Han Shot First

[Evaders99]

http://www.hellblazer.net/2007/07/23/recursion-shot-first/

 

There is a picture with this post. In this picture (taken from comics101.com and then trimmed a bunch to remove everything else from possible focus) is a man.

 

The man in this picture is George Lucas.

 

George Lucas is wearing a t-shirt.

 

It is a Han Shot First t-shirt.

 

George Lucas is wearing a Han Shot First t-shirt.

[Darth_Rob]

That is awesome! Either he realized his mistake, or he wanted to get on Ford's good side. Not for nothing, if I was Ford I'd be mad that Lucas went back and made my character look like a tool.

[RenegadeMax]

I'm pretty sure that the version of the Han Shot First shirt Lucas has on is the one they're now selling on StarWars.com.

 

Now, Lucas probably thought it was just a cute little joke that Ford might appreciate, or maybe they've even had private conversation about it. But as with all things Lucas, why just do something because it's cool when you can do something AND promote it in such a way as to make MO MONEY?!

 

I hope that Lucas knows how lame his revision was and has had a change of heart...but whatever.

 

P.S.: buy your Han Shot First shirts somewhere else like thinkgeek.com. Haven't we all given Lucas enough of our money? (at least until the next wave of action figures hits stores?, or the Force Unleashed comes out?)

[JediHunter]

P.S.: buy your Han Shot First shirts somewhere else like thinkgeek.com. Haven't we all given Lucas enough of our money? (at least until the next wave of action figures hits stores?, or the Force Unleashed comes out?)

 

Problem with that is... where do you think they get their supply from?

[Jahled]

I have never understood any of the Han/Greedo controversy, ever.

 

This makes me quite happy.

[Darth_Rob]

I have never understood any of the Han/Greedo controversy, ever.

 

Greedo shooting first brings certain things to life.

 

Han was not a scoundrel who only cared for himself, his wookie, and his ship. He was a lucky son of a gun. The chances of Greedo missing Han at that range are ridiculous. Greedo shooting first is pretty much a death sentence to Han. However, by some ridiculous miracle, Greedo misses, and Han returns fire. The Han Solo from ANH was a low life, and for him to fire first (in such a sneaky way) is perfectly acceptable given his character. Greedo shooting first just undermines Han.

 

I just don't see what Lucas saw. What kind of image came to him in his twisted dreams that made him do something so...pointless. I mean, I can see the added Wampa scenes, and the added Jabba scene in ANH, and even the ridiculous musical number in Jabba's Palace in RoJ. Those are things that he changed to (in his mind) make the movie appear...fresher for a new audience. But having Greedo shoot accomplishes nothing but soil the great character who is Captain Han Solo.

[Jahled]

I have never understood any of the Han/Greedo controversy, ever.

 

Greedo shooting first brings certain things to life.

 

Han was not a scoundrel who only cared for himself, his wookie, and his ship. He was a lucky son of a gun. The chances of Greedo missing Han at that range are ridiculous. Greedo shooting first is pretty much a death sentence to Han. However, by some ridiculous miracle, Greedo misses, and Han returns fire. The Han Solo from ANH was a low life, and for him to fire first (in such a sneaky way) is perfectly acceptable given his character. Greedo shooting first just undermines Han.

 

I just don't see what Lucas saw. What kind of image came to him in his twisted dreams that made him do something so...pointless. I mean, I can see the added Wampa scenes, and the added Jabba scene in ANH, and even the ridiculous musical number in Jabba's Palace in RoJ. Those are things that he changed to (in his mind) make the movie appear...fresher for a new audience. But having Greedo shoot accomplishes nothing but soil the great character who is Captain Han Solo.

 

Hang on a sec, even in the original, original, I mean original version of A New Hope, Han says 'Over my dead body,' to which Greedo replies, 'that's the idea!'

 

So Han shoots first to preserve his life and kills him.

