CT It's possible that Darth Vader tortured and killed the Larses himself.

There was almost nothing left of Anakin in him, beside possibly a cold hatred for the couple, at this time, before he learned that Luke was his son. So he most likely had no problem going back to Tatooine. And he often personally lead his troops on their missions.

So he may have joined his stormtroopers, personally interrogated the Larses, tortured them like Ben in the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, by starting a fire with his lightsaber and roasting them to death.

 

No. Vader didn't lead the stormtroopers on Tatooine. He sent someone else to do it, as seen in ANH.

 

Maybe he decided to join the troopers, when he was informed that they have a trail to a certain moisture farm. Wouldn't be the first time.

 

Vader ordered the commander to send and lead a detachment to the planet find the plans, not to find a trail and call him out. Besides, while Luke was finding R2 and talking with Obi-Wan, Vader was already en route to the Death Star with Leia as his prisoner. And the imperials were still searching for the droids and the plans way after that. Vader never landed on the planet.

 

Why would he hate them? Because they lived with his mother when Tusken Raiders abducted and tortured her and then didn't rescue her? There was nothing they could do about it and he knew it. He also knew that it was Cliegg who freed her from slavery. She had a good life there.
The only thing we ever hear him say about the Lars family is that they're good people. As Vader, he has no reason to care about them at all.

 

As Vader, Tatooine is nothing but a place of pain and suffering. He has no reason to go there at all. Which is partially why Yoda and Obi-Wan think it's a safe place for Luke to be.

 

Perhaps he hates them, simply because they remind him on Anakin, and the time he fell in love with Padme and what he lost.

That may have been reason enough for Vader to kill them, when he got the opportunity.

 

And he never had that opportunity for 20 years? The Lars had nothing to do with the loss of his mother, and he fell in love with Padmé long before he met the Lars.

Vader didn't kill the Lars, the stormtroopers did. And there's no reason why he, as Vader, would hold a grudge or even care about them. It's the planet that brings him memories and pain.

 

Maybe he never was in the system in all the years after AOTC again and wasted no thought on them. But with the SD arriving on Tatooine that might have changed and opened a lot of old wounds again.

And Tatooine was one of the places, beside Naboo and Geonosis, where the romance between himself and Padme really started. All he had before that time was a unrequited love for her.

 

VADER: "She must have hidden the plans in the escape pod. Send a detachment down to retrieve them. See to it personally, Commander. There’ll be no one to stop us this time."

That would've been some neat trick as he was aboard the Death Star at the time the Sandtroopers found the farm. Star Destroyers aren't that fast.

 

Vader's not going to bother doing wet work that the 501st can do on their own. He's busy with more pressing matters: getting the Death Star up and running, then finding and destroying the Rebel's main base.

 

And not that it couldn't happen, but contrary to popular belief, we never see Vader leading troops in battle either. In fact, the only time we see anything close to that is in the Death Star battle where he leads the TIE fighter squadron.

 

We all know what really happened. And it wasn't pretty:

 

You've forgotten about the battle of Hoth, for one major example.

 

Veers was doing the "leading troops into battle" there ("The shield will be down in moments - you may start your landing").

 

Exactly. The troops were already storming the base, Vader was just looking for Luke.

 

But Vader joined his troops entering Echo Base.

And he lead them on the Tantive IV.

 

Yup - but that's more "commanding from the back" than "leading into battle" the way the Battle of Yavin was.

 

Like I said, the troops were already storming the base. It was clear enough for Vader to go and search for Luke.

No, he walked in only after the troops cleared the ship.

 

I am no big follower of the EU but I have seen people here mention some book that had some details about the Homestead scene.
According to them, when the troopers got there, they questioned and took Owen and Beru captive and contacted Vader and told them that they knew.
Vader, upon hearing their names, ordered that they be killed but slowly and painfully. And, again to what I've read here, Vader was glued to the screen and enjoying their screams.

I saw no point in this and having Vader enjoy hearing Owen and Beru scream just seemed gross.
Again, I have not read this, so this is second hand info and could be incorrect.

Bye for now.
Old Stoneface

 

The book in question was The Rise & Fall of Darth Vader, by Ryder Windham. A surprisingly graphic scene for a book aimed at slightly younger ages.



After the meeting, Vader was informed that he had an incoming message from the Tatooine system. He had already been notified that Commander Praji's stormtrooper squad had learned that the Tantive IV's missing escape pod had carried two droids to Tatooine's surface, and that the droids had been picked up by a Jawa sandcrawler. Vader walked over to a communications console, where a holoprojector flickered to life and projected an image of two fully armed Imperial sandtroopers standing beside a middle-aged man and woman who wore robes and were kneeling on the ground. Near the four figures, there was a partial view of a structure, which Vader recognized as an entry dome for a desert dwelling.
Addressing the sandtrooper squad leader, Vader said, 'Report via closed circuit."
"Lord Vader," said one of the sandtroopers, adjusting a control on his helmet so that only Vader could hear his voice. "The Jawas sold a protocol droid and an astromech to these moisture farmers, but both droids are gone."
Moisture farmers? Intrigued, Vader examined the holograms of the kneeling couple and said, "The farmers' names?"
"Owen and Beru Lars, sir," the sandtrooper responded. "They say they don't know where the droids are, but it looks like a landspeeder is missing from their garage."
Owen and Beru, Vader recalled. The resolution of their holograms was clear enough that he could make out their worn, weathered features. Neither of them looked comfortable having blaster rifles aimed at their backs. Remembering how they'd looked on the day Anakin Skywalker had met them, Vader thought, The years have not been kind. It's time for them to pay for their repeated weaknesses.
"Your orders, sir?" said the sandtrooper.
"Tell Mr and Mrs Lars that they seem to have trouble keeping protocol droids on their property."
Not certain if he had heard correctly, the sandtrooper said, "Sir?"
"Then you may extend to them every courtesy you showed the Jawas before you continue your search. Establish checkpoints to detain any droids entering Mos Espa or Mos Eisley spaceports. And one more thing."
"Yes, Sir?"
"Do not stop transmitting until I break the connection."
"Understood," said the sandtrooper.
Vader watched the sandtroopers carry out his orders on their helpless victims. He found the sight of rising flames—even holograms of flames burning millions of light years away—to be most satisfying.
When the Lars family homestead had been transformed into an inferno, Vader deactivated the holoprojector. He proceeded to the nearest lift tube, and was quickly transported to sublevel five of detention area AA-23, which was reserved for political prisoners.

 

@Iron_lord,

Thanks for the info.
Again, I still don't see the point of this. Why have Vader be this interested in killing people he barely knew and had not seen for decades?

Bye for now.
Old Stoneface

 

It's one of the many examples of licensed media going overboard with the "conectivity", hence the nonsensical tone deafness.

 

We see a scene where he says "send a detachment down to retrieve them. See to it personally Commander." So Vader did not go down to the planet.