Cliegg Lars

Cliegg Lars was born to Lef and Gredda Lars on the Outer Rim Territories desert planet of Tatooine. Cliegg also had a brother, Edern. Despite the arid conditions of Tatooine and the danger posed by the native Tusken Raider tribes, the family became pioneers of the Great Chott salt flat and operated a moisture farm on the outskirts of a settlement known as Anchorhead. Cliegg helped found and build the underground homestead, and the family made their living harvesting water from the atmosphere by employing the use of dozens of moisture vaporators. Because the water harvests rarely supplied quantities sufficient to sell for profit, the family kept the water for themselves to sustain their hydroponic gardens instead.

Tragedy would strike the Lars family when Edern suffered an untimely death at the age of fourteen when he lost control of the family's V-35 Courier landspeeder. Some time later, he was followed by Lef and Gredda, leaving Cliegg as the last of his immediate family. Edern, Lef, and Gredda were buried on the family's property. Still young, Cliegg wanted to experience life on a bustling Core World and left Tatooine. While away, he met a woman named Aika, and the two fell in love, married, and parented a son together, Owen. Despite the brief reprieve, Aika died when Owen was still very young, and Cliegg decided to return to Tatooine with his son. Cliegg and Owen ran the farm together, proving to be a diligent pair, and their family soon grew with the addition of Owen's girlfriend, Beru Whitesun.

In secret, Cliegg, Owen, and Beru began helping White Suns, a liberation movement aimed at emancipating enslaved peoples on Tatooine. It was by chance that Cliegg on a trip to Mos Espa in search of a new farmhand, the Larses would be introduced to Shmi Skywalker, who would become an integral part of their family. While on a supply run in Mos Espa, Beru's portable navigator unit malfunctioned, and at a recommendation from the merchant she had been bartering with, she went to Skywalker's residence in the Slave Quarters Row to get it fixed for cheap. When Beru returned to Cliegg's home, she told him and Owen of Shmi's talent for tinkering, which interested the White Suns. Cliegg went to meet with her on behalf of the network, and he too became interested in her following their first conversation. In the following weeks, Shmi told Cliegg, Owen, and Beru of her enslaver, the Toydarian junk dealer Watto, namely what his weaknesses were and how he cheated to get around the White Suns.

Shmi spent most of her time with Cliegg, who hired her out from Watto, ostensibly to tune his moisture vaporators. They developed a liking for one another and, in their time spent together, they grew close. Shmi and Beru worked on building tracking devices, which they could use to locate the transmitter chips planted in those enslaved on Tatooine. Around 27 BBY, the day finally came for Cliegg to make his move and free Shmi from Watto's ownership. Knowing of Watto's gambling tendencies from Shmi's information, Cliegg lured Watto into a game where she was the promised prize. Lars won the game, and after settling his purchase, he quickly brought Shmi back to the boundaries of his homestead, setting her free even though the transmitter chip still remained.

Over the next three months of trial and error, the Larses and Skywalker worked tirelessly to complete a working deprogramming device to remove Shmi's chip. The work was tedious, and it was only because of Cliegg's technical ownership of her that Shmi was able to have the device tested on her; had she still been under the control of an enslaver, she would have been killed the moment the chip was tampered with. Cliegg kept the monitoring device that controlled her chip in his office. Though Cliegg, Beru, and Owen continued to fret over the situation, Shmi remained positive, in part because her son, Anakin, who had once been Watto's slave but won his freedom and joined the Jedi Order, had always wanted to build a deprogrammer. At the end of the three months, Shmi and Beru finished the device and had only to test it once more.

Cliegg couldn't bear to watch the procedure again, and Owen took him to the other side of the homestead to keep him distracted. While Cliegg and Owen waited, Beru successfully located Shmi's chip, which was fused to her lower spine. Knowing that they would have only a short window before the monitoring device discovered that the chip was being disturbed, Beru quickly made cuts into Shmi's skin and removed the chip, deactivating it. Though Shmi would have lived even if the monitor found the chip was tampered with, the next person they tried the procedure on would not. Having made a successful scanner, Cliegg and his family continued to help escaped slaves and removed their chips when they could. Some of those they helped died during the chip's removal, but the Lars family remained devoted to their cause and Shmi worked endlessly to improve the device.

