Why did the stormtroopers kill Owen and Beru and then burn their corpses?

At least they left the thatch-roofed cottages.

 

Daneira

I'm not sure if there was a particular reason you created your thread in the "literature" section (instead of the "CT" one), so I'll answer it from a "CT point of view".

According to the original, extended ANH screenplay from March 15, 1976 the onscreen dialogue would have been longer (extended parts bold):

VADER
She must have hidden the plans in the escape pod. Send a detachment down to retrieve them, be subtle. Don't attract attention. ... The data on those tapes could prove to be most damaging. I want that stolen data destroyed at all costs. See to it personally, Commander. There'll be no one to stop us this time.

I think the decisive part was "don't attract attention" and he left it entirely to Commander Praji how to practically interprete Vader's order. So Praji's choice of action became obvious: To kill anybody that had gotten near the plans and wherever possible frame the Sandpeople for it to cover their tracks.

 

Seems Owen and Beru were directly toasted by the energy weapons the floating fortress was carrying.

Lt. Hija: But why would they burn them, as one could assume Tusken would just use their Gaderfiis to kill them or shot them with simple blasters and let the corpses lie on the ground?

 

Darth Caliban

I vividly remember discussions here where we all had ultimately to agree that our knowledge of the Sandpeople is rather limited, so I couldn't possibly answer why the Sandpeople would just kill Jawas but burn human settlers (maybe it's retaliation for what human settlers have done in the past to Sandpeople, i.e. burn them).

My point is that the sandtroopers met the Jawas first, got the information to whom they sold Artoo and Threepio and then killed these in a Sandpeople fashion, trying to pin it on the sandpeople to cover any Imperial involvement. It therefore stands to reason that they applied the same covering tactic when they killed Owen and Beru Lars to make it look like another Sandpeople attack.

And according to Luke in the deleted scenes, such Sandpeople raids on farms occasionally occur.

LUKE Not likely! I had to cancel my
application. There has been a lot of
unrest among the Sandpeople since
you left... they've even raided the
outskirts of Anchorhead.

BIGGS Your uncle could hold off a whole
colony of Sandpeople with one blaster.

 

There are other sections of this board besides Literature?



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Daneira

I'm not sure I understand your question: http://boards.theforce.net/forums/classic-trilogy.10002/

If it's an issue revolving around an actual event in a film, I'd suggest to go there, first.

 

But there isn't enough information about what happened from just the movies, that's why i think Literature is a good place to discuss this. Because the only informations we have are from Legends Material and the Marvel Darth Vader Comic Series, as far as i know.

 

While it's often true that there isn't enough information in the films, I'm always first and foremost interested what George Lucas intended and therefore look at the extended screenplays or sometimes the earlier (not too early, though) versions, e.g. the close to final draft from January 1, 1976.

Once these are 'depleted', it's open for speculation and conjecture (IMHO), but I think the example at hand demonstrates that the extended screenplay already contained the clue and ultimately answer Daneira was looking for.

 

But if we use just the informations we got from the movie and older drafts of the script, we have the problem that the only weapons we see the sandpeople use are old blasters and gaffi sticks. No flamethrowers...

 

Can we be certain the sandtroopers used flamethrowers? For all we know they could have used some flammable liquid from the garage or elsewhere (as the sandpeople might have done) just to burn the corpses.

Suddenly he comes upon their smoldering remains. He is stunned, and cannot speak. Hate replaces fear and a new resolve comes over him.

I'm certain that the Lars' neighbors wouldn't think for a split-second that the Empire would be capabable of such an atrocity and everybody would certainly think that the Sandpeople did it.

 

We assume that any threads posted in the Literature forum are those that desire discussions that draw upon the literature and the greater body of SW canon.

You'll notice we have threads devoted to the various Star Wars films and Rebels, too, despite not being a film or TV forum.

If we'd wanted to move the thread, we would have.

 

Owen and Beru weren't being cooperative good citizens/s.

In all honesty it's not ever made clear but it's a necessary plot component to get Luke to leave Tatooine.

 

I was joking. Obviously, I am aware of the other subforums. This just happens to be the area of the board that I frequent, and as Ulicus said, I posted it here because my interest in this franchise is not just the films but also (even mainly) the EU. I like to discuss things with the people who have read nearly every book that's ever been put out and therefore have a view of the franchise that's informed by that, not just people that are more interested in the films.

Simply put, the Literature section is where I feel at home, where my like-minded people are. I didn't even consider posting this thread anywhere else.

 

Ah. Humor; it is a difficult concept. Especially on the webz.

 

This thread is amazing. 50% humor about an elderly couple getting burned alive and 50% serious discussion of why they got burned alive.

 

I think I've posted outside of Lit like three times in the past eleven years. And they were all in the TV boards about The Clone Wars episodes.

 

Simple; if you know an easier way to roast space marshmallows, it is your duty to let your local Imperial garrison know.

 

Dumb as they are the Stormtroopers didn't believe Owen and Beru, that the droids weren't there (and how would they know, if a speeder is missing or not). So they tortured them by setting their blasters to slow burn and then killed them.

or

their orders were to eliminate everyone, who came into contact with the droids/plans, so they killed the Larses after interrogating them and then set the homestead on fire to cover their tracks by putting the blame on the Tusken-raiders like they did for the Jawas (we know from AotC, that the Sandpeople torture their prisoners). Although I wonder, if the other locals would believe it, that the Tusken have enough blasters to destroy a Sandcrawler (since we see in TPM, that they use projectile-weapons). It might have worked for ANH, since we never see them fire their weapons there.

 

That's why the Tusken framing theory doesn't make any sense for me. They don't seem to have the weapons for disabling a sandcrawler and lay waste to the homestead so throroughly. In the Darth Vader Comic the damage on the homestead is described as blaster damage and Tusken don't seem to have blaster cannons.

 

LUKE
It looks like Sandpeople did this, all right. Look, here are Gaffi sticks, Bantha tracks. It's just... I never heard of them hitting anything this big before.

BEN
They didn't. But we are meant to think they did. These tracks are side by side. Sandpeople always ride single file to hide there numbers.