OK, you've all read reports of people coming home from seeing Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith and saying "Now I'm going to watch the original trilogy and see how it changed things." I'm now guilty of this simple pleasure myself. I've just finished Episode IV, and spent the entire viewing going, "Oh, wow, ya know, that means something different now!" My wife hates it... she thought I was bad with switching channels on the remote. Now I can watch the original trilogy and find things that all of a sudden make more sense. First off - Uncle Owen's behavior. Every one felt sorry for Luke Skywalker in 1977, because Uncle Owen was such a ba***rd about everything. "Nope, you can't go to the Academy. You have to work in the desert some more." "Nope, you can't play with your friends. There's work to do." Jeez, what a pain in the butt Owen was, right? Well, after seeing Episode III, maybe he wasn't being so much the bas***rd as he was simply trying to follow Obi-Wan Kenobi's lead in bringing up Luke to be nondescript, to blend into the crowd and not attract unwanted (read "fatherly") attention. When we leave the theater after Episode III, Owen isn't very angry about having to adopt Luke. He's sort of non-committal - happy for Beru (maybe he's not infertile, or she is), but struggling with the new-found responsibility. As a father, I understand this position. Maybe he's realized that Obi-Wan wouldn't have brought just any baby to Tatooine... maybe Obi-Wan explained that Luke might possibly be the stronger of the twins, and needs to be sheltered from harm at all costs. We never see the discussion where the Lars' agree to take Luke, so we don't know what Obi-Wan told them. It just seems to make sense now that Owen's gruff attitude in Episode IV is due to his understanding of Luke's true situation in the galaxy's future. He doesn't want Luke going off to the Academy, since he'll be obvious to everyone in the Imperial command structure. He doesn't want Luke flying risky races through Beggars' Canyon, for fear that someone will question is abnormal - non-human - abilities to anticipate trouble, like his father. Perhaps most of all, Owen doesn't want to bring about any disruption to his family life. I think Owen was one of the truly misunderstood characters of the original trilogy, precisely because we didn't have the backstory of the prequels to provide us with the details we needed to understand his position.