What exactly did the stormtroopers do to Owen and Beru Lars?

[Jack Bauer]

Upon watching ANH again, it is clear that Owen and Beru Lars were not the victims of ordinary blaster fire. Their charred corpses at the homestead speak of a slow and painful death. Judging by the location of the corpses (one is contorted backwards in a dying last gasp while the other seems to have collapsed upon just running up the stairs), the stormtroopers evidently set the couple on fire and watched them die an agonizingly slow and cruel death. Without a doubt, these two deaths are the most graphic and gory in all six films.

There is only one compelling reason why the stormtroopers opted to torture the two. Owen and Beru were most likely uncooperative, thus enraging the troopers. When the soldiers realized that the couple wouldn't tell them about Luke and the droids, they decided to teach them a lesson. As a result, we all saw that grisly scene in ANH. This explains why the Jawas were not burned alive, but appear to have been merely shot. (They WERE cooperative after all and led the troops to the Lars home.)

So this begs the question, "What exactly did the stormtroopers DO to Owen and Beru in order to kill them in such a horrific fashion?" I don't think the standard E-11 blaster rifle can even remotely inflict the kind of damage we saw. My theory is that either the soldiers carried some kind of flamethrower (similar to Jango Fett's in AOTC) or that they used electrocution (generated by appliances lying around or ripped out power cables.)

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Without a doubt, these two deaths are the most graphic and gory in all six films.

Um, it's not really graphic when you don't see it, and seeing as they were burned, that's not exactly gory, either.

There is only one compelling reason why the stormtroopers opted to torture the two. Owen and Beru were most likely uncooperative, thus enraging the troopers. When the soldiers realized that the couple wouldn't tell them about Luke and the droids, they decided to teach them a lesson. As a result, we all saw that grisly scene in ANH. This explains why the Jawas were not burned alive, but appear to have been merely shot. (They WERE cooperative after all and led the troops to the Lars home.)

I think you're reading way too much into it and filling in too much on your own. For all we know they could have just shot and burned them as soon as they got there, or just shot the Lars when they became uncooperable, but not because of malice or rage. It sounds like you're just trying to make it way worse just so Star Wars can be cool and ultra-violent.

[Jack Bauer]

I think you're reading way too much into it and filling in too much on your own. For all we know they could have just shot and burned them as they got there, or just shot the Lars when they became uncooperable, but not because of malice or rage. It sounds like you're just trying to make it way worse just so Star Wars can be cool and ultra-violent.

Sounds like I'm trying to wank the violence factor in SW huh? Give me a fuckin break you idiot. I'm not trying to add any extra degree of violence, I'm just looking at what the movie gives me. And what the movie gives me is evidence of a particularly gruesome death (that differs from all other deaths we see on screen inflicted by other stormtroopers from Order 66 to Endor). Think about it logically, why the hell would the stormtroopers burn the bodies after they shot them? Just for kicks? (If they did, that sounds pretty fuckin malicious to me) Makes you wonder why they didn't burn the Jawas as well.

The more likely answer is that the deaths of Owen and Beru were caused by burning of some kind, which resulted in the way their bodies are seen by Luke. The reason why they were burned, instead of just simply and easily shot, was that the troopers wanted to teach a lesson to the uncooperative Lars (probably spurred on by a little malice as well). It was an interrogation that went wrong. Granted, I am filling in the blanks here, but I think its a logical conclusion to make.

[Duckie]

As to why they didn't burn the Jawas, they had to attack to make it look like Tuskens after they didn't get the droids. Tuskens don't light stuff on fire when they're done.

[Jack Bauer]

As to why they didn't burn the Jawas, they had to attack to make it look like Tuskens after they didn't get the droids. Tuskens don't light stuff on fire when they're done.

That's actually a good point. Thanks for clarifying that.

[KhyronTheBackstabber]

I don't see why the E-11 couldn't do that type of damage, one shot from Han's blaster did a pretty good job of cooking Greedo.

[Molyneux]

I don't see why the E-11 couldn't do that type of damage, one shot from Han's blaster did a pretty good job of cooking Greedo.

Not to mention the pyrotechnics when Obi-Wan fried Grievous...

Normal-power blasts from E-11s can easily scorch Star Wars building materials; we've seen them ignite the surface they hit. Is it that hard to believe that a barrage of full-power shots couldn't ignite flesh?