Having grown close in the time they knew each other, Cliegg and Shmi married, and Shmi adopted his surname. Cliegg, Shmi, Owen and Beru lived a quiet life at their homestead, where they survived against the harsh desert together. Shmi brought happiness into the Lars family, and she became a bright center and integral part of their unit. Though she was greatly content with her marriage to Cliegg and her life on the farm, Shmi spent many nights worrying about Anakin and his well-being. When she moved into the farm, she brought a protocol droid Anakin had built as a child, C-3PO, to work on the land.

Although the homestead was an island of familial warmth amidst the vast desert wastes, tragedy soon struck. In 22 BBY, Shmi was picking mushrooms off the moisture vaporators just before dawn when a Tusken hunting party arrived and took her captive. Cliegg immediately investigated and concluded that she had been halfway home when the Tuskens took her. He assembled a quadrille of thirty moisture farmers, including himself, and prepared to take on the Tusken tribe believed to have taken his wife. Despite their brave effort to rescue Shmi, the farmers were outmatched and slaughtered. Only four posse members survived the counter-raid, including Cliegg. Although Cliegg managed to survive the violent attack, his right leg had been hacked off at the knee and he had damaged his left.

Over the next month, Cliegg lost hope and began to believe that Shmi was no longer alive. Rather than incur the expense of a cybernetic protheses for his lost leg, Lars took to using a repulsorlift chair, which he found more practical. As Cliegg and his family mourned the loss of Shmi, the farm was visited by Anakin Skywalker, who had been haunted by dreams of his mother in agony. Skywalker arrived with the Galactic Republic Senator Padmé Amidala, who was under his protection. They were led into the underground living area of the homestead by C-3PO, where they met Owen and Beru. Cliegg entered the room and introduced himself as Shmi's husband, then invited Skywalker and Amidala inside so they could discuss what had happened.

In the dining room, Cliegg informed Anakin of Shmi's disappearance and his failed rescue attempt while Beru served everyone drinks. Lars was pessimistic that Shmi was still alive, but an emotional Anakin got up from the table and began walking away. Owen asked where he was going, and Anakin replied that he was going to find his mother. Cliegg implored him to accept that Shmi was dead, but Skywalker was adamant and left the farm in the evening, leaving Padmé to stay with the Larses. During the night, Anakin was able to track down the Tusken Raiders' camp, and he found his mother, emaciated and bound but still alive. Though he tried to escape with her, she was near death and died in his arms, after which he massacred the entire Tusken tribe, including women and children, in a fit of fury.

The next morning, Anakin returned to the Lars homestead with Shmi's corpse. The Larses placed her body in a coffin, and she was buried next to Cliegg's parents and brother. A small funeral service was held later that day, and Cliegg briefly spoke his last respects. Anakin too spoke, but instead of memorializing Shmi, he swore never to allow himself to fail anyone else as he had failed her. The funeral was interrupted by Anakin and Padmé's droid, R2-D2, who informed them that he had received a message for them. The visitors remained at the farm for just a short while longer, and just as soon as they had arrived, Skywalker and Amidala left the Lars family alone once more.

Cliegg was bereft at the loss of Shmi, while Owen barely contained his anger as well. Beru remained steadfast and continued the family's work with the White Suns even as Cliegg and Owen dealt with the loss. After some time, Cliegg was determined to continue the life he had worked hard to create on Tatooine and began working to make the Lars homestead an oasis of security in the desert, but he quickly began to fade as the tragedy continued to weigh him down heavily. The once-strong man became weak even as time passed since Shmi's death, and he died from the wounds he received from the Tuskens and of a broken heart not long after her death. Cliegg's body was, like Shmi's, placed in a coffin and buried next to hers. The Lars homestead was bequeathed to Owen and Beru, who married and sought to continue the family's traditions.

Owen and Beru worked hard to maintain the farm that Cliegg had founded. At the end of the Clone Wars, Owen and Beru were made the guardians of Luke Skywalker, Anakin's son. Owen and Beru were entrusted by Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin's former teacher, to keep Luke safe and hidden from his father, who had turned to the dark side of the Force and become Darth Vader amid the rise of the Galactic Empire. As a measure of keeping Luke safe, the headstones above Cliegg and Shmi's graves were sandblasted. Early in his stay on Tatooine to watch over Luke, Kenobi, ventured to Shmi's grave to apologize for Anakin's downfall. Though he had never known her, he felt guilt that he and the Jedi never released her from slavery as they did for Anakin, and reflected to himself that it was only Cliegg's love for her that saved her from bondage.

