Darth Wong wrote:Elfdart wrote:Who says the troopers needed gasoline or napalm (I know I suggested the latter as a possibility.) or some other flammable liquid to burn the Lars homestead? Setting a house and/ or the items inside on fire isn't that difficult and doesn't require gasoline.
It's difficult when the house is made of concrete instead of wood.
The stormtroopers who killed the Jawas carried all kinds on extra gear -including Tusken weapons and Banthas- to conceal their atrocities. Is it farfetched to think they had something they could set on fire and hurl into the main gallery of the Lars' home and that the fire could spread from there to the clothes, furniture and other items in the home -including the clothes Owen and Beru were wearing? Once that happens, the "wick effect" takes over.
The "wick effect" is a rare slow-burning phenomenon. You make it sound as if anytime a human being gets burned, he will inevitably burn down to the bones.
The "wick effect" can take several hours to completely consume the bones and destroys the skin, fat and flesh first. Since there is no sure way to tell how much time passed between the stormtroopers doing the deed and Luke's discovery of his family's corpses, it's a strong possibility.
Actually, the wick effect destroys the bones because it slow-burns the fat. It
has to work very slowly, thus it is incompatible with throwing gasoline on someone and lighting him on fire that way. If we were to use your logic, almost all fire victims would be reduced to nothing.
Why do you keep bringing up gasoline when it's not necessary to my assertion? Is this "gorilla dust" at work?
My theory for what killed Owen and Beru Lars and why their bodies were found the way they were:
1) The stormtroopers, after wringing information from the Jawas, approach the property.
2) Two possibilities come to mind: Owen and Beru realize right away that the troopers are there for droids linked to Obi-Wan Kenobi and flee inside their home OR Owen and Beru are questioned by the troopers and
then try to flee when they realize what the troopers are after. The Larses might even fight them. Either way, they run into their home.
3) The stormtroopers open fire (explaining chunks of masonry and other debris scattered around the home when Luke returns), but Owen and Beru make it inside. The troopers notice the open gallery that leads to the house and do what soldiers have done from the beginning of time when they want to flush people out of a building: They set it on fire -either the building itself, or the furnishings and other items inside. An obvious choice would be some sort of incendiary grenade or bomb. If this sort of thing isn't standard-issue for Imperial forces, it's highly likely that they could improvise
something to start a fire and throw it into the main gallery of the homestead.
4) The fire spreads to any number of flammable items in the home, the garage, the workshop and other parts of the homestead. Among the things that catch fire are the very clothes on the backs of Owen and Beru. They try to run up the stairs and out of the house, where the stormtroopers are waiting.
5) The troopers shoot Owen and Beru and leave them to smolder at the doorway of their home. The small fires (their clothes) smolder and feed off the fat in their bodies over the course of several hours. Since it can take several hours for the "wick effect" to consume an entire body (bones and all), and there's no exact time given for when Owen and Beru were killed, and it's not clear how long Luke was gone that day, Luke must have returned before the slow burn had destroyed their skeltons.
No gasoline.
, there was the oil for the hot oil bath in the garage. Maybe we are seeing oil based products from the homestead burning, at least what is giving off all that black smoke from the sand and concrete building.
