Owen Lars was a young adult when his father Cliegg married Shmi Skywalker, a Mos Espa slave he’d purchased and then freed. After Tusken Raiders kidnapped Owen’s stepmother, a Jedi Padawan arrived in search of Shmi. This was Shmi’s son Anakin, the stepbrother Owen had wondered if he’d ever meet.

For the most part, the Clone Wars were but a rumor on Tatooine. But soon after the Republic fell and the Empire rose in its place, a new visitor arrived at the Lars farm. Obi-Wan Kenobi had brought an infant boy for Owen and Beru to raise – Luke Skywalker, Anakin’s secret son.

Owen came to love Luke, and feared the boy’s parentage might lead him into danger. He forbade Obi-Wan from visiting, and told Luke his father had merely been a navigator on a spice freighter. But despite Owen’s best efforts, Luke was no farmer – he yearned for adventure among the stars.

When Jawa scavengers visited the Lars farm, Owen bought a pair of droids as help – the protocol droid C-3PO and the astromech R2-D2. Owen had no idea that the droids were fugitives from the Rebel Alliance – or that the Empire would kill its own citizens to retrieve the droids and the secret information they carried.

While Luke was away from the farm, stormtroopers found the Jawas who’d picked up C-3PO and R2-D2, and learned the droids had been sold to Owen and Beru. When the stormtroopers didn’t find the droids at the Lars homestead, they killed Luke’s aunt and uncle and left the farm in flames.