Obi-Wan often visited the burial site and sometimes left toys there for the young boy. At some point, Owen and Beru went one step further and removed all the headstones from the Lars property, leaving Cliegg's grave, as well as those of his parents, brother, and second wife unmarked. The Lars homestead was destroyed in 0 BBY when, after unknowingly taking in two fugitive droids, C-3PO and R2-D2, Owen and Beru were executed by Imperial stormtroopers, and the farm was burned. Luke, who had been away from the farm at the time, joined Obi-Wan Kenobi on a mission away from Tatooine after their murders and became a hero in the Alliance to Restore the Republic. The farm was left abandoned after Luke left, and it became a target for Tusken Raiders, who damaged what was left of the former homestead despite the absence of any inhabitants.

Years later, Darth Vader, after learning of Luke's existence and confronting him, returned to the homestead to learn more about his son. Vader was accompanied by a forensics droid, ZED-6-7, who listed off the former residents of the abandoned farm, including Cliegg and Shmi. Vader was haunted by his memories of his mother's death and his visit to the farm. ZED later located the coffins belonging to Cliegg and Shmi, which he detected were two meters below the surface. ZED speculated that Owen and Beru had removed the headstones, and his further scans found no evidence of Cliegg's son or daughter-in-law's remains. Vader and ZED left shortly after. The farm built by Cliegg Lars was left in its ruined state and, by 35 ABY, had begun to disappear under the sands of Tatooine.

Cliegg Lars was a human male who stood at 1.83 meters, or 6 feet. He had blue eyes, light skin, and blond hair, which by the time of Shmi's kidnapping was graying on the sides.

Though a modest man content with his quiet and peaceful life as a moisture farmer on Tatooine, Cliegg had a yearning to experience a more bustling place to live in his youth. His life, however, was one marked by tragic losses. The death of his first wife, Aika, dashed Cliegg's dreams of a life away from Tatooine, and he also lived through the deaths of his brother and parents. Cliegg was a tough and strong-willed individual, but he was also a good-hearted and humorous person, and he used his sense of humor to make his second wife, Shmi Skywalker, laugh even in dire situations.

When Cliegg and Shmi married, they happily formed a family unit with Owen and Beru, and lived in peace on the Lars homestead. Cliegg was happy to be able to share his life with as good a person as Shmi was. Altogether, the Larses dared to aid in the emancipation of enslaved persons in secret and used their land as a place for escaped slaves to seek help. Though Cliegg was able to see his family create a warm and loving environment, their happiness was shattered by Shmi's kidnapping and death. The kind Cliegg became angry and spiteful towards the Tusken Raiders for what they did to her, and he saw them as nothing more than vicious animals. Cliegg never recovered from the loss, and though he attempted to accept her death, move on, and continue his life's work, he grew weaker without her and succumbed to his sadness, becoming a shell of the man he once was and eventually dying as such.

Cliegg Lars wore weather-worn work clothes, which included a light brown tunic and undershirt, gray pants, and a sleeveless gray duster coat. He also wore a gear harness that was wrapped around his midriff and slung over his left shoulder. After losing his right leg and injuring the other in his failed mission to rescue Shmi, Cliegg was forced to use a repulsorlift-powered chair to mobilize. Although Lars was content with the repulsorlift chair's inexpensive practicality, the mobility device was uncomfortable and the seat could not be adjusted, and the only semblance of luxury it offered was a footrest for his remaining leg.

Cliegg Lars first appeared in the second film in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones, which was released on May 16, 2002. The name Cliegg, or variations of it, had existed since the earliest screenplay drafts of the original Star Wars. One rough draft from 1974 featured a young blonde Alderaanian character named Cliegg Whitesun.

In Attack of the Clones, Lars was portrayed by Jack Thompson. During shooting, Thompson wore a blue sock to facilitate the digital removal of his leg by Industrial Light and Magic.

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