Darth Vader needed to find the plans stored within R2-D2. It stands to reason that Vader would have been desperate enough to use any means necessary, in order to secure those plans. “Any means necessary” could have included one of the most notorious bounty hunters in the Galaxy: Boba Fett. In that a bounty hunter uses any means necessary to accomplish his goals, Luke Skywalker’s Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru may have gotten caught in the crossfire.
10. Boba Fett Was At The Scene of the Crime
For all of the many failings of the Star Wars Special Edition that was first released in 1997, George Lucas
9. Boba Fett Had Stormtrooper DNA
When the bodies of Owen and Beru were discovered, the deaths are made to look like Tusken Raiders had killed them. The Empire is a clearly established authority; their Death Star is used to blow up an entire planet. If Stormtroopers had killed Owen and Beru, then there would have been no reason to cover up their tracks.
The main argument most people have for Stormtroopers killing Owen and Beru is the following quote by Obi Wan Kenobi: “These blast points, too accurate for Sandpeople. Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise.” Fine, but who were Imperial Stormtroopers? They were altered clones of Jango Fett. And who was Boba Fett? Episode II: Attack of the Clones establishes Boba Fett as an unaltered clone of Jango Fett. Jango even raised Boba as his son.
8. Darth Vader Protected Owen and Beru For Decades
In Attack of the Clones, Anakin Skywalker endangered a mission given to him by the Council, in order to go back to Tatooine. In the course of avenging his mother’s death, Anakin met the entire Lars family. During the purge at the end of Episode III, the Lars family could have easily been arrested at any time for information. Yet, Obi Wan thought that Tatooine would be a safe place to go and live in anonymity. He may have suspected that Vader would attempt to protect the only perceived family that he had left.
7. Darth Vader Preferred Interrogation
The only real time that you see Darth Vader kill a member of the Rebellion is when Vader chokes Captain Antilles at the beginning of Star War Episode IV: A New Hope, during the course of an interrogation. Leia, meanwhile, is stunned and captured. Han Solo fires a shot at Vader in Empire Strikes Back, and is then disarmed and captured. The Stormtroopers had already used non-lethal methods of capture by stunning Leia. The Stormtroopers had also set up checkpoints to look for the droids. They clearly had not been on the trail of the droids enough to follow them from the Jawas, to the Lars residence. If they had, they would have been looking for Luke and the Droids at Mos Espa. The Stormtroopers were behind the game.
6. Boba Fett Had A Motive To Slaughter
Darth Vader would have known who Owen and Beru were. The Stormtroopers would not have acted without orders. The only reason to kill the Jawas, as well as the Lars’s, is so that they would not talk to anyone else. Killing them would also indicate that the killer had no place to store them for later questioning. The killer was also working on a time-frame. None of those statements are true of Imperial Stormtroopers. Stormtroopers had the means to not only interrogate, but also imprison. Stormtroopers could take over Mos Espa and set up checkpoints. Owen and Beru’s killer covered up their role in the killing, but Stormtroopers simply had no reason to do so. They act purely on Imperial Orders. A cover-up, and killing of, Owen and Beru is a waste of time unless you are trying to prevent another bounty hunter from collecting the same information.
5. Darth Vader Was Not Above Using Bounty Hunters
Lets just say that The Empire Strikes Back was not Darth Vader’s first rodeo. Bounty hunters, including Boba Fett, are assembled to listen to Vader give the parameters of the mission. The meeting in Empire is obviously not the first time that Vader has dealt with bounty hunters. It is also obvious that this is not the first time that Vader has encountered Boba Fett. Even before the mission in Empire starts, Vader shows a clear disdain for Boba Fett in particular. Every time Vader encounters Fett, he seems thoroughly disgusted by him.
4. Stormtroopers Could Not Disobey Orders
The entire reasoning for creating the Stormtroopers in the first place was to have an entire army of soldiers who would never question orders. Order 66 caused the Troopers to turn on their superiors and friends. They slaughtered without question, when there were orders. So there are two possibilities here. One, Vader would have had to order the deaths of Owen and Beru. This is possible, but highly unlikely. Anakin was still inside that suit, and Owen and Beru were still family to him. More likely, somebody acted on their own, somebody who could exactly duplicate a Stormtrooper, but also execute free will. In that case, the list of suspects is narrowed to one: Boba Fett.
3. Darth Vader Saves Chewbacca
In The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader stands next to Boba Fett, before Solo is encased in carbonite. Vader feels the need to be close to Fett, in case anything goes wrong. When Chewbacca inevitably tries to stop the events from unfolding, Vader actually prevents Fett from killing Chewie. Vader does not approve of Fett’s methods, and wants to keep him on a short leash. This is a further indication that there has been a major past event, which has caused Vader to not trust Fett at all.
2. There Is No Punishment For Not Recovering the Droids
If Vader had blamed the Stormtroopers, or anyone really, within the Imperial chain of command for not recovering the droids, he would have force-choked them to death. Vader nearly force-chokes an officer in A New Hope for an insult. Vader force-chokes multiple officers in The Empire Strikes Back for incompetence. The lack of punishment for anyone, after the failure to recover the droids, means Vader put the failure upon himself. Assigning more than one group to the same task qualifies as an overkill that foiled the mission.
1. “No Disintegrations”
In the famous bounty hunter scene in The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader says, “you are free to use any methods necessary, but I want them alive…no disintegrations.” The “no disintegrations” comment is directed directly at Boba Fett, who simply responds, “as you wish.” Vader not only feels the need to specifically eliminate murder from the equation, but also feels the need to direct the comment right to Fett’s face. This indicates that there was a problem in the past. The directive also indicates that, previously, disintegrations had occurred.
Merriam-Webster defines disintegrate as “to undergo a change in composition…an atomic nucleus that disintegrates because of radioactivity.” Simple blaster fire, or damage from a lightsaber, does not cause the effect of being cooked to the bone by radioactivity. The only real examples of disintegrations in the Star Wars Universe is what happens to the Jawas, and the Lars’s. Vader is specifically warning Fett, to prevent another mess-up. The mess-up, of course, being the only example of disintegrations previously in the films.
141 Comments
A very good article! I would never have thought that it was really Uncle Owen who killed Vader – but this article confirms it!
in the 40th anniversary book From A Different Point Of View, the story “Added Muscle” actually confirms that Boba Fett did not kill Owen and Beru
I’m late to this discussion, but no… Fett had nothing to do with it. The stormtroopers were ordered by Vader to track the droids. They followed C3PO’s tracks through the desert, which led them to the Jawas. The Jawas pointed them to the Lars homestead. In both cases, they killed all witnesses ON VADERS ORDER. They made the Jawa raid look like Sandpeople because they didn’t want to stir up the Jawas. They burned the Lars homestead (and the bodies) hoping to drive Luke out of hiding, because Owen & Beru honestly didn’t know where he had gone. The troopers then staked out both Mos Espa and Mos Eisley, which were the only two major spaceports on the planet.
As for protecting the Lars family, Vader wasn’t with them, so he didn’t know the Lars family was involved. The stormtroopers were simply following the trail and covering their tracks, AS ORDERED.
yeah, he didn’t kill them, also they weren’t disintegrated, if anything emotional is making him stop boba from shooting at chewie it’s the fact that chewie has anakins childhood pet project on his back.
The fek…. Stormtroopers are NOT clones, it is canon AND obvious. By the time of this most Clonetroopers would probably have Arthritis (If that’s possible) or most likely be dead, due to then cloning….
(If you HAVE to reply, you can find me on instagram @lionblaze_lps
Actually, in one of the books, it’s highly hinted that Prince Xizor ordered the deaths of Owen and Beru.
Actually, they were already dead by the time Xizor learned about them. You’re thinking of the book “Slave Ship”, in which that false rumor was “leaked” to Boba Fett in order to get at Xizor, but Fett later learned Xizor wasn’t involved at all.
This is not accurate. At the time of A new Hope, the stormtroopers were not clones.
Get a girlfriend.
