Owen Lars was content to marry Beru and live a practical life in the arid wastes of Tatooine, moisture farming in order to irrigate his underground produce gardens. Lars used vaporators to distill water from the air, a difficult task on a planet with two suns and many seasons each year. He made some money selling excess water to those who maintained hydroponic gardens, such as the nearby family with an infant daughter named Camie.

When Obi-Wan brought the infant Luke Skywalker to the Lars, they promised to raise the child as if they were his aunt and uncle. Luke was taught strong values such as loyalty and commitment, and from his aunt he learned compassion. What he wasn't taught was anything about his father, who he was told had died before Luke's birth. All Luke knew was that his father had been a great pilot, and later a navigator on a spice freighter. The Lars were trying to protect Luke from ever finding out that Darth Vader was his father.

Owen maintained a stern countenance, but he secretly feared greatly for Luke's future. When a young Skywalker demonstrated extra-sensory perception by finding a missing tool without even searching for it, Owen scolded the lad.

When Skywalker was a teen, he and his friend Windy went on a foolhardy trek into the desert, atop a pet dewback named Huey. The two farmboys ran afoul of a krayt dragon and were stranded in the wastes. Obi-Wan Kenobi, traveling on foot, came to their rescue and guided them back to the Lars homestead. Owen was furious, but not at Luke.

The reason for Owen's anger was that Kenobi had attempted to give Anakin's lightsaber to Luke, since he felt that Luke was old enough and should be allowed to have it. Owen refused to allow it because he believed the Jedi path was a destructive one. He told Kenobi he didn't want Luke to make the same mistakes his father did, stating how he felt Anakin should have never left his mother in slavery and gotten involved with the "damned foolish idealistic Jedi crusaders" in the first place. He instead yelled at Kenobi to leave his property and to never come back again.

When Luke became a teenager and began racing skyhoppers with Biggs Darklighter and his other friends from the nearby town of Anchorhead, Lars began to fear the boy was slipping away. Luke had dreams of a galaxy of adventure, but Owen attempted to keep him grounded in reality on Tatooine. Although Luke petitioned his uncle to allow him to enter the Academy with Biggs, Owen stalled him repeatedly, telling him he could go "next season." Beru could only offer sympathy.

As moisture farming was intensive work, Owen, by this time in his mid-fifties, needed many droids to aid himself and Luke. Two of the many droids he purchased from the scavenger Jawas were C-3PO and R2-D2. When Luke found a recording from Princess Leia within the memory systems of R2-D2, he mentioned the name. "Obi-Wan Kenobi" to Owen and Beru over dinner, opining that it might refer to Ben Kenobi. Owen warned Luke never to go near the "crazy old hermit" and told him to flush the R2's memory.

The following day, Luke and the droids both disappeared. Owen assumed they had gone to work early, and he and Beru were surprised when Imperial stormtroopers showed up demanding information about the droids. Neither Owen nor Beru would give the troopers the information they sought, and the Imperials killed them, burning their homestead.

According to the recollection of stormtrooper Davin Felth, the farmers were killed after Owen spat in the face of the squad's commanding officer. Their execution was ordered by Darth Vader, who watched it via hololink, feeling it was "revenge" for their supposed weakness.

Luke returned to the homestead at dusk, to find the charred bodies of the only parents he had ever known. He had come home to keep his commitments, and had discovered a horror that would propel him to the destiny that was his birthright.

Laze Loneozner and his wife Camie looked after the Lars farm for the first few months after Owen's death, until Luke returned to Tatooine and gave his inheritance to the alien named Throgg. The farm eventually came under the ownership of the parents of Gavin Darklighter sometime around the Battle of Hoth.

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