Saga We Are What We Do: : Missing Scene with Owen and Beru Lars. (very short vignette)

Title: We Are What We Do
Author(s): Anakin Starkiller
Timeframe: during ANH, while Luke is watching the Suns Set
Characters: Owen Lars, Beru Lars
Genre: Vignette, Missing Scene
Summary: Owen and Beru's conversation did not end with the words, "That's what I'm afraid of."


"Owen, he can't stay here forever. Most of his friends have gone. It means so much to him."

"I'll make it up to him next year. I promise."

"Luke's just not a farmer, Owen. He has too much of his father in him."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

Beru did not consider this to be the end of the conversation. Her husband Owen was loud and stubborn, and Beru had learned a quiet stubbornness of her own. She gazed at Owen steadily with her blue eyes, waiting for Owen to look up for his food. Eventually he did so, and Beru knew she had his attention.

"Owen, you cannot change what he is."

"He's family. He is one of us."

"He is more than that, and you know it. His father..."

"He is not his father, and I will see to it that he never becomes anything like that monster."

"His father," Beru pressed, "Is part of who he is. He gave Luke more than his name, he gave him his destiny."

"A queen ate with us at this very table. That doesn't make us royalty. We are defined by what we do, not who we come from. Remember Shmi, before she was my stepmother, she was a slave, who knows what before that. Anakin, well he was a slave, a racer, a pilot, a padawan, a Jedi, a Sith Lord. Always defined by what he was doing, not where he came from. Luke will be a farmer, if that is what before him."

"You forget that above all, Anakin was a person. Just like anyone of us. He cried more than either of us when Shmi died. I think he suffered more than any."

"Well those Tuskens may have suffered a little more from what I remember. I don't know which are the greater monster. I don't want Luke to know that kind of sorrow, that anger. I want him to stay safe here, with us. I will die before he follows Kenobi on some fool idealistic crusade."

"Owen, I think that is the closest you have ever come to saying you love the boy."

Owen glared shortly at Beru, his gaze softening for a moment before he looked again at his plate of food and finished his meal in silence.

 

Beru shows wisdom.

Personally I dont think they knew that Anakin was Darth Vader. I think that Owen was bitter because the Jedi had 'taken' Anakin away from where, in Owen's opinion, he belonged. Anakin then was killed in the war leaving behind the woman that he loved and their unborn child. Then Luke's mother died and Luke came to live with them. It could have been plain old bitterness that Obi-Wan had survived but not Anakin. THe young man that had his entire life ahead of him.

Either way it's a great piece and enjoyable.

 

Love Beru's wisdom in this, and Owen's grumpy way of saying he loves Luke. Love this little scene--great job!

 

Lady Misty: Well when I wrote this I did think Ben told Owen and Beru the whole truth, but looking at it fresh, Kenobi often did play fast and loose with what he told people. There are people that knew who Vader was, Tarkin for one and did not thing the topic was sensitive enough to not bring up in front of two door guards. Owen did know that Ben Kenobi was the same person as Obi Wan and with the line "I think he died the same time as your father" may be a hint that he knew the real story.

Luna Nightshade: I really tried to capture the voice of these two little-seen but well known characters. Owen was gruff and grumpy and he knew that Luke was in danger by Forces far outside his ken and that he was hiding him to keep him safe. He knew there were two people out there that could shoot lightning from their fingertips and choke people with their minds that would be after Luke if they knew of his existence. He was not demonstrative but he was protective.

 

Point taken Anakin Starkiller

 

Nice missing moment. Owen and Beru are so underrated, but they really did play a huge role in the story.

 

Personally, I think Beru and Owen did know that Anakin turned into Darth Vader, though it can be debated that they didn't.

Wonderful little scene. I hate how little recognition Beru and Owen get both in-universe and among fans.

This line: I will die before he follows Kenobi on some fool idealistic crusade, is very chilling. Little does he know how right he is.

 

Beru has Owen pegged all right. Owen in his own gruff way really did care for his family.