(just one last post about Canon/EU):
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865602712/Lucasfilm-sets-record-straight-on-Star-Wars-Expanded-Universe.html?pg=all
*well, quite a bit has changed since i’ve last posted on this site. DISNEY/STAR WARS STORY GROUP HAD RULED THAT ONLY ALL 3 CURRENT SW MOVIES & THE UP-COMING 3 MOVIES, PLUS the CLONE WARS & SW REBELS TV SHOWS, ARE THE ONLY SW SOURCES THAT ARE OFFICIALLY CANON!
there’ve been a myriad of articles written about it, but here’s one from The Mary Sue that i just grabbed today. it’s no the best article, but still a good source to refer to. **i say this, because in ‘The Sue’ article, they say that Disney had killed off the Expanded Universe. But officially, the EU was NEVER officially canon!
http://www.themarysue.com/star-wars-expanded-universe-canon/
Oops, I meant to say, “all *6 S
Everyone trying to cite the expanded universe to debunk this is wasting their time. It’s already well established that the expanded universe is NOT indisputably canon– the movies have nullified numerous things previously established by the EU in the past and will undoubtedly continue to do so with the upcoming trilogy. Besides, this list so full of holes based on the movies alone, there’s no point. Number 9 alone, is clearly wrong no matter how you look at it– both the Jango-specific helmet design and voices of the Clone Troopers made it clear that they weren’t the same troops being used in the future. Of course, the EU claims they abandoned using clones and switched to using recruits– but the movies never specified that, so you could easily make the argument they still used cloned soldiers– but the original ones of Jango Fett were long out of commission by this time. The Jango-specific helmet design of the exclusively worn by the old clone troops always suggested to me that if clones were still used later, then each unique trooper type (standard Imperial, Biker, Snow Trooper, etc.) were indicative of a separate DNA donor. Either way, Jango clones weren’t being used in the future, their voices alone are clear proof of that.
by the time of the original most clones were either dead or retired only a very small part of the stormtroopers were clones at that time in fact they were a huge minority and had been fazed out by 9BBY(9 years before the battle of yavin) some still existed such as commander cody
Since its pretty obvious George Lucas really had NO clue what so ever as to how the prequel trilogy was going to play out when he had the first movie made, I’m going to chock this ridiculous ass theory up to the one thing all geeks – myself included – are guilty of…………
Overthinking it
Unless they release ANOTHER fucked up mess of an Edition of New Hope that shows Boba killing Owen and Beru, there is ASBOLUTELY NO evidence whatsoever to support this idea that he killed them. This theory is built up on the 1997 special edition that showed Boba and Jabba confronting Han in A New Hope and nothing else.
As for the covering their tracks thing, despite popular belief Star Wars (the original trilogy) is not the master piece of story telling that everyone chocks it up to be. They are good movies yes, but there were tons of stupid ass problems with these movies that are no doubt due to ol’George stamping his feet like a petulant little bitch, to get his way when the good writers were brought in to rewrite his piss poor mess of a script
Once more, there’s NO evidence whatsoever to support the idea that Boba killed Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru
Number 9 is total BS please do your research Clonetroopers stop producing after the the rise of the empires and staring recruiting outsiders to join the empires! and Yes Boba has Jango DNA thats all not all stormtroopers were clones of jango fett! some stayed some left to be Bounty hunters
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-trooper
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kaminoan_resistance
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Clone_Master
I am sorry, but this entire page is wrong in it’s assumption that Fett killed them.
It as been established as canon that Stormtroopers acting on the orders of Vader killed and semi-cremated them.
Here is my source – a picture of Vader giving the order, from the official Star Wars-wikia “Wookieepedia”:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Owen_Lars?file=Vaderguide.jpg
This is fascinating stuff but you have to bear in mind some aspects of Anakin that were clumsily portrayed in the prequels rather than missing. Christensen wasn’t the best actor remember.
That his mother had chosen the Lars family, that Lars Sr. had “freed her” in the same way Qui Gon did would have counted for a lot even post turn to the Darkside for Anakin, that she then chose to marry him and was happy until her kidnapping would have earned them Vader’s protection. They were not associated with the rebellion and were “good empire citizens” for all he knew, so no reason to ever bother them until that day. You could imagine Vader thinking “Dumb luck” once he found out how close the droids crashed to the Lars place.
His disdain for Boba Fett would be due many things… first off that is the clone that he cannot control, that his father had tried to kill Padme as well as himself.
The Emperor very cleverly made Vader feel he was to blame for her death (which he was but not directly) but his reaction showed he was still in love with her and clearly is all the way through the movies till his death. Jango tried to kill her so by extension he hates Fett but he’s a necessary tool. The Emperor was not so much into wholesale slaughter until the Death Star is complete and only then it’s the rebels he’s after, not just destroying worlds for the sake of..
The emperor wouldn’t approve of Vader’s personal vendettas getting in the way and would arguably see it as goodness still being in Vader, thus he is a threat. So Vader tolerates and uses Boba cos he almost has to.
From a simple time perspective Darth Vader as the right hand of the Emperor can’t get involved in every situation… basically he’s management tasked with one thing, the retrieval of the plans… Others would have to find them on the ground, indeed it was only cos he was looking for Skywalker that he ever went down onto Hoth or Endor.
Fett and Vader are very alike – forced into situations at a young age that they were not ready for, while Anakin/Vader thought he was always doing the right thing for the cause then Boba is the opposite, he does it for money, the worst kind of person in Vader’s and ironically in Luke and Leia’s eyes later with Han. It is also a thread through the Empire guys, not liking them cos they get paid and they do it to not get killed perhaps?
For me the money shot on this though is the no disintegration’s line. It isn’t pointed it’s ANGRY at Fett. So I see it going down like this…
Vader sends his troopers to the planet (he knows where he is when they capture the ship of course) and senses something unusual in that area (after all his SON is there… he always felt his presence thereafter as well as Obi Wan’s who was also in the vicinity – surely his force alarm bells would be ringing just a tad) but can’t let on as it may trigger something with the Emperor sensing his turmoil.
So he gets Fett involved with orders to simply check the Lars place out as he can’t tell his men about them and issues the no disintegrations order…and Fett simply double crosses/kills them quick so he can get back to finding the droids especially as he knows Solo is also in town, he can double dip if he’s quick. Even down to the tracks… Fett had a rocket pack, he could make the tracks and fly out of there and give it. “Sorry Darth but the Sand people got there first…once I found Solo with your droids I tried to get them for you but your spy and troops messed up.”
Vader would know he was lying but not be able to kill him without the Emperor wanting to know why. So he has to let it pass. He knows the Lars would have given up Threepio and R2 had they recognized them, that they didn’t meant they genuinely didn’t know and even if Vader is a emotionless being by then, which we know from the later movies he isn’t then he’s gonna be at the least pissed off his only remaining family died not by his order but cos of a cock up he can’t punish.
Fett does the Solo/Falcon mission for Vader as a make-up/freebie which is why he is so concerned he gets Solo undamaged as he is the only way he is making anything off it and he then stays in Tatooine, keeping well out of Vader’s way.
It’s telling ALL the bounty hunters are there implying Vader doesn’t want to use him. We know from Han’s issues with Jabba that screwing up jobs in the Star Wars universe has major consequences. Screwing up a job for Vader has far worse ones unless there is a reason he can’t kill you… which of course only Vader knows.
Even Kenobi has to lie throughout the whole thing, he’s probably lying when he says Stormtroopers as to say “this looks like Boba Fett” which he would recognise would mean a whole different conversation with Luke. He wants to get him to Alderaan and help the rebellion at that point, explaining why a Bounty Hunter would be looking for him isn’t in that remit… he bare faced lies by ignoring R2 and Threepio who he does remember and about Luke’s father… just as Lars lies about Anakin.
It’s the one part of Star Wars that is truly 100% based on lies cos no one can actually tell the truth without the whole situation becoming a nightmare for all concerned.
Did you not look at my link?
What I posted has been established as canon – it doesn’t matter how people keepclaiming that Boba was involved. He wasn’t – end of story!
starwars.wikia.com (AKA “Wookieepedia”) is the official Star Wars wiki, only posting confirmed canon facts. When the canon is not yet decided for a certain event, the article says so.
In this case, the canon is the following:
Stormtroopers shot and semi-cremated the Lars couple – end of story.
Fan speculation is irrelevant if there is an established canon for the event.
Quote from the Wookieepedia-article:
“Owen and Beru never saw Luke again, for they were killed by Imperial stormtroopers who were looking for R2-D2 on behalf of Owen’s stepbrother, Darth Vader, after the droid escaped with the stolen plans for the first Death Star.[4] According to the recollection of stormtrooper Davin Felth, the farmers were killed after Owen spat in the face of the squad’s commanding officer, Mod Terrik, they were then each shot with a blaster before their bodies were semi-cremated with a flamethrower. Their execution was ordered by Darth Vader, who watched it via hololink, feeling it was “revenge” for their supposed weakness.”
Here is the link again:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Owen_Lars#Death
Who on this site is writing these idiotic Star Wars articles. Really running out of topics eh? If any of these truly made any sense, it would be an interesting piece. Too bad they don’t. You can’t apply logic and induction to film minutia orchestrated by DIFFERENT teams of film-makers. Lucas and associates in 1977 are rushing to make a story that is then pushed together into Lucas first movie, each subsequent movie having differing levels of detail and motivations. Speculating on such is a waste of your own time
Storm Troopers killed them. Watch the COPS parody called TROOPS.
There are some sound arguments here, but the two biggest strikes against would be:
1) Had Fett murdered Beru and Owen against Vader’s explicit instructions, Fett would have found himself on the ass end of a Force choke and wouldn’t have even made an appearance in Ep V.
2) Fett hadn’t been introduced until Ep V (1980 original version) as a character as his current appearance in Ep IV occurred only after the 1997 Special Edition. Fett hadn’t even been created as the character seen in the original ESB (1980) back in the late 70’s when A New Hope was originally written and his original McQuarrie design only existed as an early unused Stormtrooper design.
