Greedo/Han...Please Explain...

Indy4ever

New member
Hey, Happy New Year! I would like to know once and for all what all the controversy is about, surrounding the Greedo and Han exchange in 'A New Hope?' You know, the scene in the cantina. I caught part of 'A New Hope' yesterday: the 1997 20th Anniversary edition. It appears Greedo fires first, but I know some are upset because this is not how it happened in the original theatrical release in 1977...or is it? I'm confused, and I would love if a fellow Ravener explained what all the fuss is about?

Thanks and Have a Whippin' Good New Year. :whip: (corny but kind of cute, c'mon admit it!)
 
My, it's been a little while since I've traversed in these parts!

There are three main reasons purists (or even some non-purists) are so mad about it. A) George Lucas reportedly said that he went back and made Greedo shoot first in the SEs because he didn't want to make Han look like a cold-blooded killer (I think--anyone can feel free to correct me). The fans felt this simply took the edge of Han's character away, and thus taking away some of the depth of his character arc of going from smuggler to selfless hero by the time Return of the Jedi comes. B) How does a trained smuggler/bounty hunter like Greedo miss at point blank? C) It looked kind of crappy. For the SEs, all they did, it seems, was pretty much cut-and-paste Han's head slightly to the side to make it look like Han was dodging the shot. I've heard that this was smoothed out in the DVD release, but I'm not entirely sure.

That's pretty much it.
 

Aaron H

Moderator Emeritus
Ben got it.

Originally Han shot Greedo before the green guy could fire. However, George felt that it was too dark for Han's character. But when put into context of the whole series it makes sense that Han would do such a thing, thus making his change to a "knight in shinging armor" at the end of Jedi a greater thing.
 

Finn

Moderator
Staff member
Up to my liking, especially to those who really don't know a thing about Star Wars (they must have lived in a closed barrel by now, though) this scene created a question "can Luke and Obi trust this guy?" in its original form.

There are two more of these points giving us another outlook of Han, the second comes on the Death Star when Luke coaxes him into rescuing Leia. Yeah, he's still a mercenary, but a honest one since he's seemingly ready to put his life in line as long as he gets paid.

Third one's the obvious, when he saves Luke's can at the end of the film. The journey is complete.

I have practically no trouble with this particular change, but it does look plain stupid when Greedo misses at point-blank range. And I don't think that Han shooting first would still make Han seem that dark... it's obvious that he guessed Greedo's going to blast him. Therefore, nothing wrong in shooting first...
 
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