 

very great missing moment. It shows the difference between Beru and Owen and that both love Luke like a child of their own

 

Thank you so much for this wonderful piece. Hm, I think Owen and Beru knew that Anakin turned into Darth Vader. I don't see any other reason that would be strong enough for them to almost force Luke to stay on Tatooine and try to make him into a farmer (which he obviously wasn't!). They were afraid he would follow his father's dark path. Just my opinion, though. I could be wrong.

 

lukemaraben: I think Owen and Beru are underrated, because a lot of what they contribute happens off-screen in many missing moments so to speak. They raise Luke for his entire childhood and it underscores the nature vs. nurture. Until fate guided Luke's hand Luke was what he was shaped to be, remember Luke at first refused to follow Ben and only upon their deaths did Luke take up his destiny.

@Briannaken: Thank you. Looking back that line is a bit heavy handed, but thats the beauty of this genre you can put in foreshadowing like that that would seem too telling in the actual films. In a way Owen's death was necessary for Luke to take up his destiny and follow Obi Wan which in turn lead to the fall of the Empire. Owen and Beru's sacrifice set into motion events that would save countless lives as Luke became a Jedi Knight.

Valairy Scot: I think Owen did care. He was not demonstrative but his strictness was his way of protecting Luke.

@early-bird-obi-wan: Thank you.

immertreu: I know there is disagreement on this fact, I like you come down on the side of them knowing. Obi Wan would have had to tell them SOMETHING about why he was entrusting the child of Anakin with them and the importance of keeping him safe. Sure Ben was watching over him but he was not exactly next door in his hermitage in the Judland Wastes without a speeder or transport of any kind.

 

Very nicely done! For thirty-five years I have believed Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru knew about Anakin going bad. I don't know if they knew he was Darth Vader...I would think Ben wouldn't want that to accidently slip out. But I bet he told the Lars that Anakin killed his wife and betrayed the Jedi and entrusted them to keep the boy safe from his anger management problem father.

 

What a great missing moment.Beru must have been a saint to put up with Owen.
Owen has some good thoughts here but is just a little misguided and afraid. I love how Beru, while clearly loves Luke, knows they can't hold him back.

I really enjoyed this! Thanks for sharing!

 

Jedi_Lover Its interesting to think about what they knew and didn't know. What is important in the trilogy is Luke didn't know. One could say that when Obi-Wan drops off the Baby at the end of Episode III, he is still under the impression that he finished Anakin and will not learn of the Sith Lord Darth Vader as a cyborg until later. They were not hiding the twins from their Father but from the Emperor. I think it would be just as interesting to write a missing scene with Bail and Breha about Leia's parentage. I am not sure if Bail Organa knew Anakin's involvement at all, but he knew about Padme. I'd like to think that when Leia was about 14 or so Bail took her aside and told her she was adopted and about her real mother -- a public figure that images of would be available so Leia would know when Luke asks that she was "beautiful, but sad". Contrariwise, Obi Wan may have neglected to tell the Lars who his mother is. Right before this scene Luke asks about his father, which Owen dismisses. In the Original Trilogy, Luke shows no interest in his matrilineal line until he thinks Leia may know something. I think Luke as a child would naturally ask his Aunt and Uncle about his parents and met with the lie of his father being a navigator on a spice freighter, and simply confessing they did not know who his mother was. A situation many people face in real life from the days of anonymous adoptions.

mavjade Thank you for liking my story and taking the time to comment. No writer likes to produce in a vacuum. Most of my Star Wars fanfic is very short and I really don't do AU stuff but try to make my fiction fit seamlessly into the source material. I've been published and paid (not my full time pursuit, my most notable appearance is here under my real name L. Christopher Bird but a lot of my published work is written under pseudonyms) so fanfic is my guilty pleasure I have no illusions of ever being popular enough to write licensed material so I have fun with fanfiction. I wrote my first fanfiction story after the Jedi Academy Trilogy was published just to prove to myself I could write better Star Wars than Kevin J. Anderson (this was after or around the same time I had already been first paid for writing) and from what I see on these boards, many others can as well! I really don't have a niche in my style I write all kinds of odd and fun stuff. I posted some of my humorous things today but will endeavour to produce some more "meaty" (but short) pieces in the upcoming weeks.