CT Was Han Solo actually just a cold blooded killer?

At first glance, Han killing Greedo looks like self defense but if you really think about it there is no way he could have reacted to Greedo's shot as quickly as he did. There just wasn't enough time between Greedo's shot and Han firing (e.g. if a sprinter in the 100m dash has a reaction time of less than 0.1s it's a false start since they couldn't have reacted to the gun that quickly and therefore made the decision to start before hearing the gun). So was Han just a cold blooded killer and not the slightly misunderstood good guy we all know?

 

Greedo never fired.

 

Not sure what you mean about cold-blooded murderer. He had a gun trained on him, was being extorted for money, and his life was explicably threatened after he made a reference to "over my dead body" and was told "that's the idea." Seems like the exact definition of self defense to me.

 

He was in a kill or be killed situation. And you don't survive long in the smuggling business by being nice.

 

Han shot someone with a gun pointed at him who announced he was going to kill him. Legally, that's called self defense, regardless of whether or not that other person managed to get a shot.

In the OOT version, you can clearly hear two shots. So I wonder who fired that other shot, then.

 

Han was a smuggler, scum of the galaxy he totally shot first and yea he has killed in cold blood so it makes sense. But regardless Greedo was gonna collect the bounty it doesnt matter that Han shot first or not. He was protecting his wellbeing.

 

One word for that: pffft.

 

Han never would have come back at the end of ANH if we was the cold blooded killer type. He would have taken the money, paid off Jabba, and murdered Dengar for no apparent reason.

 

Don't think so

That's the point of Thracken, isn't it?

 

I don't know. But he certainly didn't have any qualms about Leia being executed by the Empire aboard the Death Star.

 

He a mostly good guy with a cold blooded tendencies. A top rate smuggler like him can't be nice all the time.

 

I think it's common sense, that to have been operating in the underworld for so long, he new when to shoot first, in order to survive! Also is it cold blooded to kill a bounty hunter, who has just told you he's been looking forward to taking your ship, over your dead body? Cold blooded? Common sense more like!

 

Are you honestly going to let someone, who has just pulled a gun on you shoot first? Farcical beyond parody!

 

If there's one word to describe the old Han, it's selfish. He did whatever worked for himself the best. But killing Greedo was more in line with "self defense," since it became clear that he wasn't going to talk his way out of it.

 

This is the one thing that GL changed in the OT that I will never be happy about. Han shot first with good reason. When someone holdiing a blaster from a meter away, aimed at your face, threatens to kill you and take your most prized posession, you blast 'em first! Does it make Han a cold-blooded killer? Of course not!

It's fraggin' obvious!

 

Han Shot First. Question answered.

 

I look at Han according to the Brian Daley interpretation: he's a lapsed idealist. He tries to look like a self-centered tough guy, but he's still got a conscience and standards. If he has to, he'll fight dirty to survive, but there are some lines he'll never cross. And, once you're his true friend, he'll never let you down.

Besides, would Chewie pal around with a cold-blooded killer, life debt or not?

 

Han Solo was about self preservation. At least he was in the beginning when we see him for the first time. GL later tried to change it by making Greedo shoot first. Han even decides to leave to pay off the debt to Jabba but Luke says something that changes his mind and at the last moment he comes back. Hence why Darth Vader decided to torture him a little bit in the Empire Strikes Back. "They didn't even ask me any questions." Poor Captain Solo.

 

Yes, because it's better than being an imperial slave, and Chewie is no stranger to killing.

 

*sigh*

 

It's going to be alright. ; p

 

@ Kenneth: You're dead right.

In Daley's plays and even in the movie, Chewie sometimes acts as Han's conscience.

- but you're never really sure if he does.

In Daley's play he even seems prepared to renege on his deal with Kenobi and leave him and Luke in a dangerous position, if he can strike a more lucrative one in Mos Eisley - but Chewie's still there to ask "are you sure you really feel like that?"

He seems to me like a guy who came from a tough dog-eat-dog neighbourhood but escaped it. Possibly because he had some decency in him, and he's become more and more torn between acting tough and doing the right thing ever since.

These are the tensions that made the characters in the original film work so well. And as everyone here already knows; It gives Solo's story and character somewhere to go in the story - as he redeems himself at the end.

John

 

Han ain't the guy who blew up a million people with one shot.

Just sayin'.

 

BINGO

 

For more details on this idea, check out Brian Daley's Solo books, A.C. Crispin's Solo trilogy (set around Daley's stories) and James Kahn's novelization of ROTJ. Those really flesh out Han's viewpoint, before and after he throws in with the Rebels.