[18-Till-I-Die]

I always assumed they used a sort of 'wide beam' mode, less overall power just more heat, reduces flesh to ash that sort of thing. That or, after seeing Boba Fett, i assumed they used a similar wrist-flamethrower device. They were a black ops team, it isnt too far fetched they'd have some nonstandard equipment.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

They were a black ops team, it isnt too far fetched they'd have some nonstandard equipment.

Um, no they weren't.

[18-Till-I-Die]

They were a black ops team, it isnt too far fetched they'd have some nonstandard equipment.

Um, no they weren't.

Hmm...i thought, pretty sure, i saw that on the main site but that's purely from memory so i could be wrong.

Still, they could have some kind of plasma thrower, or most likely, the blaster has a 'scorch' setting for use against unarmored, unshielded targets (we know it has a 'stun' setting, and they can have variable yields, so it seems perfectly reasonable to me a 'wide beam' scorching mode might also exist).

[Spanky The Dolphin]

I've personally never heard of anything like it. I'm with Khyron and Molyneux on this.

[ds615]

I don't see why the E-11 couldn't do that type of damage, one shot from Han's blaster did a pretty good job of cooking Greedo.

True.
But Owen and Buru are completely stripped of flesh, and yet their bones remain whole and unbroken.

Since a blaster can blow a chunk out of concrete, one would think that a "barrage" would at least snap a rib or two.

I'm gonna have to guess flamethrower, or the SW equvilant.

[Darth Wong]

I don't see why the E-11 couldn't do that type of damage, one shot from Han's blaster did a pretty good job of cooking Greedo.

True.
But Owen and Buru are completely stripped of flesh, and yet their bones remain whole and unbroken.

Since a blaster can blow a chunk out of concrete, one would think that a "barrage" would at least snap a rib or two.

I'm gonna have to guess flamethrower, or the SW equvilant.

The problem is that we see them earlier, and they don't appear to be carrying flamethrowers. Add to that the fact that we saw Obi-Wan fry Grievous and it's not really hard to believe that you can cook somebody with a blaster. Maybe it depends on settings.

[Solauren]

Also, it's possible that the Stormtroopers also oh, shot them, killing them, and then torched the farm to make it look like Sandpeople did it, causing there bodies to go up.

[PainRack]

I'm with Solauren.

I always felt that they shot Owen and Beru when they resisted entry and then set the entire homestead on fire. Owen and Beru were probably still conscious then dragged themselves out where the ST then shot them up some more.....

Okay, I think I too bored from studying now.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Isn't there a torture method called the Burning which uses a blaster set at 'low' power? The damage to our two vics looks consistent with an application of such a technique by the stormies.

[Darth Fanboy]

Wasn't the homestead on fire when Luke returned though? Could Owen and Beru have been killed and then set aflame? The Stormtroopers could have set the homestand on fire easily enough.

[Darth Wong]

Wasn't the homestead on fire when Luke returned though? Could Owen and Beru have been killed and then set aflame? The Stormtroopers could have set the homestand on fire easily enough.

I don't recall that the area around them looked particularly scorched. It's not that easy to set a concrete structure on fire. Specific pieces of the homestead were burning, but the whole place didn't go up in flames.

[drachefly]

... I think that you two are describing the same thing. To set the homestead on fire, where most of the homestead is adobe, would mean setting the relevant parts on fire.

[000]

The stormtroopers had a HAVr Flying Fortress with them, IIRC, albeit off camera. HAVr's have flamethrowers. Their officer was something of a sociopath, got pissed when Owen spat on him, and the rest is history.

[000]

Whoops.

[NRS Guardian]

It could be the stormtroopers pulled an Ayla. Aka shooting them dozens of times, perhaps to the pointing of cooking the flesh off their bones.

[Perseid]

Sorry your all wrong

http://www.theforce.net/fanfilms/shortfilms/troops/

This is what really happened

[Lord Pounder]

Could Vader have found out that it was his step brother involved and in a fit of rage he ordered the Stormies to use a rarely used maximum power on Owen and Bru, he is a bad bastard like that.

[Elheru Aran]

Could Vader have found out that it was his step brother involved and in a fit of rage he ordered the Stormies to use a rarely used maximum power on Owen and Bru, he is a bad bastard like that.

Possible but unlikely; his ship left the system before Owen and Beru were discovered. Unless there was an holocomm unit in the Flying Fortress, the troops were probably on orders to simply interrogate and then kill witnesses. These guys just decided to be thorough...