So unless someone arbitrarily decided to retcon Fett’s role in Ep IV well after the original 1977 theatrical release, Fett didn’t kill the Lars because he didn’t even exist as a character at the time.
1) No because had he killed Fett the Emperor would have wanted to know why or sensed the rage. Thus suspecting Vader had “good in him” and thus was a threat. So Anakin searched his feelings and buried them, just as he’d had to do for Padme’s death and those of his children.
2) It was already ambiguous and we have since found that a lot of people were not telling the truth at that time. If Lucas’ story was really as encompassing as he claimed, then it would be clear that Kenobi would have known R2 and Threepio but lies about it, and the character of Fett, even if not fully formed would have been in there somewhere…
Someone decides to retcon arbitrarily… you mean like Lucas did himself with the Prequels and Special Editions…that kind of retcon? Then it’s perfectly feasible.
Vader was a Sith Lord, devoted to the Dark Side. He would have had no qualms about killing family members. Killing what you love is a Sith trial so I don’t find that part of the argument to be very compelling.
No he was a former Jedi who turned to protect the people he loved. Only Kenobi ever uses the word “seduced” to describe it and that is to fit an agenda in getting Luke to become a Jedi.
By the time he is Vader at the end of E3 he has “passed” that trial to the Emperor’s satisfaction by killing Padme and thus in his mind his unborn child. He knows the Lars family is out there but they are of no consequence knew that Owen was a farmer and would never be involved in anything against the Empire and that as his mother loved them, while he cannot love them as a Sith Lord he can leave them alone or ensure that they are not harmed unless necessary.
I like where this going love the fett but I thought he was there to give a message to solo after all he was a man of his word and principal he made a promise to Solo’s old girlfriend to deliver the message of her death to her family even though he was not responsible for her death and was unable to claim that Yeltsin bounty he was there at the battle saw her end just making good on that promise
Nice article… But…
Storm troopers, by this time, were mostly conscripted soldiers, no longer clones.
I like this article, but there is some serious speculation.
I agree this is 20 years later. I forget the total number but there weren’t that many clones to go around. Secondly it’s canon that the emperor went back and killed all the kaminos so no more clones. It’s pretty clear most of the imperial army is just regular people now.
SERIOUSLY?! You think George Lucas planned it out that well? HE CAN’T FINISH ANYTHING! Let alone plan it out to be a machiavellian masterpiece. The movies are AWFUL TRASH!
Ok. First, nothing was EVER said refering to stormtrooper “DNA”. Second if you are up on the EU, it is revealed that Owen and Beru were killed by agents of Prince Xizor.
Your second point is off. Obi Wan said that comment about Jawas being slaughtered, not Owen and Beru being killed. Also, Luke runs home by himself when he figures out that the stormtroopers might have figured out to whom the Jawas might have sold R2 and 3-PO. Ben and the droids stay behind. Only Luke actually sees the charred remains of his aunt and uncle.
As clearly seen in the link here, Vader ordered Stormtroopers to kill Owen and Beru. It’s as clear as can be in the comics he had no love left for them, and the comics directly show the murder of the Lars. http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20060614011140/starwars/images/6/6e/Vaderguide.jpg
Everyone stating there were hardly any clones left are right. However, if as this was a special mission (finding the death star plans / droids) and one the empire probably wanted to keep hush hush. It was probably a 90% assumption, on Vader’s part, that the droids still had the plans and were the only intelligent life/mechanical form that had or seen the DS plans, they could have passed or copied them on to anyone or been picked up from the escape pod by a passing jawa/farmer or other random. Vader says “they must have hidden the plans in the escape pod” not “the droids in that pod must have the plans.” The Dark Father would have sent one group of stormtroopers to get the plans, The 501st Legion / Battalion, AKA Vader’s Fist, which was primarily made up of the original crop of clones (later containing the regular human troopers). The 501st was specially commissioned by the emperor at Kamino to be an elite special unit and would have had blind allegiance to the empire. The 501st was like Hitler’s/Himmler’s SS (actioned like a personal army) and were never far from Vader. Also the empire didn’t jump from using Jango clones to humans, in between they used clones from different human templates to encourage more variation and free thinking.
It isn’t a stretch that Vader would have used Fett for this, both because of what we see in ep V but also Vader had a point to prove after the exchange on the DS with Tarkin et al. Vader wanted to resolve this quickly, even if it meant using unconventional (but effective) means, i.e. bounty hunters.
I think Vader would have sent the 501st and Fett to get the plans; stormtroopers to be the active visible presence on the street/sand (frightening the general public (The SS) and Fett to move in the shadows busting heads, interrogating and getting info on the QT (The Gestapo).
Another bases for The Galactic Imperial hierarchy could be The Roman Empire (stormtroopers & an emperor etc.), if so consider this; “Rome often deviated from its standard recruiting policies. For example, no close reader of Caesar could fail to observe that the legendary general was repeatedly saved, even at Alesia, by mounted German mercenaries whom he had hired for his war against Vercingetorix. Subsequently, Augustus established an imperial bodyguard, the custodes, composed entirely of Germans” http://www.historynet.com/romes-barbarian-mercenaries.htm
Could we consider bounty hunters similar to mercenaries.
It is an interesting talking point and it being accurate doesn’t really matter.
Apologies for any typos.
Looks like the author didn’t read “Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina”. To sum up (using Wookiepedia):
“The next morning, Luke left early to find R2-D2, who had run off the night before to find his former ‘master.’ Owen and Beru never saw Luke again, for they were killed by Imperial stormtroopers who were looking for R2-D2 on behalf of Owen’s stepbrother, Darth Vader, after the droid escaped with the stolen plans for the first Death Star. According to the recollection of stormtrooper Davin Felth, the farmers were killed after Owen spat in the face of the squad’s commanding officer, Mod Terrik, they were then each shot with a blaster before their bodies were semi-cremated with a flamethrower. Their execution was ordered by Darth Vader, who watched it via hololink, feeling it was “revenge” for their supposed weakness.”
So it was actually Vader that killed them, via his stormtroopers.
Expanded Universe will also tell you that Jorus C’Boath had a hand in training Palpatine. It will be real interesting if they even use any of the accepted children in Star Wars episode VII. The Return of the Jedi novel seems to indicate that Owen Lars was actually Obi Wan’s brother and not in any way related to Anakin directly or indirectly. In Attack of the Clones, they never actually used the word ‘Mandalorian’ and Wookiepdia can be edited by most anyone. That is generally why I go by the movies rather than the expanded universe which believe me I can discuss in detail. If Disney made a one off movie about Boba Fett and showing him blowing away Owen and Beru, then it would be kind of hard to deny. I espoused this theory on fan boards before there was ever shown to be Boba on Mos Eisley in the Special Edition. That just kind of strengthened my argument. The point is I guess that I have been with Star Wars since the beginning but when it comes to a theory, I will go strictly off of what was seen in the movies even though I have in fact read and followed most every word that came out afterward in comics, books, online, television, whatever. Hope this helps. The point was to provoke thought and get my point across. In that, I believe that I have done that effectively. If I had not, this article would not be linked all over the internet and have at least 19 thousand people that shared it. Again, hope this helps. Best. Jim Ciscell
Nope, it was stormtroopers. You should read the novel. Also, CLONE TROOPERS could not disobey orders. Stormtroopers from the IV-era are just regular dudes. Again, do some research.
No I think you may want to read the books and do some research. In the book Dark Lord: Rise of Darth Vader it reveals that not all clones killed their jedi commanders. Particularly the ones that treated them with respect were spared. It shows it again in the Republic Commando series. Once Order 66 was called, many clones smuggled their jedi commanders out, some to Mandalore with Kal Skirata. Hell the entirety of Delta,Omega, and the Alphas were ALL clones that frequently disobeyed orders from command to instead assist Skirata. It’s not that they were incapable of disobeying, most just simply didn’t have strong enough reason to do so.
Or it could be another script conflict by a director who claimed he wrote all the books at once which is BS, and needed to cover his tracks for story inaccuracies between movies.
George Lucas never claimed to have written everything at once. He merely had the story treatment outlining the plot of the entire original trilogy (as well as a very loose back history for what he would later develop into the prequel trilogy) when he was making the very first film. Each actual script were written and developed on an individual basis.
Vader was aboard his Star Destroyer in orbit over Tatooine when he learned about the escape pod having been jettisoned. We don’t know exactly how long the droids wandered the desert before being captured by the Jawas or how long the Jawas carted them around, but we know that by the time Luke & Co. got to Mos Eisley the spaceport he been locked down (albeit ineffectively) by Imperial Forces.
The plans would therefore either be : 1) still on Tatooine; or 2) aboard any ship that (like the Falcon) blew through the blockade. IF Vader had decided to turn to Bounty Hunters this quickly, wouldn’t it make more sense to us them to chase down any ships that had escaped rather than have them down on the planet interfering with his own Troops’ mission?
