# What did Owen and Beru tell the stormtroopers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 15, 2013, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-owen-and-beru-tell-the-stormtroopers/650432 "2013-02-15T20:22:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-owen-and-beru-tell-the-stormtroopers/650432/21 "2013-02-16T00:12:03Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Which brings up a point; if they were trying to hide Luke from his father, Anakin _ **Skywalker** _, why didn’t they change the lad’s name? Would, like, Vern Comethumper have been so bad? I’ve never been able to figure out why Luke isn’t named Lars, it would make a hell of a lot more sense for a baby raised from birth by Owen and Beru to have their last name and consider them his parents instead of aunt and uncle. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-owen-and-beru-tell-the-stormtroopers/650432/22 "2013-02-16T00:13:07Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Would, like, Vern Comethumper have been so bad? No, but Luke Starkiller was taken. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-owen-and-beru-tell-the-stormtroopers/650432/23 "2013-02-16T00:14:05Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I’ve never been able to figure out why Luke isn’t named Lars, it would make a hell of a lot more sense for a baby raised from birth by Owen and Beru to have their last name and consider them his parents instead of aunt and uncle. I’m guessing because: Luke Lars – really? Would you want to be Luke Lars? You’d sprain your tongue introducing yourself to people. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-owen-and-beru-tell-the-stormtroopers/650432/24 "2013-02-16T00:15:50Z")
They could have called him something else, like ‘Bob’. I can see it now, ‘Bob Lars’, Galactic Hero! ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-owen-and-beru-tell-the-stormtroopers/650432/25 "2013-02-16T00:26:42Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > And why did they hide him on his father’s home planet? That was another brilliant decision. This actually makes some sense, at least as much as hiding Leia with a public and prominent political enemy of the Emperor. As seen in the PT and Clone Wars show Anakin was badly tramautized by his childhood and mom’s death, so much so that he never wants to set foot on that ball of dirt ever again(I think he actually says that plainly). Also Tattoine is like the equivalent of rural Afghanistan in the real world, you can’t get much further from places Vader is likely to be. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-owen-and-beru-tell-the-stormtroopers/650432/26 "2013-02-16T01:13:08Z")
Given how “precise” stormtroopers are, what are the odds that they didn’t even intend to kill the Larses, and instead hit them by mistake when firing a warning shot? Maybe they never even had a chance to interrogate them. I mean, why kill them on purpose before they’ve actually got the droids in hand? Why not keep them as hostages or for further interrogation or a public “trial” and execution or something? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-owen-and-beru-tell-the-stormtroopers/650432/27 "2013-02-16T01:22:28Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > I’m guessing because: Luke Lars – really? Would you want to be Luke Lars? You’d sprain your tongue introducing yourself to people. But it would be the greatest thing in the history of television if he were interviewed by Tom Brokaw. > [@grude](#): > > This actually makes some sense, at least as much as hiding Leia with a public and prominent political enemy of the Emperor. He’d have resources to hide her if necessary, I’d think. > [@](#): > > As seen in the PT and Clone Wars show Anakin was badly tramautized by his childhood and mom’s death, so much so that he never wants to set foot on that ball of dirt ever again(I think he actually says that plainly). Also Tattoine is like the equivalent of rural Afghanistan in the real world, you can’t get much further from places Vader is likely to be. OK, that’s a fair point. But in the event Vader ever found out they were alive, Luke’s in the first place he would look- with family and Vader’s own ex-Jedi teacher and everything. And he wouldn’t need to set foot on the planet himself to start killing people. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-owen-and-beru-tell-the-stormtroopers/650432/28 "2013-02-16T01:45:51Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > OK, that’s a fair point. But in the event Vader ever found out they were alive, Luke’s in the first place he would look- with family and Vader’s own ex-Jedi teacher and everything. And he wouldn’t need to set foot on the planet himself to start killing people. I’m willing to believe the Naboo-eans put out the word that they buried her, and that she never gave birth at all, intended to reach Vader’s ears. Plus, they did have Yoda, and he was able to peer into the future, probably enough to see that this wouldn’t be the danger point. It’s a relatively minor point of a pretty good movie, so I supose I’m wiling to cut Lucas some slack there. God knwos I wouldn’t want to start nitpicking _Star Wars_ again. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-owen-and-beru-tell-the-stormtroopers/650432/29 "2013-02-16T01:53:05Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > I’m guessing because: Luke Lars – really? Would you want to be Luke Lars? No I would not. I immediately pictured Dan Akroyd: “No doubt about it, tonight you’re sleeping with . . . Luke Lars, Male Prostitute.” ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-owen-and-beru-tell-the-stormtroopers/650432/30 "2013-02-16T01:56:26Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > I’m willing to believe the Naboo-eans put out the word that they buried her, and that she never gave birth at all, intended to reach Vader’s ears. Yes, I checked and they did do that at the end of Revenge of the Sith. But like I say, it left the good guys pretty well screwed if Vader ever learned the truth. And yes, at almost any given point in the movies you can find some problems like this. [I assume most of the posters in this thread have already read this.](http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/02/battle-of-hoth/) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-owen-and-beru-tell-the-stormtroopers/650432/31 "2013-02-16T02:16:50Z")