 

What is the problem? That's a perfectly reasonable excuse to kill someone with a gun pointed at your chest, or am I missing some extreme-liberal agenda whereby you actually have to allow yourself to be killed before you can react?

 

[Darth_Rob]

Yeah, but Han had the blaster hidden under the table. Greedo had no idea what Han had up his sleeve. I just think that the whole ordeal puts a blemish on Solo.

[DarthTex]

Hang on a sec, even in the original, original, I mean original version of A New Hope, Han says 'Over my dead body,' to which Greedo replies, 'that's the idea!'

 

So Han shoots first to preserve his life and kills him.

 

What is the problem? That's a perfectly reasonable excuse to kill someone with a gun pointed at your chest, or am I missing some extreme-liberal agenda whereby you actually have to allow yourself to be killed before you can react?

Exactly! There was absolutely no problem with the original, original, original version of A New Hope.

 

The problem was GL editing Greedo shooting at all! Not a shot "before" Han shoots; not a shot "at the same time" as Han shoots, but letting Greedo do anything else prior to dying!

[JediHunter]

the controversy is all stemmed around the fact that people were upset that a character they came to love was a "murderer" who killed an innocent alien in a random encounter in a bar.... what people FAILED to realize was that the "innocent" alien was a bounty hunter (not necessarily a good one apparently) who was trying to claim the price on our beloved character's head dead or alive and in realizing that, Han Solo (in a mode of self preservation) shot the sleezy green thing before he could think to do it first!... why people have a problem with that.. i dont know.. but it was never a doubt in my mind, seeing the original film that Solo shot Greedo to live to fight another day... not to murder him... but.. maybe i was just smarter than the average bear?.. i dont know..

[RenegadeMax]

P.S.: buy your Han Shot First shirts somewhere else like thinkgeek.com. Haven't we all given Lucas enough of our money? (at least until the next wave of action figures hits stores?, or the Force Unleashed comes out?)

 

Problem with that is... where do you think they get their supply from?

 

I'm no lawyer, but I think that thinkgeek and the two or three other Han Shot First desgins out there are not officially liscensed. Maybe the phrase is just cryptic enough to be safe? I could be wrong.

 

As for the more general discussion, those of us who are old enough can remember seeing Star Wars at a time when nobody knew who Han Solo was. We didn't know what a Jedi was, where Vader came from, nothin'.

 

Try watching the un(re)edited cut (where Han shoots first and last) with new eyes. Pretend this is the first time you've ever seen or herad of this guy.

 

We meet a pilot who's supercool and tough and has been around. Our heroes hire him after he extorts extra cash from them because they're desperate. His co-pilot is this huge, scary gorilla-dog. As soon as the heroes leave, they're excited because all this money is gonna save their skins.

 

Next thing we know, some buggy alien dude with a gun is backing him into the booth and talking tough, threatening him over some guy named Jabba's money.

 

Then Solo shoots him. And tosses the bartender some coins on the way out, quipping about being sorry for the mess.

 

That's HARDCORE. See, we didn't know who this Han guy was. It wasn't at all clear until the very end of the movie that he was even a good guy, and even then there was money involved.

 

I was five when Star Wars came out. For little kids at that time there weren't many anti-heroes out there. Today there's Wolverine, Jack Sparrow, that mutant turtle with the sai, the purple teletubby, all kinds of dangerous, bad-ass good guys. I can remember thinking "whoa, who IS this guy?" when I first saw that scene. He was a smuggler, a rogue, a scoundrel, a dangerous dude. And he was awesome.

 

When Lucas changed it, it just took the edge out of the scene and out of Han's character. The mystery and danger were gone. And it didn't need to be changed, as others have pointed out, it was clearly self-defense.

 

Call the dvd release of the ORIGINAL Original Trilogy money grubbing if you want, I take THAT as Lucas' acknowledgement of the demand for the old movies as they were. I'm just glad the classic cuts are still available for those of us that care.

 

Heh, done ranting now. Gotta go order a replcement shirt as my first one has been worn and washed too many times.