Han Shot First, And That’s Okay

Tonight I’m watching Star Wars: A New Hope and I watched the scene in the Mos Eisley Cantina where Han Solo is confronted by Greedo looking to collect on Jabba The Huts bounty on him.

During the original scene, Greedo and Solo are sitting in a booth in the cantina, and Greedo has Solo at gun point the entire time. While the two are talking, Solo slowly reaches under the table, retrieves his blaster, and after finishing a witty sentence, he shoots Greedo from retention through the table, killing him.

When the “remastered” version of A New Hope came out in (hold on while I google it) 1997, the scene changed. In the new scene, Greedo fires a shot a millisecond before Solo, making it look like Solo just had a really quick reaction time. Apparently George Lucas didn’t like the way the scene went originally, thinking that it made Han Solo look like a cold blooded murderer.

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Now, I’m not super familiar with the self defense laws on Tattoine, but it seems that even under the heavy fist of the Galactic Empire concealed and open carry were both legal and common place. If that’s any insight into the rest of the self defense laws under the Empire, I’d dare say that Tattoine probably doesn’t have a duty to retreat, and even so, Han had no where to go.

A Couple Things:

1. The fact that George Lucas would think that Han Solo shooting a bounty hunter who was threatening him with deadly force would make him look like a murderer is beyond me. Just goes to show the ignorance that even formerly well respected people have surrounding self defense laws.
2. Han Solo was a smuggler. Hardly a person who cared about abiding the the law. That’s part of what made his pairing with Luke Skywalker such a good fit. Luke is the innocent kid brought into a mess that makes him into a man, and Han is the rugged law-breaking smuggler who shows that he does have a good side when he’s thrown into the same mess.

I like Star Wars. /NerdOut