And nothing in the continuing story alters the fact that Owen's fears, though reasonable, were ultimately unfounded.

Plus Yoda shared Owen's concerns and was reluctant to train him for more or less the same reasons as when Owen wished that Luke would stay at home and not get involved.

 

Just to be nitpicky, the only evidence that Owen felt Anakin should have stayed on Tatooine and not gotten involved comes from Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan wasn't there the last time Anakin and Owen met in AotC. That statement could have just been Obi-Wan giving Luke more false information.