In honor of National Aunt and Uncle Day, StarWars.com salutes the couple that sacrificed everything for their nephew.
Roses are red
Milk is blue
The most underrated parents in Star Wars
are Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru
If you’re celebrating National Aunt and Uncle Day in the galaxy far, far away, there’s one pair that truly deserves all the accolades. That’s right: Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru! The humble moisture farmers never left their home planet, but together they changed the entire galaxy. Not only did they do everything in their power to safeguard their adopted son, but they also raised Luke Skywalker to be brave and compassionate. Luke simply wouldn’t be the hero he is without Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru.
Owen Lars and Beru Whitesun met in Anchorhead. The Tatooine natives both came from generations of moisture farmers in their families. Owen was practical, hard-working, and affectionate under his gruff exterior. Beru was kindhearted, and her thoughtfulness disguised her grit and determination. She dreamed of opening her own café in her hometown. (What would be Beru’s specialty? Blue-milk cheese, of course.) The two fell in love and were married.
After Owen inherited the Lars homestead from his father, Cliegg, the pair started their life together there. Unable to have children of their own, Beru convinced Owen to take in baby Luke -- even though they’d met his mother and father just once.
“I told Owen, ‘We’re going to raise this little boy like our own,’” Beru recalled in Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View. “’He’s never going to know a day of unhappiness, to make up for all the terrible things that happened before he was born.’”
Owen and Beru lived up to that promise for as long as they could.
They loved Luke and he loved them. Owen and Beru worked to hide and protect him from the Empire. But he had the freedom to learn, play, dream, and just be a boy under their watchful eyes. Together they taught him the importance of hard work, perseverance, and doing the right thing for the right reasons.
When an erstwhile Inquisitor, Reva, tracked down Luke to exact revenge on Darth Vader, Beru was unfazed. Clever and practical, she’d planned for the day someone might come for their nephew. Owen was just as brave and ready to defend his family, although mildly surprised at his wife’s foresight. Together they faced the troubled attacker. No Jedi to leap to their rescue, no Force at their fingertips. All they had was each other.
“We’re enough,” Beru told Owen. “You and me.”
Ultimately, it was their deaths years later at the hands of stormtroopers that prompted Luke to leave Tatooine and find his destiny. The farm was razed, their lives lost, and a new chapter of Luke’s life began. We never saw the fight. But knowing Owen and Beru, it’s likely there was one -- and they protected Luke’s secret until the end.
Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru sacrificed everything for Luke Skywalker. Most importantly, they gave him a home and a family. Owen and Beru Lars might be fictional, but they show the power of unconditional love, even in the darkest of times.