Not if he wanted to hide from the Emperor that the remaining family he had were there and in the middle.
I always took the timeline to be barely 2 days, as Artoo is captured at night, sold to Lars in the Morning and escapes the following evening. Everything else happens the next day.
The Empire are already in the area with one Destroyer, many of it’s troops searching and Vader would know Fett was in Tatooine so perhaps called him for the “quick search of the Lars” so as not to draw attention to it by telling Stormtroopers “no disintegrations” at that place. Fett ignored it once he worked out the Droids had been there and were likely at Mos Eisley and just killed them and staged it so he could say “Sandpeople got there first”.
>>>ok, this is an older post, BUT i was reading “Ambush At Corellia” by Roger McBride Allen: “…and Owne and Beru had been killed by Imperial stormtroopers as they searched for the droids Luke had.”
THAT, my friends, was PUBLISHED in 1995 by Bantam/Spectra…in other words, CANON.
Boba Fett had NOTHING to do with Uncle Owen & Aunt Beru’s death. end of discussion. ;7)
well, unless you really want to, but…
bobafett did not exist until after a new hope was made, this is a fact! (watch the design video) argument settled! there was no way that they were killed with bobafett in mind, simple logic. move along!!
im not 100% up to snuff on this, but i thought that storm troopers were volunteers and conscripts or whatever…..the clone troopers were the ones genetically engineered to be incapable of disobeying orders….though in at least one of the books they did let a jedi escape….if im not mistaken…..so the storm troopers could in fact disobey orders……they didnt fight to the death defending the base on endor….i doubt the emperor would have said dont sacrifice yourselves needlessly, if it is lost, surrender. The officers culd have ordered it, but hey who knows….thats ancient history;)
I love all the comments that are obsessing over the claim that Vader saved Chewbacca… How exactly does WHO he was trying to save have any relevance to the point that he reacted to Fett (indicating he knew what he was capable of)? WHO he was TRYING to save has no relevance here whatsoever, and certainly doesn’t change the fact that Chewbacca was STILL saved in the process, so the claim is still 100% correct no matter how you look at it.
We all know what happened to the Lars family from the short film “Troopers”. It was a domestic dispute gone horribly wrong.
I gotta say, Boba Fett is the most over-rated, boring character in the original trilogy. The only thing that made him interesting is that we knew nothing about him. His ONLY action on-screen that even remotely implied that he MIGHT be a badass bounty hunter was is ability to deduce that the Millennium Falcon would try to float away “with the rest of the garbage.” Everything else he did was rote. He even died screaming like a bitch. A Wilhelm scream, no less.
George Lucas still doesn’t care.
Does it bother anyone else? its Mos Eisley, not Mos Espa
Yes, thank you. At first I thought Mos Espa was some other town that was mentioned in the comics or books that I was unfamiliar with. But after further reading of the original top ten list, I realized it was just the author’s misnomer.
I love the speculation of the article and it makes for great “what about…” conversations, which to me has always been at the heart of Star Wars. George left enough room in the galaxy for everyone to have creative input and foster it’s growth. One more speculation that occurred to me while reading the comments is the question of Boba Fett ever receiving Order 66. Everyone remembers that fateful order in which the clones turned on the Jedis. Did Boba also receive that command? Sure Jango requested a clone that was a perfect copy of himself, but I would be surprised if Palpatine let any clone leave Kamino without Order 66. We know that Boba Fett traded fire with Luke at Bespin and maybe he didn’t recognize him as a Jedi there, but he knew him as one at Jabba’s palace. It was on the skiff that he turned his attack to Luke, after Luke avoided walking the plank. But was it the old programming in his DNA that made him turn a blind eye (pun intended) to the mostly blinded Han Solo behind him? Ah speculation. To the original poster, I thank you for thinking outside the box.
**excellent point about whether or not Fett got or simply knew about Order 66!
i’m guessing that he DID know about it. That is, via HIS FATHER. i have to keep reminding myself that it was JANGO Fett that was around for Order 66. may be BOBA Fett did NOT know about it since it was many years later, PLUS, remember that BOBA’s father was killed by Jedi Master Mace Windu in AOTC, when BOBA was about 10 years old.
>>>OOPS! been a while since i’ve watched the Prequels. JANGO was killed during AOTC so he was not around for Order 66…***looks like a good opportunity for some spin off movies there &/or EU novels between those movies!
Sorry dude, Boba Fett did NOT kill luke’s parents. Fett was only there with Jabba the Hutt because of Han Solo. Lukes parents were killed by stormtroopers.
…this makes me wish there was more delving into the backstory of Fett-Vader relationship.
Keep in mind also that Boba inherits his father’s armor and even modifies it. The storm troopers walk around only with their E-11 blaster rifles, but Boba carries a jetpack with rockets and a flamethrower.
This article is one of the coolest Star Wars articles I’ve read in a while.
its actually Jaster Marrel’s armor I think
(i originally posted this on theForcebook.com)
***>Ok, folks, here’s my SUMMARY for each of the TEN points on this:
10] Fett on Tatooine: ” Boba Fett would not have been above trying to collect multiple bounties. A bounty for the droids, as well as a bounty for Han Solo” /
good point, BUT it’s inferred. why not say Fett COULD have tried for 5 bounty jobs? info is simply not given. in academia, i learned from UNL this is called “hidden premise.” we simply don’t have that…but i very good speculation!
9] Fett “had Stormtrooper DNA: ?! one of TopTenz weakest points. for THAT matter, Anakin Skywalker had the highest midi-chlorian count, did that make him likely to kill just because of that?
**they do a better job by pointing out that in ANH, WHY WOULD STORMTROOPERS TRY TO COVER THEIR TRACKS AFTER KILLING JAWAS & BERU & OWEN? THEY WERE THE EMPIRE; NOT SOME COMMON CRIMINALS. people like that don’t cover their tracks…BUT that does not “follow” (to get all academic here) that, therefore: Ah-ha! that means Boba Fett killed Beru & Owen & the Jawas since HE was on Tatooine at the same time. wow, so were millions (if not, hundreds of thousands) of OTHER SPECIES!
8] **now THIS was one of TopTenz more interesting points: Vader could have killed Uncle Owen & Aunt Beru DECADES earlier; why kill them JUST at that time–though, the plans to Death Star I was extremely important>>>in the end, the Rebels got hold of the plans & blew up DSI!
in other words: Vader had no MOTIVE at THAT TIME to kill Beru & Owen, but (as TopTenz put it) Boba Fett had the motivation because of his bounty jobs.
7] Vader “preferred interrogations: TopTenz pointed out Vader interrogating Leia in ANH–when he could’ve just killed her, as TopTenz puts it. BUT one could argue: You kill your subject, then how are you supposed to get the infor???
6] Fett had a motive to kill: another one of TopTenz interesting points: ” Killing them would also indicate that the killer had no place to store them for later questioning. The killer was also working on a time-frame. None of those statements are true of Imperial Stormtroopers.”
true. again, THE STORMTROOPERS WERE NOT COMMON CRIMINALS, why would they take the time to stash the bodies somewhere–they weren’t exactly worried about the International Criminal Court at the Hague!
*BUT that does NOT PROVE that Fett killed Beru & Owen. it’s a big Galaxy!
5] Vader used Bounty Hunters before: of course, reference to ESB, & how Vader told, SPECIFICALLY, Fett not to kill Han Solo. again, good point, but inferred; not proof. besides, stepping outside of fiction for a second here, George Lucas was focusing on Fett, not the other Bounty Hunters.
4] Stormtroopers could not disobey: ” So there are two possibilities here. One, Vader would have had to order the deaths of Owen and Beru. This is possible, but highly unlikely. Anakin was still inside that suit, and Owen and Beru were still family to him. More likely, somebody acted on their own. ”
yeah, it’s “likely”, but how do we know that Smugglers didn’t kill the Jawas or Beru & Owen? or any number of being on Tatooine…again, just because Fett happen to be on Tatooine at the same time of Beru & Owen’s murder does not (necessarily, or otherwise) prove that Fett did it.
3] in ESB, right before Han is frozen in carbonite, Vader stops Fett from shooting Chewie: interesting point that seems to show that Vader didn’t trust Fett & did not want Fett to kill more than, ehem, “necessary.” TopTenz reasons that Vader somehow knew that Fett killed Beru & Owen on Tatooine, & wanted to keep him in line…one of their weakest arguments.
2] Vader does not Force-choke his subordinates for failing to capture R2 & C3 after THEY escape with the Death Star I plans: TopTenz reasons, given the history of those who failed him he usually Force-choked them, so why didn’t he do that to anyone after the droids escaped?
good question, but i ALSO remember toward the end of ESB, on Cloud City, Vader Force-communicated with Luke while he was on the Falcon with Leia & Lando…Vader’s fleet could not stop the Falcon from going to Hyperspace–so, basically, it was Vader’s subordinates’ fault, YET he just turned & walked away…so, TopTenz speculation does not follow.
