Because Lucas over the years has gone from a Han Solo persona to someone not all that unlike Delores Umbridge.... I'm with you, Han *had* to shoot first from a tactical point of view, and furthermore, especially in ANH, it was out of character for him not to. But George has to put a "nice" face on it, while meanwhile being more and more Orwellian...

Me? I bought Special Edition copies on VHS not too long after they came out, but when he went messing with them Yet Again, I said to hell with this, and was gifted with a copy of the Original And Best Han Shot First Dammit. Much better that way.

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See, that's exactly the issue. "Why did Lucas feel like he had to change it?" is the question all of us Han-Shot-Firsters have been asking.

The way you phrase this, it sounds like you think the change was from "Greedo shot first" to "Han shot first" rather than the other way around.

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I should clarify that. The "it doesn't matter" is what makes it sound like that; because, well, it does matter. It matters because it's one of the ways in which the "Special Editions" devalue the movies.

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What I meant to question was why George Lucas felt he had to change it...

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Greedo was holding a weapon on him, and Han shot first.

If someone was pointing a weapon at me, and I had the ability to, I'd shoot first, too...much better than being dead.

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Of course Han shot first, you can tell because he walked away.


AE

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He was damn lucky, though...but then again, he always is.

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Well, he was lucky Greedo was too dumb to demand to see hands. Other then that it was a simple enough shot, and given how powerful that hand-cannon of Solo's is a 1 shot stop wasn't much of a question.

AE

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Well, luck favors the prepared...and Greedo was definitely not the sharpest tool in the shed.

And, yeah...lots of stopping power in that piece.

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Oh, yeah. Why are we discussing this? Because when people start tinkering with something that amounts to American mythos, they deserve to be called on it. Retconning Batman is one thing. Pulling George Orwell on the first big-screen saga ever? That's messing with history. It's just not done.

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Oh, I think it's worth discussing. Even George Lucas himself seems to be conflicted about it.

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Lucas was seen wearing a "Han Shot First" tshirt while talking to Harrison Ford. :-)

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You know, if the SOB wanted to redeem himself, he could go back to the original original stuff (or maybe use Special Edition footage where tinkering wasn't done; saves time), clean it up, and release a "Collector's Edition" where Han Shot First and there wasn't the Jabba scene and you had the original music at the end of Jedi and declare "Mea Culpa, This Is The Way God Intended It To Be, The Fans Are Right, I'm Gonna Retire Now." I would actually buy that just as a way of saying "Apology accepted, Captain Needa."

Only without the horrible crunching noises.

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The Jabba scene in ANH was one of the best additions from the special edition I thought. Not only did it give Han more backstory and explain his motives more, but it also introduced us to Boba Fett early on, albeit briefly. The scene was in the novelization after all.

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I thought it was OK without it; ANH as a standalone film was very British, and that missing bit of backstory just sort of added to the feel of things, gave the first half an almost Film Noir kind of thing... if you're into that sort of thing.

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Why couldn't he leave it with Han shooting first? For the same, dumb-ass reason all the guys walking around with guns in E.T. suddenly had walkie-talkies. Because those who can think they need to retcon the entire world to match up with today's morals and mores.

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...but what they want today's morals and mores to be...

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