Cliegg Lars

On the desert planet of Tatooine, situated in the Outer Rim Territories of the galaxy, Cliegg Lars was born to Lef and Gredda Lars. Despite the harsh aridity of Tatooine and the threat posed to settlers by the indigenous Tusken Raider tribes, the small and unpretentious Lars family, which included Cliegg's brother Edern, became pioneers of the Great Chott salt flat, where they ran a moisture farm on the outskirts of a settlement known as Anchorhead. Cliegg was instrumental in establishing and constructing the underground homestead, and the Lars family sustained themselves by extracting water from the atmosphere with numerous moisture vaporators. The water yields were rarely sufficient for profitable sale, so the family primarily used the water to maintain their hydroponic gardens. Tragedy struck when Edern met an early death at the age of fourteen, losing control of the family's V-35 Courier landspeeder.

In time, Lef and Gredda followed Edern in death, and all three were buried on the family's property. Cliegg, the last remaining member of his immediate family, decided to leave the moisture farm. Still young, Cliegg sought to experience life on a bustling Core World and left Tatooine to explore the galaxy. In the galactic Core, Cliegg encountered a woman named Aika; they fell in love, married, and had a son, Owen. Aika passed away when Owen was still young, prompting Cliegg to return to his homeworld with his son. As Owen matured, he became a dedicated farmhand, assisting his father in operating the moisture farm. As a young adult, Owen began a relationship with Beru Whitesun, who became his girlfriend, and the Lars family expanded when she moved into the homestead.

During the final years of the Republic Era, the Lars family started supporting the White Suns, a liberation movement aimed at organizing the emancipation of enslaved beings on Tatooine. The Larses were introduced to [Shmi Skywalker](/article/shmi_skywalker_lars] by chance, and she would become an important member of their family. While on a supply run in the city of [Mos Espa](/article/mos_espa], Beru's portable navigator malfunctioned. On the recommendation of a merchant, she went to Skywalker's residence in the Slave Quarters Row to have it repaired cheaply. Upon her return, Beru informed Cliegg and Owen of Shmi's talent for tinkering with machines, which piqued the White Suns' interest. On behalf of the White Suns, Cliegg met with Shmi and became interested in her after their first conversation. Over the following weeks, Shmi shared information about her enslaver, the Toydarian junk dealer Watto, including his methods of evading the White Suns.

To give Shmi a break from serving Watto, Cliegg hired her to tune his moisture vaporators. They grew fond of each other and grew close. While Shmi spent much of her time on the farm with Cliegg, she also worked with Beru to build a tracking device to locate transmitter chips implanted in those enslaved on Tatooine. Around 27 BBY, Cliegg decided to emancipate Shmi from Watto's ownership. Using Shmi's information about Watto's weaknesses and gambling habits, Cliegg lured Watto into a game where she was the prize. Lars won the game and, after settling the reward with Watto, quickly took Shmi and her protocol droid, C-3PO, away from Mos Espa to his farm, setting her free. Although Shmi was no longer enslaved, her transmitter chip remained in her body.

Over the next three months, the Larses and Skywalker worked to complete a deprogrammer device to remove Shmi's chip. The work was tedious, and Shmi could only volunteer to have the device tested on her because of Cliegg's technical ownership of her. If she had been under Watto's control, a monitoring device would notify them of tampering. Since the monitor belonged to Cliegg, who cared about her, the Larses knew Shmi would be unharmed if they removed her chip. However, an enslaved person taken in by the White Suns would not have the same luxury. Although Cliegg, Beru, and Owen continued to worry, Shmi remained positive, partly because her son, Anakin, who had once been Watto's slave but was taken in by 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 watch the procedure again, so Owen took him to the other side of the homestead. While they waited, Beru located Shmi's chip, which was fused to her lower spine. Knowing they had a short window before the monitoring device discovered the disturbance, Beru quickly cut into Shmi's skin and removed the chip, deactivating it. The experiment was successful, leading Cliegg, Owen, Beru, and Shmi to use the deprogrammer on escaped slaves. The Lars homestead became an important stopping point for the White Suns, where fugitive slaves had their chips removed. The procedure didn't always work, and some died during the removal, but the Larses remained devoted to their cause, and Shmi worked to improve the device.

