My daughter wanted to watch Episode IV today and while we were watching the now infamous "Han shot last" scene in Mos Eisley Cantina passed by and I decided I could no longer keep this to myself.
If your biggest beef with that scene is the shooting order of Han and Greedo then you're missing out on the (much) bigger picture.
The scene is a second rate hack job that could easily have been bested by any one of us. I mean come on, the blaster burn is on the wall before Greedo fires, his shot is so wide it makes you wonder if he was so drunk he was seeing double and Han barely moves an inch or two to his right before firing and his posture never changes. This was clearly a photograph that someone hoped to make into a scene of Han somehow dodging Greedo's blaster bolt at the last second. The worst part of the "Han shot first" battlecry is how inaccurate it really is. In the original scene Han did not shoot first because he was actually the only one to shoot. So even if you want to get that nitpicky you still can't because you never understood the original scene to begin with. But I digress, the epic fail that is the quality of this scene is not worthy of the artistry we have all come to expect from George Lucas and Industrial Light and Magic. Seriously, I've seen Youtube fan videos cut on an iPad that looked better than this.
From what I've seen of what I like to call the "Han shot first" crowd is that the overall quality of the scene is lost or ignored. Those that scream "Han shot first" as if its some kind of battlecry don't seem to really care about anything other than getting the exact same scene redone and nothing else will do, no matter how minute the changes. This is myopic to say the least. If all you really care about is holding your favorite fandom to your exacting standards then as far as I'm concerned you're part of the problem. Fandom around any form of art (movies, comics, television, etc.) really is largely subjective. Any two fans of any given media aren't going to agree on what the best/worst aspects of their favorite media is going to be. Not only that but we all take different meanings from that which we are fans of. Trying to enforce your chosen feelings about anything upon another person, even the creator of the media itself is selfish at best and discriminatory at worst.
But perhaps there is a real reason that Han should have shot first? Maybe we can examine the scene artistically and find some meaning, some reason into allowing benefit of the doubt for the "Han shot first" crowd's anger. Once viewed with an open mind, yes there is a reason that making Greedo fire first actually takes away from the scene. Its just not the reason that the "Han shot first" crowd claims it is.
Instead of pining over the scene that once was when we look at the new scene artistically we realize that Han has gone from cold blooded killer to desperate hero. Granted Greedo did have a gun pointed at him but Han never bothered to try and subdue or disarm him, he went straight for the kill, no second thoughts. Not only that but we really have no real proof that Greedo intended to fire in the first place. It is implied but most likely Greedo wanted Han alive since, as we learned in The Empire Strikes Back from Boba Fett, Jabba's reward for Han was forfeit if he was killed prior to delivery. It wasn't until after the failed escape attempt by Boussh (who we learned was actually Leia) that Jabba decided to kill him. She does make a sexier trophy after all. Again I digress, the new scene attempts to rebrand Han as a desperate hero rather than a heartless killer. Han as we came to know him was an anti-hero from start to finish. A selfish, merciless smuggler with no regard for rules or the law turned into a revolutionary that was willing to put all that aside for the greater cause. And love. By branding him as a hero straight out we are left with a new and unfamiliar Han that simply doesn't fit the rest of the narrative. A lot more changes than just the firing order would have to be made for Han to be the desperate hero, down on his luck struggling to survive. As a for instance the argument between Luke and Han get into about saving the princess would have to be abolished entirely. If Han truly was the desperate hero then he would have had no compunctions about rushing to the rescue. The argument could still have happened but it would have been about how, not why.
Ever hear any of this from the "Han shot first" crowd? I doubt it, I know I never have. They just keep shouting over and over again "Han shot first" and when I ask why it matters I'm dismissed and told that I'm the one who doesn't understand. *sigh* What do you think?
Do I understand?
(@psypher as an artist and a Star Wars fan I'm curious about your thoughts on this.)