Owen Lars was a human male moisture farmer from the desert planet Tatooine. He was the son of Aika and Cliegg Lars, and he became the stepbrother of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker when Cliegg remarried to Anakin's mother Shmi Skywalker, a former slave. When Shmi was killed by Tusken Raiders and Cliegg passed away soon after, Lars was left responsible for his family's farm. Around that time, Lars married his girlfriend, Beru Whitesun, and they toiled to maintain the homestead. Three years later, Lars' stepbrother betrayed the Jedi Order and became the Sith Lord Darth Vader. At that time, Lars and his wife were given custody of Skywalker's son, Luke, by Skywalker's Jedi Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Jedi told Lars that Skywalker had been killed, and the farmer grew to resent Kenobi, believing he was responsible for his stepbrother's death. Fearing that the younger Skywalker would share a similar fate, Lars forbade Kenobi from seeing the boy, and he kept his nephew busy with work on the farm. Shortly after the start of the Galactic Civil War, Lars and Skywalker purchased the droid R2-D2, who, unbeknownst to them, possessed stolen plans for the Death Star, an Imperial superweapon capable of destroying planets. Seeking to retrieve the data, Imperial stormtroopers tracked the droid to Lars' homestead, where they interrogated and murdered him and his wife. When Skywalker found his family had been killed, he left Tatooine with Kenobi to train as a Jedi, joining the Alliance to Restore the Republic and destroying the Death Star in the Battle of Yavin.