Poor Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru... Oh Well!

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Albertese, Jan 30, 2013.

  1. Albertese

    Albertese Commodore Commodore

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    So, I'm writing a novel right now. It starts out with the main character's home city being destroyed in a war and he and the old man who knew his father go off on a mission...

    Okay, so, really there's much more to it than that, but I don't want to give it away... the point is that I'm finding myself writing a lot about how the loss of his home and family are affecting him.

    It occurred to me that this isn't so dissimilar from Luke Skywalker finding Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru skeletonized by Imperial troops and going off on a mission with Obi-Wan...

    But this got me thinking.... Does Luke give a damn? He looks off to the side in a moment of angst when he finds the bodies at the homestead, but does he ever talk about them again? He's a pretty happy go-lucky guy, casually arranging to sell his car to buy tickets with a pirate, asking about red flashing lights, playing with lightsaber drones, chatting about womp rats back home. I could go on...

    But his freakin' parents just died! I mean, not by blood, but this couple raised Luke and loved him and he loved them and they were in all respects his proxy parents. Beru was the mother he knew, even if he always called her "aunt" and not "mom."

    Shouldn't he be a bit more, I dunno, grieved? I don't know how many times I've seen this movie since I was a tiny little boy, probably hundreds, but somehow this occurred to me only recently. I can't be the only one who noticed this.

    --Alex
     
    Last edited: Jan 30, 2013
  2. wissaboo

    wissaboo Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    yeah, good point.
     
  3. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Luke's on a quest to follow in his father's footsteps, one which he had been blocked from pursuing by his uncle.

    Even so, he rushed home into danger to try to save his aunt and uncle. Instead of curling up into a ball upon finding their remains, Luke was filled with determination to set out on the quest he had always dreamed of. Keep in mind, Luke also realizes that he is now marked for death by the Empire, like his aunt and uncle.

    Luke's choices seem to follow plausibly from clear motivations of his character, not only on their own merits but especially in the context of the fantasy genre.
     
  4. Albertese

    Albertese Commodore Commodore

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    I get the impression that, while Uncle Owen is indeed blocking such a quest, he's doing such a good job of blocking it that Luke has no idea that his old man was anything but a navigator on a spice freighter.

    True to a point. This isn't the quest he always dreamed of, though. In the next episode, Yoda basically brands him as an irresponsible daydreamer, so we can assume he was imagining very exciting adventures, no doubt because he sees his own existence as dull and useless. He whines to C-3PO about how remote Tatooine is and then gets really excited about hearing about the rebellion. His fantasy is to fight against the evil Empire but he has no real hope of actually doing so, as the reality of the harvest (!?) always seems to be in the way. He doesn't at first even believe Ben about his father having been a Jedi. He is only convinced by the fact that the kooky but kindly old man seems to know stuff and gives him an old lightsaber which allegedly belonged to his father, and then his family turns up extra crispy after he realizes that something might be up with the droids. Yes, he has to escape the Imperial deathmark so running to Alderaan with Ben seems as good an idea as any, and he's certainly swept up by the possibility that his father was a Jedi, and an important General in the Clone Wars. But this is all news to him revealed during the movie, not some long held intrinsic belief that he's always had.

    I don't disagree with this, really. I just think he ought to be a little more torn up about Owen and Beru.

    I'm just saying!

    --Alex
     
    Last edited: Jan 30, 2013
  5. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Yes, absolutely right.
     
  6. Anwar

    Anwar Admiral Admiral

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    He was more upset over what happened to Ben, a guy he barely knew, than the folks who raised him!

    Then again, Leia didn't seem too shaken up by her world being blown up either.
     
  7. Flying Spaghetti Monster

    Flying Spaghetti Monster Vice Admiral Admiral

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    You could say that Luke should me torn up, but it's rare to see as much character development in today's films...
     
  8. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    After his initial shock he was thinking, "I never have to farm moisture again!!"

    And that's why he was such an excitable boy in everything that followed.
     
  9. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    Star Wars is not exactly known for its depth of characterization-- nor is George Lucas known for his depth or insight. The death of the aunt and uncle free Luke up to go off on a big adventure where things blow up; they are never mentioned or thought of again. Leia is both tortured and forced to watch her entire planet of billions of people incinerated, and it has no long-term effect on her. In the prequels, her mother is actually turned on when Darth Skywalker commits genocide.

    Thinking about the SW characters as if they were real people is just creepy. It's best to just sit back and watch the explosions.
     
  10. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Yeah, the deaths of people seems to be no big deal in SW universe. Luke could also just be a sociopath.
     
  11. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Well look at his father..

    Though really Anakin was very upset about his mom.
     
  12. JoeZhang

    JoeZhang Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Uncle Owen had a deathwish anyway, he was wandering around wearing the paraphernalia of an illegal outlawed paramilitary organisation connected with terrorism - I suspect they shot him on sight because of that and it had nothing to do with the Droid search.
     
  13. Asbo Zaprudder

    Asbo Zaprudder Admiral Admiral

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    Obviously the Force confers something akin to the British stiff-upper-lip (as lampooned in Carry on up the Khyber).
     
  14. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

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    If you guys watched the SW film "TROOPS", you'll see that Owen and Beru were trash! :p
     
  15. lurok

    lurok Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Didn't Family Guy cover this?

    First time I saw SW, I did find the charred bodies a bit: woah there, George!
     
  16. Icemizer

    Icemizer Commodore Commodore

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    You make a pretty big assumption that Luke actually liked these people. Maybe he hated them. Maybe he was glad they were dead and that he could get off that ball of dust.
     
  17. Sephiroth

    Sephiroth Vice Admiral Admiral

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    just cause Luke wasn't a whiny bitch the whole trilogy (given his father it could have been genetic) about their deaths doesn't mean he wasn't affected by them. More than likely their deaths just strengthened his resolve. And as for Leia and Alderan, One death may be a tragedy, but a billion are just a statistic.
     
  18. RoJoHen

    RoJoHen Awesome Admiral

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    Maybe, but you'd think she might have had some friends or family down on the planet.
     
  19. Hound of UIster

    Hound of UIster Vice Admiral Admiral

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    He is at least a mass murderer and war criminal. The deaths of the people on the Death Star are on his hands.
     
  20. Kelthaz

    Kelthaz Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    In reality? Yes. However, having him grieve and be all mopey would have ruined the film. Nobody wants to watch some guy we don't know grieve over two people we know even less. Luke grieved more over Ben because we, as in the audience, knew Ben.