AND FINALLY, 1] Back to ESB, when Vader address the Bounty Hunters & Vader says to Fett specifically, “No disintegrations.”
TopTenz actually used a dictionary to define what disintegration was & tried to tie it to Beru & Owen’s murder. it is interesting that Vader said that specifically TO Fett & not the other Bounty Hunters.
BUT, i refer you to my previous responses that it’s inferred and not even INdirectly proven. why would George Lucas simply infer that Fett killed Beru & Owen, YET he shows us that it was the Empire who blew up Alderaan in ANH? or that GL shows us DIRECTLY that it was Vader who killed Ben Kenobi in ANH?
…bottom line. this is a very unique article, in that they’ve taken the time to use brain-power to speculate on SW something that COULD have been part of the SW plot. but, i’m afraid in this case, TopTenz, it is just fiction, & i really wouldn’t read too much into it that much…especially if George Lucas did not “tell” us through his own plot.
No matter how you look at it, #9 is dead wrong. The JAWAS were made to look like they were attacked by Tusken Raiders, not Luke’s aunt and uncle. Secondly, it’s made fairly clear that the Imperial Troops weren’t meant to be the same as the Clone Troopers– the old Clone Troops were specifically depicted with helmet’s modeled after Jango Fett’s and spoke in his voice. The fact that they were presented with clear differences from the Imperial Troops (nor did they re-dub their voices to match Jango’s, the way they did for Boba) demonstrates they definitely weren’t meant to be the same line of clones (assuming they were still even clones… the expanded universe has hinted that they used recruits).
One slight problem with clones/stormtroopers incapable of disobeying orders. Bobba Fett was a clone, but if you pay attention to Episode 2, Jango specifically asked for them to make Bobba for him WITHOUT programming or conditioning, and that Jango himself would be responsible for raising him. So as far as anyone is concerned, Bobba is Jango’s “son”.
WRONG! The original Clone Troopers of the Republic may have been clones of Jango Fett, but by the era of the original trilogy, those troops were long out of commission. The Imperial class Storm Troopers were clones of a different person entirely (thus, the different voice and different helmet design). In fact, each different class of trooper (snow, biker, etc.) were clones of different individuals. So, unless the Imperial troops were cloned from a relative of Jango Fett, Boba Fett would NOT share any DNA.
9. By the time Episode 4 came out the Empire resorted to enlisting men into the military, hence Luke’s friends going off to join the Academy instead of using clone pilots. Also several books also refer to people enlisting as troopers as well as Battlefront II refers to them doing so after Geonosis used their own clones to try to leave the Empire.
8. Obi Wan went to Tattooine because he knew Anakin/Vader would avoid the planet due to the painful memories he had of the place. Also during the purge there would have been no reason to question the Lars family because Vader didn’t know about the twins and both he and Palpatine were the only ones beside Obi and Vader who knew Anakin became Vader. So there was no reason to go to Tattooine.
7. Stormtroopers WERE looking for thr droids at Mos Espa. Hence the quote “These are not the droids you are looking for” Once they stormtroopers were mindtricked no one else would be looking because the Empire wouldn’t exactly say “Hey these droids hold the plans for the Death Star” in public.
6. Boba Fett DID have a place to interrogate at his leasure. Slave I had prison cells to hold bounties that he had to capture alive. So he would have had not only a place but also time, even more important HAD Fett been there he would have taken them alive and used them as bait so Luke would bring himself, the droids, AND Han to him.
4. Stormtroopers were completely free to disobey. The two Timothy Zahn books starring Mara Jade clearly show this. Even had they been clones, they still were able to disobey as shown in the Karen Traviss Republic Commando series where clones deserted and a few refused to comply with Order 66.
3. Vader took Han, Leia, and Chewie as bait. He carbonited Han simply to test to see is Luke would survive as was Vader’s plan. Had he killed Chewie and Leia he would have lost his bait as Luke would have felt them die in the Force and would be alerted that Vader was close and could simply leave unhindered.
2. We never see what happened to the troops that failed to capture them on Tattooine as it never goes back, however it’s perfectly plausible that Vader of Palpatine saw in the Force, or learned from someone on Tatooine that they were heading to Alderaan which is where the Death Star just happened to be. After that as we all know they planted a tracker on the Falcon and followed them to Yavin.
1. Again Vader needed them alive, he simply made sure that there was no DEAD option, and as such Fett would have honored the bounty terms.
Thank you for not discrediting all the EU history. One point I like that Vader need his prisoners alive for torture; he wasn’t “saving” anyone out of kindness, not even C-3PO.
Though your points are really valid. There are a couple of points that you should correct though…
In Point Six: You stated that the troopers had set up check points in Mos Espa… when in reality it was Mos Eisely… According to EPII, when Anakin questions Watto about the location of his mother, Wattao states that the Lar’s farm is… “…oh… a long ways from here… on the other side of Mos Eisely, methinks…” Anakin was raised in Mos Espa and would probably never have been to, but heard of Mos Eisely and it infamous Spaceport.
In Point Three: You state that Vader ‘saved’ Chewbacca… I have to disagree and here are my points:
1: As of EP:I We’ve learned that Anakin Skywalker built SeeThreepio. Now, even by EP:III Anakin has never met Chewbacca by that this in the saga.
2: The Force Unleashed is considered ‘canon’ in the SW Saga… When Vader goes to Kashyysk(sp?) to quell the Wookie uprising and to start the process of enslaving Wookies for the Death Star Project is the only time Vader would’ve had the chance to encounter Chewbacca… and only as an enemy combatant. So him ‘saving’ Chewbacca in TESB is an invalid point.
3: Being the ‘Maker’ of SeeThreepio (As Threepio says in EP:II), I argue that it is not Chewbacca that Vader is trying to save, but indeed, SeeThreepio, his creation!
I am sure someone may have already posted this but in case not. The scene when they come upon the Jawas sandcrawler after it has been destroyed, Obi-Wan says “They didn’t. But we are meant to think they did. These tracks are side by side. Sandpeople always ride single file to hide their numbers.”. It would be pretty intense if Fett planted a ton of foot prints side by side.
This is an interesting theory but I think all of the evidence points in the direction of storm troopers. Also, I am not 100% sure on this, didn’t Lucas not even really think that much about Fett? He was shocked about how many people became interested in Fett even though he is relatively a minor character in the movie. Obviously that is no reason on its own to say Fett didn’t do it but just a thought
I made this case years ago.
A Different Point of View: Episode 13 – The Lars Farm – aired January 10, 2006
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/a-different-point-of-view/id262975759
It’s free, so have a listen.
Stormtroopers… Precise?!?
Um where does it say in the books or in the movie that the slaughter of Owen and Beru was a covered up imperial hit made to look like Sandpeople? That was the Jawas that were made to look like the Sandpeople hit them. (Why the imps felt the need to cover up the Jawa hit is the real mystery here!)
3. Darth Vader Saves Chewbacca.
Wrong. You are missing the forest for the trees in that scene, my friend. Vader only stops Fett from firing because Chewie is wearing C3-PO on his back, C3-PO who Vader built himself as a dusty slave child. No matter what he has become he would not want to see his creation destroyed, so he stops Fett from firing to save the droid he built with his own hands, not to spare Chewie.
Here’s another point: In Example 5 (Darth Vader Was Not Above Using Bounty Hunters), you forgot to mention that not only was Vader ‘thoroughly disgusted with Boba Fett’, he actually walks right up to him during the meeting with the bounty hunters, points at him and says “…And NO disintegration’s…”. This too clearly points to the fact that he knows what Boba did to Beru and Owen on Tattooine.
I always thought he said “No disintegrations” with a hint of respect. Sort a wink-wink nudge-nudge “I know you’d like to, old boy, but we need him in one piece in this case.”
Yeah, ’cause Vader’s such a wink-wink nudge-nudge funny guy…
LOL! yeah, i think that’s a bit of a stretch to think Vader would use ANY innuendo ! ;7)
I might mention that there’s a canon story showing the stormtroopers ransacking the Moisture Farm. The stormtroopers killed Owen and Beru and torched the place after Owen spat at an Imperial commander. It’s also confirmed that Vader DID give the execution order.
Since Episode I I’ve viewed it as being 3-PO rather then Chewi that Vader was stopping Boba from shooting.
Like how one of these arguments is about the attack on the jawas sand crawler. Gg fact checkers.
For the record I do know that there are just as many, if not more arguments and reasons against this theory. Let me repeat, THEORY. As a long time Star Wars nerd, I can admit that these reasons are perhaps speculating a bit too much on the implied information from off the screen. Bear in mind that doing exactly that is why there are numerous video games, books, comics and role-playing games that we, as nerds in general, tend to love because it gives us new ideas and potentially new insights into the universe we fell in love with.
