CT Why didn't Chewie shoot first?!

Forget about Han and Greedo. Rewatch the cantina scene. Han tells Chewbacca to get the ship ready and they both get up to leave the bar...suddenly Greedo comes up to Han and corners him back into his booth. Look in the background, Chewie is walking out of the cantina and within earshot as Greedo threatens Han!

Forget who shot first...why didn't Chewie help Han out of this mess??

 

After Han tells Chewie that, we cut to Luke and Ben outside the cantina and then cut back inside the cantina. I think the implication is that those seconds that passed when we saw Luke and Ben discussing the speeder sale also ticked away inside the cantina meaning Chewie was farther away if not out the door by the time Greedo rolls up.
Or...Chewie is a right ****

 

Nope, Chewie's right there.



He pretty much had to literally cross paths with Greedo as he was rolling up to Han with a drawn blaster. Maybe he didn't deserve that hug from Leia after all.

 

Maybe he knew Greedo was so incompetent as not to be a serious threat, and thought "Han can handle it himself, he wouldn't thank me for babying him"?

After all, we see in the special edition that Greedo is so bad a shot as to miss at point blank range, and so lacking in caution as to not insist Han keep his hands above the table.

 

This.

 

Yoda voice; At two hundred years old, hard of hearing you will be too.

 

I must be blind, because I can’t see Chewie. Where is he?

 

I personally favor the "Han shot first" notion, though Iron Lord's rationalization of the antithesis is appealing.

Furthermore, one may glean how foolish Greedo is by his actions. He simply points his weapon at Han. He does not remove Han's blaster, nor does he check for any additional weapons. Personally, I've never owned a gun, nor have I utilized one. I merely own a taser. But even I know this.

 

I must be blind, because I can’t see Chewie. Where is he?[/QUOTE]
On the left edge of the pic, you can see his bandoleer.

 

On the left edge of the pic, you can see his bandoleer.[/QUOTE]
Ha! And so he is.

So, Option two then:

 

Now, there are two of them!

 

Well, honestly, that was overblown. Unless you slow down the scene and play it frame by frame, it looks like Han simply dodges out of the way of the shot, which I believe is the intention, despite the physical positioning of the actors in the source footage necessitating some visual fudging.

I can believe Greedo is a bad enough bounty hunter that he telegraphs his shot obviously enough for Han to be able to dodge it.

 

Soooo what are the odds that this was actually Greedo's first real attempt at bounty-hunting?

Because if he's been this inept prior, I don't see how he didn't get killed before this.

 

Good point, but if wasn't known as a bounty hunter, how did Han know who and what he was?

 

Canonically, Greedo's been one of Jabba's thugs since the Clone War days. Apparently, Jabba isn't terribly aggressive about managing out underperformers.

 

I don’t think Greedo was so inept. Pablo says it’s only canon that Han shot Greedo and the details are murky. I’m just sticking to Han shooting first being what really happened. Greedo shooting and missing is just too awful to ever believe is canon. It destroys all credibility and I’m a huge Lucas fanboy, love the prequels, clone wars, most other special edition changes but this one is just too glaring.

 

Then it sounds more like this was Greedo's attempt to ingratiate himself higher with Jabba by going after a bigger fish than he may have been accustomed to chasing.

At the least, he deserves some credit for not confronting Han and Chewie together.

 

And it ruins Greedo. The guy’s supposed to be one of the big bounty hunters, but can’t nail a guy sitting literally a few feet in front of him on the other side of a table?

Though even if Han shot first, it speaks pretty poorly that Greedo never thought to demand that Han raise his hands up where Greedo could see them. Any decent bounty hunter worth his salt would’ve done that.

 

Greedo is something of an abuse case and buffoon in canon going back to the TPM, so likely Chewie knew Han could handle himself, especially against some lone idiot like that, who was probably never much of a threat to Han(who is a very dangerous man). Had Ponda and the Doctor been involved Chewie am sure would've stepped in, but they had an ill encounter with Ben and Luke.

 

I mean, Ha

Greedo isn't one of the big bounty hunters. He's a chump. He's one of many simpering lackeys (or "twerps" as Han calls them) currying for greater favor with Jabba. He's an errand boy. He was sent to communicate Jabba's displeasure and put a scare into Han, but he got cocky and ended up deep-fried. And Jabba doesn't really seem to care too much about it. That's why he sent Greedo out alone to confront Han. He knew the risk, and so he sent someone expendable.

But now that he's confronting Han himself? That's why he has Boba Fett standing at his side.

 

Chewie was too busy thinking about his real "old friend", Yoda.

 

Wow, never noticed this before but looks like a mistake to me; I'm sure the filmmakers never intended to answer for why Chewie walked away from Han being threatened. The way it's edited with Luke and Ben cut in between tries to solve the issue by seemingly giving Chewie a head start - with the only issue being he can still be seen as Greedo enters.

 

Which is why I've argued that Boba's inclusion in the hangar scene was a good way of foreshadowing not only TESB, but the general threat that the Fett's bring to the table.

 

Chewie didn't shoot first because he knows the fans say Han shoots first. Chewie isn't dumb.

 

Chewie being there is just an editing error in ANH (OOT), compounded subsequently by all the needless SE versions of this particular scene.