Having grown close, Cliegg and Shmi married, and Shmi adopted his surname. With their marriage, the Lars and Skywalker families officially blended. Cliegg, Shmi, Owen, and Beru lived quiet lives on their homestead, surviving against the harsh desert while continuing their anti-slavery work. Shmi brought happiness to the Lars family, becoming a bright center and indispensable part of their family unit. Though content with her marriage and emancipated life, Shmi often worried about Anakin. After existing as an island of familial warmth, tragedy struck. In 22 BBY, Shmi was picking mushrooms off the moisture vaporators when, just before dawn, a Tusken hunting party captured her. Cliegg immediately investigated, concluding she had been halfway home when the Tuskens took her.

Cliegg assembled a posse of thirty moisture farmers, including himself, and prepared to confront the Tusken tribe believed to have kidnapped his wife. Despite their brave effort, the farmers were outmatched and slaughtered. Only four survived, including Cliegg, but his right leg was hacked off at the knee. Rather than get a cybernetic prosthesis, Lars used a repulsorlift chair, which he found more practical. Over the next month, Cliegg lost hope and believed Shmi was dead. While he, Owen, and Beru mourned, Anakin Skywalker, haunted by dreams of his mother in agony, visited the farm with Republic Senator Padmé Amidala, who was under his protection. C-3PO led them into the homestead.

While Skywalker and Amidala greeted Owen and Beru, Cliegg introduced himself to Anakin as Shmi's husband and invited him inside. In the dining room, Beru served drinks while Cliegg informed his stepson of Shmi's disappearance and his failed rescue attempt. Lars was pessimistic, but an emotional Anakin got up from the table. Owen asked where he was going, and the Jedi Knight replied that he was going to find his mother. Cliegg implored him to accept Shmi's death, but Skywalker was adamant and left the farm in the evening, leaving Senator Amidala in the care of the Larses. During the night, Anakin tracked down the Tusken Raiders' camp and found his mother, emaciated and bound but alive. Though Anakin tried to escape with her, she 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 with Shmi's corpse. The Larses placed her body in a coffin and buried her next to Cliegg's parents and brother. A small funeral service was held, and Cliegg spoke his last respects. Anakin also spoke, but instead of memorializing Shmi, he swore never 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 briefly, and Skywalker and Amidala left the Lars family alone once more.

Cliegg was bereft, while Owen barely contained his anger. Beru remained steadfast and continued the family's work with the White Suns. After some time, Cliegg was determined to continue his life on Tatooine and make the Lars homestead an oasis of security, but he quickly began to fade as the tragedy weighed him down. The once-strong man became weak, 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 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 maintained 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. Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin's former teacher, entrusted Owen and Beru to keep Luke safe 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 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 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](/article/stormtrooper], and the farm was burned. Luke, who had been away from the farm, 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 and became a target for Tusken Raiders, who damaged what was left of the former homestead.

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 the former residents of the abandoned farm, including Cliegg and Shmi. Vader was haunted by memories of his mother's death and his visit to the farm. ZED later located the coffins belonging to Cliegg and Shmi, detected two meters below the surface. ZED speculated that Owen and Beru had removed the headstones, and his 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 ruins and, by 35 ABY, had begun to disappear under the sands of Tatooine.

Cliegg Lars was a human male, standing at 1.83 meters tall. He had [blue](/article/color] eyes, light skin, and blond hair, which was graying by the time of Shmi's kidnapping. Though modest and content with his quiet life as a moisture farmer, Cliegg yearned to experience a more bustling place in his youth. His life was marked by tragic losses, including the death of his first wife, Aika, and his brother and parents. Cliegg was tough and strong-willed, but also good-hearted and humorous, using his humor to make Shmi laugh even in dire situations.

When Cliegg and Shmi married, they formed a family unit with Owen and Beru, living in peace on the Lars homestead. Cliegg was happy to share his life with Shmi. The Larses aided in the emancipation of enslaved persons in secret, using their land as a place for escaped slaves to seek help. Though Cliegg saw his family create a loving environment, their happiness was shattered by Shmi's kidnapping and death. Cliegg became angry and spiteful towards the Tusken Raiders, seeing them as vicious animals. Cliegg never recovered from the loss, and though he attempted to move on, he grew weaker and succumbed to his sadness, becoming a shell of his former self and eventually dying.

Cliegg Lars wore weather-worn work clothes, including a light brown tunic and undershirt, gray pants, and a sleeveless gray duster coat. He also wore a gear harness around his midriff and over his left shoulder. After losing his right leg and injuring the other, Cliegg used a repulsorlift-powered chair. Although Lars was content with the chair's practicality, it was uncomfortable, the seat could not be adjusted, and it only offered a footrest for his remaining leg.

Cliegg Lars first appeared in Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones, the second film in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, released on May 16, 2002. The name Cliegg, or variations, had existed since the earliest screenplay drafts of the original Star Wars. A 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.