4&9 don’t work as well by the time of a new hope. By this time there are less clones more conscripted people
“. The Stormtroopers would not have acted without orders.”
but earlyer in this blog it already established Vader saying “Any means necessary”
—–
“Vader actually prevents Fett from killing Chewie. Vader does not approve of Fett’s methods, and wants to keep him on a short leash. ”
wrong
vader didnt kill chewie because he didnt want fet to harm c3po…duh!! evry starwars fan in the world knows that..
Why this entire article is krap:
FACT: Boba Fett wasn’t even thought of until shortly after ANH was completed. The armor was an early idea in the development phase for (what would become) ESB….designed by Joe Johnson to be an army of Super-Stormtrooper-like bad-asses sent to kick the krap out of the rebel alliance. That idea was scrapped, but the concept ended up in Dark Forces (vg).
Then “Boba Fett” ended up as a bounty-hunter in the Holiday Special in late 1978 and on to ESB.
Hi Dick,
I enjoy posts like yours. They take all the fun out of things because the authors don’t realize what we’re all actually doing. You see, the original post is talking about trying to fill in fictional historical blanks about a fictional character in a fictional world we all love. Star Wars.
Your comment comes along and starts to explain why Boba Fett (said fictional character) (who is also awesome) is the one who fictionally killed two other fictional characters in a fictional movie. Now you start to get into reality by explaining design concepts and holiday specials saying that those things limit Boba Fett’s history and that’s the end of the story.
Let’s stop a moment and think. In your world of both fiction and reality, in 1970, nobody killed Luke’s aunt and uncle. Wait, Luke who? What is this whole thing about? End of story? Does it stop before it starts? I don’t think so. Nothing ever works that way in literature, movies, television, etc. You can always fill in back-story later. Skip forward to now and there’s entire story-lines about all the characters that were never even seen at the Skywalker Farm that fateful day in the expanded universe settings of books and comics that people on this board can shout out dates all day for. So your reality argument doesn’t really hold water here unless you’re using it to back up a story of fictional historical value to the incident in question.
What is being discussed is Boba Fett’s fictional history which may or may not have included this act. That’s the in-world discussion that’s going on.
And FACT: Boba-Fett’s, and all other Star Wars character’s, histories are constantly being written and filled in. So much potential there.
great points! but reaching ,whether or not boba killed the isnt that interesting . fun to think about for a second though. great post dude 🙂
a clone of my comment well stated, anh made 1977, bobafett created for esb, bobafett added for anhse 1997.
actually everyone is wrong, A Predator Killed ol aunt and uncle. It was just made to look like Stormtroopers did it. Cause we all know Stormtroopers were more likely to shoot their own foot off, or shoot their eye out, than hit the broad side of a AT-AT.
I’d read an Expanded Universe book that said Owen spit on a Stormtrooper and that resulted in the deaths of the 2 of them. Didn’t remember details, so I looked on Wookiepedia. Here’s a reference from published material, which is semi-cannon. Not speculation as in this article.
“According to the recollection of stormtrooper Davin Felth, the farmers were killed after Owen spat in the face of the squad’s commanding officer, Mod Terrik, they were then each shot with a blaster before their bodies were semi-cremated with a flamethrower. Their execution was ordered by Darth Vader, who watched it via hololink, feeling it was “revenge” for their supposed weakness”
Hope that clears things up.
For even more information, read The Bounty Hunter Wars books by Jeter and let that shed some light or darkness onto the subject.
So the whole crux of this article is a Star Wars version of “in the absence of reasonable explanation….aliens.”
I’m surprised the “smoking weapon” behind the Lars massacre isn’t listed as evidence on this list. Boba Fett is known to carry and use a flame thrower. It would certainly account for the charred mess of Owen and Beru. (Although Clone troops were known to use flamethrowers (Clone Wars Animated Series), I don’t recall Imperial Troops carrying them.)
Vader/Anakin hated the Lars. He felt they were too incompetent to save his mother. He blamed it on them. He hated them. He WAS the one who had them killed (you can see a canon picture in the Star Wars wiki). Vader only chose to save Chewbacca and Leia because if they were dead, he would have no way of luring Luke to Cloud City.
“These blast points, too accurate for Sandpeople. Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise.”
lmao, yeah cause they’ve always got such pinpoint accuracy, huh?
and i’ll never accept the new trilogy’s story for Boba Fetts origin after reading the (much better and officially licensed) prequel stories for him the SW novels.
By this time the Stormtrooper corps was not comprised solely of Clones. As a matter of fact there were very few clones left in ervice.
Agreed!
Just To elaborate some more: In the deleted scene on Tatooine in Episode 4, Biggs and Skywalker chat about the Rebellion and the Empire. During this particular conversation, Luke clearly mentions that he would just end-up being recruited in the military of the Empire had it not been for his ambition to fight as a part of the Rebel Alliance. Therefore, Skywalker (or any other human during this time) could have been recruited as a TIE pilot, Stormtrooper, ect as the Empire would have deemed necessary.
as a star wars nerd, this list is making me crazy. fett didn’t kill luke’s aunt and uncle, because there was no bounty on them, and his assigned role during that time period was actually to act as personal bodyguard for jabba the hutt. jabba did send fett out on random errands, but killing an unimportant farmboy’s aunt and uncle (aside from vader and palpatine, no one knew beru and lars were luke’s relatives) were not among them. there are several books published, and one in particular (tales from the mos eisley cantina/tales from jabba’s palace) that chronicle these events.
okay, #10. yeah he was on the planet, I”ll give you this one.
9 Fett’s DNA? and the explanation has nothing to do with this. It makes a reference to the stormtrooper attack on the Jawas. Not Lars.
8 Vader protected them? okay lets say he did. Did that mean the trigger happy troopers knew Vader was their family when they were following the trail?
7 uhmmm… yeah that’s why he interrogated all the younglings at the temple. Also as I said to #8 was Vader there to stop the troopers from killing them?
6 Again, assuming Fett killed them, why would he bother if he was just after info. Why not the Stormies? When government officials murder two people they don’t usually leave the evidence lying around.
5 yeah Vader uses Bounty Hunters. Sure, but Fett seems to have been under contract with Jabba at the time. I’ll almost give you this point.
4 Stormtroopers were not clones. okay, a healthy clone in his 20’s during the clone war would have been in his 40’s during ANH. Oh wait, except for that whole accelerated aging thing. see a lot of 60-80 year old soldiers in the front lines? I don’t think so. Stormies are not clones.
3 Vader saves Chewbacca.. Yeah he needs them as bait for Luke if this trap doesn’t work. Or to get rebel info from. Sure he asked no questions while torturing them on Bespin. but that was to get Luke’s attention. no dice here either.
2 No punishment for not recovering the Droids.. How do we know this.. Just cause it wasn’t shown in the movie doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Vader never did paperwork either, at least in the movie. And cause it wasn’t shown in the movie, we can assume that people didn’t go to the bathroom in that galaxy far far away? Poor assumption, no dice.
And #1… No disintegrations. Fett is famous as a dead or alive kinda guy. Who knows who he killed on a job in the past. Doesn’t mean that it was the Lars. Also, the bodies looked to be torched…not disintegrated. A fire that could have been started by the superheated plasma of a blaster shot. Look at the movie, you see that all throughout all of the films when blasterfire hits.
Long and annoying but hey I was bored. And to be honest, I can’t see Mandalore Fett offing two farmers then trying to cover it up.
good point on #8
**as for your point, Eir’ika, about Stormtroopers NOT being the same as CLONE Troopers…i’ve always wondered about this & kind of assumed that’s what they’ve been up until the fall of the Empire in ROTJ (Return of the Jedi, for those who don’t know). that’s what the “Kamino Project,” if you will, was all about. Why would the Empire turn AWAY from using Clones that were “bred” to be more docile & physically fit & go BACK to using “regular” Human troopers (ie, with all our aging, slower growth, etc…)
*but it is an excellent point.
Several reasons:
1) Cost. From the “effectiveness” of the Stormtrooper armour to the “durability” of the TIE Fighter, the Empire is very much based on quantity rather than quality. Mass produced ships of sub-par design (TIE’s didn’t work so well in atmospheres and had no shields) and bringing masses into the Imperial Army, which likely cost a lot less for a lot more. For the record, both Luke Skywalker and Han Solo were on track to joining the Imperial Army, with the latter actually receiving some training at the Academy if I remember correctly.
2) Allegiances. As the Clone Wars continued and the rule of the Empire set in, the Kaminoans started to dislike their “employer” and started to go against them. This initiated open conflict with all the rebellious Kaminoans wiped out and their traitorous clones destroyed. Obviously this put a wrinkle in their business dealings…
3) Resources. You need Jango Fett to make clones of him. With him dead, the samples they had on Kamino were dwindling with each generation.
4) Loyalty. Tell me, would you rather have followers who HAD to do as you said, or followers who WANTED to do as you said. Yes, clones were obedient to a fault. But those in the Imperial Army were taught and indoctrinated with a belief that they would do whatever it took for the Empire (and no small amount of fear to keep it ingrained in their minds). There is no loyalty to clones who obey simply because they never think not to.
