What was your first reaction to Greedo shooting first?

I know this is old news, but I am interested to hear what were your first thoughts when you saw Harrison Ford's head digitally dodge that laserblast and shooting back.

"That sure looked stupid. I'm just glad I never have to see it again, since my laserdisc is the best a movie can look and always will be."

My first reaction is quite embarassing, cause I don't think I noticed. I had watched the OUT a few times before watching the SE97 in the cinema, but not enough to have a complete grasp of what was changed, except for the even more obvious stuff like the Jabba-scene, "Jedi Rocks", etc.

Of course, it is worth a mention that I was 9 years old back then. Jar Jar could've shot first and I would've been happy anyway - I was watching Star Wars on a big screen! In the subsequent years, as a realised the original scene was kept from us, I obviously grew to realise this change was anything but inconsequential. But my first reaction was one of indifference.

I was surprised to find out his name wasn't Gringo.

I was 15 or maybe 16 at the time (it came out just before my birthday). I had watched Star Wars for years and had it thoroughly memorized. Even at that age I was disappointed with the change, both because it looked fake and because it made Han weak. I immediately thought, "Well, that was dumb." I also didn't like the Jabba scene, much as I wanted to see it.

My reaction can be summed up with three letters and one punctuation mark.

WTF?

"I think somebody spiked the pepsi"

At first I was just so thrilled to be seeing Star Wars again in the theater, I didn't care.  Then as I watched it over and over it really started to bug me.  The pacing of the original scene was just so cool.  That medium shot of Han punctuating his words with the blaster shot was classic film.   

Ever killed a womp rat?

My first reaction was feeling like I got stunned by Greedos blaster. At first I was interested in seeing the changes Lucas had made throughout the movie the first time I watched it. I was distracted from the enjoyment of the story by the crap that Lucas shoved in scenes. Crap that didn't even need to be in each scene. The only thing Lucas could ever do to fix Star Wars is release the old versions we grew up with.

"oh that sucked" was mine...

Didn't care because the special editions were my first exposure to Star Wars that I remember. Wasn't till about 2006 that I learned about it.

I was only seven at the time, so most of the changes that weren't in your face (i.e. cgi dinosaur asses blocking the screen) I didn't really notice.  But I do remember that particular scene seeming a little off to me, though I couldn't place what was different.  I didn't really care at the time due to me being seven though.

My very first reaction in the theater was confusion and not really knowing exactly what I had just seen. Like Knightmessenger said, it happened fast and didn't make much sense.

Up until that point, I had watched the Original Trilogy enough times to have every frame memorized. I also had spent my life up to that point regarding George Lucas as God, so it would be a long time before my mind was ready to process the possibility that he would do anything less than awesome (this realization was so hard for me that it didn't really sink in until several years after Revenge of the Sith came out, after I had lots of time to meditate on the prequels and special editions).

When I was sitting in that theater in 1997 experiencing the Special Edition for the first time, I went with the expectation that any changes would be done because of special effects that weren't possible in the 70's and 80's before the digital age, and also to make outdated-looking effects shots look better. Since the Greedo scene didn't fall into either category I wasn't expecting anything to be different about it, so the change left me scratching my head.

Now that I've had more time to digest the Greedo change, I have pretty much come to feel the same way about it that most fans do, although for me personally it's not one of the worst things about the Special Edition and I think it might be blown out of proportion a little by the fans. Don't get me wrong though, I am against it; it was wrong of Lucas to do it. It's just unfortunate that Lucas made other changes that were a lot worse (in my opinion).

Have you seen the picture of Lucas wearing a "Han shot first" t-shirt with a grin on his face? That grin annoys the crap out of me. Whether fans are happy or miserable, he gets to have pride over being the guy who gets everybody riled up. What he really deserves is for nobody to care. But then we come back to the fact that he gave us Star Wars in the first place and we wouldn't have it without him, so we can't simply hate him. Damn you Lucas. If I met you, I would want to kiss you, shake your hand, and punch you in the face all at the same time.

This is what George Lucas says about Greedo shooting first in a 2012 interview with "The Hollywood Reporter":

"The controversy over who shot first, Greedo or Han Solo, in Episode IV, what I did was try to clean up the confusion, but obviously it upset people because they wanted Solo to be a cold-blooded killer, but he actually isn’t. It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom. I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first, because they wanted to think that he actually just gunned him down."

Here is how the scene was described in the 1976 book "Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker", where Greedo is referred to as "the unctuous alien" and "the creature":

“Light and noise filled the little corner of the cantina, and when it had faded, all that remained of the unctuous alien was a smoking, slimy spot on the stone floor.

Solo brought his hand and the smoking weapon it held out from beneath the table, drawing bemused stares from several of the cantina’s patrons and chuckling sounds from its more knowledgeable ones. They had known the creature had committed its fatal mistake in allowing Solo the chance to get his hands under cover”.

So Lucas claims that Greedo always shot first, but it doesn't really sound that way in the book. Also, Lucas thinks that what the fans want is for Han to be a "cold blooded killer", which shows that Lucas misunderstands where the fans are coming from. The following is copied and pasted from swtor.com, it's a post on there by a fan named "AcousticColors" who sums up George's misunderstanding better than I can:

"nobody believes shooting somebody with a gun pointed at you who just told you that they could arrange to have something taken over your dead body makes you a cold blooded killer. That's called self defense.

So, let's look at the scenario...

The way the fans want it...

Greedo sits two feet from Han... Han realizes Greedo is about to squeeze off a bolt, and at this range, there's no way he could miss, so Han preemptively pulls out his own blaster under the table and fires first, the shot hits, causing Greedo's aim to veer and hit the wall near Han's head.

The way Lucas wants it...

Greedo sits two feet from Han... Han realizes Greedo is about to squeeze off a bolt and pulls his own blaster out under the table. Even so, Han sits there and lets a shot get off, counting on the fact that this bounty hunter has such horrible, horrible aim that he can't hit a large, non-moving target that's sitting two feet away. Han's incredibly stupid gamble pays off, Greedo does in fact miss the broad side of a barn, and then Han shoots him.


Which of those is the better story? It's not about wanting Han to be a cold blooded killer, it's about not wanting Greedo to be such a worthless Bounty Hunter that he can't hit somebody sitting right in front of him, and not wanting Han to be an idiot who just sat there and let himself get shot at from near point blank range."