Remember that the Jawas were massacred in a manner intended to look like a Tusken attack. Evidently there was a “no witnesses” policy in place from the beginning. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-owen-and-beru-tell-the-stormtroopers/650432/32 "2013-02-16T02:19:14Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > I’m willing to believe the Naboo-eans put out the word that they buried her, and that she never gave birth at all, intended to reach Vader’s ears. Plus, they did have Yoda, and he was able to peer into the future, probably enough to see that this wouldn’t be the danger point. > > It’s a relatively minor point of a pretty good movie, so I supose I’m wiling to cut Lucas some slack there. God knwos I wouldn’t want to start nitpicking _Star Wars_ again. We see her funeral in the movie and it does almost look like they stuffed her abdomen to make her appear still pregnant. As far as complaining about the assault on Echo Base in ESB, Vader doesn’t really care about either stopping the rebels or avoiding unneeded imperial deaths. All he wants at this point is Luke. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-owen-and-beru-tell-the-stormtroopers/650432/33 "2013-02-16T02:55:42Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Does the movie ever specify whether Vader was actually with the party that interrogated and killed them? Did they spill the beans about Luke? Obiwan? The movie never specified that Vader accompanied the stormtroopers sent to recover the droids but Vader had assigned a commander (“See to it personally, Commander.”) to complete the task. Failure was NOT an option. The stormtroopers were interrogating and then murdering anyone who knew of the droids or the plans it carried. Owen, Beru, and the Jawas had to die to keep the Deathstar a secret. The crew and passengers of ship carrying Princess Leia’s diplomatic mission probably met the same fate. Can’t have any loose end now, can they? Did the Lars’s spill the beans about Luke and Obiwan? I don’t think it would have mattered after the Jawas had confirmed that the droids were on the planet. The Lars were simply people who had seen the droids and could not be allowed to tell anyone about them or what they might be carrying. Ever. The buildings and records had to be burned/destroyed in case the Lars’s had documented the droids existence. Most, if not all, of the stormtroopers on Tatooine were still looking for the droids, not Obiwan or the Skywalker kid. If Owen or Beru had ratted out Luke or Obiwan, the stormtroopers would have attempted to take them into custody at the Mos Eisley spaceport. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-owen-and-beru-tell-the-stormtroopers/650432/34 "2013-02-16T03:16:45Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Which brings up a point; if they were trying to hide Luke from his father, Anakin _ **Skywalker** _, why didn’t they change the lad’s name? **Would, like, Vern Comethumper have been so bad?** Yes? The Skywalker’s were family. Luke would pass unnoticed. If anyone had talked about Padmé Amidala being pregnant or having twins, her children would be raised seperately as a precaution. Darth/Anakin would have known, of course but the planet held bad memories for him and there was little chance that he would visit it again. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-owen-and-beru-tell-the-stormtroopers/650432/35 "2013-02-16T06:51:55Z")
I always imagined Owen slipping into his canny yankee trader mode and telling the stomtroopers he could make them a good deal on this red R2, ‘it’s never been used, and only blowed up once.’ Little did he know the commander was not to be trifled with. It’s not unreasonable for Luke to be there, hiding shit in plain sight has a long tradition of being an effective strategy, plus any distrubances in the force, Lukes’s wet dreams, for example, could be written off as echoes from Anakin’s traumatic youth. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-owen-and-beru-tell-the-stormtroopers/650432/36 "2013-02-16T08:36:44Z")
“You may now laugh at the “Little Orphan Annie” joke.” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-owen-and-beru-tell-the-stormtroopers/650432/37 "2013-02-16T08:47:31Z")
> [@Disposable Hero](#): > > What’s a Sopad agent? Definitely no snark intended but I haven’t heard that term before and a google search merely yields cleaning products… Inadvertently left the final “e” off, sorry. > **[Sopade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopade)** > > Sopade (Social Democratic Party of Germany in exile (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands im Exil), also written SoPaDe or SOPADE, .mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}German pronunciation: \[ˌzopaˈdeː\]) was the name of the board of directors (Vorstand) of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in exile during National Socialism i... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-owen-and-beru-tell-the-stormtroopers/650432.md?page=1)