5) Humans have aging? So do clones, but faster. They were made to age into maturity faster, so it stands to reason they also degrade faster and die of age much sooner, needing to be replaced a lot more often.
In the end, I doubt the clones were ever a long term plan, just a quick and “easy” way to assume control before moving on with their plans. Indeed I wouldn’t be surprised if there were an Order 69 as well where every clone would swiftly give their favourite blaster rifle a BJ. Out with the old, in with the new. Seems like Palpatine’s style.
The Empire never turned TOWARDS using the Clones in the first place.
The development of the clone army was a covert plot by the Sith, working with a rogue Jedi, at a time when the Republic was too bloated, inefficient and lacked the consensus or the votes to muster a standing army.
The battle of Geonosis was finally the causus belli that gave CHANCELLOR Palpatine the ability to put the Republic on war footing, with the clones a ready expedient to create an Army of a size and standards that otherwise would’ve taken years through either a draft or conscription.
I suspect, though, that once Palpatine declared himself Emperor an effort to build a human armed forces would’ve begun almost immediately and would’ve been quite far along by Episode IV.
This list is called 10 reasons Boba Fett killed Luke Skywalker’s aunt and uncle yet I cannot find one reason to suggest why he would have. Killing them would not have benefited him at all. Never mind the fact that Boba Fett was not even an established character when this film was made. Do you really think audiences watching this movie in 1977 thought “I bet Luke’s aunt and uncle were killed my a completely unrelated character who has not even been introduced yet”? No they knew, as we do, that it was the Empire. Nice bit of speculation, but completely off the mark.
Also the whole thing about Vader wanting to protect his family holds no water. This is a man who attacked, possibly killed his wife, has dismembered his own son. Ok eventually he turned and became a good guy in the end, but Owen and Beru weren’t even related to him and he only met them once. I doubt he’d care for them much at all.
“…Do you really think audiences watching this movie in 1977 thought “I bet Luke’s aunt and uncle were killed my a completely unrelated character who has not even been introduced yet”? … ”
that’s funny! & a very good point ;7)
Sorry guys-
This is how it happened.
http://youtu.be/jlp9DHKDg6c
I’ve heard George say as much.
The comic book story “Thank The Maker” http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Thank_the_Maker would seem to imply that #3 might be wrong, Vader may very well have been protecting C-3PO instead of Chewbacca. That would actually make even more sense though, because it would be as if Vader was telling Boba Fett “you killed my family, but you won’t destroy something I built”.
c3po was created to help his mother the only thing left of his humanity before the dark side twisted him other then luke thats why vader didnt let fett shoot..
10 Reasons why this is a stretch.
10. Boba Fett Was At The Scene of the Crime
• This is based on the unsubstantiated assumption that the Empire automatically contracted bounty hunters to look for the droids as well as sending down a detachment of imperial forces. Already you are assuming that the Empire automatically goes to Bounty hunters for anything. With the events that took place above Tattooine, carrying the weight that they do, the enormously “sensitive material” would not risk being exposed to the underworld. The fact that Boba Fett was there at the same time is coincidental.
9. Boba Fett Had Stormtrooper DNA
• Yes, an unaltered clone of Jango Fett. He, unlike his clone brothers, is living out a life with a more normal duration. By this point, some 19 years later, many of those clones have begun to meet their full life expectancy. Many in the ranks of the Stormtroopers were already being replaced by none clones.
• Why did they need to cover their tracks? Imperial forces represent the law of the Empire. In the lawless expanses of the outer rim Stormtroopers would often act as judge, jury, executioner. Persons suspected of aiding the rebellion would be dealt with harshly, especially if all useful information had been already acquired. The cover up that is presented, is so that any remaining parties that might have information about the droids would not be tipped off by the imperial presence.
8. Darth Vader Protected Owen and Beru For Decades
• Did young Anakan in Episode II convey any ounce of compassion or feeling towards his now step family? Had Wato not sold Anakan’s mother she wouldn’t have been kidnapped by the sand people. Anakan’s behavior towards the Lars family appears to be one of restrained tolerance. They were another step in his mother being taken away from him. He is not going to hold a lot of compassion for a stepfamily that couldn’t protect his mother.
7. Darth Vader Preferred Interrogation
• Vader was into wholesale slaughter. This is the guy that walked into the Jedi Temple and massacred children. As far as taking Leia captive she is a member of the Imperial Senate so as a bargaining chip she holds more leverage than a couple of moisture farmers on some back woods planet. As far as the Stormtroopers trailing the droids, they were continually one step behind. From the escape pod, to the sand crawler, to the homestead, to finally creating check points in Mos EISLEY, the closest spaceport.
6. Boba Fett Had A Motive To Slaughter
• In the Imperial Hierarchy there is a chain of command that acts as a buffer between the lowest Stormtrooper and high-ranking officials like Darth Vader. The Stormtroopers would have simply reported that the droids were last reported in possession of some moisture farmers. By executing Aunt and Uncle the Stormtroopers prevent any information that they may have acquired from being circulated, same with the Jawas. Once again the Stormtroopers acted as authority and carried out these executions as a form of policy.
5. Darth Vader Was Not Above Using Bounty Hunters
• Anakin was caught in the crossfire of young Boba’s attempts to murder Mace Windu. Anakin recollects who Boba is in relation to Jango Fett. As the Clone Wars continue, a now teenage Boba along with other notorious bounty hunters will always have a presence in the events that transpire. In matters of finding persons or manipulation through intimidation the Empire is more likely to use bounty hunters. The bounty hunters can be more discreet simply because they don’t arrive with squads of white armored Stormtroopers and ruin the surprise. The Jedi were forced to deal with the Mandolorians revolt lead by Death Watch. Any person having the memory of those specific events would have an automatic distrust for a bounty hunter who prefers to wear the armor of the mandalorian super commandos.
4. Stormtroopers Could Not Disobey Orders
• Again, you are assuming that Vader/Anakin retained any feelings for a family he literally only spent hours with. The Stormtroopers could have been under orders to destroy any traces of the droids and or those that the droids may have come into contact with. That type of reaction is very similar to the Nazi German reaction to the conspirators who plotted to kill Hitler, in the failed bombing attempt by Stauffenberg. They too went to extremes and any person affiliated with the conspiracy was either imprisoned or executed. And this was under orders.
• At the massacre sight of the sand crawler Obi-Wan refers to “these tracks” are side by side, how many Boba Fetts are there? If Obi-Wan is seeing multiple tracks that indicate there are multiple persons, this alone negates your argument. Unless of course Boba was dancing while killing the Jawas.
• PURPLE RAINNNNNN!!!
3. Darth Vader Saves Chewbacca
• You are citing an event which transpires years after your initial argument and using it to support your argument. We know that there are reasons for Vader to keep Boba on a short leash. They are the history that exists following episode II through the Clone Wars up too Empire Strikes Back. Your support here is irrelevant.
2. There Is No Punishment For Not Recovering the Droids
• The time frame between the landing of the droids escape pod and when the Falcon flees the spaceport is only a matter of days. The search for the droids is still on going. The Death Star captures the Falcon in the remains of the Alderaan system; this is hours after having left Tattooine. Vader makes the assumption that they are trying to return the stolen plans to the princess. What is to punish? With how things have unfolded the droids may have potentially landed right in Vader’s lap.
• How is Vader’s lack of punishment proof that Boba killed Owen and Beru?
1. “No Disintegrations”
• The charred remains of the bodies (Owen and Beru) are outside of their dwelling. Meaning they died outside. Neither Boba Fett nor Stormtroopers would take the time to remove the corpses. This means that they were forced outside of their homestead while still alive, likely questioned and then killed. Typically police forces or militias will employ one or two persons to hold suspects outside their homes while other persons in the party search the home. Would Boba enter their home, force them to tag along as he searched their home for the droids, only to bring them to the surface to murder them? They were rounded up, the place was searched, they were questioned, executed and the place was destroyed. This was to prevent anyone from returning and reoccupying the residence, essentially flushing the prey towards the snare. The prey being whoever currently has the droids and the snare being the checkpoints established in surrounding cities.
• Between the smoldering fire at the homestead and the charred bodies it is likely evidence of the use of thermal detonators, which every Stormtrooper is issued as standard equipment.
I have to say you make a lot of sense. Cheers to you for having so much knowledge on my 2nd favorite topic of all time.
The article makes for intesting conversation, yet yours is truly more accurate and is founded on and backed up with canonical evidence
*Interesting
The tracks that Kenobi refers to as being side by side are bantha tracks, not human foot prints. IT’s widely understood that the Stormtroopers likely slaughtered some Tusken Raiders (or to be politically correct, “sand people”) took their banthas, and framed the scene of the crime.
“Sand people” is not the politically correct term; in fact that would probably be the more offensive term. The politically correct term would be “Tuskens.”
