In an attempt to address the lingering "Han shot first" controversy, Star Wars creator George Lucas may have only fanned the flames of fandom even more. You see, Lucas says Han Solo never actually fired first in his classic showdown with Greedo. Fans only wanted to think that. So basically it's all your own fault.

In a chat with The Hollywood Reporter (via /Film), Lucas said, "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 [who seemed to be the one who shot first in the original] 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."

LordofHats wrote:And this is the many who's spent the last 15 years ruining the EU for the rest of us...

Thanatos_elNyx wrote:I hope no one pointed out that Han shot first when they meet [an apparently unarmed] Darth Vader who had invited them to a nice dinner.

LordofHats wrote:I don't think you can qualify attacks against military targets as terrorism without expanding the word so widely that it loses all meaning...

Han was more an an insurgent than a terrorist (but that's hard to say as the empire was all encompassing for the galaxy save a few places).

n0t_u wrote:

KingCracker wrote:

Ratius wrote:Anyone seen ep1 in 3D yet?
Good/bad/nonsense?

Im sure itll be the same thing....but with blaster shots coming at you, instead of missing Luke and hitting walls

Generally if it is converted to 3D it will usually be crappy, if it is filmed in 3D it will usually be decent.
Just a cheap gimmick thrown onto the movie to get even more money from it.

Also no Luke yet.

Orlanth wrote:Besides there is no need to worry about Han Solo being a common murderer, when there is more than enough evidence to call him a terrorist. He wasn't formally part of the rebel armed forces when he attacked Imperial military assets resulting in the deaths of Imperial citizens. Sort of defeats the point saying he was defending himself against Greedo (which he was anyway as Greedo pulled a gun on him first) when as an illegal combatant he was blowing away soldiers on the Death Star: aka terrorism.

KingCracker wrote:Yea I dont get it personally, in Ep 1-3 they are incredible shots, like a highly trained military force should be. THEN in ep4-6 they are what I was referring too......what happened?

None of the themes you mention have much to do with "being quick on the draw" tropes from Westerns...

Monster Rain wrote:His argument has changed over the years.

I specifically remember interviews where he dismissed people attributing too much depth to the Star Wars films, specifically mentioning that it's "good guys vs. bad guys" in space and using the phrase "white hats."

I can't cite a source, as it was something I read in the mid-90's.

There's a whole line of argument to be made that Han Solo shooting first was rebellion against the established "He who shoots first is the bad buy" trope, in order to shake up the movie-going public's perception of what a hero is.

LordofHats wrote:Lucas is fickle but he is capable of planning. Early scripts of the Star Wars movies actually didn't hide Luke and Leia's familial connection. It was revealed much earlier in the storyline. Of course in the final product it feels kind of tacked on and sudden.

I think originally the relationship was going to be completely removed, because practically it doesn't serve any purpose in the storyline. Events would have happened the same way even if Luke and Leia weren't related and I think there was a camp in the original trilogies team that just wanted to nix the whole thing but bowed to Lucas in the end.

LordofHats wrote:
I think originally the relationship was going to be completely removed, because practically it doesn't serve any purpose in the storyline.

All the back and forth on what it was supposed to be or what it might have been seems to be more proof that there was little planning and things just sort of changed as they went along and that it was a collaborative effort much more than George coming down from on high with his unerring vision and bestowing it upon us.

Samus_aran115 wrote:Oh god I loled. How much do storm trooper costumes run?

gorgon wrote:Yeah, I'm sure he has an explanation for the flirting/tension between Luke and Leia and how it's not the least bit incestuous and was all part of his master plan.

Personally I think the guy is prone to changing his mind a lot, but his ego doesn't allow him to acknowledge it. I think he wants to see himself as a master visionary, and admitting he made stuff up as he went along somehow damages that self-image.

LordofHats wrote:Arguably the flirting/tension is less evidence of incetuous feelings and more an acknowledgment of an underlying connection. Lucas is fickle but he is capable of planning. Early scripts of the Star Wars movies actually didn't hide Luke and Leia's familial connection. It was revealed much earlier in the storyline. Of course in the final product it feels kind of tacked on and sudden.

I think originally the relationship was going to be completely removed, because practically it doesn't serve any purpose in the storyline. Events would have happened the same way even if Luke and Leia weren't related and I think there was a camp in the original trilogies team that just wanted to nix the whole thing but bowed to Lucas in the end.

KingCracker wrote:I like that line, Im saving it somewhere, itll come in handy one day. FYI its peace

That plotline came and went from early drafts of the story. It was pretty clearly absent from the final shooting run of Star Wars - seriously, any director not trying to make incest a theme in his story just wouldn't have those two acting like they did, if he thought he was going to reveal that relationship later in the movies.

gorgon wrote:And while not canon, the storylines in the comics and novels like Splinter of the Mind's Eye almost certainly had to get authorized by George.

Lucas directed all 3 prequels without as much editing from the studio/actors (because he was a big name, rather than just a struggling director like he was in A New Hope)