It's official: Obi-Wan and Owen Lars are not brothers.

Forgive me if everyone else here knew this already....

Ever since the Return of the Jedi novelization came out, it's been grudgingly accepted that Owen Lars and Obi-Wan Kenobi were brothers.

The latest Jedi Council question on the official web site however says "no":

Today's Jedi Council Question


Here's the text, if you don't want to click the link above:

Q: Is Obi-Wan Kenobi the brother of Owen Lars?
A: No. The two are from separate families with no connection through blood. Although a number of spin-off materials were published in 1983 and in subsequent years stating that the two characters were related, those materials were based on outdated and eventually discarded information.

 

Looks like you can throw out movie novelizations (ROTJ to be exact!) as being considered canon.

 

That doesn't make it official at all. The Official Site is not included in the canon hierarchy, and therefore, if it is contradicted by official canon stuff, it is wrong.

Licensed material states that they are brothers. Therefore, they ARE brothers. End of story.

 

jacen200015 in the PSA equivalent of this thread posted this :

"I think that Owen is Obi-wan's brother. What if Obi's mother married Cliegg Lars after Obi was taken by the jedi and her husband had died. Cliegg Lars had a son ,Owen, who he was raising by himself. Then later on Obi's mother dies and Shimi comes around and marrys Cliegg Lars.
Makes sense, doesn't it?"

'Complicated' fix, but it could work nevertheless... Hum...

Well... Nevertheless, TOS says they aren't so they probably aren't. A shame... This could have been fixed...

 

Bib.....So until we see in AOTC as not being brothers we will assume that because the ROTJ novel says they are, they are????? I would guess that since TOS said that they are not brothers AOTC will confirm this, thus creating a huge discrepancy with the ROTJ novel.

 

OH NO!!!!!111!!! THE EU HAS BEEN PROVEN WRONG!!! WHATEVER ARE WE GOING TO DO?!?!?!!

Jebus....

Why is it essential to 'fix' everything. Can't you just accept that the EU made an assumption and it was wrong. False. Invalid. INCORRECT.

those materials were based on outdated and eventually discarded information.

Ha! In your face! (I am feeling very childish today for some reason. Must be that new coffee I've been drinking).

 

"That doesn't make it official at all. The Official Site is not included in the canon hierarchy, and therefore, if it is contradicted by official canon stuff, it is wrong.

Licensed material states that they are brothers. Therefore, they ARE brothers. End of story."

Well, the canon policy is all things are canon unless marked with infinities, I don't see infinities marked on the "Official" site. But I do see official marked. It is a lincensed site by LFL, LTD. Quoted from the site, and lies on every page on the site:

"© Lucasfilm 2002. All rights reserved."

As well, her section is said to be a Jedi Holocron.

So yes it is lincensed material, and therefore part of the canon hiearchy if we wanted to get into that debate.

 

Licensed material states that they are brothers. Therefore, they ARE brothers. End of story.


Nope. TAS states that Obi-wan has no family, knows nothing about his family, doesn't think about them, and doesn't care. He thinks the Jedi are his family, and Qui-Gon was his parent. TAS is the most up to date of the bunch, having much more to do with film continuity than a book written nearly twenty years ago. Obi-wan has no family.

 

Barns.....are you implying that the "movie" novelizations are EU? I was told in the movie forums that they are considered canon?????????

 

They could be considered EU. However,

Although a number of spin-off materials were published in 1983 and in subsequent years stating that the two characters were related

 

The official site puts all of the movie novelizations in the EU section now. So officially they are EU. But officially all of the stuff is canon as well, if we follow what gamer has said.

 

Works for me. I really don't care about it that much. I only mentioned it because I was trashed in the movie forum for saying that the novelizations were EU.

 

Well, the ROTJ novel does not have the Infinities label, so it is also correct.

 

But then what, without getting into a big canon debate, is considered canon? If the books contradict the movies they cannot be called canon, can they?

 

Yet we have the librarian of the holocron now saying that:

"those materials were based on outdated and eventually discarded information."

Eventually discarded by who?

By policy what has been said is that the movies and only the movies are the "Absolute canon", and the rest of the stuff is said to be canon. It is also said that when a discreprency arises,between a source, and the movies, the movies are said to take precidence(Unless of course an official fix is made that incorporates both). It was said that the movie is the exact event, and everything else are windows into the events of the universe.

 

Of course another way of looking at it is that Star Wars is a WORK OF FICTION, not a holy text, and that a decision was made to alter the existing story to fit into the films currently in production.

Or am I just making too much sense to follow?

-Otis

 

"Or am I just making too much sense to follow?"

For some.

It's something yall are going to have to live with. Obi-Wan and Owen are not related.

 

Bah, what's the big deal? I'd be upset if this was something major, but it's not like there have ever been plot points revolving around them being brothers. It's just been mentioned in passing a couple times. I have no real problem with this being contradicted as I never really liked the idea to begin with.

 

Bib, looks like you'll have me believe that The Official Site isn't official?

 

At the bottom of every page of the "Official site", the copyright material, same type of copyright lincensing printed in every book as well:

"© Lucasfilm 2002. All rights reserved."

 

Ah yes, another glimpse into the cluttered mind of George Lucas, the ever contradictory man. For unless that Obi-Owen thing just slipped past him into the RotJ novelisation, (and of course, the 'error' was reprinted over and over again without anyone realising), then this is another case of his somewhat flighty mind being changed again. Just like that 'timeline' he gave Zahn ; he doesn't think anything should stay the same for 10 years. Imagine what he will come out and say ten years from now about NJO.

Or has anyone considered the possiblity that this 'librarian' person just might be wrong ? Or slightly misinformed ? Maybe George is planning to reveal a big surprise in AotC, that they are brothers (because, who really reads the novelisations anyway ? Not most of the film public).

On the TAS note, so what if Obi-wan thinks he doesn't have a family ? GL has played around with this sort of situation before, i seem to remember.

 

That doesn't make it official at all. The Official Site is not included in the canon hierarchy, and therefore, if it is contradicted by official canon stuff, it is wrong.

I love it! When the Official site contradicts something from the movies, its part of the canon and ultimatly right, because its the "Official" site. But when it contradicts something from the novel, then its a just a crappy website that is never right.

 

Well, perhaps I was a bit extreme in my earlier post. Neither TOS nor the ROTJ novel have the Infinities label, so both are correct, so we must find a way to patch them together. That patch, while unofficial, has been floating around for quite some time.

And I don't recall TOS ever contradicting any movies.