Actually, while the “sand people” of Tatooine are frequently called “Tuskens”, it surely could not be any more PC to refer to them as such since it is derived from “Tusken Raiders” – slang terminology that refers specifically to the single group of sand people responsible for the raid on the republic settlement at Fort Tusken. There is no proper name ever assigned to the alien (non-humanoid) race known as the “sand people” in their modern evolutionary state… though there are scientific names for their genetic ancestors. Additionally, it is suggested that they are descended from the same species as Jawas at some point in their history.
You, sir or madam, are my hero, and have included both counterarguments of mine and which would never have occurred to me. Bravo!
That’s an interesting theory, seems a bit too far-fetched for me but i’m impressed you could find 10, more or less, good reasons to explain this. -)
I’ve always been surprised to see how people speculate about the Star Wars Universe, i may be wrong (and i’m sure a lot of people will point how wrong i am :-)), but i think Lucas never went that far while building this whole universe. The 1st trilogy (Ep. 4 to 6) is mostly good guys vs bad guys. Again it’s my personal opinion but it seems to me that the complexity of this universe was built afterwards by people like Timothy Zahn or other authors.
Don’t get me wrong i always find those discussions interesting, a bit like wondering if the rebellion killed a lot of innocent people who were rebuilding the Death Star in Return of the Jedi; but i’m not sure these questions ever reached Lucas’s mind.
Actually its only like 4 reasons. 3 of them have to do with Fett being a clone that counts at one. 5 of them have to do with Vader to being a not the merciless bad guy that makes 2. Vader uses bounty hunters that makes 3. Then Fett was on the same planet for reason number 4.
Sorry, guy that made this, you make a horrible case. its almost like you have seen oh the first 25 min of Episode 4 and then just the scenes that involve Fett.
I don’t think the writer of the list said that Boba Fett is the actual killer, he just came up with some circumstantial evidence for all we know they spontaneously combusted.
thank you
False: when you say “I don’t think the writer of the list said that Boba Fett is the actual killer, he just came up with some circumstantial evidence for all we know they spontaneously combusted ”
title of this article is:
Top 10 Reasons Proving Boba Fett Killed Luke Skywalker’s Aunt and Uncle
hmmmmm questions?
Cough “NERDS” Cough. Sorry, i have a bit of a bad cough here.
Maybe you should take a “why are you reading this list just to comment on nerds” tablet. It’s very helpful for “BS” colds.
I realize now you see I’m a troll. So I’ll be going now, but remember I’ll always be with you….. In your heart.
Too Americanized.
Nice. Very nice. I see you must be a long-time reader. 😉
Oh god. Not this again.
I think you are inserting a lot of details into this scenario.
First off, Darth Vader’s body count is much, much higher than you realize. He slaughtered numerous sand people, padwans, and the viceroys in episodes 2 and 3. He is also not above killing full-fledged Jedi, having killed both Count Dooku and Obi-Wan in episodes 3-4.
Boba Fett’s body count, on the other hand, is zero, at least as far as what was shown in the movies. And he is not some indiscriminate killing machine, either. He actually had no interest in killing Han Solo, specifically mentioning that he would be out a lot of money if Han does not survive the carbonite freezing.
Second, we know for a fact that Stormtroopers were instructed to be ruthless in trying to recover the droids, as they completely wiped out the Jawas that picked up R2-D2 and C-3PO prior to moving on to Owen and Beru’s place. There was no way that Vader could have known they would be sold to his aunt and uncle, so the Stormtroopers were just following their last order in trying to recover the droids.
Third, there is no evidence whatsoever that Boba Fett was at the scene of the crime. We see Boba Fett for the first time in Mos Eisley, which is within driving distance of Owen and Beru’s farm but nothing else.
Fourth, there is no indication at all that Boba Fett knew of or cared about the droids. We first see Fett alongside Jabba, and Jabba was very specifically after Han Solo. That was his primary goal the entire time.
I have to agree with Joe.
Fett was with Jabba, who was after Han. There’s no reason he would be after Owen & Beru. Not until Empire does Vader get bounty hunters involved in this. Most likely in the beginning Vader & the Emperor would want to keep this “hush hush”. It looks bad on the empire that plans for their big weapon would be stolen. Why put a bounty out about it, especially when it seems like a simple find & retrieve mission?
Even if your only family is down on that planet, it’s still a whole planet. What are the odds of the droids ending up there? Besides, it’s a big secret to everyone else that Vader has family. I imagine the directive was, “Get me those droids, kill whoever you need to. Don’t fail me.” The lack of punishment on-screen doesn’t mean it didn’t happen off-screen.
It’s also established in Star Wars cannon that disintegration devices leave noting behind but ash. So the reference in Empire to Fett about “no disintegrations” is more likely about Fett trying at some point in the past to collect a Dead or Alive bounty when there was no proof left of that individual’s death, except for maybe a few ashes.
Disruptor Weapon
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Disruptor
“A Disruptor was a particularly powerful type of energy weapon often preferred by assassins and bounty hunters. Disruptor weapons were similar to their blasters counterparts in many ways, such as the use of blaster gas and energy cell. Disruptors were illegal on many planets, and in many places merely possessing one would earn an instant death sentence. ”
“In simpler terms, disruptor weapons used extremely high amounts of unstable blaster energy, enough to obliterate matter on a higher scale than normal blasters. A shot from a disruptor rifle could do this in less than a full second, vaporizing a being almost instantly. A disruptor was capable of disintegrating a humanoid target, turning it to a pile of ash.”
Sorry, but disintegration does not equal burned.
Fett is armed with a flamethrower
One problem – The Storm Troopers of episodes 4-6 were not clones of Jango Fett. The use of clone troopers was stopped at the end of the clone wars, Storm Troopers were just regular recruited humans.
That assumption is incorrect. The storm troopers in 4-6 were, in fact, clones. Episode 3 shows the evolution of the stormtrooper.
Storm toopers at this time were both recruits and clones so your both right
While some of the clones may have survived to this point in time and the EU shows that some do, MOST have died out do to the conflict and the accelerated growth techniques used in making the clones in the first place. So at this point in time humans made up 99% of the imperial military if not more.
Clones are human, too!
But yes, they’re mostly regular people who joined or were enlisted in the military.
People who think they’re clones, see Allegiance by Timothy Zahn, for example.
Actually, according to canon, the stormtrooper at the time of 4-6 were humans, but 1/3 of their ranks were still the clones that had been commissioned after episode 3. These clones made up most of the bodies on the death star and the star destroyers. There were probably around 1 billion (estimation considering hte size of the unvierse, it’s planets, and the empire) which would mean around 300 million stormtroopers are clones.
Yes, according to Timothy Zhan (greatest EU author) much of the tech used to create clones had been destroyed and the empire’s ranks were mostly regular humans. Sure, some had survived the clone wars, but the empire had lost the ability to create more, until Admiral Thrawn rediscovered the cloning equipment. I do believe though that any clone stormtroopers left would have been in squad leader positions due to their experience and loyalty so this theory still holds up for me.
You are all wrong.
EU is not canon. Hah.
It is specifically stated that storm troopers past Episode 3 as we have seen them, (In Star Wars Rebels, and the newly official Star Wars books which is not EU Legends but canon) are in fact all humans.
There MAY be clones out there, but if there are… we haven’t seen them. I suppose it’s possible they are out there, but we haven’t seen them. All speculation. I have mixed feelings about it… shows how poorly the universe was designed.
The royal guards were all clones and that’s pretty much it every other clone had died out at that point.
Also, the Lars’ were burned with FIRE.
Storm Troopers use blasters, which leave a big hole in someone, but don’t fry them. Tuskens use long rifles, (if we are assuming that Sand People were being blamed, as in the Jawa massacre), but Boba Fett uses, amongst other weapons, a FLAME THROWER.
I concur, it looks like Fett did it.
Imperial stormtroopers are equipped with one thermal detonator, so in reality it can look like they were burned. Who knows, the womp rats could have gotten to their rotting flesh.
In the Force Unleashed, at some point, you fight stormtroopers armed with flamethrowers, so it still might be stormtroopers
Jango Fett asked for a clone to keep as a son
I though Boba was not a clone of Jango, he is his son and therefore not a copy.
Boba was an unaltered clone of Jango.
In Attack of the Clones, it is clearly stated that Boba is indeed an unaltered clone of Jango Fett. It is the one thing Jango asked for besides significant pay, according to Kaminoan Lama Su. Quote from the movie: “Apart from his pay, which is considerable, Fett demanded only one thing: an unaltered clone for himself.”
I need to fix some things here storm troopers are no clones boba fett is technically is a clone, which makes sense as to why he can shoot with accuracy. And Darth Vader is a master interrogator. He got people to talk as anikin Skywalker when he was a dark Jedi. I say dark jedi because he was a Jedi but he, like luke, played with the dark arts. People forget at the beginning of Jedi luke did force choke a few guards in jabas palace. Annikin was known for force choking prisoners almost to the point of death, stopping letting them regain strength and repeating till he got the info he wanted.